In the next post on this subject, I will focus on the “left behind” verses that are so vital, and so misused in teaching a rapture. But first, a few other passages that are often associated with the rapture yet don’t actually teach it at all. In reminder, I reprint the following from my first post on this subject. I do not claim or suggest that someone who believes in the rapture is not saved. If one trusts in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to atone for their sins and grant new life now and eternal life to follow, mistakes in understanding the Bible do not negate saving faith, which is of course, the redemptive work of God’s Word and His Holy Spirit. But sound doctrine is important to a balanced faith, life, and witness to the world. Believing and spreading errors do not improve any of these.
Now, back to the post. One of the first post-resurrection statements of Jesus about his return is found in Acts 1. While many rapture teachers and movies emphasize that Jesus’ first return/rapture” will be in the clouds, Acts 1, like Revelation 1, establishes a single, end of the age return with clouds.
Acts 1:6-11 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
1. Why did Jesus speak these things to his apostles? Verse 1 tells us that they still labored under the false belief that Jesus would now establish his earthly throne in Jerusalem and rule the earth as they thought the Old Testament prophets predicted. But Jesus contradicted their faulty beliefs. First, as we are told in multiple ways and places by the Scriptures, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons…”. Just like Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4 and Jesus said multiple times as recorded in the gospels. In other places, this inability to know indicates the final day of the age, the one return of Jesus to end sin and establish the eternal age.
2. The angel does not reveal either a 2-stage return or secret rapture of Christ.
3. Like the Thessalonians passage, Jesus is to return visibly, in clouds.
As with all other passages, a rapture is not taught. One must believe in a rapture first, then read that belief into words that do not teach that belief. Often, Paul’s great discourse on the resurrection of all flesh is claimed to describe the rapture.
1 Co. 15:50-52 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
4. Notice the terms. Sleep, as sleep in death and the grave awaiting the awakening of the resurrection. All, as in not part, but all. No indication that later others will be added. Last. Not an earlier trumpet, but the final one at the very end of the age, as in 1 Thessalonians 4 also.
5. Does the context of this passage relate to an event among ongoing events or the conclusion of this age? Careful reading of the chapter clearly points to one resurrection at the very end of the age. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12-13 we have one resurrection, not plural. Other verses as well. In verse 25-26 Jesus must put all enemies under his subjection, including death, which is the what the resurrection does (see also v. 52-57 which summarize this point).
6. Is there a 7-year gap between verse1 Corinthians 15:23 and 24 as some claim? Certainly not in the biblical text! The word beginning verse 24 translated as “then” from the Greek word eita carries the idea of “furthermore” and does not establish a temporal identification aside from that given in context. These things happen essentially together.
7. Does the rapture destroy death? While it might do so for those who are supposedly to be raptured, these verses do not teach a partially destroyed death. Death is utterly destroyed. In other words, with the resurrection of this passage comes the “end” and death is vanquished forever (1 Co. 15:54-57). Clearly, the rapture does not end death. In fact, sin and death will go on a rampage in the post-rapture tribulation period according to Premillennial theology. Therefore, the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15 must be at the very end of the age and cannot refer to a rapture.
Another passage often used to teach the rapture is Matthew 24:30-31.
Matthew 24:30-31 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
8. Is this the “secret” return of Jesus in a rapture? Not hardly. In accordance with Revelation 1, Acts 1, and other passages, this is the very end of the age. Visible. the loud trumpet, the coming in clouds, and great glory. All the tribes of the earth will mourn. The only way to “see” a rapture here is to force it upon the passage.
9. Even by Premillennial theology, this takes place “after the tribulation of those days”. Some teachers, at least, admit this is the final day and the “second” resurrection of believers. However, the tribulation in this biblical context is placed in the lifetimes of the apostles and predicted to continue until the very end of the age. That will be a subject for a later post.
10. Many, if not most rapture teachers/books/movies still connect “that day and that hour”(Mt. 24:36) to the return/resurrection of Matthew 24:30-31 producing the “left behind” teachings arising from misuse of verses 37-44). This is a total disconnect of context and clear words of Scripture. But more on the “left behind” teachings in the next post.
I close with a brief note about the “thief in the night” referring to the rapture. Kind of a teaser for the next subject.
Revelation 15:15-16 Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
11. When does the coming like a “thief” occur? It is here used by Jesus in clear conjunction with the final battle at Armageddon and not at the time of a “secret” rapture at beginning of a 7-year period of wrath. We might remember this was also true of 1 Thessalonians 5:4 which clearly also points to the very end of the age. So how can it be so different in the “left behind” passages? Or is it that the “left behind” passages have nothing whatsoever to do with a rapture of believers?
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