Does the Church Still Believe in the Rapture? – Program 6

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

The Bible describes many terrible things that will happen to the earth and those left behind after the rapture. What will it be like for those who remain on the earth?

What Will Happen to the Earth After the Rapture Takes Place?

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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Program 6 [Dallas, Texas]

Ankerberg: Welcome! We’re glad that you’ve joined us. We’re here in warm and wonderful Dallas, Texas, with a wonderful group of people in our audience. We have four of the best known, probably most authoritative people on television and radio today in prophetic ministries, who are talking about biblical prophecy and who are going to lay out for us the events that Jesus and the apostles said are coming to this world.

You know, it’s such a serious topic, the one that we’re talking about today. After the time when Jesus Christ comes for Christians, that which we believe is the rapture, the Bible talks about a seven-year period of time called the tribulation that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24. And he said there will never be another time like it. It’s the worst the world will ever see and experience. Dr. Breese, let’s say that Christ came, as the Scriptures are saying, in the next instant, and the Christians are gone from planet earth. Then what’s going to happen?

Breese: John, I concur as to the utter seriousness of the subject of which we speak. One-third of the Bible is prophetic and therefore a very high percentage of the things God wants us to know are anticipations for the future. The Bible says, “Forgetting those things which are behind…reaching forth to those things which are before….” Now, the scenario of which you asked is really a telling one in Scripture. When the rapture comes and Christians are taken out of the world, instantly the salt of the earth is gone. Instantly the ameliorating feature of the presence of the bride of Christ in the world—by the way, one great argument against the Church being in the tribulation is that Christ doesn’t want his bride to come home to heaven bruised and beaten and battered and hardly in good shape for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb; but rather, he is going to take us, the bride of Christ, out before that day.

But the advent of the tribulation is one of the most spectacular passages in Scripture. “The Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” like a cavalry charge, which would have been the most frightening experience of the old days: The white horse, the red horse, the black horse and then the pale horse. And then at the advent of the pale horse, one-fourth of the population of the world is killed. Two chapters later, that is, Revelation 9, one-third of the remainder is killed. So we know that one-half of the population of the world will die during the tribulation. This is compounded by the rise of Antichrist, stars falling from heaven, wormwood that makes the water undrinkable, and fearful scenes. For instance, one telling chapter is Revelation 6 that tells about an earthquake, but then it says, “And the chief captains and the mighty men and the great men, they cried to the mountains and the rocks and they said, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.’” So the Bible indicates that an earthquake is more to be preferred than the wrath of the Lamb when that breaks upon the world.

The wrath of the Lamb is not felt in the world today. “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” But even now the world is “treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds.” That happens during the tribulation. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” and that will be the case for the whole world and every person in it during the days of the tribulation. It is not to be contemplated lightly.

Ankerberg: Now, during our taping in Dallas, I asked Peter LaLonde, “Once the rapture takes place, what will it be like for those who are left behind?” Here is his answer:

LaLonde: We’ve got to recognize the world in which the Antichrist arises. First of all, you’ve had the rapture take place. Millions of people have vanished off the face of the earth. And while we’ve been debating that subject, maybe we’ve sometimes forgotten what that event really is like. What is that going to do to the world left behind? Millions of people suddenly vanish. Suddenly, you have a real life episode of the “Twilight Zone” going on here. 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. CNN will go to immediate worldwide coverage. You know that there are going to be people just glued to their TV set trying to figure out what’s taken place in this world. There will be chaos and confusion.

[Excerpt from Future Tense]

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

Mrs. Cummings: Cody…Cody!!

Mr. Cummings: Calm down, now, Susan! Calm down!

Mrs. Cummings: I just heard on the radio that millions of people have disappeared…

Mr. Cummings: Susan, calm down.

Mrs. Cummings: There’s a national emergency, Jim….It’s what Michael was telling us…it’s really happening….

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Ankerberg: Dr. David Breese and Peter LaLonde, as well as our film clip, all warned about the terrible time called the tribulation. But where does the Bible give us the information about this time period? And how long will it last? And what will take place during the tribulation? Well, to present the biblical information, I’d like you to listen to Dr. Renald Showers. Please take your Bible and turn to Daniel 9:24-27, and listen very, very carefully:

Showers: We’ve been talking about a seven-year period of time between the rapture of the Church from the world and the glorious second coming of Christ immediately after the great tribulation. What’s the basis for this idea of this seven-year period of time between those two events? The foundational passage for that seven-year period of time is in the Old Testament, specifically in Daniel 9:27. And just to give a little background so we understand, when you begin with verse 24 of Daniel 9, Daniel is receiving some incredible revelation from God through the angel Gabriel. And in that revelation God was mapping out ahead of time his long-range extended program for Israel in the future. He says in verse 24 that seventy weeks, literally “seventy sevens,” “are determined for your people” —Daniel’s people; that would be Israel—“and for your holy city.” That would be the city of Jerusalem. What he’s saying here is this: that God had determined seventy periods of time for Israel in the future, but each one of those seventy periods of time would consist of seven years. That’s the idea of seventy sevens.

Why seven-year periods? Well, when you go through the Old Testament you find that God had set up a unique calendar system for Israel that was based upon seven-year cycles. For six years they were to till the ground and grow their crops, but then every seventh year was to be a sabbatic year in which they would allow the land to rest and restore its energy; and then for six more years they would till the ground and then the next seventh year would be a sabbatic year and they would let it rest. So God had designed Israel’s calendar system in seven-year cycles, and that’s what he’s doing in this prophecy. Seventy cycles of time, each one of those cycles consists of seven years. So seventy times seven, 490 years, involved all together. When you read that prophecy from verse 24 up through verse 26, we find that the first 69 of those cycles was fulfilled when Jesus presented himself to Israel officially as its Prince, its coming King; and the New Testament would indicate that Jesus did that when he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Then when you examine that prophecy in depth you find that there is a gap of time between the end of the 69^th cycle of seven years and the beginning of the 70^th or last cycle of seven years. And you and I right now are living in that gap of time. That tells us, therefore, that the last cycle of seven years has not yet begun and we could call that the 70^th week, or the 70^th seven. And that last cycle of seven years is what many Bible scholars have come to call the tribulation period because there will be forms of tribulation here in the world throughout that seven years.

Daniel 9:27 talks about that last cycle of seventy years, the 70^th eek or the 70th seven. What we are told in Daniel 9:27 is, at the very beginning of that last cycle of seven years, Antichrist will enforce or establish a covenant “with the many.” Now, since this whole prophecy is designed by God uniquely for Israel and the city of Jerusalem, this is talking about his confirming a covenant with the majority of the Jews. Maybe some of the Jews would not be in favor of that covenant, but the majority will be. So the implication is that Antichrist, at the very beginning of this last seven-year period of time, will enforce or establish a covenant with the people of Israel, at least the majority of them, in the Middle East. According to verse 27, we are told, “and he”—referring to the Antichrist—“shall confirm the covenant with many for one week,” literally for one seven.

Now, an interesting implication of this is this: many have thought that the event which will actually start the seven-year tribulation period, or if you want to call it the seven-year 70^th week of Daniel 9 that we’re reading about here, that the event that will actually start that will be the rapture of the Church. That’s not what the biblical text is saying. Instead, Daniel 9:27 is saying that the actual event which will officially begin that seven-year period of time will be the establishment of the seven-year covenant between Antichrist and the people of Israel in the Middle East. Then we’re told as we read on in verse 27, “and in the midst of the week,” literally in the middle of the week, in the middle of the seven. So it’s talking about here what will happen in dead center of this seven-year period of time, what will happen after the first three and a half years of this period of time have transpired. In the middle of the week, “he,” going back to Antichrist, “shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” That implies that by this future period of seven years Israel will have a new temple and they will have reinstituted the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings in that temple. And what’s being revealed to Daniel here is that in the middle of that 70^th week of Daniel 9, Antichrist will put a stop to the sacrifices and the offerings offered there in Israel’s new temple.

Other prophetic Scriptures indicate that the reason he will do that is because at that point he will go into the temple and commit an abomination. In fact, we are told here, “and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined that be poured upon the desolate,” indicating that in the middle of this 70^th week he will commit what’s been called “the abomination of desolation.” What that will amount to is, he will enter into that temple and he will set himself up there as God.

Let me read for you where that is specifically stated, just one of several passages that indicate this. In 2 Thessalonians 2, the apostle Paul describes this same man whom we have called the Antichrist as “the man of sin.” We read in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day”—the Day of the Lord—“shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” That is “the abomination of desolation” spoken of in Daniel 9:27. And so Daniel is told that right in the middle of this seven-year period of time the Antichrist will enter into this new temple of Israel in Jerusalem and will put a stop to their Old Testament sacrificial system that they’ve reinstituted. And the reason he does that is because he wants to clear the way for the worship of himself as God. And he will set himself up in that temple as the true and the living God, make the bold claim that he is that, and then he will begin desolating the nation of Israel. The implication is, he will break his covenant with Israel and begin persecuting that nation worse than it’s ever been persecuted in all of past history.

Zechariah 12-14 makes that very, very clear. In fact, the last couple of verses of Zechariah 13 indicate that things will be so terrible for the people of Israel during that period of time that two-thirds of the Jews will perish very quickly. Zechariah 13:8: “It shall come to pass that in all the land, says the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein.” In scope, this will be far worse than the Holocaust of World War II, as inconceivable as that might be.

So that during the first half of the 70th week, which is saying during the first three and a half years of the seven-year period of time, Antichrist appears to be Israel’s great benefactor and protector. But in the middle of the week he will turn against the people of Israel, break his covenant with them and now become their great desolator as he commits this abomination which brings desolation, his declaring that he is God. And now he goes to war against the people of Israel, plus against any believers who are in the world at that particular time. In Daniel 7 we are told that he will wage war against the saints. Revelation 13 declares the same thing. And that’s why Jesus in Matthew 24 that we looked at earlier, in verse 15, said, “When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in your holy place, then let them who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and you better pray that your flight is not on the Sabbath day.” And he told them why, verse 21, “because then will be such great tribulation such as has not been since the world began or ever will be, and except those days be cut off, all flesh would perish but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut off.” So what we have here is this seven-year period basically divided into two halves.

In the first half, Antichrist appears to be the great benefactor and protector and friend of Israel. But in the middle of that seven-year period, he will turn against the people of Israel and begin desolating it severely and that’s why Jesus called then the second half “the great tribulation, the likes of which has never been since the beginning of the world or ever will be again.” In other words, the second half of this 70^th week of Daniel 9 will be the unparalleled time of trouble for the world.

Now, when you go to Matthew 24, in fact, we want to turn to that right now. Matthew 24, before Jesus introduced “the abomination of desolation” in verse 15, he said this in verse 5: “For many shall come in my name saying, ‘I am Christ,’ and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then”—and the “then” here seems to imply at the same time these things are going on—“shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another; and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.”

He seems to be describing here before verse 15 major things which will be taking place before “the abomination of desolation” because in verse 15 he then introduces the abomination of desolation. The impression is that Jesus here is spelling out things in chronological order for this future period of time. The abomination of desolation takes place in the middle of the 70th week. That’s followed by the three and a half year great tribulation, but he’s saying here—at least the implication is—before “the abomination of desolation” in the 70^th week you will have transpired in the world what Jesus called “the beginning of sorrows,” literally, the beginning of birth pangs. And he’s saying here the things that will be involved in the beginning of birth pangs. You will have false messiahs, those who will appear upon the world scene saying, “I’m the Messiah.” In addition, the earth will experience wars and rumors of wars. You’ll have nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom. The earth will experience famines, pestilences, earthquakes in many different places. Jesus says all those are the beginning of birth pangs.

The impression is that’s what will be transpiring on the face of the earth before “the abomination of desolation” in the middle of the 70^th week, so the implication is these beginning of birth pangs will be taking place during the first half of the 70^th week; in other words, during the first three and a half years. So that it’s not going to be an easy time in many places in the world, even during the first three and a half years.

Now, the interesting thing is, when you go to the Old Testament, you have references there to these kind of things which will happen in the future, and you have Hebrew words which are the parallel of our English word tribulation, even the parallel of the Greek word for tribulation. So the implication is that these beginning of birth pangs are also descriptive of what you could call tribulation.

Now, notice an interesting implication here. He talks here about the beginning of birth pangs. That very expression indicates that there will be more birth pangs coming after: the beginning of birth pangs and then there will be later birth pangs. He’s drawing a metaphor with the birth cycle of birth pangs of a woman as she’s about to deliver a new life into the world. She has birth pangs at the beginning. They’re severe, they cause pain. But, there will be more severe birth pangs, what we often call hard labor birth pangs, after her beginning birth pangs. So Jesus is saying that during the first half of the 70^th week, you have severe things going on in the world but not as severe as the things that are going to come later on. In the beginning, in the first half of the 70^th week, you have the beginning birth pangs or tribulation, but in the second half you’re going to have great tribulation, much more intense agony than with just tribulation of the first half and therefore in the second half, the great tribulation, also means that’s when you have the severe, hard labor birth pangs transpiring here on planet earth.

Now, so that this seven-year period of time, whether you call it the tribulation period, since you have tribulation the first half and great tribulation the second half, or whether you choose to call it the 70^th week of Daniel 9 from Daniel 9:27, either way, we’re talking about this seven-year period of time immediately before the glorious second coming of Christ back to planet earth to set up God’s millennial kingdom while we’re here on planet earth.

Now, some implications of this. We’ve been talking about a seven-year period of time between the rapture and the second coming of Christ immediately after this seven-year period of time. Are there any indications as to why it’s before this seven-year period of time, in light of what we’ve been seeing here, that the Church will be raptured out of the world? Yes, there are implications. We noted earlier that the Scriptures teach that the Church saints will be raptured out of the world before the wrath of God begins to be poured out upon planet earth. Will the wrath of God be poured out on planet earth throughout the seven-year tribulation period? If the wrath of God will be poured out throughout the entire seven years, 70^th week of Daniel 9, and the Church is to be removed before the wrath of God begins, then that would clearly indicate a pre-tribulation rapture, a rapture of the Church out of the world before the wrath of God begins throughout this whole seven-year period of time, the 70^th week of Daniel 9. Are there any implications in Scripture to the effect that you will have the wrath of God here on the earth even during the first half of this seven-year period of the 70^th week of Daniel 9? I’m convinced that there are implications to that effect.

Read Part 7