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Five Reasons the Rapture and the Second Coming Are Two Different Events–Part 4
Fourth, there are signs that precede the Second Coming
A fourth reason the Rapture and the Second Coming are two separate events is that there are signs that precede the Second Coming but there are no signs that precede the Rapture of the Church. As stated in Point 3, Jesus said He would return like a thief in the night. A thief does not leave clues that he is coming to warn the people. Instead, he tries to make his approach as stealthily as possible, as not to get caught. Jesus’ return to get us will be without warning as He pointed out in Matthew 24:39 and 44. That is not to say that there are no signs that foretell when His return is near. In Matthew 24, Jesus gave many signs that will portend His return such as the increase in the number of wars and threats of wars, ethnic groups fighting one another, increase in disease and famine and earthquakes, the rise of many false prophets, and increase in lawlessness and a decrease in the love of many. Though these seem to be general signs, the things He wants us to know is that as the end of the world gets near, these signs will grow in frequency and intensity—like birth pangs on a woman in labor (Matthew 24:8).
According to the scriptures, there are some things that must first happen before the return of the Lord.
- The Great Apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)—Paul speaks of the falling away of the church. He spoke of this in his letters to Timothy and Titus but not to this degree. In this passage, he speaks of a “rebellion (ESV)” or apostasy (NASB). What is an apostasy? It is the desertion or departure from sound doctrine. The mainstream church will stop teaching sound doctrine but will teach things that appeal to the flesh of man. It will depend upon programs rather than prayer. It will have concerts and call it worship. It will replace anointed sermons with eloquent speeches. It will stop teaching about sin and the need for repentance. It will stop teaching that Jesus is the only way. It will stop teaching about hell and punishment. Instead, it will teach about the goodness of man and the love of God. It will have a form of godliness but no power.
- The rise of the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)—Jesus will not return until after the Antichrist comes on the scene. Who or what the Antichrist is, no one knows. Some have suggested it may not be a person but a system. At any rate, until there is someone who is going to try to declare himself as the savior of the world, Jesus will not be back. Revelation 19 speaks of how Jesus will destroy the Antichrist and the False Prophet in the Lake of Fire. As was pointed out in Point 1, something catastrophic must happen to facilitate his rise, where the nations of the world will cede to him their power.
- The Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-17). The Antichrist will force the world to take a mark of allegiance. This mark will likely be sold as a way to facilitate the transfer of money, the locating of criminals, and readiness of medical data. However, it will also be a mark of loyalty to the devil and his kingdom. Taking the mark will mean the forfeiture of your soul. It is how he will control you, track you, and maybe even torture you. What is the mark? No one knows. It has been suggested to be everything from a tattoo to a microchip. It will be placed in the forehead or on the right hand. You cannot travel without it. You cannot buy food without it. If you do not have it when stopped, you will be arrested. If you refuse it then, you will be killed. This is the means by which the Antichrist will establish a one-world economy.
- One world government. As stated before, the Antichrist will conquer the world through peace, then though the military that he will control. After whatever disaster happens that opens the door for him, he will persuade the world that he has the answers, and through smooth talk, he will get nations to give him their power, their military, and establish him as their leader. Once he has that, he will use that power to keep the people in line. He will be the supreme ruler with a bunch of potentates that will answer to him. As yet, there is no one world government, though the world seems to be headed that way.
- Attack on Israel (Ezekiel 38-39). The prophet Ezekiel speaks of an alliance, believed to be between the Russians and the Muslims, who will lead an attack against the land of Israel. That attack will fail. The Bible says that God will fight for Israel. It will take seven months to bury the dead. If there is any prophecy the church believes may be fulfilled in our lifetime, it is this one. Even today, the Islamic nations are seeking to destroy Israel. They chant, “Death to Israel.” It will not happen. Israel will never again be invaded. She will never again be destroyed. The world is worried about Iran getting a nuclear weapon. It will not matter for it will not hurt Israel. God has promised. If Israel is destroyed, you can take it to the bank that there is no God. He has made an oath.
- Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16). The Battle of Armageddon is the event that immediately precedes the return of Christ. It is at this battle that the Antichrist leads his army and the armies of the world into a final battle against the land of Israel, Jerusalem, in particular. He has already declared himself to be God and the Jews expel him as a blasphemer. It is after this even that he declares war on them. Much of Israel will be invaded (not destroyed). People will seek asylum in the Negev and Petra. The armies from the east will go to Israel to fight, not against the Jews, but against the Antichrist. Israel will be caught in the middle. The cause of this battle is unsure. It is believed that something will be discovered either in Israel or by Israel that will cause the Antichrist to sign a [false] peace treaty with them. It is likely he is going to invade them to take control of this resource. The Oriental army, numbering 2 million, will also invade seeking to gain control of it, as well as attach the Antichrist and his army. With all the weapons of war ready to level poor Israel, Jesus returns to save the day (Revelation 19:11-21). In their foolishness, they will have the audacity to turn their weapons on Jesus but it will futile because Jesus will destroy them all.
The Bible says that these things must come to pass before the Return happens. Therefore, we can rest assure that it is not soon. The same cannot be said about the Rapture. In my next post, I discuss the final reason why the Rapture and the Second Coming are two different events: The Feast of Trumpets.
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 