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Five Reasons the Rapture and the Second Coming Are Two Different Events-Part 2
2. In the Rapture, Jesus does not come to us; we go to Him.
“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.
Those who argue against a Rapture say that we believe that there are two Second Comings: a visible one and an invisible one. This is false. There is only one Second Coming and it will happen at the end of the age (more on that later). The text tells us that Jesus does not come to the earth but only to the upper atmosphere. He may not even enter the earth’s atmosphere but be in space. The Bible does not say. But it does describe His ascension.
In the opening chapter of the Book of Acts, it reads speaks of how Jesus gave His Disciples the promise of the Holy Spirit and the command for them to remain in Jerusalem until the promise was fulfilled. It goes on to say, “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” So what happened? Did He float up into outer space or did a doorway into Heaven open up but the Disciples did not see it because their view was obstructed by the cloud? The same could be true of the Rapture. Somewhere, up above the clouds, Christ could be standing at the doorway of Heaven waiting to welcome us home.
Another picture of the Rapture is in the 4th chapter of the Bible in the Book of Revelation. John writes:
“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”
There are a few things we can see in this passage. First, John writes, “after these things…” What things was he referring to? He had just finished writing a letter to the Seven Churches. It is believed that the Seven Churches represent the stages of the church age—going from a Church that loves Jesus to a church that is lukewarm. Sounds familiar? If this is the case, John may be hinting that at the end of the church age, the Rapture will happen. Second, there is a doorway in heaven and someone is standing in or at the doorway. Third, the voice was like the sound of a trumpet (same terminology used in Paul’s passage above). Finally, the voice says, “Come up here.” This could be Jesus’ call (shout) to us to come home.
Although some of this is speculation, one thing is certain. Jesus does not come back to the earth. His return to earth is chronicled in the 19th chapter of the Book of Revelation. We go meet the Lord in the air.
Five Reasons the Rapture and the Second Coming are Two Different Events–Part 1
There are many who believe that the Rapture and the Second Coming are the same event. In both events, the Lord returns and, as many point out, there is only one Second Coming, not a Second and Third Coming. Just as the early Jews confused the Suffering Servant Messiah with the Conquering King Messiah (two different ministries), many confuse the Rapture and the Second Coming.
Luke 4:16-22 recounts when Jesus went into the Temple to read and teach the daily passage as was the custom for Rabbis. The attendant handed Him the scroll and He began reading from Isaiah the prophecy concerning the Messiah—how He would preach the Gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives… However, Jesus stops in mid-sentence when He read: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” He stopped in mid-sentence because the rest of the sentence had to do with His ministry in the Second Coming. Just as the Jews did not understand that the Messiah would have two Advents, Christians do not understand that there are two “comings.”
The Rapture is not called a coming because Jesus does not return to the earth. We go to Him; He does not come to us as He does in Revelation 19. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul writes:
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.
From this passage, we can see that Christ descends from Heaven but does not actually enter the earth. We, on the other hand, rise to meet Him in the air above the clouds. Some have referred to this as the Secret Coming because we do not see Him when He returns in the Rapture. There will be nothing secret about it, though, as hundreds of thousands, even millions of people suddenly disappear from the earth in the blink of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51).
There are five additional reasons why the Rapture and the Second Coming are two distinct events.
First, we are not appointed for judgment.
It is believed that the Rapture will usher in the Tribulation period, a time also known as Jacob’s troubles. It is called this because it is a time when God will deal specifically with His chosen people, the Jews. At this point the church age will have ended and God will direct His attention back to Israel. In Romans 11 the Apostle Paul says that a partial hardening has come upon Israel so it is harder for them to believe. He has given then a spirit of stupor in which they will see and not see, hear and not understand. He did this because they rejected the Messiah He sent to them. But once the Rapture takes place, He will remove the hardness and lift the stupor so they will mourn over Him whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10).
During this period, God will not only deal with newly repentant Jews but with an unbelieving and unrepentant Gentile world. As He did in Egypt, God will pour our judgment upon the nations (Revelation 4-9). He will turn the waters to blood, rain down hail mixed with blood, release demons upon the earth, turn off the water, and turn up the heat. One verse said it will be so bad that men will seek death and it will elude them (Revelation 9:6). God’s church, Christ’s Bride, will not be here to endure these things. She will be caught up with the Bridegroom. The Church will be with Christ (John 14:3) where her members will be judged and rewarded for the things done for Christ and His glory. Jesus did not appoint His Bride for judgment but for salvation. Revelation 3:10, Jesus said to the Church: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
Judgment is the reward for sin—disobedience and rebellion against God. Because of sin, mankind is judged guilty and condemned along with the devil and his angels (John 3:17-18, Matthew 25:41). Romans 6:23 tells us that what man earns for his rebellion is death, but God gives us the gift of salvation (eternal life) through His Son, Jesus. We (Believers) are not to face any of the judgment of God because Jesus Christ bore all the judgment and wrath for us. He was punished as though He personally committed every sin so those who put their trust in Him will be treated as though they never sinned. This is the true believers in Christ will miss the Tribulation because we would be enduring a judgment Jesus already did.
Cyber-Discipleship 