Does the Church Still Believe in the Rapture? – Program 5

By: Dr. Renald Showers, Dr. Paul Feinberg, Dr. Earl Radmacher, Dr. John Feinberg; ©1995

Many critics say that the rapture is never actually mentioned in the Bible. So where do scholars find this idea that Christians will be raptured?

Where Does the Bible Mention the Rapture?

Introduction

John Ankerberg: In a recent U.S. News & World Report, sixty-one percent of Americans said they believed Jesus Christ will return to earth, and sixty percent said they thought the world will end sometime in the future. Today on the John Ankerberg Show, does the church still teach that Jesus Christ will someday suddenly return to earth and thus set in motion terrifying end-time events?

[Movie clip—Future Tense]

Narrator: According to the Bible, there will be a day when Jesus Christ comes again to gather from the earth all the people who truly believe in him. Now, there are different opinions among Christians on the exact order of the events surrounding his return. But one thing is certain: he is coming back. There are over 300 passages in the Bible that deal with the return of Jesus Christ. Many of these passages indicate that he could come at any moment.

Radio Announcer—“Steve”: At approximately 5:37 a.m., Central Standard Time, an event of catastrophic proportions occurred as millions of people have apparently disappeared from the face of the earth. I repeat, the Federal Government has declared a state of national emergency. We go now to Bob Lawson, live from our eyewitness helicopter.

“Bob”: Steve, I have never seen anything like this! It looks like a war zone from up here! We are currently approaching the downtown area….

Ankerberg: In this series you will hear from nine prominent theologians and biblical prophecy scholars. From our conference in Dallas, Texas, we’ll hear Dr. David Breese, Dr. Zola Levitt, Peter LaLonde and Dr. Randall Price. From our own studios you will hear theologians Dr. John Walvoord, Dr. Renald Showers, Dr. Paul Feinberg, Dr. Earl Radmacher, and Dr. John Feinberg. Join us and discover what the Bible teaches about the return of Jesus Christ to this earth.

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Introduction

Today, on the John Ankerberg Show, does the church still teach that Jesus Christ will someday suddenly return to earth and thus set in motion terrifying end-time events?

LaLonde: First of all, you’ve had the rapture take place. Millions of people have vanished off the face of the earth. What is that going to do to the world left behind? People have watched family members disappear. Children have vanished off the face of the earth. You’re sitting with your wife—she’s gone. It is going to drive the world insane.

[Excerpt from movie Future Tense]

Phone caller from nursing home: I’m calling about your parents. Mrs. Cummings, we confirm that your mother and your father were among 19 residents to disappear this morning.

Mr. Cummings: Susan, something’s happened here that we just don’t understand. But it’s happened to just lots of people. For all we know, Susan, Cody and Mike and your parents could come back just as quickly as they disappeared.

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During this series of programs, you will hear from nine prominent theologians and biblical prophecy scholars. From our conference in Dallas, Texas, you’ll hear Dr. David Breese, Dr. Zola Levitt, Peter LaLonde and Dr. Randall Price. From our own studios you will hear theologians Dr. John Walvoord, Dr. Renald Showers, Dr. Paul Feinberg, Dr. Earl Radmacher, and Dr. John Feinberg. Join us and discover what the Bible teaches about the return of Jesus Christ to this earth.

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[Dallas, Texas]

Ankerberg: Welcome. We’re here in warm and wonderful Dallas, Texas, with a wonderful audience today. We have four men that are some of the key leaders in biblical prophecy in our country and they have major ministries concerning biblical prophecy. We’re glad that you’ve joined us today. We’re going to start off with a topic that is dear to the heart of all Christians across the country, and that is the doctrine of the rapture. Dr. David Breese, we have a lot of Christians that are looking at their Bible and they look at 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and they’re looking for the word “rapture,” and they don’t seem to find it there. Can you help them out and tell us why the Bible does teach the doctrine of the rapture and what it is.

Breese: Well, the Bible teaches that Christ is coming at the end of the age—that’s at the end of the tribulation—“in power and great glory” and he’s coming with “ten thousands of his saints.” And that will be the great denouement of history whereby he establishes his Kingdom.

But the Scripture then teaches that preceding that glorious return of Christ there will be a seven-year period called “the tribulation.” But it’s about the tribulation the Scripture says to Christians, “…because you have kept the word of my patience, I will keep you from that hour of trial [temptation, tribulation] that will come upon the whole world to try them that dwell on the earth.” Therefore, we see in Scripture that the Bible says that Christ will come for his saints before the beginning of the tribulation and take all believing Christians up to be with him in heaven. Spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4, “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God: the dead in Christ shall rise first: 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 so shall we ever be with the Lord” [1 Thess. 4:16-17].

Paul expands on this a little bit in 1 Corinthians 15 saying to the Corinthians, “Behold, I show you a mystery”—something you could not figure out just by Aristotelian syllogism—“I show you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump: the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.” So we can assure every believer within the sound of this voice that there’s coming a moment when they will be caught up in their physical bodies into the presence of Jesus Christ so as to ever be with the Lord. Perhaps in short we might say that Christ is coming at the end of the tribulation with his saints, but before that he is coming for his saints. We will then be formed into that army that shall return with him to the conquest of earth.

Ankerberg: Now, is Dr. Breese correct when he said that the Bible teaches there are two comings of Christ: first the rapture, and then later, his return to earth when he will defeat his enemies, rescue Israel and set up his millennial kingdom? I believe the Bible does teach this, and to present the biblical evidence that shows this, I’d like you to listen to Professor Renald Showers, who serves on the faculty of the Institute of Biblical Studies. Please listen:

Showers: We’ve been talking about things related to the rapture of the Church and perhaps by now some of you have picked up, there’s an implication with some of the things we’ve been saying.

We’ve been advocating, we believe on the basis of biblical teaching, that the Church will be raptured out of the world before this seven-year period of divine wrath the beginning part of the Day of the Lord, the seven-year period many call the tribulation period.

But then we’ve also made reference to the effect that Christ will return in his glorious second coming back to the earth immediately after that seven-year period. Perhaps you’ve picked up by now an implication that we’re really talking about two separate comings of the Lord here—the one before the seven-year tribulation period for the purpose of rapturing the Church out of the world; the other one after the seven-year tribulation period when Christ will come back, not to rapture the Church out of the world but he’s coming back to crush Satan, get rid of him and all of his rebellious forces from the face of the earth, and then take the rule of the earth back on behalf of God.

Now, that poses a question in many people’s minds. Does the New Testament actually, at least infer, if not outright teach, two future comings of the Lord, one before the tribulation period to rapture the Church; the other one after the tribulation period to crush Satan and set up God’s Kingdom rule? I personally believe that the Scriptures do teach that very strongly, by inference at least. Let me point out to you perhaps one or two reasons why I’m convinced of that.

First, when you look at the order of things that the Bible teaches will take place at the rapture and then you look at the order of the things that the Bible teaches will take place at the second coming of Christ and after the tribulation period, you will find that the order of things between those two comings of the Lord are just the opposite of each other. What do I mean by that?

Well, we’ve already seen from, for example, 1 Thessalonians 4 that when the rapture takes place, it is the believers who will be removed from the earth in blessing to meet the Lord in the air and to go back with him to the Father’s house in heaven. So at the rapture, believers are removed from the earth, and by implication the unbelievers are left here.

But when you go to passages, such as Matthew 24 that we’re going to look at later on, which are describing the second coming of Christ immediately after the tribulation period, you have just the reverse order of that being taught; namely, that at the second coming of Christ it’s the unbelievers who are alive on the earth at that time who are going to be removed from the earth, but removed from the earth in judgment, and it’s the believers who will be alive on the earth at that time who will be left here to go into the next period of world history. So, at the rapture it will be the reverse order of things at the second coming of Christ.

Now, we already looked at some of the passages with regard to the rapture, so we’ve already seen from the Scriptures that it’s the believers who are removed at the rapture, but what about passages that are talking about who will be removed, who’ll be left at the second coming of Christ after the tribulation period? Well, for example, in Matthew 13, where Jesus taught some parables concerning the Kingdom, one of those parables has been called the Parable of the Tares. And Jesus taught about a man who had sowed good grain or wheat in a field. Later on his enemy came along and sowed tares in that same field. As time passed, the wheat and the tares sprang up together, they were growing together during the growing season.

The farmer’s servants noted what had happened and they came and reported to him and they said to him, “What do you want us to do? Should we go out during the growing season and root out the tares from among the good grain or the wheat?”

And he said, “No. Don’t do that.”

Let me read to you what he said in Matthew 13:29-30, “But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘Gather you together first the tares.’”

That word “first” is very critical here. “Gather together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Now, when you drop down to verse 36, we are told, “Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house and his disciples came unto him saying, ‘Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.’” In other words, they said, “Explain to us; give us the interpretation of that parable.”

“He answered and said unto them, ‘he that sows the good seed is the Son of man.’” So he is saying that the farmer that sowed the wheat represented himself, Jesus, the Son of man. “The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the Kingdom.” In other words, righteous human beings, those who have gotten saved, they’re believers in the Lord Jesus who will eventually go into the future millennial kingdom. Then he says, “But the tares are the children of the wicked one.”

Now, in the Bible the wicked one is Satan and the Bible identifies the children of Satan as unbelievers. John, for example, in 1 John 3 drew a contrast between believers and unbelievers and indicated that the believers are children of God but the unbelievers are children of Satan. The Bible makes that very clear. So that the children of the wicked one here are the unbelievers who are in the world. They are represented by the tares.

Verse 39, “The enemy,” God’s enemy that sowed them, that sowed the tares, is the devil. “The harvest is the end of the world,” literally the end of the age, not when this world comes to an end but when this present age comes to an end. “And the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this age. The Son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. he who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

What Jesus is saying on the basis of this parable is that at his glorious second coming, at the end of the age which will be immediately after the future seven-year tribulation period, he will send forth his angels into the world and they will gather out of the world the tares, the unbelievers, the children of Satan, and will cast them into a horrible place of fire where there will be gnashing of teeth and wailing. So that the unbelievers, he’s teaching, all the unbelievers who are alive on the earth at the glorious second coming of Christ after the seven-year tribulation period, are going to be removed from the earth in judgment by God’s angels. And then he says, “the righteous,” those are the believers, the saved, “will shine forth in the Kingdom.” In other words, the believers who are alive on the earth at the second coming of Christ will go into the next period of world history, namely, the millennial kingdom age of world history.

That’s the order of the second coming. All the unbelievers removed from the earth in judgment at the second coming of Christ and the believers who are alive at that time left here to go into the next period, namely, the kingdom.

Now, Jesus taught the same order for his second coming again in what’s called the Parable of the Dragnet. Let me read to you from Matthew 13:47, “Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, which, when it was full they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good in the vessels but cast the bad away.” Now, here Jesus gives the application of that parable to his second coming. “So shall it be at the end of the age. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just.” The angels are going to, in essence, cut off the wicked, remove them, from among the just, the righteous, “and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Notice the same order, for his glorious second coming immediately after the seven-year tribulation period, his holy angels will remove all the unbelievers who are alive on the earth at that time from the earth in judgment and put them into a horrible place of judgment characterized by fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, but the good fish, representing the believers, are left here to go into the kingdom.

He’s teaching that the order of things at his second coming will be just the reverse of the order at the rapture. At the rapture it’s all the believers who are removed from the earth and blessing to meet Christ in the air to return with him to his Father’s house in heaven and it’s the unbelievers who will be left here on the face of the earth.

Ankerberg: Now, what other biblical evidence shows that the rapture of the church must be a completely separate event from the time when Christ comes to earth in judgment and sets up his millennial kingdom?

Next, Dr. John Feinberg, professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, agrees that the difference between the rapture and the second coming is that at the rapture Christ comes in blessing, while at his second advent he comes in judgment. But then, Dr. Feinberg explains that there are two other differences that separate the rapture event from the second coming. I’d like you to listen:

Dr. John Feinberg: Well, one of the objections that oftentimes is raised against pre-tribulationism is that when you look at the clear rapture passages in Scripture and you look at the clear second advent passages in Scripture, they just seem to be so similar that it really is impossible to drive a wedge between the two events on the one hand and also the two times of the events. And a lot of people who don’t hold the pre-tribulation view say this is a very new view. It never occurred to anybody for hundreds and thousands of years that these passages were talking about two different things. So they want to know how it is that we can see two separate events and I’d like to address that for just a moment.

One thing I think is important to note is that every position on the rapture does agree that there is a distinction between the rapture and the second advent. Even a post-tribulationist, who believes that the rapture is going to be at the end of the tribulation, still believes that the rapture just momentarily precedes the second advent. So we all do seem to agree that they’re two different events.

Let me share some things that I think show that they are really quite different in terms of the things that surround them. For one thing, it seems very clear, when you look at passages like 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51ff, that talk so clearly about the rapture, that this coming of the Lord is a coming in blessing for his saints, for the Church. On the other hand, when you look at passages like Matthew 24:31, when you look at other passages such as Zechariah 12, Zechariah 14, Joel 3, that talk about the end of the tribulation and the return of the Lord, it is very, very clear that the Lord comes at that time—Revelation 19:11ff also fits in here—the Lord comes at that point not to bring blessing to the members of his body, the church, but to mete out judgment upon the enemies of Israel and the enemies of God. So that’s an initial difference. The coming at the rapture is a coming in blessing; the coming at the second advent is a coming in judgment.

A second difference that we can see between these passages is that the coming at the end of the tribulation period is preparatory; it’s in advance of setting up the literal 1,000 year rule of Jesus Christ on earth. As you read through Matthew 24 all the way into Matthew 25, you find that after the Lord returns there’s going to be what’s known as the judgment of the sheep and goats; sometimes it’s referred to as the judgment of the nations. And those who are the losers at that judgment are going to be cast into eternal perdition; those who are the winners, so to speak, are told to inherit the kingdom and then the kingdom is set up. When you read the clear rapture passages, there is no indication that this event is preparatory to a setting up of the kingdom at that point. It’s possible that that might happen, but it doesn’t clearly say that that will happen; whereas, in so many Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the kingdom, that setting up of the kingdom is directly linked with the return of the Lord at the end of the tribulation.

One other thing I should mention that I think is a significant difference between clear rapture and clear second advent passages: it’s clear from passages like 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4, that when Jesus returns, those believers in Christ who have died will be resurrected and all believers, living or dead, are going to receive a glorified body. On the other hand, when you look at passages about the return of the Lord at the end of the tribulation period, you don’t see talk of anybody being resurrected as part of that event of the coming of the Lord. And there’s no talk of anybody being given a glorified body.

Now, we need to be careful here. I do believe that prior to the millennial kingdom being set up, Old Testament saints who are also promised the kingdom, they are going to be resurrected, given a glorified body, and go into the kingdom. But that happens sometime, not indefinitely, but some days after the actual return of the Lord at the second advent. What I’m saying is the actual event of the coming of the Lord at the rapture includes the resurrection and glorification of saints; the actual event of Jesus’ coming at the second advent is not spoken of as involving that at all.

Ankerberg: Some of you may say, “I’m convinced that the rapture is a separate event from Christ’s second coming to earth. But what you haven’t convinced me of is that the moment the rapture takes place [that moment] is removed from Christ’s second coming to earth by a lengthy period of time, such as the seven-year tribulation period. To tell you why we think there is good reason to believe that there are at least seven years between those two events, I would like you to listen to Dr. John Feinberg. What he has to say next, is very, very important. Please listen:

John Feinberg: But someone could say, “Alright, you’ve convinced me that they’re two separate events, but what you haven’t convinced me of is that the time of the one is decisively different from the time of the other.” And I think that’s an important question that has to be addressed.

Now, how would you show that the timing of the rapture does not happen right about [or] exactly when the timing of the second advent occurs? I think that you look for some events that are going to happen during the tribulation period when the Church should be and would be absent from the earth. We know that the second advent is going to occur on earth and at the end of the tribulation. Let me mention several things that suggest to me that the Church is not going to be on earth during the tribulation period.

One thing has to do with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. That’s spoken of in Revelation 19:1-9, and as you begin that chapter, the scene is heaven. And by the time you move to verse 11, which is right after the Marriage Supper is spoken of, verse 11 talks about Jesus and the armies of heaven riding out of heaven to come back and do battle with his enemies at the very end of the tribulation. So the scene right before the second advent is in heaven. But when you look at the scene in heaven, verses 7 through 9 show us the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Bride is none other than the Church herself.

Now, if the Church is in the tribulation through all seven years and only gets raptured right about the same time when the second advent occurs, then when is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb going to occur? There has to be some time when the Church is taken out of the world, is present in heaven, attending the marriage feast spoken of there in Revelation 19:7-9, and then ready to go with the Lord as part of the armies of heaven that come back at the second advent. So that would suggest that there has to be some sort of time gap between the rapture and the second advent.

Another thing that suggests it as well is what Scripture refers to as the Judgment Seat of Christ. It’s spoken of in 1 Corinthians 3:10-12, and 2 Corinthians 5. We’re told that as believers we will all stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re not going to be judged on the basis of whether we’re saved or not, but instead our life of Christian works and service to the Lord will be evaluated at that point. Now, the question is, when will that occur? Again, it seems to me that this is something that is likely to happen when we are in heaven with the Lord during the tribulation period and before the second advent. And the reason that I say that is when we come to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, we find that the Bride is adorned with her wedding gown. She’s dressed in linen, white and clean. And we’re told that that wedding gown represents the righteous deeds of the saints, which suggests to me that by the time the Church gets to the marriage feast, she has already received her recognition and her rewards for the things that she has done in the flesh. And that suggests to me that she has already stood before the Lord at this Judgment Seat of Christ.

Now, if you think about this for a moment, the sequencing seems to be very clear. The second advent occurs at the end of the tribulation; the Marriage Supper occurs before that; and then before the Marriage Supper occurs, the Judgment Seat of Christ must occur so that the Church gets her rewards which she is wearing, by wearing the wedding gown, at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. These are a couple of events that seem to me to necessitate some sort of interval between the rapture on the one hand, the second advent on the other.

Another one that necessitates a difference is the fact that the Church is promised exemption from God’s judgmental wrath and I believe that as you go to the book of Revelation, you look at chapters 4 and 5, and you see the seals on the scroll, the seals which, once they are broken, begin the sequence of judgments that run throughout the whole tribulation period. You find that no one is found who is worthy to open those seals except Jesus Christ, the Lamb, and he does open them. That suggests to me that the sequence of judgments that run throughout the whole scope of the tribulation are God’s judgmental wrath. Well, if that’s so and the Church is promised deliverance from, exemption from that, it seems that the most likely way that that would happen is that the Church is not present in the tribulation at all. So it’s not just that the rapture should occur a few years before the second advent but it appears that it’s necessary that it occur at least the seven years that pre-tribulationists have said it occurs, prior to the second advent.

Read Part 6