Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20050306.htm

SPECIAL INTERLUDE
Clearing Up Today's Unsettling Errors On The Rapture Of The Church
(2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 et al.)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

In the last two weeks, I have been confronted with questions or varying beliefs on the rapture of the Church that differ from what we hold, and that thus promote different ways of living than what we do:

(1) One of our Church members heard a theologian on a radio station teach the Reformed Theology view that the Church will be taken to heaven at the end of the Great Tribulation. This stance does not distinguish between Israel and the Church, so as Israel goes through the Tribulation, it is assumed the Church does also. (John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, p. 13-14).

This stance has spawned political activism on a high order: if Christians go through the Tribulation, the Church should take control of world governments to set up Christ's reign on the earth (Renald Showers, "An Evaluation of Christian Reconstructionism," Israel My Glory, April-May 1991, p. 22), a stance very different from our claim to work for the kingdom of God that is yet to come from heaven!

(2) The February 2002 issue of The Berean Call asserts Old Testament saints are raptured with the Church before the Tribulation. The argument goes that Old Testament saints would never otherwise be raised since the only others ever said in Scripture to be raised aside from Christians are martyred Tribulation saints in Revelation 20:5-6!

Yet, making Old Testament saints part of those who "sleep in Jesus" again errantly blurs the line between Israel and the Church!

(3) Some claim Revelation fails "'straightforwardly'" to mention a rapture before the Tribulation, so it comes after it, Ibid., Walvoord, p. 136 in citing Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation , p. 69! Thus, we are to brace ourselves to go through the Great Tribulation Period!

(4) Others [like Marv Rosenthal] hold the Church experiences the first half of the Tribulation so it will be under the suffering of the first 3 1/2 years of antichrist's rule!

(5) Still others claim the rapture occurs for godly saints, so as Christians mature through the Tribulation, they will be raptured on an individual basis -- the Partial Rapture View (J. D. Pentecost, Things To Come, p. 158 in citing T. Waugh, When Jesus Comes, p. 108)! That leaves us pressured to live well to escape martyrdom under antichrist!



Well, what is the TRUTH so we know HOW to LIVE?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Different beliefs exist on WHO is raptured, and WHEN and WHY that can leave me unsettled on HOW I am to LIVE for Christ. What does the BIBLE teach so I can be SETTLED on all of this?"
  1. Paul wrote to Thessalonian Christians who were upset at hearing some FALSE teaching that the time of the antichrist was upon them, a fear that hindered them from being calm and productive in living and serving the Lord, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2, 3-9.
  2. Yet, Paul revealed the antichrist would not APPEAR to DECEIVE the world WERE CHRISTIANS STILL on the EARTH, for his APPEARING is God's JUDGMENT on a world for REJECTING Christ OPPOSITE the CHRISTIAN'S ACCEPTANCE of Christ, 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, 13 with Daniel 9:27.
  3. In fact, Christians will be glorified and not condemned with the world, meaning they MUST be taken to heaven in the rapture BEFORE the antichrist APPEARS as such, 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
  4. Thus, since Christians will not experience EVEN antichrist's FIRST 3 1/2 years of DECEPTION for having been RAPTURED BEFORE the Tribulation, they were to be comforted and productive in serving Christ, 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17; Acts 1:8.
  5. We answer other questions on the rapture with other passages:
    1. Old Testament saints are not raptured with the Church, for Daniel 12:11-13 indicates they will be raised at the end of the 1,290 days, or 3 1/2 years after antichrist sets himself up as God in the temple in the middle of the Great Tribulation, Daniel 12:11; 9:27. There is no need to blurr the line between Old Testament Israel and the Church!
    2. Revelation 1:19 with 4:1 shows the rapture is before the Tribulation:
      1. John's Revelation is composed of three parts according to Christ in Rev. 1:19: (a) the things John had seen [in Rev. 1:1-18], the (b) things that "are" in the Church era [in Rev. 2:1-3:22] and the (c) things that are "hereafter" [starting in Revelation 4:1 KJV].
      2. Since the "hereafter" part is introduced in Revelation 4:1 with a voice of a trumpet that calls John to heaven, a symbol of the rapture in 1 Cor. 15:51-52 [with 1 Thess. 4:13-18], Revelation 4:1 indicates the rapture occurs after the END of the Church era in Revelation 3:22 to mark the shift in events that lead up to the Tribulation that STARTS in Revelation 6:1!
    3. Christians are not raptured throughout the Tribulation based on how holy they have become (Partial Rapture View): they are all raptured TOGETHER as Paul reveals in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (as follows):
      1. Paul wrote the Thessalonian Christians were all children of light so they were obliged to live as those who "watch" in godly living in the "day" versus those who "sleep" in sin at "night", 1 Thess. 5:5-6.
      2. Then, these believers were appointed not to experience God's wrath (the Great Tribulation, cf. Revelation 6:16-17), but salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:9), a reference to the rapture (2 Thess. 2:12-14).
      3. This salvation would occur for us Christians so we could live together with Christ "whether we wake or sleep", 1 Thess. 5:10.
      4. Since the "wake" theme in this context (v. 5-6) pictures godly living and "sleep" sinful living, Paul taught in verse 10 that God will rapture all believers, godly or carnal, so there is no "Partial Rapture" of believers as they become godly in the Tribulation!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ as Savior from sin to participate in the PREtribulation Rapture, John 3:16; 2 Thess. 2:10-12, 13. (2) Then, may we lean on God's indwelling Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16) to live godly lives, (3) being comforted in the Blessed Hope of the PREtribulation Rapture and (4) serving God in all godly lives and works of discipling others for our Lord!

Lesson: (1) THEOLOGICALLY, (a) the Church will be raptured before the ENTIRE seven year Tribulation Period BEGINS, for that WHOLE era will come as GOD'S JUDGMENT on a world that is guilty of what the CHRISTIAN is NOT -- rejecting Christ! (b) Old Testament saints are not part of the Church, but are raised at the end of the Tribulation Period. (c) Revelation 1:19 with 4:1 indicate the rapture occurs in Revelation 4:1 at the end of the Church era and before the Revelation 6:1 Tribulation Period's trials start, so the book of Revelation implies that the rapture is PREtribulational. (d) 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 shows all Christians will be raptured in GRACE at ONCE, whether they be godly or not, so there is NO Partial Rapture of the godly in the Tribulation! (2) Applying these truths to LIVING, (a) INSTEAD of living under the Mosaic Law or trying to control secular governments to usher in Christ's rule, (b) INSTEAD of living in terror of antichrist's coming reign and (c) INSTEAD of trying to become godly in fear that failure to do so will bring the punishment of martyrdom under antichrist, (d) we are to live in COMFORT of the hope of the PREtribulation rapture and DISCIPLE others in view of that hope.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 In holding to our view that Christ will take the Church to heaven before the Great Tribulation begins, we hold to a view that has a unique track record in recent history, a record that speaks to its credibility as follows:

Dr. John F. Walvoord wrote: "It is rather significant that, without any attempt to establish uniformity in eschatology [the study of last things], the Bible Institute movement of America is predominantly premillennial [belief in the literal thousand year reign of Christ in Revelation 20:4 that comes after the rapture and the Great Tribulation] and pretribulational [that the Church is raptured before the Great Tribulation Period begins]. This has come from taking Scripture in its plain, ordinary meaning and explaining it in this sense. By contrast, educational institutions that have approached the Bible creedally [as in Reformed Theology] tend to make Scriptures conform to their previously accepted creed with the result that most of them are liberals or, if conservative, tend to be amillennial. Pretribulationism has continued to appeal to thousands of lay interpreters because it makes sense out of the passages that deal with the rapture of the church . . ." (Ibid., Walvoord, p. 167 [emphases ours])



Thus, the evidence from recent history itself argues that interpreting the Word of God in a straightforward manner where the interpreter heeds the literal, grammatical and historical contexts of Scripture leaves him arriving at the pretribulational rapture position.

May we hold to the pretriublational, premillennial rapture view and live in comfort and expectation of it as we prepare ourselves and others for Christ's coming first to take us to heaven, and then to return with Him as He "invades" the earth to set up His kingdom of peace and righteousness after the Tribulation.