The Rapture

My point of view

Of what the scriptures teach.

By Ken Tyner, Evangelist

 

 

The scriptures teach of three comings or advents of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. When Jesus gave himself a living sacrifice for our sins.
2. When Jesus returns in the clouds with the angels for the gathering.
3. When Jesus returns with ten thousands of the saints to execute vengeance.

 

The rapture is a theological reference to the 2^nd coming with the angels for the gathering.  This is an easy order of reference because Jesus has already been sacrificed, and He can’t return with the saints until he first comes to gather them from the earth.

 

The details are very important here because in the rapture Jesus returns with the “angels” in the clouds and we, the saints or elect, meet Him in the air at the gathering. But in the 3^rd coming Jesus does not come back with the angels but with the saints. You have to pay attention to the details. I Thessalonians 4:15-17, Jude 14-15.

 

In 1 Thessalonians 1:10, Paul declares that we are to wait for Jesus to return from heaven who delivered us from the wrath to come. This is a very important statement because everyone’s eschatology is determined by their understanding of “when” the wrath of God is to come. Is the 7 year tribulation period or any part of it, the wrath of God? I recently heard John Hagee talking about the tribulation period being the wrath of God and the 21 judgments of Revelations being revealed during the tribulation period. Well I have a big problem with that. Mainly because the tribulation period is over at the opening of the 6 seal in Revelations. If you look at Revelations 6:12 when the 6^th seal is opened, there is a great earthquake followed by the sun becoming black, the moon becomes as blood and the stars fall to the earth, followed by verse 17 the great day of Gods wrath. If you look at Matthew 24:29 you will see that this is exactly what follows immediately after the tribulation period. The sun is darkened, the moon shall not give her light and the stars fall from heaven. This is the same thing stated in Acts 2:20 the sun turned into darkeness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of Lord come. Then in Matthew 24:30 you have Jesus returning in the clouds, “with the angels for the gathering”.

So based on these passages so far:

1. You have the tribulation period.
2. Followed by the signs in the sun, moon and stars.
3. Followed by Jesus with the angels for the gathering.
4. Followed by the wrath of God.

 

That might appear a little confusing to you in the order but if we are to be delivered from the wrath to come then the wrath must follow the gathering, not precede it. The main points so far are that the tribulation period is clearly not the wrath of God. At the opening of the sixth seal the tribulation period is over. The seven trumpets and seven vials are not part of the tribulation period. They actually follow after the tribulation period is over.

 

Now let’s transition over to II Thessalonians 2:1 concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our “gathering” together unto Him. If you read thru to verse 4 it say that that this day “the day of Christ” doesn’t come until the man of sin is revealed. You will remember that the “day of the lord”, “the day of Christ” and the “great day of his wrath” are all the same day. Acts 2:20, I Thessalonians 5:2, II Thessalonians 2:2, Revelations 6:17.

 

Now this is important; if the man of sin must be revealed before the coming of the Lord and our gathering unto him, and that doesn’t happen until he breaks the covenant in the middle of the tribulation period when he goes into the temple and claims to be God, then the rapture could not take place prior to the tribulation period.

 

Now if we turn back to II Thessalonians 2:8 Paul says that this man of sin will be destroyed with the spirit of his mouth and with the brightness of his coming. What coming you asked. Go back to verse 1, the coming of our Lord Jesus and our “gathering together unto him”. This creates a dilemma. The man of sin continues 42 months after he breaks the covenant and defiles the temple to make war with the saints. That is 7 full years. So if the man of sin is destroyed at the coming of the Lord and our gathering unto him, this could not take place until the end of the tribulation period.

 

Now let’s transition again to Revelations 20:4-6 about those that take part in the first resurrection. The scripture say that these people were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands. All these things take place during the second half of the tribulation period which is called the great tribulation period as stated in Matthew 24. If these people came out of the great tribulation period and were partakers of the 1^st resurrection which is “the gathering”, then again, the rapture could not take place until after the tribulation has passed.

 

 

Proof of 7^th Trumpet Rapture

 

1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Revelation 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Ephesians 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: ¹⁰That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. ¹⁶And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, ¹⁷Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. ¹⁸And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: ³⁰And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

 

Matthew 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ³⁸For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, ³⁹And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ⁴⁰Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. ⁴¹Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.