© 2009 F. DeRuvo

• What is the Rapture?

• Is it the same as the Second Coming?

• Is the Rapture taught in Scripture?p g p

• Is so where is it taught?• Is so, where is it taught?

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• The Second Coming occurs in order for Jesus to:Jesus to:• Establish His Kingdom on David’s throne

• Judge the nationsJudge the nations

• Fulfill the covenants to Israel

• The Rapture takes place in order for Christ to take His Bride to heavenChrist to take His Bride to heaven.

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• We will be looking at a number of passages that highlight the Rapture:passages that highlight the Rapture:

• John

• I Thessalonians

• II Thessalonians

• I CorinthiansI Corinthians

• Revelation

© 2009 F. DeRuvo

© 2009 F. DeRuvo

• There are numerous key New Testament passages that deal with the Rapture of the p g pChurch:

• John

• I Thessalonians

• II Thessalonians

• I Corinthians

• RevelationRevelation

• Taken together, these three passages provide us with Six descriptions of the Raptureus with Six descriptions of the Rapture

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1. Christ will descend with a shout and blast of a trumpet from the Father’s house in pheaven to the air above the earth (John 14:3; I Thessalonians 4:16‐17)

2. The souls of the dead church saints will descend from heaven with Christ at His coming (I Thessalonians 4:14).

3. The bodies of the dead church saints will be i d i l i ibl b di draised as immortal, incorruptible bodies and

will be reunited with their returning souls (II Cor 15:42‐44 52‐53; I Thess 4:14‐16)Cor. 15:42‐44, 52‐53; I Thess. 4:14‐16)

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4. The bodies of the church saints who have not died before this coming of Christ will be gchanged instantly into immortal, incorruptible bodies (I Cor. 15:51‐53)

5. Both the resurrected and changed church saints will be caught up together to meet Christ in the air (I Thess. 4:17; John 14:3)

6. The church saints will return with Christ to Hi F h ’ h i h d ll i hHis Father’s house in heaven to dwell with Him in living accommodations He has prepared there for them (John 14:2‐3)prepared there for them (John 14:2‐3)

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• The Scriptures indicate that the Rapture will take place suddenly, not as a process p y, pstretched out over an extended period of time.

• “Caught up” means literally to “snatch,seize; i.e. to take suddenly.”

• At that time, the bodies of church saints will be changed “in a moment” or “in the

i kli f ”twinkling of an eye”

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Christ said:

“There are many rooms in my Father’sThere are many rooms in my Father s house; otherwise, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. g g p p p f yAnd if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

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• This event is held in clear contrast to Matthew 24:27‐30 where 2nd Coming is gdescribed as:

• A glorious eventg

• Similar to lightning shining from east to the west

• In John 14, Christ describes a specific coming for His saints

• To take them to His Father’s house

• Where nothing is stated about the believer’s death

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• Taken in its common or normal understanding, the passage says thatg, p g y

• Christ will come for His disciples, and

• Take them to heaven to His Father’sTake them to heaven to His Father s house

• This event is completely separate from the p y ptime He will return to earth to establish His Millennial kingdom (2nd Coming)

• None of the phenomenal features of Matthew 24 are noted here

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• The passage is not dealing with Christ’s indwelling the believer, butg ,

• The believer being in the same place as Christ Himself: the Father’s house

• Taken literally, the passage states that the believer is going to heaven at the time Christ comes for him/her

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• John 14:2‐3 provided a brief introduction to the Rapturep

• I Thessalonians contributes more to this doctrine than any other NT booky

• The Rapture is mentioned in one way or another in every chapter:

• 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13‐18; 5:1‐11, 23

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• It should be noted that Paul emphasized the Rapturep

• Background of I Thessalonians

• Paul, Silas and Timothy spent threePaul, Silas and Timothy spent three Sabbaths ministering at the synagogue in Thessalonica.

• During this time, they obviously discussed the event of the Rapture

• After Paul left Thessalonica, he sent Timothy back there

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• Background of I Thessalonians

• Timothy came back to Paul withTimothy came back to Paul with questions from this young church

• This gave Paul the opportunity to explainThis gave Paul the opportunity to explain in more detail the Rapture itself

• The Thessalonians were looking for the greturn of Christ any day (cf. I Thess 1:10)

• This event is obviously seen as imminent yand prior to the Day of Wrath (cf. I Thess2:16)

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• Background of I Thessalonians

• Paul expresses his joy when they will allPaul expresses his joy when they will all stand in the presence of the Lord (cf. I Thess 2:19‐20))

• No preceding events are mentioned by Paul regarding the Rapture

• The implication is that the Lord’s coming will be very soon – imminent, with nothing preceding it

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• Paul had obviously taught this doctrine to the believers in Thessalonica, due to the ,many references in this epistle

• The believers knew that when the Lord returned, they would be “caught up” with Him

• They probably had no written Scriptures to read, were young in the faith, and had no

h hprophet among them

• They had questions concerning the order of t d h th R t fit i t itevents and how the Rapture fit into it

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• Reason for the questions was due to the death of some believers since Paul had ministered there

• While Paul was there, he had instructed ,them in:

• Election – 1:4

• The Holy Spirit – 1:5‐6; 4:8; 5:19

• Conversion – 1:9

• Assurance and salvation – 1:5

• Sanctification – 4:3; 5:23…and more!Sanctification 4:3; 5: 3…and more!

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• These believers understood the doctrine of the resurrection and that some would be translated without dying

• What they did not understand was how the yevent of the resurrection of Christians who died related to the translation of living Christians

• Some of these believers came from a paganb k d h i h d bbackground where resurrection had been questioned – they were confused

Ti th bl t th• Timothy was unable to answer them

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• Paul indicated their fears were groundless

• When the Lord came for those who wereWhen the Lord came for those who were living, He would also resurrect the dead

• There would be no waiting period for thoseThere would be no waiting period for those who had already died

• When the living believers were translated, g ,they would then see those believes who had died

• Paul indicated that when Christ came, He would bring with Him those who were asleep

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• Those who were asleep referred to those who had died and whose souls were in heaven

• When Christ returned to the air above the earth, He would bring those souls with Him (holy ones)

• This would allow these souls to re‐enter their resurrected bodies of the saints who h d di dhad died

• Together with those translated, they would t th L d i th imeet the Lord in the air

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• The coming of the Lord at the Rapture would be

1. …“with a loud command” (4:16)

• This harkens back to Christ’s ability toThis harkens back to Christ s ability to raise the dead (John 5:25)

2. …“with the voice of an archangel” (Jude g (1:9)

• More than likely a shout of triumphy p

3. …“the trumpet call of God”

• The signal for the dead to rise The signal for the dead to rise

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• Once these three things occurred in quick succession, the dead in Christ would be ,resurrected from the grave, and

• The living Christians on earth at the time g

• “will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord forever” (I Thess 4:17)

• It was on this basis that Paul told them to “encourage one another with these words”

• There is nowhere else in Scripture where the Rapture is given in such great clarity

© 2009 F. DeRuvo

• What is extremely important to understand is that…

• No preceding events were mentioned by Paul which needed to occur

• Although other Scriptures make clear that Peter had to die, and

• Paul himself would be martyred, as far as the Thessalonians knew – and as far as Paul knew at the time ‐

• Nothing else needed to occur prior to the Rapture

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• Obviously, in the plan of God, the Rapture is a known and dated event

• With events preceding and following it

• However, as far as the presentation of thisHowever, as far as the presentation of this doctrine in Scripture is concerned…

• Christians are exhorted to be looking for gthe coming of the Lord

• The implicit imminence of the Rapture is an p pimportant facet in the pretribulational interpretation

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• This imminence is a constant source of embarrassment to the posttribulationistp

• Most posttribulationists tend to gloss over the details of this passagep g

• A strong point to consider:

• If the Tribulation was going to occur g gprior to the Rapture, the Tribulation itself would be of great concern to the believers at Thessalonica

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• A strong point to consider:

• However it is clear from the passageHowever, it is clear from the passage that they were not concerned about the Tribulation

• They were concerned about those who had died and a delayed resurrection

• If they were concerned about the Tribulation, they would have been gladfor those who had died, since they had escaped it!

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• Paul had stated that the revelation of the Rapture was by “the Lord’s own word” (I p y (Thessalonians 4:15)

• Paul is not speaking of any type of oral p g y yptradition that may have been passed down to him from others

• Paul claimed that he did not receive any information from the apostles (Gal 1:15‐19)19)

• Galatians was written after his first letter t th Th l ito the Thessalonians

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• Paul did not include any passages from the Old Testament in this epistlep

• He claimed that the doctrine of the Rapture was given to him by direct revelationg y

• I Thessalonians is an amplification of John 14 (which had not been written yet)

• Another point to consider:

• Why would saints have to leave the yearth, in order to simply return immediately?

• Where is the evidence that they change direction and come back to earth?© 2009 F. DeRuvo

• At the end of I Thessalonians 4:17, Paul presents a significant result of the church’s p gbeing raptured from the earth:

• We will be forever with the Lord

• We will never be separated from Him

• Wherever Christ goes, we will gog , g

• We will be with Him always, at all times

• The result of the Rapture correspondsThe result of the Rapture corresponds with the Lord’s declared purpose: “That where I am, there ye may be also”

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• Christ’s Second Coming is referred to in Scripture 318 times.p

• Paul’s earliest letter (and the first of the New Testament) mentions it first:)

• I Thessalonians 4:13‐18 carefully describes this event. Paul describes the Rapture here as Christians being “caught up” to heaven to be with Christ.

• Let’s read the text…

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• Contrast this with the Lord’s description of his own Second Coming (“Glorious g (Appearing”) found in Matthew 24:27‐31:

• Let’s read the text…

• The description given by Paul and the one given by Christ are in marked contrast to one another.

• These differences keep these two events from being one and the same.

• There are actually 15 differences between them.

© 2009 F. DeRuvo

© 2009 F. DeRuvo

• The normal argument against the Rapture is that it is a new teaching.g

• Most believe that John Darby (1828) created this “doctrine” and prior to Darby, it didn’t p y,exist.

• Unfortunately for these folks, this argument is completely baseless. It is not true.

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• So convinced were people that the Rapture idea did not exist prior to Darby, that one p y,writer who did not accept the Rapture offered $500 to anyone who could prove that the Rapture was believed or taught prior to Darby.

• It turns out that Rev. Morgan Edwards, a Baptist pastor in Philadelphia put forth the idea in his Millennium Last Days Noveltiesidea in his Millennium, Last Days Noveltiesbook. The year? 1788

• Edwards claimed he had written the same• Edwards claimed he had written the same thing in 1742.

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• It has further been determined that another document, dating back to the period A.D. , g p565 – 627 (or possibly even earlier) mentions the Rapture as a separate event.

• The document is referred to as the Pseudo‐Ephrem and in the document he states: “Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ so that hethe meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world?"overwhelms all the world?

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• The document continues with: “Believe you me, dearest brother, because the coming of the Lord is nigh, believe you me, because the end of the world is at hand, believe me, because it is the very last time Or do you not believe unless you see with yourtime. Or do you not believe unless you see with your eyes? See to it that this sentence be not fulfilled among you of the prophet who declares: "Woe to h h d i h d f h L d!" F llthose who desire to see the day of the Lord!" For all

the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that is to overwhelm the world because of our sins.”

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• It turns out of course, that some biblical scholars are going to great pains to insist that g g g pthis document does not refer to the Rapture, but to a “gathering by the Lord” to keep His elect safe while on earth.

• This view was also held by Bishop Victorinusdof Petau (3rd Century), who saw the church

departing BEFORE the plagues during the time of God’s wrathtime of God s wrath.

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• Joseph Meade (1586‐1638) wrote about the Rapture, 250 years before Darby.p , y y

• The Church itself was Premillennial in doctrine for the first three centuries.

• It was after this time period, that the doctrine of the Rapture seems to fade from the Church’s landscape.

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• The Rapture fades from view after the 4th

century. Why is that?y y

© 2009 F. DeRuvo

The Dark Ages effectively locked the Bible away in monasteries and museums.

Unless you could read Latin or Greek, and had access to a Bible, you were out of luck.

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• It was not until translators like Luther, Wycliffe and others began to produce Bibles y g pthat anyone and everyone would have access to that people began to read it again.

• Once people began reading it for themselves, the Rapture, as well as other doctrines once shelved were once again coming to the fore.

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• It seems clear from Scripture that the Rapture and Second Coming are two p gseparate events; the Rapture occurring priorto the Tribulation and the Second Coming occurring after.

• Is there anything else that will help us define these two events with certainty?

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This understanding is the Jewish culture’s perspective on their marriage process which isThis understanding is the Jewish culture’s perspective on their marriage process, which isUndoubtedly what Christ and Paul had in mind.

© 2009 F. DeRuvo