2 Thess 2. Position and Manner of the Rapture?

Class Outline:

Tuesday August 1, 2023

 

Theme: Biblical data points to an imminent, pretribulational rapture which happens in a moment, transforms our body, meet the Lord in the air, and accompany Him into heaven.  

 

The only question about the Rapture that the Bible does not directly address is when it will occur.

 

“A number of arguments may be presented in support of the pretribulation rapture position. While not all of them are of equal weight, the cumulative evidence is strong.” [Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, p. 193]

 

What does this tell us? The Bible does not state the pretribulation rapture position explicitly and directly.

 

The Rapture itself is not in question. The timing of it is.

 

The rapture is a term used for the church being “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air. This is stated plainly. Sound biblical expositors differ on their interpretation of when this happens. They are all looking at the same passages and coming up with different interpretations.

 

I know that when we look at the biblical data literally and with minimal bias we can be reasonably confident that the church will be raptured before the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

 

The Lord’s coming is imminent. He could return and take up the dead in Christ and then the living in Christ and all in a moment to meet Him in the air from which He will receive us into heaven. That amazing event could happen any day and at any hour.

 

We should also understand at the start that the timing of Christ’s coming and our rapture is of secondary importance to the fact that He is coming. It is also secondary to imminence.

 

Positions on the rapture:

1. Partial rapture position: only those who are watching will be raptured. (not concerned with timing)

 

This idea stems from an interpretation of the watchful steward in Christ’s parable (LUK 21:36) as well as other passages where we are told to “wait,” “look for,” and those who “have loved His appearing” (Php 3:20; TIT 2:13; 2TI 4:8; HEB 9:28). Their view is that only the alert believers will be raptured. Their basic misunderstanding is that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and so no believer will be left behind because of sin. This also neglects the unity of the body of Christ.

 

2. Midtribulation rapture position: the church will be raptured at the end of the first 3.5 years of the Tribulation.

 

They interpret the Scripture to mean that the outpouring of God’s wrath is poured out during the last half of the seven-year Tribulation. They believe that the church will be raptured at the seventh trumpet with the catching up of the two witnesses in Rev 11. This view is essentially a compromise between the pretribulation view and the post tribulation view.

 

This position must weaken the dispensational interpretation of Scripture, deny the distinctions between Israel and the church, deny the doctrine of imminence.

 

3. The post tribulation position.

The church will continue on the earth to the second advent at the end of the Tribulation and be raptured just as Christ is returning and accompany Him to earth.

 

It has obvious issues with imminency, the separation of the church and Israel, the promise that the church will not experience wrath (almost certainly referring to the Tribulation), the purpose of the Tribulation for Israel.

 

God, who inspires all the text, is leaving the timing out on purpose for some reason.

 

ACT 1:6-7

“Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;”

 

4. Pretribulation position.

The church in its entirety will, by resurrection and translation, be removed from the earth before the Great Tribulation.

 

We will look at three key passages and a few other supporting ones to show that the pretribulation position is the best view. We also have to acknowledge that there are still some things that we do not yet understand.

 

JOH 14:2-3

Believers are received to heaven when He comes again.

 

JOH 14:2-3

“In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

 

There is no detail here, but the promise of the rapture is here. Nothing is revealed about the time or the circumstance (in the clouds of the air, in a moment, etc.).

 

This passage does reveal one key point: this coming for believers is for the purpose of taking them to where He is. The context points to heaven.

 

“Receive you to Myself” = heaven, not earth.

 

This becomes important in terms of posttribulationism which holds that the saints meet the Lord in the air and return with Him to earth.

 

1TH 4:15-17

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up [harpazo (Greek), rapture (Latin)] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

 

The place of remaining we conclude is heaven (JOH 14:1-3). There is nothing here about timing. What is here is the manner of being “caught up together.”

 

1TH 4:15-17

This is a guarantee that all believers are going to meet the Lord in the air and from there on always be with Him.

 

1CO 15:50-58

The rapture includes a fundamental change in the nature of our bodies.

 

1CO 15:50-52

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye [idiom for recognition of someone], at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

 

Emphasis is our change of body as well as the speed with which it will take place.

 

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. All of us are born perishable and corrupt by the sin of Adam (ROM 5:12-14).

 

1CO 15:53-57

For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Twinkling of an eye is a reference to a sudden flash of recognition.

 

We should always keep the application of these passages alive within us.

 

“Paul does indeed want Christians to “sit-light” to the world, as eschatological pilgrims ready for the call home, or for the parousia, at any moment.” [Thistleton, First Epistle to the Corinthians]