Cyber-Discipleship

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.