The rapture part 1
Many humans have tried to predict the end of time when Jesus will return. Every time a new war comes about our trouble in middle East comes around some try to say the end will happen soon. Others will start noticing increase in storms and earth quakes and once again start saying Jesus is coming soon. Let me give you just a few examples of those who have predicted the end of time and have failed.
Charles Russell the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses, Judge Rutherford and their Watch tower publication have predicted that end would come in 1843, 1844, 1877, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1925, 1931, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1946, 1955. I guess if they keep on guessing maybe they will get luck and the Lord will return in one the years they pick. But so far they have been wrong.
In 1970 Hal Lindsey predicted that the end would occur
around 1988 in his book. He came to this conclusion because under his view the
In 1981 Even Billy Graham said he thought that Armageddon was about to begin which would we be world war 3.
As you can see from these examples I have mentioned that some have tried but failed to predict the end of time. There are many different views out about end times but one of the most popular one in religious world are known as dispensational premillennialist. This is a just big word that defines their particular belief of what will happen in the end times. This is the view that Hal Lindsey holds and many of those that teach this doctrine will many times quote from one of his books because he goes into more detail than most and if you ever turn on TBN you will see his show where he always examining what is going on in the world and how it is a sign that the end is near. This same view has also been made popular by the left behind series and many other movies on this topic.
Now I want to point out that not all them hold the exact same view so I can’t possible cover every difference there is, so I will tell what is generally accepted and the most poplar about this view. It not uncommon for people that hold this view to have bumper sticker on their cars that says, “In case of the Rapture, this car will be unoccupied”. In the first book of the left behind series many Christians disappeared from classrooms, airplanes and no one knew where they went. This all has to do with premillennialism. Let me give you a summary of their teaching.
First of they believe the OT prophecy pointed to Jesus establishing a earthly kingdom but because the Jews rejected him his kingdom would have to be postponed and so we got the church instead. Now people like Hal Lindsey believe that Mat. 24 shows that the signs of our time prove that Jesus is coming soon and so we have now entered into the last days.
They believe sometime in the near future that a Jewish and
Roman antichrist will make a pact to protect
Now the first 3 and ½ years are not suppose to be to bad but
the last 3 ½ years are suppose to be filled with great tribulation. During the
first 3 ½ years the temple of God is suppose to be rebuilt and Moses and Elijah
are suppose to come back to the earth and be the 2 witnesses spoken of in Rev.
11. They will convert some to Christianity but then Roman antiChrist kills them
and everyone will see their dead bodies on TV for 3/12 days. Also, animal
sacrifices will be done again in the temple.
Then in the last 3 ½ years Egypt is suppose to invade Israel which
sparks Russia to join in and they are suppose to run Egypt out of Israel and
then conquer Egypt itself. Next the Roman antiChrist takes 1million soldiers
and defeats the Russians in
At the end of this 7 years Christ will return with those that were taken to defeat the armies that are against him and He will establish His kingdom that he had postponed earlier because the Jews rejected him. Also at this time a second resurrection will occur because Jesus will now raise all the righteous that lived under the OT time to reign with Christ in his newly established kingdom. At this time he will separate the righteous from the sinner that are still alive and send the sinner to hell as mentioned Mat. 25. At the end of this 1000 year earthly reign he will then perform a third resurrection and resurrect the wicked dead and cast them all into hell and then eternity in heaven begins.
Believe or not there are even more details of what goes on in the years than I mentioned here but this should give you pretty good understanding of what the dispensational premillennialist teach. Everything I mentioned here is taught by Hal Lindsey’s.
While this makes a very exciting story with all things that are involved it simply is not true and is just an invention of men. Now please understand I have no ill will toward those who teach such things but since they claim these things to true and to be found in the Word of God it up to us to search the scriptures to see if these things are true. So, in several lessons I want to take a close look at these teachings and compare them to what the Bible says about the end times. I feel confident that I can show you beyond reasonable doubt from the Bible that the rapture theory is not true.
It will also be my job to show that Bible teaches that Jesus will come back again someday but there are no signs of his return and when he comes that will be the final judgment day. Both the righteous and the unrighteous dead will resurrected and those that are living will be transformed into their new bodies. The righteous will go to heaven and the unrighteous to hell and the earth will be destroyed. Notice this means there is only be one coming of Jesus and only one resurrection and all these events happen on the same day. This views is certainly not as colorful as the premillennialist view but is the plain simple truth which can easily be seen from the Bible.
The first thing I want to point out is that the word rapture is no where to be found within the Bible. What they have done is taken the two word “caught up” and made it into this word “rapture”. Now there are only 2 sections of scriptures that the premillennialist get their idea of a rapture where the saints will be in heaven for 7 years and we are going to examine both of these and if we cannot find the rapture in these verses then the rapture simply does not exist anywhere within the Bible.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I
do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen
asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in
Jesus. 15 For this we say to
you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the
coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first. 17 Then we who are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
We must ask the question
what is Paul try to teach here? Basically he his teaching these Christians that
they do not need to worry about those who have fallen asleep because they will
be raised from dead and those who are alive will also be caught up in the air
to be with Jesus for ever.
Please note the word
“rapture” is no where to be found nor is some 7 year period mentioned. Please
keep in mind this is one the key section of scriptures they use to teach the
rapture theory which is suppose to be a secret coming of Jesus yet note verse
16 again. 16 For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an
archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will
rise first.
This is probably one of the noisiest
verses in the whole bible yet they say this supports their idea of a secret
coming. There is only one way that the
rapture can hold up and that would have to be that only the righteous could
hear this great noise at the supposed secret coming of Christ. This would mean
that the unrighteous couldn’t see nor hear Christ at this coming.
Well let see what the bible says
in Revelation 1:7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every
eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the
earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen
Notice it doesn’t say ever righteous eye will
see him but that EVER EYE WILL SEE HIM. I
could rest my case right here because this verse in sufficient enough to show
that there isn’t going to be some secret coming that only the righteous will
see but let press on and show scriptural evidence of this fact.
Acts 1:9 Now when He had spoken these things, while
they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10And
while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel, 11who also said, “Men of
Here we are told that Jesus VISIBLEY ascended into heaven and when he comes again it will be a VISIBLE coming.
Matthew 24:27 "For as the lightning comes
from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of
Man be.
Jesus was teaching His disciples not to be fooled by rumors of his return
because when he returns it will be as visible lightning flashing across the
sky.
Hebrews 9:28 so Christ was
offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He
will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Notice Jesus will appear a second time. Not only does this mean a visible coming it also shows that there is just going to be one more coming of Christ and it certainly isn’t a secret one. Now check out this next verse.
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away
with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the
earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Notice Peter says the Lord will come as a thief in the night on a
certain day and on that day the heaven will pass away a great noise and the
earth will be burned up. Friends this verse does not allow time for a secret
coming then 7 years of tribulation then another coming of Christ where he
establishes a kingdom for a 1000 years because when he comes unexpectedly which
means there are no signs to predict his coming on that one day heaven and earth
be destroyed and I don’t know about you but I think everybody would notice
something like that.
When Jesus returns at his
second coming, it will be audible and visible and everyone will see it and here
it even those that are in their graves.
John 5:28
"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the
graves will hear His voice 29
"and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life,
and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
Please remember that the
premillennialist view teaches multiple resurrections and they believe that the
Christian dead will be raised at the beginning of the 7 years of tribulation
then the OT righteous will be raised at the end of the 7 years and then after
the 1000 year reign then the wicked dead will be raised. Yet Jesus says that
all that are dead will here his voice and come forth at one time and then
either go to heaven or to hell. Who are you going to believe Jesus or people
like Hal Lindsey. While this verse sufficient by itself to show that there is
only one resurrection which includes the righteous and the unjust I want offer
more scriptural proof.
Acts 24:15“I have hope
in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.
There is only one resurrection mentioned here and includes but the just and unjust. Now look at these next 3 verses
2 Corinthians 5:10For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may
receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether
good or bad.
Revelation 20:12 And I
saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And
another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged
according to their works, by the things which were written in the
books. 13 The sea gave up the
dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in
them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
John 12:48“He who
rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word
that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
Simply put these verse teach us that we must all stand before Jesus both great and small to be judged by how we lived our lives according to God’s perfect will and that this will happen in the last day. Which once again shows no room for the rapture theories 1007 years. Jesus even point this truth out in several parables. Let look at one of them.
Matthew 13: 24Another
parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who
sowed good seed in his field; 25“but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed
tares among the wheat and went his way. 26“But when the grain had sprouted and
produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27“So the servants of the owner
came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then
does it have tares?’ 28“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants
said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29“But he said,
‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
30‘Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will
say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles
to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
36Then Jesus sent the
multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying,
“Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37He answered and said
to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of
This just one of many parable that show that there will be only a second and final coming of Jesus and that both the just and unjust will be judged. The tares represent non-Christians and the wheat represents Christians. At the end of the age or the end of the world when Christ comes, he will separate the evil from the righteous and cast the evil into hell and righteous will enter into heaven. Please note that both the tares and the wheat are harvested at the same time, as so it will be for us at Christ second and final coming. All of these passages that we have looked at so far are devastating to the rapture theory because their truth doesn’t stack up to the truth of the Bible. Now finally lets look at the second section of scripture that the premillennialist use as a proof text for the rapture concept.
1 Corinthians 15:50 Now
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;
nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed -- 52
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet
will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. 53 For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Once again I want to point out the obvious. The word ‘rapture” is no where to be found and there is no mentioning of 7 years of tribulation or a 1000 year earthly reign. This section of scripture establish basically the same truth as their other proof text in 1 Thess 4:13 – 17. It shows that both the dead and those living will transformed into their glorious body and this will happen with a great sound. It also states here that it will happen at the last trumpet which again point to a final judgment. While it is true that both of their proof text only talk about Christians I have already shown from the rest of the Bible that both the just and the unjust will be raised at this time and be judged on the same day. So, clearly we can see that their 2 major proof text don’t even come close to teaching their view.
Finally another great point to make is that Jesus states 4 different times in John 6:39,40,44, 54 that the righteous will be raised up on the last day. Now think about that for a min. The premillennialist teach that the righteous will be raised up 1007 years before the end of time yet Jesus says they will be raised up on the last day. In order for the premillennialist to be correct the last day would have to mean 1007 years before the end of time which would make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
We have just barely scratched the surface of looking at the rapture theory and what the Bible says about the end times. I truly believe that I have already presented enough information to show that the rapture theory in very interesting and entertaining but it simply in not true. I also feel that I have presented enough scripture to show you that there will only be one more coming of Jesus and that everyone will see and hear it and everyone will both dead and live both the just and unjust will be judged on that day. We still have a lot more to look at on the rapture theory and I hope that you will join us at the next time as we continue to search the scriptures to see how the rapture theory stacks up against the Bible.