The study of the rapture is of great significance to church-age believers; it represents the completion of salvation—our final and ultimate redemption—the sanctification of our bodies. Paul writes in Romans:
[8:22-25] We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
The final redemption of the body is the great hope shared by every believer. It is the teaching of the New Testament that for the church-age believer, that hope will be realized in an instant, when Christ suddenly appears in the sky to resurrect the dead, and to transform the bodies of living saints into their glorified eternal form, as they are caught up into the air to ever be with Christ (1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 Thess. 4:13-18).
Since the existence of the Church was not revealed in the Old Testament, and since the rapture relates exclusively to the Church, there is no reference to the rapture in the prophecies of the Old Testament. Christ is the first to mention the rapture in the New Testament (Jn. 14:3), but he gives few details other than disclosing that Heaven is the destination of the raptured saints.
It is Paul who develops the rapture theme, mentioning it in eight passages (Rom. 8:20-23; 1 Cor. 15:35-38; Eph. 1:13-14; Phil. 1:6,10; 3:10-11,20-21; 1 Thess. 1:9-10; 4:13-18; Tit. 2:11-14). From Paul’s statements we learn the following facts about the rapture.
1. The spirits of those believers who die prior to the rapture will be reunited with their resurrection bodies (1 Thess. 4:14).
2. The resurrected believers will rise first (1 Cor. 15:52-53; 1 Thess. 4:15-16).
3. Living believers will be “changed” (their bodies will be transformed) and caught up to meet Christ in the clouds (1 Cor. 15:52-53; 1 Thess. 4:17).
Paul also mentioned that the Church is not destined to experience the wrath of God (contextually, the wrath unleashed against the ungodly during the day of the LORD), but to the obtaining of salvation (1 Thess. 1:1-10; 5:9, cf. Rom. 5:9).
James makes reference to the rapture and associates it with personal accountability before Christ, possibly alluding to the judgment seat of Christ that follows the rapture (James 5:7-9). Peter equated the rapture with the completion of the believer’s salvation (1 Pt.1:3-5). The Apostle John mentioned the rapture twice, and alluded to the transformation of the bodies of believers at the appearance of Christ (1 Jn. 2:28; 3:2). He also indicated that the glorified bodies received by the saints will be like Christ’s post-resurrection glorified body (3:2, cf. Phil. 3:2021).
The only detailed descriptions of the actual rapture event occur in two passages: 1 Cor. 15:51-53 and 1 Thess. 4:13-18. In 1 Corinthians, Paul gives the following description.
[15:51-53] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”
In 1 Thessalonians he says:
[4:13-18] Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
A number of observations flow from these two passages.
1. The details of the rapture were apparently a mystery until revealed through Paul.
2. At the rapture, Christ will appear in the sky.
3. Christ will be accompanied by the souls of the saints who have died, returning to receive their resurrection bodies.
4. The event is to be signaled by a shout from an archangel and a trumpet call.
5. The dead in Christ will be resurrected, and then those who are alive will be changed (transformed).
6. He will call believers, both the resurrected and the transformed, up to himself in the clouds. (Note that the description of the rapture differs significantly from that of the second coming, when Christ actually returns to the earth and remains.)
7. Believers who are alive and transformed at the rapture will not pass through death.
8. The entire event will happen almost instantly.
9. The raptured saints will never be separated from Christ.
It is only the Church that participates in the rapture; the Old Testament saints and those on earth saved after the rapture do not participate in the event. In order to understand how the rapture is possible, we must grasp the unique nature of the Church and how God’s program for Israel and the Church differ.
It is God’s plan to consummate the salvation of those belonging to the Body of Christ (the Church) at the rapture, and it is the unique nature of the Church that makes this event possible. Every saved person in history fits somewhere in the plan of God, but not every saved person in history is part of the Church. (We are not speaking of the visible, organized church, which includes both saved and lost, but the invisible body of Christ {Col. 1:18,24}, i.e., those who are baptized into Christ by the operation of the Holy Spirit.) The Church did not exist until the Holy Spirit began baptizing believers into the Body of Christ on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5 cf. 1 Cor. 12:13); therefore, the Old Testament saints, though beloved of God and occupying a special place in the plan of God, are not part of this peculiar entity called, “the Church.” This is also true of people saved after the rapture.
It is important that we do not confuse God’s purpose and plan for the Church with His purpose and plan for Israel; these two entities are not the same, and if we confuse them we must abandon hope of finding any meaning in future prophecy. The Bible teaches that God did not abandon His program for the true descendants of Abraham, that is, those who are his children by both birth and faith—Rom. 9:6-9. He has every intention of fulfilling his promises to Israel (cf. Psa. 105:8-11; Jer. 33:20-26; Rom. 11:1-36). This is the basis for belief in a literal earthly kingdom beginning at the second coming of Christ and extending into eternity.
The fact that Israel as a nation rejected their Messiah, and that God, from both Jew and Gentile forged a new entity—the Church—does not nullify God’s promises to Israel, it merely postponed the fulfillment of those promises until Israel, as a nation, responds to God’s grace at some time in the future. That’s one of God’s purposes for the coming tribulation period—to bring Israel to faith in Christ. It’s true that church-age saints share in the distinction of being designated “children of Abraham.” Abraham is, metaphorically speaking, the father of all who believe (Gal. 3:6-9,29, cf. Gen. 12:3). The blessings that the Church enjoys have their roots in the Abrahamic covenant (Gal. 3:8-9). However, it would be incorrect to interpret this to mean that Israel and the Church are the same, or that the Church is merely a continuation of Israel under a new name, or that Israel’s promised blessings have somehow been transferred to the Church (as is maintained by covenant theology). While church-age believers are called “children of Abraham,” Israel is never designated as the “body of Christ.” Galatians 6:16 is sometimes cited as an example of the Church being referred to as “Israel.” However, the Church is not mentioned in this passage; Paul is merely drawing a distinction between those who were outwardly Israelites—by birth and tradition—and those who were “the Israel of God”—by birth and faith. Thus he nullified the argument of the Judaizers that one must be circumcised to be right with God, for even the Jews had to be saved by faith. The presence of saved Jews in the Church, even if they are referred to as “the Israel of God,” does not equate the Church, as an entity, with Israel. The duality of these two is strictly maintained in the New Testament. In Romans 11:1-36, where Paul gives the analogy of the root and the branches, it is worth noting that he never pictures both the Church and Israel as the same, or even coextensive (attached to the root at the same time). Israel was attached to the root at one time, but because of their rejection of their Messiah, they were broken off, and the Church was grafted in. At some point in the future, when Israel responds to the Lord (Zech. 13:7-9), they will be grafted back in again (Rom. 11:23-24). While both Israel and the Church share a common heritage in the faith of Abraham, and while both trace their blessings to the promises God made to Abraham, they are nonetheless distinct, just as two children may have the same parent and be loved equally, but be born at different times, have different names, and have different expectations made of them by the same parent, and even receive a different inheritance.
Nowhere is the critical distinction between Israel and the Church more significant than in the study of prophecy. The reason is that both the Church and Israel occupy unique places in God’s prophetic program. The Old Testament promises to Israel are for a land, a nation, a throne, and a special and perpetual relationship with God. The fountainhead of these promises is the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3,6-7; 13:14-17; 15:1-21; 17:1-14; 22:15-18). They are further developed in the Palestinian covenant (Deut. 29:1-30:20), the Davidic covenant (2 Sam. 7:12-17), and the new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34), as well as numerous prophetic passages dealing with the coming kingdom on earth (Ps. 98:1-9; Isa. 11:1-12:6; 25:1-12; 32:1-8; 35:1-10; 40:3-11; 66:1-24; Jer. 33:10-26). On the other hand, the Church is nowhere promised a land, descendants, a nation, or throne—though it does share in the promise of a special relationship with God and a heavenly home (1 Jn. 1:3; 3:3; Jn. 14:1‑3).
So, just what is the Church (the Body of Christ) and who does it include? As was stated previously, the Church did not exist prior to the commencement of Spirit baptism on the day of Pentecost. The biblical basis for this assertion is as follows.
1. The Church is “the body of Christ” (Col. 1:18,24), and Spirit baptism is the operation that makes a person a part of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Since the Spirit’s ministry of baptism did not begin until the day of Pentecost, A.D. 33, it is not possible that believers who died prior to that time could be included as part of the Church.
2. The disciples recognized that Pentecost marked the beginning of the Church (Acts 11:15-16).
3. Jesus indicated the Church to be a future reality from the standpoint of His earthly ministry (Matt. 16:18—note the future tense, “I will build my church”).
4. The nature of the church age as a parenthetical age, distinct from God’s program for Israel, is reinforced by its complete absence from Old Testament prophecy, which explains God’s program for Israel in great detail. Note for example how the church age is completely absent from the prophecy of Daniel’s seventy weeks in Daniel 9:24-27, falling entirely between the 69th and 70th weeks. Likewise it is missing entirely from the descriptions of the first and second comings of Christ in Isaiah 61:1-3.
One rather odd doctrine that is frequently encountered is the view that if a person hears but does not respond to the gospel prior to the rapture, they cannot be saved later (during the tribulation). This completely erroneous idea is based on the gross misinterpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, especially verses 10-12, which read as follows.
[2 Thess. 2:1-12] (1) Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, (2) that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. (3) Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, (4) who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. (5) Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? (6) And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. (7) For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. (8) Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; (9) that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, (10) and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. (11) For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, (12) in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. [NASB]
The position taken by some is that verses 10-12 refer to individuals who hear the gospel prior to the rapture, but do not respond and to whom God will send a powerful delusion after the rapture, in order that they will believe what is false (rather than believing the truth of the gospel). However, the most obvious fact that ought to be observed concerning this passage is that the rapture is not mentioned anywhere, nor is it mentioned within the chapter or anywhere else in the book of Second Thessalonians. In this passage Paul is writing to correct the mistaken belief that the day of the Lord had already arrived. Apparently someone had misinformed the Thessalonian church that Paul himself had said that the day of the Lord had come (v. 2). Paul solidly denied having been the source of such information. He then proceeded to debunk the whole notion that the church could now (at that time) be in the day of the Lord. Though we will discuss the particulars of this passage in greater detail later, Paul makes the case that the day of the Lord cannot begin until sometime after the apostasy that follows the revealing of the Antichrist in the temple—an event that will not happen until the midpoint of the tribulation period. Thus, Paul’s argument is that since the Antichrist has not been revealed (v. 4 cf. v. 8), the day of the Lord cannot have arrived. In verses 6 through 12 Paul describes the signs and wonders that will accompany the Antichrist once he is publicly revealed and which will deceive those who have previously rejected the truth (during the time leading up to the spiritual delusion beginning in the second half of the period). As can be seen, this passage does not refer to conditions before and after the rapture; it refers to conditions before and after the revealing of the Antichrist in the temple in the middle of the tribulation. What Paul said is that those who have rejected Christ up to the point at which the Antichrist is revealed (at the middle of the tribulation period) will fall into a delusion in the second half of the period. The delusion is the claim of the Antichrist to be “God” (v. 11 cf. v. 4). When this passage is understood in its proper context, there is nothing in it that should lead us to conclude that people hearing but not responding to the gospel prior to the rapture cannot be saved later. Such a view is also completely incompatible with belief in divine sovereignty—that a person comes to God when he or she is effectually called by the Holy Spirit. The very fact that an intrinsically Arminian (free-will) doctrine would be so widely taught even by many who claim to reject free-will theology testifies to the great lack of sound theological thinking present in so many churches today. In any case, there is no biblical basis at all for the notion that a person who hears but does not respond to the gospel prior to the rapture cannot be saved afterward—though there is a stern warning that for those in the tribulation it may be possible to wait too long, and fall under the coming delusion.
Chapter Two, taken from: The Imminent Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church
Copyright 2004, 2006 by Sam A. Smith
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