Take your Bible and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 4:13¬–18. Next week and the week after that, we’ll focus on Christmas. But I’m unapologetic about preaching on the Second Coming this morning, even in the Christmas season, because the one leads to the other. The Christ who has come is coming again. In fact, you can kind of look at your Bible under three very simple statements. In the Old Testament, He is coming. In the Gospels, He has come. In the Epistles and the book of Revelation, He is coming again.
And so, we’re in a series of studies called Things to Come. We’re looking at future events in the light of biblical prophecy, and this morning we’re looking at the doctrine of the rapture—the catching away, the snatching away of God’s people. That’s a belief that every Christian has. There are differences of opinion over the timing of the rapture, but a rapture will take place—a catching away, a snatching away of living saints. And we’re going to consider that this morning. I’m going to make an argument for the fact that this will take place prior to the onset of a time called the Tribulation that will mark the last days.
In fact, if this is an area you want to do a bit of studying in of a couple of books, I highly recommend this book called Can We Still Believe in the Rapture? It’s written by Ed Hindson, who was a friend of this ministry (he’s now with the Lord), and Mark Hitchcock, who I was with just a couple of days ago. The whole book is making an argument for the rapture and certainly the rapture as a pre-tribulational hope.
And I know some of you have been reading this. I’ve read it, and I want to recommend this. This is Dr. David Jeremiah’s latest book. It’s called The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to Be Rapture Ready. It’s excellent. It’s warm. It’s instructive. It’s inspirational. And I commend both of those for your perusal and study.
Let’s read God’s Word together. Again, a message entitled “Leaving Soon.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18:
“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
“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. 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
In the TV series The West Wing, fictional president Josiah Bartlet regularly ended the staff meeting with these two words: “What’s next?” It was his way of signaling that he was finished with the issue at hand and he was ready to move on to other matters. The pressures and the responsibilities of life in the White House, of the presidency, demanded that he not focus on any one thing for too long and that he move on and keep his eyes ahead, moving forward to what was next. As I thought about that, the Christian, like President Bartlet, must lean into the future. Given the stewardship of life, given the promise of the coming kingdom of God, the disciples of Jesus need to keep their eyes on what’s ahead. We need to keep moving in the direction of what’s next. And so, the question is asked this morning: what is next? What’s next? And I’ll make an argument that that’s the rapture—the catching away of the saints of the church age to heaven prior to an awful time of tribulation that will engulf the whole earth, as Jesus describes it in the Olivet Discourse.
This event, the rapture—the catching away of the saints of the church age—is described in John 14:1–3, where Jesus promises to come back from where He is in the Father’s house and receive us unto Himself. That, where He is, we may be also. This is described in 1 Corinthians 15:51, where Paul talks about a moment in which we are all changed for all of eternity. The dead are raised, and the living are transformed—this marvelous metamorphous that’s promised in that passage.
And then, we’ve got 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, where we’re studying this morning, where we have the promise of Jesus’ return. The Lord Himself will descend, and the dead in Christ will rise. The living will be translated, and the dead and the living will meet the Lord in the air in a glorified state. And so we will be with the Lord forever. That’s the comfort and the encouragement of the rapture.
I like the words of Alexander Maclaren, who was a great English Baptist in Manchester many years ago. He said this: “The primitive church thought more about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than about death or about heaven. The early Christians were looking not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory. They were watching not for the undertaker but the uppertaker.” Isn’t that good? You and I are not looking for the undertaker; we’re looking for the uppertaker. There will be a generation of Christians alive when Jesus comes. And they will not die. They will be instantaneously changed.
So, the Christian is a person living this present day for that future day. Wasn’t it Martin Luther, the Reformer, who said we live this day for that Day? Remember Paul’s language in 2 Timothy 1:12: “I . . . am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” There’s a day in the future to which the church is hurtling towards and where history will end. In 2 Timothy 4:6–8, Paul talks about his demise, his death, his martyrdom. He talks about the gaining of a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will award him on that Day.
Like President Bartlet, you and I need to lean into the future. We need to be moving towards what’s next, and what’s next is the rapture. In fact, if I was to outline the basics of biblical prophecy, I would say that the next major event to occur is the rapture. That will be followed by the Great Tribulation, a period of time, seven years, during which the Antichrist will rise, during which God will pour out His wrath upon the earth, during which the Antichrist will call for global worship of himself. That period of time will come to an end at the battle of Armageddon, described in Revelation 16:16.
Now, while all of that is going on, I’ll make an argument that the church is in heaven, and we will have faced the judgment seat of Christ. According to Revelation 19, we will have been married to Christ, bride to bridegroom, at the great supper. But then, the Christ who came for the saints will return with the saints. There’ll be a destruction of the armies of this world under the Antichrist at the battle of Armageddon. Jesus will then establish His kingdom on planet earth, and He will reign on the throne of King David. That reign will last for a thousand years, during which there will be great peace and prosperity. The Antichrist and the false prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire. Tribulation survivors will be regathered, reviewed, and rewarded, and they’ll enter that kingdom, along with the glorified saints of heaven. Satan will be bound in the abyss for a thousand years, and then, at the end of those thousand years, Satan will be released. There’ll be a final revolt that shall be defeated. You’ll have the great white throne, where the unbelieving dead will be raised and judged and sent to hell. And then, this present earth and this present heaven will be destroyed, and a new heaven and a new earth will be created.
That’s what’s next. And the trigger event is the rapture. That’s the first domino to fall. What’s next for you and for me is that the believing will be leaving and going to meet the Lord in the air—later to return with the Lord to earth. Jesus is coming for His saints. He will call them into His presence. He will go with them to the Father’s house. And He will later return with His saints to the earth, landing on the Mount of Olives and establishing His kingdom.
Now, at this point, the wheels of your mind are spinning, and you’re saying, “Pastor, time out. Did you just argue for two second comings? I thought there was only one Second Coming? But you seem to be saying that Jesus is coming a second time at the rapture and that Jesus is coming a second time at the revelation—at His return in power and glory, which will be visible—and it will be to earth, not to heaven.” No, I’m not arguing for two second comings, but I am arguing for two phases, two stages to the Second Coming. I’m not bothered by that, and neither should you be.
In fact, in the book I just recommended, Can We Still Believe in the Rapture?, Dr. Mark Hitchcock and Dr. Ed Hindson would remind us that the first coming had stages and phases to it. Let them speak for themselves: “The first coming of Christ included multiple events (or phases): His birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. In fact, His spirit left His body at His death and returned at His resurrection (Luke 23:46). This is not considered a separate coming, even though these events were separated by three days.”
And there are all kinds of events that make up what we call the Second Coming. The rapture is a phase, and the return is a phase. Christ coming for His saints, calling them up to heaven, and then Christ returning with His saints down to earth are both phases of the same event. The rapture, that’s what’s next. I hope you’re prepared.
The doctrine of the rapture wasn’t given to us to scare; it was given to us to prepare, to live in the light of Jesus soon coming. And, by the way, don’t be put off by the word “rapture.” There are some evangelicals, especially those of a Reformed persuasion, who start itching when they hear the word “rapture.” They become allergic to that word. And maybe some would argue, “Hey pastor, I would remind you that the word ‘rapture’ is not in the Bible.” And I would say, that’s right. But then, neither is the word “Trinity.” But the doctrine of the Trinity is in the Bible, and the doctrine of the rapture is in the Bible.
In fact, there it is, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, that when Jesus comes and raises the dead saints of the church age, those who are alive will be caught up, harpazo, snatched away. In fact, there is an element of force and violence to that verb. It’s used in John 10:28 of this image that no one will pluck us, snatch us, catch us away out of the Father’s hand. Our souls are secure.
And look, there are several raptures in the Bible. This isn’t a kind of foreign idea. What about Enoch? Wasn’t he raptured? Wasn’t he caught up and taken away in the midst of life? Genesis 5:24: “Enoch walked with God; and he was not.” What about Elijah, caught up in the fiery chariot of 2 Kings 2:11-12? What about Jesus’ own rapture at His ascension? As the disciples stood there and watched Him disappear in the clouds, He was caught up to heaven, and they were reminded that this same Jesus that you saw go away is going to come again (Acts 1:9–11).
Then, what about Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:1–4? In the body, out of the body . . . He’s not sure, so we’re not sure. But he seems to have had this experience in body or out of body, spirit only; he was caught up to the third heaven and saw things that no man has seen. What about John in the book of Revelation, in 4:1, while he was a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos? In the body, out of the body . . . Again, we don’t know, but he had this summons from Christ: “Come up here.” And a door was open, and he went into heaven. And he was given a panorama of future history.
So, let’s come and look at this doctrine of the rapture. “Leaving Soon.” This is the next event that you and I need to prepare for, and we want to look at what it is, who’s involved, why it happens, and when it happens. This is the classic passage. Paul is addressing a concern, as you can tell from verse 13. We assume that he had taught them the any-moment return of Christ for the church, and they lived in the light of that. In 1:10, we read that they were waiting up; they were eagerly expecting Jesus’ return. But, in the meantime, some of their loved ones had died, fallen asleep in Jesus. The body was buried; the soul was with the Lord. They’re now wondering, will they miss out on the rapture? Will they be resurrected after the Tribulation? Are they second-class citizens? Are they being robbed of the joy of the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior? So, Paul writes to address that.
So, let’s get going for the time that remains. We’re going to move through the first three or four points quickly, and I want to spend a little bit more time on answering the question “When does this event take place?” because there are different opinions within the church. Some argue, as we do, for a pre-tribulational rapture. We believe the catching away of the saints happens before the time of Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, the unfolding of the judgment of God, during the Day of the Lord. Or is it mid-Tribulation? Is it pre-wrath? Or is it post-Tribulation? Is the second coming of Christ—the aspect that He comes in power and glory—the same phase as the rapture?
Let’s look at the help of the rapture. Let’s move through this quickly. I want you to see that Paul applies the doctrine of the rapture—the snatching away of the church age saints—practically and pastorally.
In fact, here’s a little study for yourself. If you go to the end of every chapter in 1 Thessalonians, one of Paul’s earliest books, you’ll see an emphasis on the return of Jesus for His people and the practical application. Chapter 1: Abandon idols and serve the Lord. Chapter 2: Love the saints and rejoice in evangelism, the thought of spending eternity together. Chapter 3: Cultivate a blameless life. Chapter 4: If you have lost a loved one, sorrow—but don’t do it in a state of hopelessness. Chapter 5: The second coming of Jesus should lead to practical holiness.
And here we are in chapter 4, where Paul is using the hope of Jesus coming for His people as a means of helping those who are indeed sorrowing at the loss of a loved one.
The help of the rapture. Look, I don’t want you to sorrow without hope. I want to tell you that when the Lord comes, He’s going to bring the spirit of your loved one with Him. He’s going to come to the air, and the dead in Christ, their bodies will rise first. The body and soul will be reunited in a glorified state. And, if we’re living when Jesus comes, we’ll just be translated on the spot, and we’ll be called up to be with the Lord. So, while you miss them, you’ll not miss them forever. Death may hide, but it cannot divide. And so, he says in verse 18, “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” Encourage one another. This is the word tied to the idea of Paraclete—the comforter, the Holy Spirit—who comes alongside us to encourage us. And the saints of God are to do the same. So, when someone dies in this church, and their loved ones are left and they’re grieving, we’re to come alongside them, both as pastor and people. We’re to remind them of this encouragement, that death may hide, but it cannot divide. The rapture will see us all back together again.
So, Paul writes that’s the help of the rapture, and it’s especially for those who have lost a loved one. Now, Paul doesn’t say you can’t sorrow. Jesus wept for Lazarus in John 11. The disciples wept for Stephen. In fact, they lamented in Acts 8. Death is a piece of brutality, someone has said, and it’s true. Isn’t it? Death is a piece of brutality. When it enters our homes and enters our hearts, it’s disruptive. It’s disturbing. It grieves us. It hurts us. It wounds us. And we’re left to adjust to life without a loved one. Grief would be natural in such a case and necessary. God has given us tear ducts to release our sorrow. So, grief is not only natural; it’s needed. It’s something we should do.
But here’s Paul’s point to the Christian: it shouldn’t be overdone. It should be done in a manner that manifests the reality of the gospel—the fact that Jesus has died, was buried, and rose again. And He offers us the promise of that same resurrection. And so, sorrow not as those without hope. Don’t grieve like the world. Grieve, but let it be tempered by the gospel. Spurgeon said about this text, “Tears are permitted to us, but they must glisten in the light of faith and hope. Jesus wept, but Jesus never repined. We, too, may weep, but not as those who are without hope, nor yet as though forgetful that there is greater cause for joy than for sorrow in the departure of our brethren.”
In fact, Chrysostom, the church father, took Christians in his day to task for grieving too much. So, we’re to grieve, but you can cross a line where you get paralyzed by grief, where you’re not getting up and getting on with life, where you’re looking back more than you’re looking forward, where your words are without hope and joy in the gospel. Chrysostom saw that, and he takes Christians to task for their wailing and sorrow in public places. Here’s what he says: “When I behold the wailings in the public places, the groanings over them which depart out of [this] life, the howlings, all the other unseemly behaviour. . .” See, he’s kind of watched Christians at funerals, and he’s going, hey, this is too much. There’s too much wailing and moaning going on here. Where’s the gospel? Where’s the hope?
He goes on to say, “I am ashamed before those heathen, and Jews, and heretics who see it, yea, and indeed before all who for this cause laugh us to scorn.” In fact, he says, “Do you know who? If you want to wail, if you want to lament, if you want to moan, do it for your lost loved ones. Do it for relatives who are not in Christ, because hell awaits them, unending sorrow awaits them.” Here’s what he said: “Those who are really worthy of being lamented are the ones who are still in fear and trembling at the prospect of death and have no faith at all in the resurrection.” He makes his point by saying this: “May God grant that you all depart this life unwailed!”
Yeah, we’re to sorrow, but we don’t need to sorrow as others who have no hope, because we’ve got the hope of the rapture—which includes Jesus’ return, our loved ones’ resurrection, our translation, a meeting in the sky, and a forever with the Lord. I like old Vance Havner. He said this after the death of his beloved wife of 36 years: “I am still in the valley but thank God I am walking through it, not wallowing in it.” Hopefully, you’re not wallowing in the valley, because you’ve got the hope and the help of the rapture.
Secondly, you’ve got the harbinger of the rapture. The harbinger. What do I mean by that? This encouragement to not sorrow as those who have no hope is rooted in the hope that we find in the physical and assurance and historic reality of Jesus’ own resurrection. Notice verse 14: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again . . .” Just stop there. Then, that changes everything. See, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then we don’t sorrow as those without hope, because Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us hope. That’s where we root it; that’s where we anchor it. Because you see, His resurrection is a harbinger of our resurrection. Or, to use the biblical term, Christ’s resurrection was “the firstfruits of those who have fallen sleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
If you know anything about the Feast of Firstfruits in the Old Testament, you’ll realize that part of the harvest was brought in, and the first wave of the wheat was taken to the temple of God and waved before the priest and before God in the joy of a coming harvest. And when Jesus tore the bars back of the prison house of death and escaped, that was the waving of the firstfruits—signaling the hope that because He lives, we shall live also. Because He died and was buried and rose again, those who die in Him will be dead, buried, and rise again.
I like what the British Baptist Paul Beasley-Murray says in a book on the resurrection: “The resurrection of Jesus is not to be likened to a single rabbit God pulls out of the hat to demonstrate that Jesus is his Son. Rather, it is the basis for all Christian hope.” The consequence of believing that Jesus died and rose again is that God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Him. I love that. Jesus’ resurrection is not some single rabbit pulled out of God’s magic hat. It’s the beginning of a vast number of resurrections.
I remember my early days of preaching. I preached in a little hall in Belfast, and one of the older men in the church had gone with me to mentor me and encourage me. He was a shipyard worker, an old man I grew to love called Albert Moreland. And, on the way home, I thought I’d done pretty well. On the drive home, Albert said, “Man, you know what? You made a howling mistake tonight.” And I’m going, “Whoa, Albert, what did I do wrong, man? I’m just looking at the message here. I think I crossed my t’s and dotted my i’s. What mistake did I make?” And he said this: “Philip, you left Jesus hanging on the cross.” Wow. He said, “That’s a mistake. Don’t ever leave the Lord hanging on the cross. That’s Catholic, not Protestant.” He says, “Jesus isn’t on a cross. He’s on a throne. He’s exalted. He’s ascended. He’s coming again. We serve a risen Savior, not a dead Savior. Don’t ever leave the Savior hanging on the cross.” I said, “Albert, never again.” Not sure I’ve kept that promise, to be honest, but it was a great reminder, wasn’t it? Don’t ever leave the Lord hanging on the cross. Because you see, His resurrection is the ground of all our hope.
What about the hope of the rapture? The Christian is not without hope. People are in this world without God and without hope, as Paul says in Ephesians, but not us! We’ve got the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. And this is not a wish-upon-a-star hope. This is not mere speculation. No, this is sure expectation. It’s sure. Why can we say it’s sure? Because we’ve got historic precedents in the death of Jesus and His resurrection.
Listen to Erwin Lutzer here. It’s very good. “How sure can we be that Christ will return to earth? As sure as we are that He came to this earth as a baby in Bethlehem, suffered, died, and was raised from His grave. Keep in mind that there was a time when the death and resurrection of Jesus was prophecy. Today, of course, it is history. Just so, the return of Christ is prophecy today but it will be history at some future date. The fact that He is coming is just as certain as the fact that He already came! All true prophecies eventually become true history.”
Now, for the sake of time, let me just walk you through the hope of the rapture. So, Paul has said in verse 13 that we don’t sorrow as those without hope. We have hope, and that hope is the rapture. Now, 1 Corinthians 15:52, I think, tells us it’s going to happen “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” That’s like a 50th of a second. And what Paul does here is slow it down. If you watch sports, sometimes you watch a play, and you make the wrong call. Then, it’s slowed down, and you see.
Quickly, four elements to this. Quickly because I want to get to answering the question “when?” You’ll notice the return. The rapture begins with the return. “The Lord Himself will descend . . .” (v. 16), not an angel, not a sweet chariot. The Lord will descend. See, right now, He’s at the right hand of God (Heb. 1:3), and He’s making intercession for us (Heb. 9:24). But, to those who look for Him a second time, He will appear. He has appeared on earth in His first coming. He now appears in heaven. And, someday, He will reappear on earth. This is the promise of John 14:1–3: “I will come again and receive you to Myself.”
Upon that return, you have the resurrection, stage two. Upon His return, Jesus will bring with Him the unclothed spirits of those who have died in Christ, or fallen asleep in Christ. Their bodies will be raised, and they will be united in a glorified state. That’s verses 14–16: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” Absent from the body, present with the Lord. Our loved ones are conscious. They’re without a body right now. And, when Jesus returns, according to verse 16, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” So, you’ve got this wonderful resurrection that’s described in Philippians 3:20–21 and 1 Corinthians 15:52–58. Those bodies will be personal. And they will be physical. And they will be permanent. And they will be perfect.
You’ll notice that when Jesus returns, He comes with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God. Just want to highlight one element of that: the shout. Because what’s interesting is that every time Jesus shouts in the New Testament, people are raised from the dead. Have you ever noticed that? The first shout was John 11: “Lazarus, come forth!” And he did. The second shout was on the cross: “It is finished!” And according to Matthew 27, “And the graves were opened; and many [of the dead] . . . were raised.” And the third time He’s going to shout is at the rapture, and He’s going to call the dead saints forward.
There’s a great story that comes out of the Civil War. It’s told by a chaplain about a group of Confederate soldiers who spent the winter night outside their tents in an open field. During the night, it snowed several inches thick. Upon the dawn, the chaplain watched the strange sight of these snow-covered soldiers, like mounds of newly dug graves, rising at the sound of the bugle, out from their blankets of snow, their snowy graves. He’s almost picturing what it’s going to be like when the trumpet sounds, when the shout goes forward for God’s people.
You’ve got the return, the resurrection, the rapture. Following the resurrection of the bodies of departed saints, you’ll have the translation of living saints. Did you notice that? Jesus brings the departed spirits of our loved ones with Him. Then, He calls forth their bodies, reunites them. And there’s a generation of Christians alive who don’t die; at that moment, they are instantaneously changed (1 Cor. 15:52), and they are immediately, with the raised saints, called up to “the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). You’ll notice it’s to the air. It’s not to the earth. We’ll come back to this issue. How do you explain this calling to the air and to the Father’s house? That can’t be the same event described in Revelation 19 or Matthew 24. Hold on to that thought.
But what a beautiful idea, a generation of Christians who don’t see death. That’s something, certainly, to look forward to. We’re going to cheat the undertaker. We’re not looking for the undertaker; we’re looking for the uppertaker. Like Enoch, like Elijah, like Christ, we’re going to be caught up alive.
I’m not a Trekkie, but in the early days, I did enjoy the old Star Trek. Before the day of Marvel movies and all the great technology we watch today, you were always fascinated by that moment when Spock and Captain Kirk were somewhere on some far off planet and calling up to Scotty to beam them up. You got this moment. All of a sudden, everything gets pixelated, and they’re gone. And they arrive up on the spaceship. We’re all going to have our kind of “Beam me up, Scotty” moment if we’re alive when Jesus comes.
By the way, an interesting little thought. I love Spurgeon, but I disagree with him here. When I was studying this, I came across the idea that Spurgeon said he would rather die than be translated alive to heaven. I’ll let him speak: “If I die not I shall have lost what thousands will have who die, namely, actual fellowship with Christ in the grave.
“Let me have it, let me have it, my sweet Lord! Let me wear the clay-cold shape of death that once was Yours and sleep within the sepulcher as You [Christ] did! To die and rise again, and be with You forever is to complete the circle of the perfect!”
That’s something to think about. Spurgeon would rather die than be instantaneously raptured. He wants the Lord all to himself for a few minutes as he walks through the valley of the shadow of death. Something like that.
The reunion. Verse 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.” Wow. There’s three reunions in this text: body to soul of departed saints; Christ to the church, bride to bridegroom; and then the living saints and the dead saints together with the Lord in the air. I thought about that the last time I stood over my mother’s grave on my last visit home. “I’ll see you soon, Mom. Somewhere over the Atlantic.” That’s what 1 Thessalonians 4 teaches us, doesn’t it? Isn’t that something to look forward to when you stare into the face of the brutality of death? That we sorrow not as those without hope. Christians never finally say goodbye.
This brings us to the hour of the rapture. Should have got here earlier; I thought about doing two parts, but I want to move through this series. In this thought, we want to spend a few minutes looking at the when. We’ve kind of answered the why, the who, and the what. But when? When will this happen? And this brings us into an arena of controversy or differences of opinion among God’s people. There’s more than three positions, but to simplify it, the major positions are that this takes place before the Tribulation, in the middle of the Tribulation, or at the end of the Tribulation.
It’s my conviction, and this church’s conviction, that it’s before the Tribulation. We believe in a pre-tribulational rapture. In fact, it seems to me it’s got to be that if verse 18 is to mean anything: “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” Because if the church at Thessalonica had been taught the church is going to go through the Tribulation, not be raptured before the Tribulation, then wouldn’t it be a good thing that their loved ones had died and gone into the presence of Jesus and don’t have to go through that terrible time? But no, they were waiting on an any-moment return of Jesus, the rapturing of the church to the air, and they thought their loved ones had missed out. And Paul says, “No, they haven’t. In fact, they’re going to be first in line at the rapture. The dead in Christ will be raised first.” Just the implication of the text is, “No, they’re with Christ, and we’ll all be with Christ. We won’t have to endure the company of Antichrist.”
So, for a few minutes, I’m going to make several arguments for the pre-tribulational rapture. I’ve commended two books to you: The Great Disappearance by David Jeremiah but especially the book Can We Still Believe in the Rapture? It’s an argument for a pre-tribulational position by Dr. Ed Hindson and Dr. Mark Hitchcock. I believe this is a serious position, although many don’t take it seriously.
Sadly, many of our Reformed friends don’t take it seriously, and they chaff at it. They criticize it, and they caricature it. Edmund Clowney, a very well-known Reformed theologian, in his book Preaching Christ, said, “The dispensational teaching of a secret rapture of the church has no ground in Scripture beyond a forced interpretation of ‘Come up here’ in Revelation 4:1.” As great as that man is, that is not the best argument for pre-tribulationalism, which tells me he never really interacted with the material—which is a shame. He’s betraying his lack of knowledge of a pre-tribulational argument.
N. T. Wright, a very well-known theologian in England today, called the rapture a “pseudo-theological version of Home Alone” that “has reportedly frightened many children into some kind of (distorted) faith.”
Barbara Rossing, in the book The Rapture Exposed, said “The rapture is a racket. Whether prescribing a violent script for Israel or survivalism in the United States, this theology distorts God’s vision for the world.”
It was sad to see. A few years ago, Dr. Piper hosted a conference at Bethlehem Baptist Church on the different positions on the Second Coming. There was someone there to represent amillennialism, someone there to represent postmillennialism, someone there to represent historic premillennialism. No one was there to represent dispensationalism. It wasn’t even considered.
Although John Calvin wasn’t speaking about the rapture, per se, in a quote he addresses the idea of a literal 1,000-year reign, and here’s what he says: “But a little later there followed the chiliasts, who limited the reign of Christ to a thousand years. Now their fiction is too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation.” All due respect to Calvin, he should have looked at the first three centuries of the church history. He would see it was predominantly premillennial. He’s in the 16th century. But he’s saying it’s childish to believe that? And this is part of the scorn that’s poured on both pre-tribulationism and premillennialism. But it is a position to be taken seriously.
Mark and Ed make a serious argument for it. Schools like Dallas Theological Seminary and The Master’s Theological Seminary argue for this position. Men like John MacArthur, Charles Swindoll, David Jeremiah . . . And, in a book I read many years ago, James Montgomery Boice, Norman Geisler, Edwin Lutzer, and Francis Schaeffer all held to a pre-tribulational rapture.
Now, I’m just going to kind of throw these ideas in your direction for you to think out, to tease you to buy the book and work this through. I’m helped here by my friend Mark Hitchcock, who took the acrostic PRE-TRIB and identified several arguments for a pre-trib position by this acrostic. So, here we go.
P: Place of the church in Revelation. Think about that. Study the book of Revelation, and you’ll find an absence of the church in chapters 6–18. We would make an argument that those chapters deal with the rise of Antichrist, his global reign, the pouring out of God’s judgment in an unbelieving world. It talks about the earth dwellers—which is a description of the unregenerate—Armageddon, and the coming of Jesus to destroy a rebellious world. The word “church” is mentioned 20 times in the book of Revelation: 19 times in chapters 1–3, and you won’t find the word “church” again until 22:16. Why? It’s our argument. Because the church is raptured prior to the onset of the Great Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist, and God’s wrath being poured out.
Number two, R: Removal of the restrainer. If you go to 2 Thessalonians, Paul is showing them that they’re not in the Day of the Lord. They’d been tricked into believing that they were in the Day of the Lord—which, by inference, would be against what Paul seems to have taught them. And so, they’re thrown for a loop, and he writes to say, “No, we’re going to be gathered to Christ. We’re not in the Day of the Lord. In fact, that day can’t come until there’s a falling away, apostasy, in the professing church. And then you’ll have the rise of the Antichrist, and he can’t come until the restrainer who holds him back is removed.”
Now, the big question is, who’s the restrainer holding back the rise of the Antichrist? Paul says, “And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time” (2 Thess. 2:6). Someone’s restraining the Antichrist who will be revealed in his own time. “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” (v. 7). Is that the Roman government? Is that the Jewish state? Is that the preaching of the gospel? Is that the church? Is that the Holy Spirit? I argue, and the book argues, it’s the Holy Spirit indwelling the church. The church is salt and light. The Holy Spirit restrains evil through the preaching of the gospel and the lives of God’s people. It seems to me it’s got to be the Holy Spirit because whatever power is restraining this demonic power has got to be omnipotent. The Antichrist will seek to rule the world, so the restrainer’s got to be something omnipotent.
It’s interesting, too. In the grammar, the text moves from neuter to masculine, exactly like a description of the Holy Spirit. He’s described as the pneuma, the Spirit; that’s neuter. But, when Jesus talks about Him, He always attributes the masculine, “He”: “When He has come.” And so, we make an argument that the restrainer is the Holy Spirit indwelling the church. The church will be removed, and darkness will descend. It’s the trigger event for a horror show.
Number three, E: Exemption from divine wrath. Got to keep moving here; we’re out of time. The Bible explicitly promises that God’s people are exempt from the coming wrath of the Tribulation period. Now, I want to say, God won’t keep us from tribulation. Acts 14:22: It’s through “many tribulations” we’ll “enter the kingdom.” But here’s the distinction you must make. God’s not going to keep you and me from tribulation. God’s not going to keep you and me from the wrath of man being visited upon God’s people. But I’ll tell you what He will keep us from: His wrath visited on an unbelieving world. And you’ve got that in 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10. God has not appointed us unto wrath but unto salvation. God is coming to deliver us from the wrath. Also, 1 Thessalonians 5:9.
And then, you’ve got a wonderful verse in Revelation 3:10, where Christ promises the church that He will keep them “from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world.” That’s not localized persecution. In fact, that is stated in the book of Revelation. What hour is coming on the world to test it? That’s the Tribulation hour, the Day of the Lord, the rise of the Antichrist, the pouring out of God’s wrath. And there’s a promise there. The Greek is, “I will keep you out from . . .” Keep you out from.
I love what old John Walvoord said at Dallas Theological Seminary concerning 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:9; we are not appointed unto wrath but unto salvation. He said this: “One cannot keep both of these appointments.” Which one is it? Are you appointed to wrath? Or are you appointed to salvation? You can’t go to the dentist and the doctors all at the same time. And we’re not going to be part of the wrath. We’re going to be part of the final salvation of the church, in the rapture and the glorification of the saints.
Letter T: Teaching of the Epistles strangely lack warning of impending Great Tribulation. Look, if you study the Epistles, Paul is not slow, neither is Peter or John, to inform the church of the world they live in and what they’re going to face. The church is warned against false prophets and the fact that many antichrists have come out into the world. Though the church is warned against ungodly living and against present tribulation and suffering in this present age, it’s absolutely silent on the issue of the Great Tribulation. Don’t you find that strange? Paul and John and Peter address what saints face, and yet on the Great Tribulation, the greatest horror that’s going to be visited on the earth—Jesus says if it wasn’t for God’s intervention, not even the elect of that time will be saved—there’s no discussion.
Dick Mayhue of The Master’s Seminary says this: “It would be inconsistent for the Scriptures to be silent on such a traumatic change for the church. If any time of the rapture other than pretribulational were true, one would expect the Epistles to teach the fact of the church in the tribulation, the purpose of the church in the tribulation, and the conduct of the church in the tribulation. However, there is no teaching like this whatsoever. Only a pretribulation rapture satisfactorily explains such obvious silence.”
R: Rapture of the church vs. the return of Christ. Remember, at the beginning, I made an argument that there is one Second Coming, but like the first coming, there are phases. There are events. There are time lapses that take place within that. And that’s true of the Second Coming. There’s the rapture for the saints when they’re taken to heaven, and then there’s the return of Christ with the saints from heaven to earth. The first is described in John 14. The second is described in Revelation 17. And what that sets before us is the fact that if you study many of the prophetic scriptures and set them side by side, they seem to be describing two different elements. How do you harmonize that? You harmonize it by the two-phased, two-stage coming of Christ the second time.
Bear with me. I know we’re out of time, but I want to squeeze this in. Dick Mayhue, to quote him again, sets 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 alongside Matthew 24–25. He said this:
1. At the rapture, Christ comes in the air and returns to heaven (1 Thess. 4:17), while at the final event of the second coming, Christ comes to earth to dwell and reign (Matt. 25:31–32).
2. At the rapture, Christ gathers his own (1 Thess. 4:16–17), while at the second coming, angels gather the elect (Matt. 24:31).
3. At the rapture, Christ comes to reward (1 Thess. 4:17), while at the second coming, Christ comes to judge (Matt. 25:31¬–46).
4. At the rapture, resurrection is prominent in Jesus’s coming (1 Thess. 4:15–16), while at second coming, no resurrection is mentioned with Christ’s descent.
In fact, the sheep and the goats are judged, and the sheep move into the millennial kingdom in their present bodies. He goes on:
5. At the rapture, believers depart from the earth (1 Thess. 4:15¬–17), while at the second coming, unbelievers are taken away from the earth (Matt. 24:37–41).
6. At the rapture, unbelievers remain on the earth (implied), while at the second coming, believers remain on the earth (Matt. 25:34).
7. At the rapture, there is no mention of Christ’s kingdom on earth, while at the second coming, Christ’s kingdom on earth is established (Matt. 25:31, 34).
8. At the rapture, believers will receive glorified bodies (cf. 1 Cor. 15:51–57), while at the second coming, no one who is alive receives glorified bodies.
And that’s just an example. You need to think through how to harmonize and synthesize these prophetic passages.
I: Imminence. B: Blessed hope. We can do this quickly. Imminence. That’s the belief that Jesus could come at any moment—if you read the New Testament honestly. First Corinthians 1:7. Think about 1 Corinthians 16:22. Maranatha: “The Lord comes.” That was a code word. Every time a believer met another: “Maranatha.” The Lord comes. When the service was finished and they headed to their chariots, they said, “Maranatha!” The Lord comes. They emailed each other: “Maranatha!” The Lord comes. You get it. Whatever that was; that was a papyrus being delivered by a postman. First Thessalonians 1:10. Hebrews 9:28. Jude 21. I can give you more. They were looking for the uppertaker, not the undertaker. The rapture is without signs. It’s an any-moment event. Jesus coming to the air was possible any moment, impossible no moment.
And that’s a joy, isn’t it? That’s the blessed hope. The signature of this doctrine is comfort. Jesus said in John 14, about to talk about the rapture, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Now, if you’re going to go through the Tribulation, shouldn’t He have said, “Let your heart be troubled because you’re going to go through a lot of trouble”? First Thessalonians 4:18: “Comfort,” encourage, help one another “with these words.”
Dr. Mark Hitchcock says this: “Stop and think about this for a moment. If Paul taught a mid-trib, pre-wrath or post-trib rapture would the truth of the rapture really be that comforting? If God’s people have to endure 3 ½ years, 5 ½ years or all 7 years of the tribulation before He comes, how much of a comfort would the rapture be? If we must face the tribulation before He comes, Jesus would have to change the words . . . to, ‘Let your heart be troubled.’”
So those are some arguments. I think they’re good arguments. I think my Reformed friends need to take them seriously and deal with them. There’s no forcing of the text. It’s just a genuine looking at the text and working through it. But we’re left with this glorious hope. The pre-tribulational rapture gives us hope, unbounding hope, next-moment relief.
In fact, as we close, Donald Grey Barnhouse, the great preacher in Philadelphia, took an old hymn and played with it. He said this is what the hymn sounds like when it’s pre-tribulational, and here’s what the hymn sounds like when it’s post-tribulational. It’s an old hymn called “Is It the Crowning Day?”
Jesus may come today,
Glad day, glad day!
And I would see my Friend;
Dangers and troubles would end
If Jesus should come today.
Glad day, glad day!
Is it the crowning day?
I’ll live for today, nor anxious be;
Jesus, my Lord I soon shall see;
Glad day, glad day!
Is it the crowning day?
But, if you’re a mid-tribber or a post-tribber, here’s what this hymn sounds like:
Jesus can’t come today,
Sad day, sad day!
And I won’t see my friend;
Dangers and troubles won’t end,
Because Jesus can’t come today.
Sad day, sad day!
Today is not the crowning day?
I won’t live for today, and anxious I’ll be;
The Beast and the False Prophet I soon shall see;
Sad day, sad day!
Today is not the crowning day?
But it is. It’s possible He could come any moment, impossible no moment. So, let’s be ready for that next event, when Jesus comes for His church.
Father, we thank You for our time in the Word. We thank You for this blessed hope. There are many who are trying to blast this hope, but we retain this blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, of the rapture of the church, of the snatching away of the saints. We thank You that through Jesus Christ’s atonement, we have not been appointed to wrath, neither the Day of the Lord wrath or eternal hell wrath. We’ve been appointed unto salvation.
We thank You for this hope, and we pray that we would live in the light of it. If our hearts are broken, may we find hope in the resurrection and the reunion attached to this hope. If our hearts are tempted, may this hope purify us. If our hearts are tired and discouraged, may the thought of eternal rest and eternal joy cause us to go the second mile. And, Lord, we pray for those who are not ready for the rapture, who have not yet closed into your offer of mercy. Help them to be ready, for in such an hour as they think not, the Son of Man comes. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.