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The Rapture – Part Four

(Note: I recommend to you Chuck Missler’s book “The Rapture” much of which these messages are based on)

The Blessed Hope Titus 2:11–14 (NKJV)

Jesus going away to prepare a home for His Bride symbolized and foretold by the Jewish Wedding Ceremony

  • The bride and bridegroom are not yet married, but they are committed by a covenant.
  • The bridegroom is away and the length of his absence is deliberately indefinite.
  • The bride does not know when he will return, but she believes and keeps herself prepared.

The Wedding Day

  • Prior to entering the chamber, the bride was veiled so that no one could see her face.
  • After the marriage was consummated, the groom came out of the bridal chamber and announced the consummation of the marriage
  • The marriage supper, lasts seven days in Jewish tradition.

Jesus will be accompanied on His Return:

Jesus has been gone for about 2000 years preparing a home for His Bride (THE CHURCH); there will be an escort to accompany Him upon His return

Our New Habitation

  • These present bodies are just a sketch, like a 2D drawing and when Jesus comes again and we are caught up to be with Him, we will be like Him. We will be like Him, able to see Him and be with Him as He is existing 2 Cor 5:1–2
  • “tent” refers to a temporary earthly dwelling.

Physical Reality vs. Spiritual Reality

  • This physical universe only feels solid. The Bible accurately reflects REALITY even while man denies it:

2 Corinthians 4:18–5:1 (NKJV)  18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.   1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

His Imminent Return

  • “Imminent” is a word that means “it could happen at any time.”
  • The word imminent refers to the next expectation, the next event in God’s program. 1 Thessalonians 5:2–6
  • The Doctrine of Imminency is purifying.
  • We never know when Jesus will return, so we trim our lamps, keep ourselves purified and ready for Him

Occupy Til He Comes  – Hebrews 10:36–37

  • the Lord’s instruction to us is to occupy until He comes (Luke 19:13).

In Paul’s day, some believers waited with such strong expectation for His imminent return that they stopped working. Chuck Missler calls it “Rapturitis

  • Some pastors teach the Rapture with the idea that the Church will not have to go through any difficulties.
  • The body of Christ has suffered in most of the world throughout the last two thousand years; Why should we escape that? The Church was promised persecution (John 15:20 (NKJV)

Thanks to the Word Faith movement, Seeker Friendly Gospel, and spiritual junk food, there’s a common attitude that Christians are not going to have any problems.

It’s open season on Christians in America, and getting worse by the day

  • THE HEIGHT OF ARROGANCE TO OUR OWN PERIL: to have the audacity to assume that we’re going to escape what most of the Body of Christ has suffered.

Chuck Missler also: “Rapture Mania”: Date Setting

There is a long history of them going all the way back to the days of Paul.

  • E.C. Whisenant’s book, 88 Reasons for 1988
  • Harold Camping September 6, 1994, May 21, 2011
  • The end of 2012 when the Mayan Calendar was reset.

What do the Scriptures say? Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32–33; Matthew 24:42; Luke 12:40;

  • Only God knows when.
  • Perhaps He is waiting for Satan to play his fateful card.
  • Probably has to do with God’s mercy in wanting as many as possible to be saved; Peter believed God was giving people more time to repent (2 Peter 3:9)

We don’t know God’s timetable but we are to get on with our Kingdom business in the meantime; Acts 1:6–8

On the one hand, the Bible says no one knows when He’s coming back. On the other, Jesus says observers will know exactly when He’s coming when it happens: Luke 21:27–28 ; Revelation 1:7

  • In one EVENT, He comes in secret for His own and we are caught up and instantly taken away; In the other EVENT, every eye shall see Him (Revelation 1:7).

It is OBVIOUS the Bible is referencing two different events.

Christ’s Second Coming comes in two phases, once for the Church and once for Israel.

  • He comes once for the Church to fulfill His promises to His Bride; He then comes again in power to fulfill all the commitments laid down by God in both the Old and New Testaments for the Kingdom on Earth, where He takes David’s Throne.

Compare what happens at the two events:

  • In the Rapture, the translated saints (true believers) are taken up into Heaven; At His Second Coming they (His translated saints) return with Him to set up His Kingdom (Jude 1:14-15, Revelation 20:6).
  • In the Rapture, the people of the earth aren’t judged; judgment comes later, at the Second Coming (Isaiah 61:2, Revelation 19:15).

RAPTURE                                      SECOND COMING

  1. Translation of all believers No translation at all
  2. Translated saints go to heaven Translated saints return
    to earth
  3. Earth not judged Earth judged;
    righteousness established
  4. Imminent, any-moment, signless Follows definite
    predicted signs including tribulation
  5. Not in the Old Testament Predicted often in
    Old Testament
  6. Believers only Affects all men on
    the earth
  7. Before the day of wrath Concluding the day
    of wrath
  8. No reference to Satan Satan bound
  9. Christ comes for His own Christ comes with
    His own
  10. He comes in the air He comes to the earth
  11. He claims His bride He comes with
    His bride
  12. Only His own see Him Every eye shall see Him
  13. Tribulation follows Millennial Kingdom
    begins\
  14. Church believers only?

The Rapture is imminent, we don’t know a time table.

  • There will not be a sign preceding it other than the very moment wherein there is a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God.

Second Coming, is the most documented period of time in the entire Bible.

  • If we can tell when the Tribulation starts, we can almost set the date of His Second Coming.
  • The Rapture occurs before the Day of Wrath (1Thessalonians 1:10, 5:9).
  • The Second Coming, however, concludes the Day of Wrath.
  • Interesting to note: In any reference to the Rapture there is no reference to Satan. It will catch Satan by surprise too; he doesn’t know the time either. But ….. At the Second Coming of Christ, Satan is bound; Revelation 20:2
  • When the Rapture occurs, Satan will know he hasn’t much time, and so he will unleash his best destructive efforts Revelation 12:17

It’s interesting that after His Resurrection, Christ was only seen by those who loved Him, and He was only touched by loving hands.

  • Same sort of thing concerning the Rapture. Only His own will see Him at the Rapture,
  • But every eye alive will see Him and tremble at the Second Coming (Revelation 1:7).