Revelation 1:7 | The Second Coming Is Not The Rapture – Part 1




Revelation 1:7
The Second Coming is not the Rapture (Part 1)

I. Introduction

1. We will consider the Second Coming today and compare it with the rapture of the Church, showing that they are not the same event.
2. We will consider the different views commonly held on the timing of the rapture.
3. We will begin to look at significant rapture passages.
4. Just as the Old Testament was not explicit in stating that there would be two comings of Christ, so the New Testament is not explicit about a distinction between the rapture and the Second Coming.
   1. We know for a fact now that there will be two comings.
   2. Likewise, reading the Scriptures about the Second Coming and the rapture, it is very clear that these are not the same event.
   3. This approach to major doctrine not being stated explicitly in Scripture is common.
      1. For example, there is no explicit statement about the Trinity or the dual nature of Christ, yet Scripture clearly teaches such doctrines.

II. Second Coming

1. This is the promise Jesus gave to His disciples.
   1. In the Olivet discourse.
   2. At the ascension.
2. This will take place at the end of the Great Tribulation.
   1. Revelation
3. Aspects of this return.
   1. Rev 1:7 It will be an event that the entire world will experience.
   2. It will be Christ returning to rescue Israel at Armageddon.
      
      Zechariah 14:1–4 ¹ Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. ² For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. ³ Then the Lord will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. ⁴ And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south.^[1]
      
      
   3. It will be a return to Earth.
      
      Acts 1:11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
      
      
   4. It will be a return to earth with His saints.
      
      Jude 14–15 ¹⁴ Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, ¹⁵ 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.”
      
      Revelation 19:11–15 ¹¹ Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. ¹³ He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. ¹⁵ Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
      
      
   5. The Second Coming will be 3 ½ years after the abomination of desolation.
      1. Daniel 9 makes it clear that the Great Tribulation will last for seven years.
      2. In the middle of these seven years, the Antichrist will demand to be worshiped as God in the Jewish Tribulation Temple.
      3. Daniel 12 is specific that 1290 days after the abomination will be the Second Coming.
         
         Daniel 12:11–12 ¹¹ And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. ¹² Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
         
         
      4. The point is that the Bible is very specific concerning the tribulation, abomination of desolation, and the final victory at Christ’s second coming.
      5. This event will follow very detailed prophecies that must take place first.
4. This contrasts with the rapture.
   1. Only the Church will be taken.
   2. We will meet the Lord in the air.
   3. It is not a return to earth but a rescue.
   4. It is not to a kingdom upon earth, but to a place Jesus has prepared.
   5. This is an event that is imminent and can happen at any moment.

III. Three rapture views.

1. Pretribulation – Before God pours out His wrath upon the world during the Tribulation, He will first remove believers from the earth.
   1. There, the Church will be protected from the devastation that is coming upon the earth.
   2. It is at this time that the dead in Christ will receive their new bodies and that those who are alive will be changed (1 Cor 15).
   3. The word “rapture” (rapturo) is taken from the Latin translation of Scripture (1 Thess 4:17).
      
      1 Thessalonians 4:17 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.
      
      
   4. In Greek, it is the word harpazo.
2. Two other widely held views.
   1. Posttribulation – Christ will come again at the end of the tribulation. In this view, the Second Coming and the rapture happen at the same time.
      1. Therefore, believers will go through the Great Tribulation.
      2. This view mistakenly identifies the elect of Matthew 24:31b who are gathered from the four winds of the earth as the rapture.
         
         Matthew 24:31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
         
         
      3. However, Jesus is referring to the same prophetic event that gathers scattered Israel (Isa 11:11–12) prior to establishing the Kingdom.
         
         Isaiah 11:11–12 ¹¹ It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. ¹² He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.
         
   2. Midtribulation – This teaches that the rapture will take place in the middle of the seven-year tribulation.
      1. This view identifies the “last trumpet” of 1 Corinthians 15:52 with the last trumpet blast in Revelation 11:15.
         
         1 Corinthians 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
         
         Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
         
         
      2. A closer look at these two events does not support the idea that these events are one and the same. Charles Ryrie states,
         
         “This is a somewhat simplistic argument that assumes that all blowing of trumpets must indicate the same kind of event. This is not true. In Jewish apocalyptic literature, trumpets signaled a variety of great eschatological events, including judgments, the gathering of the elect, and resurrection. The seventh trumpet is a trumpet of judgment, whereas the trumpet in 1 Corinthians is one of resurrection and deliverance. That they indicate the same event is a gratuitous assumption.^[2]
         
      3. While this view seeks to keep the Church from the worst part of Jacob’s trouble, it still has the Church in the tribulation.
      4. The entire seven years are a time when God pours out His wrath on rebellious nations while waking up the nation of Israel.
         
         Revelation 6:15-17 ¹⁵ “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains ¹⁶ and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷ For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’”
         
         
      5. The earliest days of the Great Tribulation are identified as a time of the wrath of God.

IV. The biblical basis for the pretribulational rapture.

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9 The Church will escape this wrath.
   
   1 Thessalonians 5:1–9 ¹ But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. ² For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. ³ For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. ⁴ But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵ You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. ⁶ Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. ⁸ But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ
   
   1. Paul seeks to comfort the Thessalonian church, letting them know that the return of the Lord has not taken place.
   2. v. 2 For those who are not followers of Jesus, His coming is likened to a thief who comes at night.
   3. v. 3 The destruction comes upon those who are in darkness and do not escape.
   4. v. 9 Paul seeks to correct the teaching that they had missed the rapture. He tells them that they were not appointed to wrath, but salvation, so don’t think you have missed His coming.
      1. This tribulation is Jacob’s trouble, and the Church will escape this time.
      2. A distinguishing feature of pretribulationalism, compared with the other views, is that there is a different plan for the Church (those who believe in Jesus) and Israel at the end of the world.
   5. A common accusation leveled against pretribulationalism is that this is an escapist doctrine.
      1. I say, guilty as charged!
         
         Luke 21:36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
         
         1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
         
         “ἐκφεύγω ekpheugō ② – to become free from danger by avoiding some peril, escape.”^[3]
         
         
      2. This is exactly what the pretrib position believes. The Church will escape the wrath of God.
      3. Lot and his daughters escaped the wrath of God that came upon Sodom.
2. In 2 Thessalonians 2, the Antichrist won’t come until the one who restrains is taken away.
   
   2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 ¹ Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. ³ Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. ⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 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 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
   
   1. v. 2 Paul seeks to comfort the troubled minds of believers who are erroneously taught that the Day of the Lord has come.
   2. What troubles them is that they did not believe they would be part of that day but would escape it.
   3. v. 2 Paul writes to comfort the believers that they had not missed the gathering together to the Lord.
   4. v. 3 First, He states that there would be a falling away.
   5. vv. 3b-4 Then He also states that the Antichrist would need to be revealed to be in the Day of the Lord.
   6. Many will say here, “See, our gathering can’t happen until the antichrist comes,” but one must read on to v. 6.
   7. v. 6 But Paul states that before the Antichrist is revealed, that which was restraining must be taken out of the way so that lawlessness might have its free course.
      1. The work of the Holy Spirit through the Church is restraining the coming of the Antichrist.
      2. We are the salt of the earth. The work of the Spirit in the Church is the preserving influence in this world.
      3. When the Church is taken out of the way, this will open the door for lawlessness to manifest itself.
   8. For those who contend that v. 3 proves that we cannot be raptured until the Antichrist is revealed cannot preach an imminent return of Jesus for the Church.
      1. If that is the case, then the return of Jesus for His Church is not imminent (ready to happen at any time).
      2. So, then we would (wrongly) be waiting for the Antichrist to rise up in power and not the any moment return of the Lord.
      3. This teaching says we must see the Antichrist before we will see Jesus Christ.
   9. If Paul taught that the Church would go through the tribulation, why was the church at Thessalonica troubled?
      1. If Paul taught, they would be in the Day of the Lord and see the abomination of desolation take place. Then what are they hoping to escape?
      2. If they had been taught that they would be in the Great Tribulation, they would not have been troubled but rather would have seen this as a fulfillment of Scripture.

V. Conclusion

1. Different events are separated by seven years.
2. We hold to a pretrib rapture.
3. We are not appointed to wrath.
4. While we will not endure the Great Tribulation (Day of the Lord), we will suffer many tribulations as we follow the Lord.

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^[1] All Scripture quotations are from the NKJV unless otherwise noted.

^[2] Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 581.

^[3] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 312.