Revelation 1:7 | The Second Coming Is Not The Rapture – Part 2

Revelation 1:7 | The Second Coming Is Not The Rapture – Part 2

Revelation 1:7
The Second Coming is not the Rapture (Part 2)

I. Introduction

  1. We considered what the Second Coming is and when it will take place
  2. We also noted that the rapture taught in 1 Thessalonians and other places is distinct from the Second Coming.
TopicRaptureSecond Coming
Who is involvedChrist comes for His churchChrist comes with His saints
Where believers meet ChristBelievers meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:16–17)Christ comes to the earth (Acts 1:11; Zech. 14:4)
PurposeTo gather/rescue believersTo rescue Israel, defeat His enemies, and establish His kingdom.
VisibilityAn event for believers onlyA public, visible event seen by the world (Rev. 1:7)
TimingViewed as imminent—can happen at any timeOccurs after specific end-time events, especially after the Tribulation
Relation to TribulationIn pretrib view, happens before the TribulationHappens at the end of the Tribulation
Tone of the eventComfort, hope, deliveranceJudgment, warfare, kingdom inauguration

 

  1. We considered 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9, noting that we will escape the wrath of God on the Day of the Lord.
  2. Today, we will continue to study New Testament passages that speak of the Church not enduring Daniel’s 70th week, Jacob’s trouble, also known as the Tribulation of Revelation.

II. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 – Believers are not part of the day of the Lord.

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]

  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 verse 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 verse 3 proves that we cannot be raptured until the Antichrist is revealed cannot preach an imminent return of Jesus for the Church.
    1. If they are correct, the return of Jesus for His Church is not imminent (ready to happen at any time).
    2. Thus chronologically, we would 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.

III. Revelation 3:10 The Church is kept from the hour of trial.

10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

IV. Imminent return

  1. The New Testament exhorts believers to live with an expectation of Christ’s return at any moment.
  2. The doctrine of imminence teaches that Jesus could come for His Church at any moment; no prophecy needs to be fulfilled for it to occur, and nobody knows when it will take place.

    James 5:7–9 7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

    Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ

    1 Thessalonians 1:10 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. These verses do not require an event to transpire, and they carry the idea of a soon return.
  3. I believe in a pretribulation rapture because I believe Jesus can return at any time.
    1. I contend that it is only the pretrib rapture view that allows one to fully embrace an imminent return of Jesus.
    2. I am not waiting for the horsemen of Revelation, hailstone from heaven, the two witnesses, or the Antichrist.
    3. We are waiting for Jesus Christ, and He could catch us up today!
  4. A view of the imminent return is found among many teachers before 1827.

    George Whitefield (1714–1770)“Perhaps today, perhaps this midnight.… Let that cry, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!’ be continually sounding in your ears, and begin now to live as though you were assured that this night you were to go forth to meet Him.

    John Wesley (1703–1791)“Expect Him every hour. Now He is nigh, even at the doors.”

V. Answering more objections?

  1. Many opponents of the pretrib rapture view make repeated false claims.
  2. One such accusation (Dave MacPherson, The Great Rapture Hoax, 1983) is that John Darby got this teaching from a teenager named Margaret Macdonald (an Irvingite, a deeply theologically flawed Pentecostal group) in 1830, who had a demonic vision.
    1. The accusation is that the pretrib position is satanic and meant to corrupt the Church.
    2. There are many problems with this accusation.
    3. Darby rejected the Irvingites in writing.
    4. Darby claimed the pretrib rapture came to him as he pondered the Scriptures, not an idea borrowed from Margaret Macdonald.
      1. This came specifically as he pondered between the Church and Israel.
    5. Furthermore, Darby already had the pretrib understanding three years earlier, in 1827.
    6. Thomas Ice contends that Margaret Macdonald’s recorded vision contained no rapture thought.

      “Dave MacPherson has failed to demonstrate that Macdonald’s ‘prophecy’ contains latent rapture ideas, nor has he linked Darby to her influence with clear, historical evidence. This is why the doctrine of the pretribulational rapture did not begin with Margaret.

      MacPherson has misinterpreted Macdonald’s words by equating her use of sign with a rapture. Rather, she is saying that only those who are spiritual will see the secret sign of the Son of Man that will precede the single, posttribulational second coming of Christ. In other words only those who have the light of the Holy Spirit within them will know when the Second Coming will take place because this spiritual enlightenment will enable them to have the spiritual perception to see the secret sign (not the secret rapture). These are her own words, ‘all must, as Stephen was, be filled with the Holy Ghost, that they might look up, and see the brightness of the Father’s glory. I saw the error to be, that men think that it will be something seen by the natural eye but tis spiritual discernment that is needed, the eye of God in his people. Only those who have the light of God within them will see the sign of his appearance. No need to follow them who say, see here, or see there, for his day shall be as the lightning to those in whom the living Christ is. Tis Christ in us that will lift us up—he is the light—tis only those that are alive in him that will be caught up to meet him in the air I saw that we must be m the Spirit that we might see spiritual things John was in the Spirit, when he saw a throne set in Heaven it is not knowledge about God that it contains, but it is an entering into God I felt that those who were filled with the Spirit could see spiritual things, and feel walking in the midst of them, while those who had not the Spirit could see nothing.’”[2]

    7. Additionally, F. F. Bruce rejects MacPherson’s account of Darby’s reception of the teaching.

      “F. F. Bruce’s conclusion as to where Darby got the doctrine of the pretribulational rapture seems to be correct. ‘It was in the air in the 1820s and 1830s among eager students of unfulfilled prophecy. . . . Direct dependence by Darby on Margaret Macdonald is unlikely.’“[3]

    8. Lastly, John Bray

      “Pre-trib rapture opponent John Bray does not accept the MacPherson thesis either. He [Darby] rejected those practices, and he already had his new view of the Lord coming FOR THE SAINTS (as contrasted to the later coming to the earth) which he had believed since 1827, . . . It was the coupling of this ‘70th week of Daniel’ prophecy and its futuristic interpretation, with the teaching of the ‘secret rapture,’ that gave to us the completed ‘Pre-tribulation Secret Rapture’ teaching as it has now been taught for many years. . . .makes it impossible for me to believe that Darby got his Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching from Margaret MacDonald’s vision in 1830. He was already a believer in it since 1827, as he plainly said.”[4]
  3. That there was no teaching around the idea of a rapture is not historically accurate.
    1. Consider the historical data provided below by Norman Geisler.[5]

      Shepherd of Hermas (c. early second century) Go, therefore, and tell the elect of the Lord His mighty deeds, and say to them that this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly. Cast your cares upon the Lord, and He will direct them. Trust the Lord, ye who doubt, for He is all-powerful, and can turn His anger away from you, and send scourges on the doubters. Woe to those who hear these words, and despise them: better were it for them not to have been born. (1.4.2)

      Ephraem the Syrian(c. 306–373) We ought to understand thoroughly therefore, my brothers, what is imminent or overhanging. Already there have been hunger and plagues, violent movements of nations and signs, which have been predicted by the Lord, they have already been fulfilled, and there is no other that remains, except the advent of the wicked one in the completion of the Roman kingdom.… All saints and the Elect of the Lord are gathered together before the tribulation which is about to come and are taken to the Lord, in order that they may not be seen at the time of the confusion which overwhelms the world because of our sins. (OLTAEW, 2, as cited in Ice, WTS, 110–11).”[6]
  4. Don’t be bullied into feeling anti-intellectual for holding to the pretrib rapture view.
    1. Don’t believe their accusation from history. Research it for yourself.
    2. Most of all, let the Scriptures speak.

VI. Conclusion

  1. The basis for the pretribulation rapture is found in the New Testament Scriptures.
  2. We don’t rely on early church leaders to establish doctrine, but rather Scripture.
  3. We live with hope.
    1. We should live each day looking for and expecting the Lord’s imminent return.
    2. We minister preaching forgiveness of sin and the soon return of the Lord to rescue us from this fallen world to be with Him in heaven.
    3. This world is hopeless, but we know how the story ends.
  4. We live with sobriety.
    1. We don’t get caught up in the many time-wasters that are all around us.
    2. While I am free to engage in many different activities, I am conscious and aware that with every other thing I engage in, I have less time to serve the Lord.
  5. We live with holiness.
    1. We walk in holiness, knowing that Jesus may call us home at any moment.
    2. We don’t want to be found compromising and thus ashamed at His appearing.
  6. We live with urgency
    1. The priorities of the Kingdom are of utmost importance, knowing that we have limited time.
    2. We urgently go about the work that has been left behind.
  7. We live to please the Lord at the Bema.
    1. God’s grace will be realized.
    2. Jesus said He is coming soon, and His reward is with Him.
    3. Let’s please the Lord with how we serve and live and love.

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

[2] George Whitefield, “The Wise and Foolish Virgins,” quoted in Thomas D. Ice, “Why the Doctrine of the Pretribulational Rapture did not Begin with Margaret Macdonald,” SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations, paper 102 (1990): 122, https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/102.

[3] ibid

[4] Ibid.

[5] ibid 659–660.

[6] Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology, vol. 4 (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2005), 658.

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