Danville Enlightener

VOL. VIII, No. 19

May 27, 2007

The Rapture

The Rapture! Rapture is a word used so much in Protestant denominationalism (especially among those advocating the doctrine of Premillennialism that the average Bible believer thinks it must be a biblical word. It is not! Not only is the word not found in the Bible neither is the theory that has given birth to the word.

Premillennialism is a hodgepodge of doctrines pertaining to eschatology (the return of Jesus and the end of the world). Most of the so-called “Christian World” holds to some form or another of Premillennialism.

Those who advocate Premillennialism teach that Jesus is yet to set up His kingdom, the kingdom of O.T. promise and prophecy. He was, we’re told, supposed to do so at His first coming but He was rejected and forced to institute the church as a temporary substitute for the kingdom. Thus when He returns He will lead the forces of good into battle with the anti-Christ and the forces of evil. After the forces of evil are destroyed Jesus will establish the kingdom, and reign for one thousand (millennial) years, after which the world will be destroyed.

An important element of all this is the Rapture. The millennial doctrine of the rapture is predicated upon the idea that Jesus will return to earth twice. To avoid the obvious unscriptural nature of this, we are told that He will return once, but in two phases.

Phase one, we’re told, is when Jesus comes FOR His saints. To bolster this doctrine, advocates appeal to 1 Thess 4:16-17. “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. 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.”

Phase two, they say, is when Jesus comes WITH His saints. This phase is supposed to be referenced in Jude 14-15. “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

The theory is formed something like this. Jesus will come for His saints (The Rapture) but then seven years later Jesus will come in part two of His second coming with His saints to wage war.

There will not be two phases of the Lord’s second coming. There will not be a secret catching away of saints in something called The Rapture. When the Lord returns He will not establish His kingdom (that happened on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2). Instead He will deliver the kingdom to the Father (1 Cor 15:24).

Furthermore, Jesus will not reign on earth for 1000 years because when He returns the earth will be destroyed. “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,” (2 Pet 3:10).

Also, there will not be two resurrections during multiple phases of the Lord’s second coming. There will be only one resurrection of both saints and sinners. Jesus made this sweeping promise in Jn 5:28-29. “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth-- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” 

The millennial theorists mistakenly assume that when Paul speaks of the dead rising first in 1 Thess 4:16-17 that he automatically implies two resurrections. The first being the saints at The Rapture and the second, the rest of the dead, years later. They could not be more wrong! Paul does not contradict Jesus who spoke of one resurrection.

When Paul says, “the dead in Christ will rise first” he tells us, in context, what will be next (or second), and it certainly is not another resurrection. After the dead is raised then “we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

Paul is answering the concerns the Thessalonian brethren had about those Christians who had died. They are told the dead will actually be raised BEFORE the living will ascend to be with the Lord.

Then he concludes by pointing out that the saved will always be with the Lord in the air (heavens) not return to earth. “And thus we shall always be with the Lord,” (vs. 17).

At the second coming of Jesus everyone will know it. There will not be those who have been secretly raptured from the earth leaving others to wonder what happened. The saved will be taken to be with the Lord having been delivered to the Father. Then the earth will be destroyed, judgment passed and eternity begun. Where will you be?

-jrb

"As I See It"

Memorial Day was originated on May 30, 1868 by General John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. In the beginning it was to memorialize fallen soldiers of the Union Army during the War Between the States.

Soon it marked a time to pay tribute to the dead from all wars. Usual observance assumes the form of military and civil parades and memorial exercises including decorating with flowers the graves of American servicemen in cemeteries throughout the world.

It no longer is observed on May 30, it is another one of these “floating holidays” celebrated on the last Monday of May giving workers a long weekend and shoppers another sale day.

When I was a boy we called Memorial Day “Decoration Day,” because it was a time families gathered to clean up cemeteries and decorate the graves of departed family members with flowers. I remember going with my grandparents to the “Parsons’ Cemetery” where we would spend the entire day. After decorating the graves, we would gather for a picnic. I would sit memorized while the “old men” (including my granddad) recounted life in days gone by. “This is where your uncle Theard is buried. He died of consumption when he was in his twenties. Over there is where your great grandmother Nanny is buried. I remember the day we carried her casket up here it was so cold we had to use axes to dig in the frozen ground.”

In their unsophisticated way they were helping me to honor and remember the past. They were putting my life into some context. I was not a loner I was part of something greater than myself. I am a member of a family. I also began to realize that one day I would be “buried with my ancestors” (1 Ki 15:24). In the end someone would speak of me while standing over my grave.

Life is just a vapor (Jas 4:14), and even if we live to be “a ripe old age” we are only here for a few days (Psa 39:4-5). Memorial Day is a day that helps us to remember our own mortality by remembering our deceased loved ones. Use it to help your children to appreciate they are part of something wonderful – a family.

AS I SEE IT, if we fail to help our children connect with the past; we rob them of a future. “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment,” (Prov 18:1).