(Shane Idleman) There is a great deal of dispute in the area of eschatology within the church—whether there will be a pre-tribulation rapture, a mid-tribulation rapture or a post-tribulation rapture. Each set of beliefs has their own interesting points of view. Pastor Shane Idleman says this has become a challenging area for the church, considering what happened in 70 A.D. when Titus conquered Jerusalem.
“Is that where we are heading or have we already gone through it?” Idleman asks. “This subject can get pretty ugly. There are challenges with all of these views, and all of them have strong points. But I will say this, ‘I pray for the rapture, but prepare for the tribulation.'” READ MORE
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RIGHT ON AMEN RIGHT ON….NOW THAT THATS SETTLED LETS WIN THE WORLD TO CHRIST..
This just shows why God is so angry. I heard the other day a pastor was telling people not to worry about getting the mark of the beast, God will understand that u need it to buy and sell, so u will need it to feed ur family, pray for forgivenesses and u will be forgiven. The whole point is the pastor priest etc is not teaching the word of God. The pastors etc are trying to take the role of God and preach their views, blasphemy springs to mind. If not sure try and find it in scripture in (NKJ) bible for confirmation. As Gods wrath is over the teachings of the church to. And no it’s not ok to take the mark af the beast if ur wondering, that’s something once done cannot be undone, it’s eternal damnation.
The following passage from my book, OVERTAKEN UNAWARES, addresses this issue rather conclusively.
When we want to discover what the Bible says about the return of Christ, we tend to start at the Book of Revelation and work backwards. There is a much better way to proceed, however, and that is to start with what Jesus said and work forward. Once, when I was having a debate with someone who taught against the rapture, he finally declared in exasperation: “How many second comings of Christ do you think there are, anyway?” My reply was: “As many as He says there are!” Since Jesus described two distinct and separate events when talking about His return, the correct answer is 2!
Mat 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Mat 24:30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (NKJV)
Mat 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Mat 24:38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
Mat 24:39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Mat 24:40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.
Mat 24:41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
Mat 24:42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. (NKJV)
Luk 21:34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.
Luk 21:35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. (NKJV)
Jesus is either confused about what will happen, or He is telling us about two different times when He will return: immediately after the tribulation in the midst of a great cataclysm (Matthew 24:29&30), and at a time when it is business as usual, and “one will be taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:36-42), catching “all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth” by surprise just like a snare (Luke 21:35). It is true that in both cases His people are “taken” (“And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” – Matthew 24:31, and “one will be taken and the other left” – Matthew 24:40), however, the primary characteristics of the settings of these events of cataclysm versus normalcy (verses 29 and 38 & 39) are mutually exclusive, precluding the possibility of putting them together into a single return of Christ. The fact that His people are “taken” in both instances is something that we will examine a little later when we look at the parable of the tares.
The Rapture in Scripture
In light of the above, which of these two returns of Christ do you think Paul is referring to in 1st Thessalonians 4:13-5:3?
1Th 4:13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
1Th 4:15 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 by no means precede those who are asleep.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:17 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1Th 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.
1Th 5:2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (NKJV)
This of course is Paul’s description of what we have come to refer to as the rapture. It’s true that the word rapture does not occur in the Bible, but the idea is there because it is a translation into English of the Latin word “raptus,” which is a translation into Latin of the Greek word “harpazo,” which is translated into English in 1st Thessalonians 4:17 as “caught up.” This may have been a round-about way to come up with this term, but we can see from this that it is not inappropriate.
Discovering that the term “rapture” is actually valid does not answer the question of where to place this event however. Should we associate it with Jesus’ return at a time when life will seem normal as in the days of Noah, or with His return at the end of the tribulation? At the end of the tribulation, the world will be in the midst of what scientists refer to as an “Extinction Level Event” (Matthew 24:21&22 & 24:30), so that “day of the Lord” could not possibly sneak up on the world like a “thief in the night,” or come at a time when people are saying “peace and safety” (1st Thessalonians 5:2&3). Paul must be referring to the other return of our Lord that we just read about in Matthew chapter 24: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:36-42, NKJV). We know from this that just as the destruction of the flood occurred immediately after Noah entered the safety of the ark at a time when people were unaware of their impending doom (Matthew 24:38&39), the day of the Lord in which “one is taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:40&41) will occur when it is unexpected and will be followed by “sudden destruction” (Matthew 24:38&39 & 1st Thessalonians 5:3). This day of the Lord, then, is the day of the rapture!
The fact that Christ returns twice, coming back the first time to take His people to be with Him before the destruction that is about to befall the world begins may seem to be obvious, but there are those who try to make a case against this and finding solutions to the controversies we explore in this book requires being able to determine with certainty that the rapture is not only real, but where it belongs on the prophetic timeline, so I want to show you another reason why we know that this is when the rapture will occur.
The Harvest of Tares at the End of the Age
Mat 13:24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;
Mat 13:25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
Mat 13:26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
Mat 13:27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
Mat 13:28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
Mat 13:29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ‘ ” (NKJV)
After hearing the parable of the tares, His disciples ask Jesus to explain it to them. His answer turns out to be an unexpected treasure trove of information about the end of the age.
Mat 13:36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
Mat 13:37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
Mat 13:38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.
Mat 13:39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. (NKJV)
There are two things that are important to note here: first, He is giving us what we need to correctly place this event on the prophetic timeline (“the end of the age,” verse 39), and second, He identifies who the reapers are (“the angels,” verse 39). The age we are currently in of man’s rule upon the earth will end when Jesus returns to reign for a thousand years, so this places the events He is describing after the end of the tribulation at the beginning of His millennial reign (Matthew 24:29&30, Revelation 20:1-6). At that time, the angels will have an important job to do:
Mat 13:40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.
Mat 13:41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,
Mat 13:42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! (NKJV)
Our conclusion from verse 39 that the “end of the age” is a reference to the end of the age of man and the beginning of Christ’s kingdom is confirmed when He says “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness” (verse 41) indicating that His millennial reign will have begun. We also discover what happens to the “tares” or “the sons of the wicked one” (verse 38): the angels gather them and cast them into the furnace of fire (verses 41&42).
The Harvest of Wheat at the End of the Age
This story is mainly focused on the fate of the tares, but what about the good seed or the wheat? It is also harvested by the angels:
Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ‘ ” (NKJV)
We know from the parable of the tares that the angelic reapers will do their work at the end of the age and will not only gather the tares (the sons of the wicked one) to be cast into the furnace, but will also gather the good seeds or the wheat (the sons of the kingdom) into the barn (Matthew 13:30). Matthew 24:31 also refers to the harvest of the “sons of the kingdom” by the angels: “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” This will occur at the end of the age when Jesus returns “after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29) so this is referring to the same event. This gives us the pivotal fact that we need to determine where the rapture fits into all of this: we now know that when Christ returns at the end of the tribulation, the angels will be the ones doing the reaping and gathering His elect. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but it makes all the difference because in the case of the rapture, the angels are not the ones doing the reaping!
As we just saw in Matthew 24:29&31, when Jesus returns “after the tribulation of those days,” He will “send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” In this instance, instead of going Himself to gather His elect, Jesus sends His angels to gather them from “the four winds,” and they return with them after traveling “from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). Note that in this case there is no indication that any of the elect that are being gathered have been resurrected. In 1st Thessalonians 4:17, however, instead of the angels gathering His elect from all over the world and bringing them to Christ, Jesus Himself comes to His elect, resurrects them if they are dead, and catches them up into the clouds to directly meet Him there. In the rapture, it will be Jesus who is doing the reaping, not the angels. Let’s look at it again:
1Th 4:13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
1Th 4:15 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 by no means precede those who are asleep.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:17 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. (NKJV)
The distinction between the reaping of the angels in Matthew 24:29-31 and the reaping done by “the Lord Himself” in 1st Thessalonians 4:16-18 is important because it tells us that the rapture will not occur when Christ returns at the end of the tribulation when the angels are the ones gathering His elect. (Sorry, post-tribbers.) It will happen when He comes as a thief in the night at a time when people are saying “peace and safety” (Matthew 24:36-42 & 1st Thessalonians 5:2&3). The rapture will come on the world like a snare and be followed by sudden destruction (Luke 21:35 and 1st Thessalonians 5:3). The harvest of the elect by the angels at the end of the tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31) must therefore be the gathering to Jesus of believers that are present on the earth after the rapture occurs that have survived the tribulation.
Tribulation Survivors
You may have been taught that all of the saints on the earth during the tribulation will be killed by the antichrist (I’ve heard that one from the pulpit myself), but it’s not true:
Mat 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22 And unless those days were shortened, “no flesh would be saved”; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. (NKJV)
This passage not only confirms that there will be elect for the angels to gather that have survived the tribulation, it sheds light on another controversy, and that is whether the millennial reign of Christ is literal or figurative. Why would it matter if the cataclysm at the end of the tribulation goes on past the point at which “no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24:22) if the Millennium is not a literal reality? If there were no literal post-tribulation millennial reign of Christ, His return at the end of the tribulation would initiate the “day of the Lord” in 2nd Peter 3:10 during which “the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up,” followed by the Great White Throne Judgment and the New Heavens and the New Earth (Revelation 20:11 – 21:1). Since we have already disproved the idea of a post-tribulation rapture, there is no other reason that any flesh would need to survive past the return of Christ except a literal millennium in which Jesus rules for a thousand years over a reproducing population of flesh and blood people. Furthermore, if there is no reproducing population during a literal millennium that lives and sometimes dies, and all the dead in Christ have been resurrected in the rapture and the resurrection of those beheaded for their testimony during the tribulation described in Revelation 20:4, where do those whose names are found in the Book of Life after the resurrection at the Great White Throne Judgment come from? (Revelation 20:12-15)