|
Clarifying the Pre-Tribulation Rapture from the Second Coming in
Paul's Letters to the Thessalonians
Terms important for
understanding.
-
Day of the Lord or Tribulation or That Day, or Day of Wrath
Thief in the night
-
Them / us
-
People of the Light or the Day
-
People of Darkness
-
Wrath or God's fury
-
brothers or believers
-
The Church
-
The Rapture
-
The Second Coming
We
need to be sharp readers when reading Paul's Epistle to the
Thessalonians. He jockeys between the Second Coming and the
Pre-Tribulation rapture sometimes in the same paragraph and we need
to understand the terms to see when this is happening. It helps to
read a Bible in several translations as familiar words tend to be
slid over. The translation I will use a lot in this essay is the
Complete Jewish Bible.
Sometimes one just needs to leave the familiar text to have the
meaning jump out. But most frequently meaning is lost because we are
unfamiliar with Biblical terms. A problem arises when a reader sees
all texts as referring to the church. The Epistles are
expressly written to the church, the body of believers. The Acts
details the beginning of the Gospel of Grace preached first to the
Jew and later to the Gentile. The Gospels describe the life
and ministry of Jesus and are addressed to the Jew to explain that a
transition would occur from the dispensation of law to a new era.
The Gospels also proclaim the arrival of the Messiah as promised to
the Jews by the prophets.
The Jews looked with great expectation for a Kingdom over which the
Messiah would rule. But since the majority of the Jews rejected
Jesus as Messiah that promised kingdom is held in abeyance until the
“fullness of the Gentiles.” The Church Era will come to an end with
the removal of the body of believers marking the end of the
Dispensation of Grace.
The
Church consists of both Jewish and Gentile believers in
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus who have received
Christ as Savior. The Church is called the body of Christ. The
“professing church” or church attenders who have not been changed by
the power of the new birth is not included in this special group.
The Kingdom is God's promise to the Jews which has the
Messiah, Jesus, as ruler over the earth. The return of
Jesus to rule on the earth is known as The Second Coming.
But a mysterious event occurs before the second coming which is
promised only to the believer. This wonderful promise is called
the rapture which takes God's people out of
the earth to meet Jesus in the air before the time of the terrible
punishment and tribulation caused by the judgments of God.
These two events are very clearly distinguished by Paul to the
Thessalonians.
First, Paul is writing to the
believers in Thessaloniki who had recently gone through some time of
persecution and who had lost brothers as martyrs. They had also
received a letter from someone in utter misunderstanding of correct
doctrine who said that the Day of the Lord had already come,
probably to explain the particular hard ship just endured.
So let
us begin with an explanation of The Day of the Lord. This is
the most prophesied event in the Bible which remains unfulfilled.
Daniel refers to it as the 70 th week, a
seven year period when the Antichrist comes to power. Jesus speaks
prophetically about this time as the Tribulation, the Great
Tribulation (the last three years) and also of the events leading up
to the tribulation (the birth pangs) in the 24th chapter
of Matthew. Jesus cites the prophet Daniel and refers to the days of
Noah and Lot.
And,
the entire book of Revelation is a play by play of the tribulation,
a seven year period that is culminated by Jesus's return to the
Mount of Olives (See Zechariah 12). At His coming, the
covenant promise, the promise of an earthly kingdom called The
Kingdom of God is fulfilled. This kingdom was
promised to the Jews by the prophets but interrupted when Jesus was
rejected. “He came unto His own but His own received Him not” (John
1.11 KJV).
Paul
also teaches the restoration of Israel/ Jews to a
prominent place in chapters 9-11 in Romans. It is important to
understand that the Kingdom of God is not a specific promise
to the church nor does it require the church's
involvement as it is promised to the Jews and is fulfilled
when all the remnant of Israel is saved (Romans 11.26)
at the culmination of the tribulation. As Jesus said, “You will not
see me again, until you say, “Baruch H'bah B'Shem Adonai, blessed is
He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23.39).
Jesus was speaking to the Jews in great sorrow, but he will not
forget his eternal covenant with Israel that was made with Abraham
and Moses. If anyone thinks that the Church has replaced Israel,
they have failed to read Romans 11 and other critical prophecies as
yet unfulfilled.
During the tribulation period this final remnant of Jewish believers
in their Messiah will be saved and the Gospel proclaimed to all
peoples predominantly by 144,000 Jewish virgin males, by angels, and
by the Two Witnesses. And, so the great commission given by Jesus to
His Jewish disciples will be fulfilled (Matthew 28.19-20).
We
will now proceed to the first chapter of Thessalonians. “ . . . you
turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, And to
wait for His son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, even
Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come”
(1.9-10 NKJB).
Notice
how Paul addresses the Thessalonians. They are the church, the
believers, often called called the brethren. He refers
to believers as us, we . We are the
exclusive fraternity. He tells them that even though
they are going through tough times, because they turned to God from
idols, that Jesus will appear “from heaven and rescue
us from the impending fury of God's judgment” (1Th.
1.7 CJB).
Notice
that us is a reference to believers. Who will be rescued?
Believers. What will they be rescued from? God's judgment. This
appearing is a clear reference to the rapture, a promise
only to believers or God's church. God's judgment is the Day of
the Lord when he pours out his wrath. Christians,
believers, brothers, us, we are rescued! “God hath not
appointed us to wrath” (1 Th. 5.9 KJB).
Romans
5.9 says it this way: “Therefore, since we have now come to be
considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how
much more will we be delivered through him from the
anger of
God's judgment” (CJB).
Other translations say “wrath.” It is important to know that
wrath in this case is a future event also known as The
Day of the Lord or the Day of the Lord's Judgment. Or sometimes just
The judgment, or The Day. (See my essay on The Wrath of God for a
complete explanation of this term.)
Titus refers to the
rapture as “the blessed hope.”
For
the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training
us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober,
upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our
blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ . . . (Titus
11 RSV)
Notice
the word “our.” Would it be a blessed hope to live
through the judgments detailed in Revelation?
Paul
repeats the promise: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of
rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus
Christ at His coming” (1 Th. 2.19 NKJB)?
Paul goes on to say:
“But
we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are
asleep [dead], that you may not grieve as others do who have no
hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep
For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are
alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede
those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from
heaven with a cry of command and with the archangel's call and with
the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so
we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort
one another with these words” (1 Th.4. 13- 18 RSV).
The
above paragraph is the very oft quoted reference to the
rapture. Paul's words were to comfort. How comforting would
such an event be if we, us, the believers, the brethren,
were to first undergo the greatest horror the world has ever known?
1 Th.
5.1 begins with: “Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you
have no need of anything to be written to you” (NAS). Paul is
referring to the statement just cited, the times, dates, eras,
regarding verses 13-18 (the rapture). Why? Because no events precede
the rapture that can be counted down.
This
is the doctrine of imminency as the rapture can occur any
time. Nothing has to precede or take place or be fulfilled prior to
the rapture.
Now verse 2 of the
text introduces a big contrast:
because you yourselves well know that the Day of
the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people
are saying, 'everything is so peaceful and secure,' then destruction
will suddenly come upon them, the way labor pains come
upon a pregnant woman, and there is no way they will
escape ( 1Th.5.2 CJB).
Notice
the they, another set of people. The Day of the
Lord and “thief in the night” refer to the words of Jesus
in his Olivet discourse in the 24th chapter
of Matthew where He answers the disciples' questions: “And, what
will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age” (3)?
When Jesus delivered this
discourse, the church was still a mystery. He had not gone to the
cross. He tells his disciples that the promise of the Kingdom
(the original covenant promise to Israel) will take place at the
end of the age. Not a single disciple yet knew of the
church, the“mystery hidden from the ages” (Col. 1.26).
But now, the Thessalonians, have the mystery unfolded to them. Paul
contrasts his audience, children of the light
with the children of the night for whom Christ will
come like a thief bringing their ultimate judgment. (Jesus explains
this more completely in the 13th and 25th
chapters of Matthew). No sensible person can read these accounts and
assume such events have already taken place.
“But
you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that the Day should take you
by surprise like a thief; for you are all people who belong to the
light, who belong to the day. We don't belong to the night or to
darkness . . . . Since we belong to the day, let us stay sober,
putting on trust and love as a breastplate and the hope of
being delivered as a helmet. For God has not intended that
we should experience his fury, but that we should gain
deliverance through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah . . . Therefore,
encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are doing”
(1Th. 5.4-10 CJB).
The
contrast is between children of the light, who will
experience deliverance prior to that great tribulation, and
children of the night who will not escape. This is a
metaphorical contrast between those who live in light who know the
essential truths and those who live in darkness, who have no
understanding of the great promises to those who hope in Jesus.
In 2
Th. Paul expounds on the letter that told the brethren that the
Day of the Lord had already occurred, still a prevalent
deception today known as Preterism. He says, “ Don't let anyone
deceive you” echoing the words of Jesus. Then Paul details a series
of events that must precede the Day of the Lord. Such
a count down always signals Second Coming not the
rapture. Paul says that before the Second Coming,
there will be a great falling away and the Antichrist will be
revealed. Any careful reader should discern the difference
between the rapture and the second coming and be able to see two
events. Not one!!
Paul
enlarges on that great falling away, also called the rebellion,
more completely in the Epistle to 1 Timothy: “. . . . the Spirit
expressly states that people will apostatize from the faith by
paying attention to deceiving spirits and things taught by demons”
(1 Timothy 4). Whereas he describes the rise of the Antichrist in
the second chapter of 2nd Th. But the
promise to the brethren is a sure thing:
. . .
we have to keep thanking God for you always, brothers whom the Lord
loves, because God chose you as first fruits of deliveranc
e by giving you the holiness that has its origin in the Spirit and
the faithfulness that has its origin in the truth. He called you to
this through our Good News so that you could have the glory of our
Lord Yeshua the Messiah.Therefore brothers, stand firm.” 2 Th. 2.13. CJB
What
are the first fruits of deliverance? The rapture. Who
is it for? The brethren. The distinction is made very plain in
Paul's letters to the Thessalonians.
The great Bible expositor, Sir. Robert Anderson, descries the
confusion over the rapture and the second coming, or worse over
concluding that the two events are one and the same. He writes:
Common sense vetoes the suggestion that His
coming as Avenger and Judge is the event described as “that blessed
hope'. . . . That the coming of the Lord as Savior is now confounded
with the “day of the Lord, the day of wrath” is the error which the
second epistle to the Thessalonians was designed to correct. But now
it is the creed of Christendom . . . . .
Are we to believe that the Gentile converts were taught to live in
expectation of the Coming, although, . . before that hope could be
realised the people of God were doomed to pass through a time of
horror unparalleled in all the ages?
(
Forgotten Truths. Sir Robert Anderson Library, 1914. 70-71).
Partly the error comes from not reading the Bible in its plainest
sense. As Anderson says, we must read the Bible with the help of the
Holy Spirit and with all the common sense we can muster.
By Mary E Parnell,
April 2017
© No portions may be
used without attribution.
|
