Tag: Kingdom age

The Rapture of the Church and the End Times.

© 2020 C. O. Bishop

Daniel 9:21-27; 2^nd Thessalonians 2:1-17; 1^st Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 1^st Corinthians 15:50-58; 2^nd Corinthians 5:1-9; Mathew 24, 25:31, ff; Revelation 20:11-15, etc.

Introduction:

Several times, recently, a question has arisen regarding the Rapture of the Church, the physical Resurrection of the bodies of believers, and the End Times, as a whole. For this reason, I chose to spend some time on that subject, today.

There are hundreds of verses in a wide range of places in scripture, giving us information regarding these things, so we are only going to touch on the key passages, in this study, but it still involves a good deal of scripture reading, before we begin to discuss particulars. It is important that we hear the evidence before drawing conclusions. We will begin in the book of Daniel, reading the only timeline given in the Old Testament, then proceed to the New Testament explanations:

Daniel 9:21-27

²¹ Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. ²² And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. ²³ At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

²⁴ Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. ²⁵ Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. ²⁶ And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. ²⁷ And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

2^nd Thessalonians 2:1-17

¹Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, ² That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. ³ Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; ⁴ Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. ⁵ Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? ⁶ And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. ⁷ For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. ⁸ And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: ⁹ Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, ¹⁰ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: ¹² That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. ¹³ But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: ¹⁴ Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. ¹⁶ Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, ¹⁷ Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

1^st Thessalonians 4:13-5:11

(4)   ¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷ Then we which 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. ¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

(5)   ¹But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. ² For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. ³ For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. ⁴ But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵ Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ⁶ Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. ⁷ For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. ⁸ But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. ¹¹ Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

1^st Corinthians 15:50-58

⁵⁰ Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Old Testament Prophecies

The Old Testament is full of prophecies concerning the Messiah, the end times, and especially the coming Kingdom, and a peculiar thing called “The Day of the LORD.”

In Isaiah 11 and other passages, we see the blessed state of those living in the Kingdom age, and that it is all predicated upon and a part of, the Day of the Lord. In Amos 5:18-20, we see the warning that the Day of the Lord is a time of darkness and death, of destruction and punishment, and terrible tribulation. In fact, the passage in Amos is specifically a warning directed to those who missed the point of the “Day of the Lord,” and thought it would all be blessing.

In Daniel 9, we see a timeline which begins with the command to rebuild Jerusalem (not the temple) and runs through the end of the tribulation, as we see by reading the companion book, the Revelation. The oddest thing about this timeline, though, is the fact that it completely leaves out the Church Age!

Daniel gives a timeline of 70 weeks of years (it literally says “seventy sevens”) starting at the command (given in Nehemiah 2:6) to rebuild Jerusalem, and running into the death of the Messiah, at the end of the 69^th week (seven plus sixty-two; I have no idea why it was divided in this way.) That passage describes the death of the Messiah, in Daniel 9:26, and transitions directly to the tribulation period, describing the Antichrist, who makes a seven-year treaty with Israel, and breaks it after three and one half years. We read about that in the New Testament, in Revelation 11-13. Then it describes the fact that the Antichrist will stop the temple sacrifices, and defile the temple, making it desolate. Jesus described this as a future event, in Matthew 24:15, so we know this passage does not refer to the historical event (in 167 B.C.) when the Greek king, Antiochus Epiphanes, sacrificed a sow on the altar in the temple. 200 years after that event, Jesus said that the prophecy in Daniel was yet to come!

The importance of the passage should not be overlooked: It not only tells us what is to come, but makes it clear that none of that prophecy involves the Church age at all! The Messiah was to be killed at the end of the 69^th week of Daniel. The church age began after the death of the Messiah, at the day of Pentecost, and will end before the seventieth week begins. How do we know?

New Testament Explanations

In 1st Thessalonians, we see a similar timeline, but this one has no clear starting date, just an event which we call the Rapture of the Church (though that word is not used in Scripture, any more than the word “trinity” is used there) and a description of what immediately follows:

1^st Thessalonians 4:13-18 describes the Rapture of the Church, and the transformation of our physical bodies, whether we are alive or dead. Notice that it says those who have already “fallen asleep in Jesus will be returning with Him, while those still physically alive will be caught up to meet Him. (1^st Corinthians 15:51, 52 underscores this idea, explaining that it will be an instantaneous change.)

But, bearing in mind that the original manuscripts had no chapter and verse divisions, see what immediately follows, in 1^st Thessalonians 5:1-11—what had just occurred was the catching away of the Church. What Paul describes next is the beginning of the Tribulation, and he says that this is the beginning of the Day of the Lord! So, what portion of the Day of the Lord could be described as occurring like a “Thief in the Night?” Only the Rapture of the Church! All the rest of it is completely spelled out and multiple warnings are given. But as a householder waking up and discovering that he has been burglarized during the night, the World will see the Church evacuated in an instant, and it will be too late to escape the coming Judgment.

Incidentally, we saw, in 2^nd Thessalonians 2:11, 12, that those left behind who have already rejected the Gospel will not get a “second chance to believe,” as suggested by the popular “Left Behind” series. God says that they will universally believe something false about what has happened (we are not told what that falsehood is), specifically “so that they ALL may be damned who believed not the truth” (future judgment because of past unbelief.) There will be millions who do believe during the tribulation, but not a single one who rejected the Gospel before the Rapture will believe it afterward. That is very sad, but absolutely true.

So, giving further thought to the passage in 1^st Thessalonians 4, we may have questions about “So…where have the dead in Christ been, up until His return?” To begin with, notice that in 1^st Thessalonians 4:14, it says that they will be coming “with Him,” when He comes for the Church. They have not been “waiting in the graves.” Their bodies may be in a grave (or not), but the spirit departed and was immediately with Christ. How do we know?

What about the Dead in Christ?

Turn to 2^nd Corinthians 5:1-19, please.

¹For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: ³ If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. ⁵ Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. ⁶ Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

⁷ (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) ⁸ We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. ⁹ Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

Notice that we are assured that when this body is gone in physical death, we immediately will be clothed upon with immortality…some sort of “resurrection body”… in which we will live until our old bodies are also resurrected and permanently glorified at the Rapture of the Church. While we are looking at this passage, please notice that, in 2^nd Corinthians 5:1, we are told “…if our earthly house of this tabernacle (speaking of our physical bodies) were dissolved….” It does not say, “…provided your body receives a proper Christian burial,” or any such thing. People whose bodies were burned up in a fire, or eaten by wild animals, drowned, and ultimately consumed by scavengers on the ocean floor…or simply rotted away completely in a grave, during the countless years when there was no modern embalming…are all treated equally.  

God has no problem reconstructing our old bodies in perfect condition, recognizable by all who knew us, thus fulfilling the promises of Scripture. (Also the warnings of Scripture: on the day of the Judgment of the Unbelieving Dead, God will have no trouble bringing them out, to face the Great White Throne Judgment. But the people who are fearful that a missing limb (or a cremated body, or something) will somehow leave them a cripple in heaven are worrying without a cause: this specifies that if our earthly body ceases to exist, we have a resurrection body supplied immediately. And the passage in 1^st Thessalonians 4 assures us that all believers’ bodies will be reconstructed or transformed, instantaneously, at the Rapture of the Church.

What happens after that?

There is sometimes also a little confusion, as to what occurs after the Rapture. So, let’s have a look: In 1^st Thessalonians 5:1-11, we saw that the Tribulation period will begin with the catching away of the Church, “as a thief in the night.” This is in full agreement with the warning Jesus gave in Matthew 24, where He also said that “these things are the beginnings of sorrows…as of a woman in childbirth…” and that it was to come “…as a thief in the night.”

Notice, too, that in 1^st Thessalonians 5:3, it says that “…when they shall say ‘peace and safety’, then shall sudden destruction come upon them and they shall not escape.”

“When…then” is a time clause: so, what is the key in everyone’s minds, worldwide, to achieving world peace? Resolving the Middle East conflict! The conflict around the Nation of Israel, specifically. World leaders for 60 years have tried to “broker” peace in the Middle East. But in Daniel 9:27, we see that the Antichrist will actually make that peace treaty: a seven-year peace treaty. And he will break it after 3-1/2 years! So…when will the world heave a collective sigh of relief and say ‘At last! Peace and safety’? When that treaty is signed…and we will be gone!

A seven year tribulation (Revelation 6-19) will occur, here on earth, in our absence, culminating in the Lord’s Return, the judgment of the Living Nations (Matthew 25:31, ff.) The Kingdom Age will begin after His return, which will last for 1,000 years, but it will end in the destruction of the unbelievers who will rebel at the end of that time, after which will immediately follow the destruction of the old earth, and the Great White Throne Judgment of the unbelieving Dead (all in Revelation 20.) A New Heaven and new Earth will be created (Revelation 21, 22) and the eternal state will begin, about which we know very little detail, except that sin and suffering will forever be a thing of the long-forgotten past.

So…Now What?

I would encourage each of you to look these things up in your Bible, and understand them more thoroughly: don’t just take my word for any of it. God wants you to know these things for yourselves, and to use them to comfort one another: He says so, over and over!

Lord Jesus, help us to absorb the truth of Your Word, so as to be able to find comfort in these troubling times, and not be overwhelmed by fear, anger or depression. Allow us to comfort one another and offer the same comfort to those around us, in the person of Christ.