Welcome tonight to our study of end times. Tonight we're on our outline of schedule of events to take place before and after the return of Jesus the Messiah. We're on Roman enumeral three and we are down on letter K. The Rapture of the Saints. This is, I think, undoubtedly the most controversial and disagreed upon subject when you talk about end times. Not the question of, is there going to be a rapture? That's not disagreed upon all those who would particularly take a futuristic view of Revelation. But when will that rapture of the saints take place? That's the question. We will spend at least two periods, two lessons talking about this. And I'm going to share with you what I believe and something of the journey that I went through to come to my position. If you're listening on the CD or on the internet, you need to get the outline for this lesson that is entitled The Rapture of the Saints, which has at the top a kind of a timeline and then a place that kind of gives notes underneath that. Now, the first thing we're going to address is what is the rapture? Assuming that you're new to the study of end times, what is this rapture that we're going to be talking about? Well, first of all, the rapture is when Christians will be caught up to the Lord. over in First Thessalonians chapter four, Paul talks about this. Now the word rapture comes from the Latin word. It's not in the scriptures itself, the word rapture, but it basically means to be caught up. And we see this over in First Thessalonians chapter four, beginning with verse 16, where Paul says, 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. That is those who have died, who have been buried or cremated or buried at sea, it doesn't matter. But those who are Christians who have died will be raised up first. There will be a resurrection of their bodies. Then we who are alive and remain, that is Christians who are living, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord. And so at this time when Christ returns with that shout A voice of the archangel with the trumpet of God blast. Those who have died as Christians, their bodies will be miraculously raised up. And those who are living will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, which is faster than the flash of an eye blink. But they'll be changed and will rise up in the air and meet the Lord. who is coming back in the sky. So first, Christians will be caught up. Secondly, Christians will be changed. Paul talks about the change that's going to take place to Christians when this rapture happens. You see that over in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 51. Paul says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, And that's his euphemism for death. In other words, we're not all going to die, but we will all be changed. You remember we saw in the Thessalonians passage that those who have died as Christians will be raised up, resurrected, and those who are living will be caught up. We're all going to be changed. Both the ones who are resurrected and the ones who are living, we will be changed. Now he's going to talk about that. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it will be instantaneous, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable. Now here he's talking about the change that will take place in the Christians who were first resurrected, who have died. And that is, they will be raised imperishable. Their bodies were laid in the grave, perishable. They decay. A body stays in the grave long enough, it will decay. You and I know this, because our bodies that we have now are perishable. When those who have died come out of the grave resurrected, their bodies are going to be imperishable. They're going to be different. They're going to be changed. And then he says, and we will be changed, meaning those who are alive. But this perishable must put on the imperishable. Those of us who are living when this happens, our bodies are going to be changed as well as those who are resurrected. Our bodies are going to become suddenly imperishable. This mortal must put on immortality. The mortal body we have now is going to be transformed and it will be an immortal body. That is, it will not waste away, but will continue on forever. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying which is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your steam? In other words, death will be, its final defeat will come with the resurrection of those who died in Christ and with the transformation of those who are living when Christ returns. Because we're going to be changed. Paul says another word about that over in Philippians chapter 3, in verses 20 and 21, about this change. For he says, Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state, that's this body we have now, into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. We are going to have glorious, imperishable, immortal bodies. Now Paul spends some more time in 1 Corinthians 15 giving some more details about our resurrected bodies or transformed bodies, but we will not take time to look at that right now. We will look more at that when we look ahead in our outline at the resurrection. But it's enough for you to understand now that at this time of the rapture, when the church is caught up, they will be not only caught up, but they will be changed. We'll become imperishable. Our bodies will be able to go right through the ceiling. That won't be a problem, because you think, well, what if I'm inside? That won't be a problem. Jesus could go through walls when he had his resurrected body. So you'll just go right up through the ceiling, won't even make a hole. Everything will be great there. You'll be transformed. You'll be changed. You've heard me say, I think we'll be in our perfect state, and our bodies will be perfect. Everybody's body will be perfect. Now, to me, that means everybody is going to be ball-headed. Because I see that as a state of perfection. Because the Lord covers up the heads He's ashamed of. Right, Mark? Those He's proud of, He uncovers. Okay. So we'll be changed. Those who believe in the futuristic interpretation of Revelation all agree that there will be a rapture take place. Where the disagreement comes in is, when will that rapture take place? Now, there are three main views on this, and many sub-views, but the three main views are, first, you have the pre-Trib Rapture, and all of these Raptures are spoken of in relationship to the Tribulation, that seven-year period of history that we've already studied. It's divided into two three-and-a-half-year periods, first being the Tribulation, the second being the Great Tribulation. Now the pre-trib people say that the rapture of the church can occur at any time prior to the tribulation. It could be tonight, it could be next year, it could be any time prior to the tribulation. They say that the church will be raptured, Christ will come back for his church, and then the church will be taken up to heaven where they will be rewarded, get their rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, they will be married, the marriage to the Lamb takes place, and there will be blessed fellowship with Christ. So while the world is going through this tribulation and while people who become Christians during this time are going through the tribulation with suffering and pain, The church is up here just having a great time of fellowship with God, and married, and rewarded, and just having a wonderful time. That's the perhaps most popular view, and it's been popularized, started off with the Schofield Study Bible. It was very popular back a number of years ago. I began my journey in the Christian life as a pre-trib person because that's all I knew. That's what I studied and that's the book I read, so I thought that's got to be it. The next view is the mid-trib view. This is that the church will be raptured at the middle point of the tribulation. And then there is the post-trib view, which believes the church will be raptured at the end of the tribulation with the return of Christ. They believe that when the trumpet sounds, and when the angel shouts, that the church will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air, and then they will descend back with Him as He wars against the Antichrist and his followers. Now there are three words, basically, that the Scripture of the New Testament uses to talk about Christ's return. Now let me just explain for a moment. One word is parousia and it's translated appearing many times. Now the pre-trib people believe that the parousia takes place when the church is raptured before the tribulation. In other words, that Christ comes for His people. They make a distinction between Christ coming for His people and Christ coming with His people. They would say the Thessalonians passage we looked at is Christ coming for His people. And they would call this His parousia, His appearing. And they would say the apocalypse, which is the second word used in the New Testament to talk about Christ's return. And that word basically means revelation. They say this takes place when Christ comes back. And then the third word is epiphany, which basically means manifestation. And they would say that this also takes place when Christ comes back. So basically what they're saying is that you have two aspects to Christ's return. He returns for His saints when He raptures the church at some time before the tribulation. And then He comes back at the end of the tribulation with His saints. And His coming again then is one of judgment on the wicked. They stress that this apocalypse and this epiphany is a time of judgment. Now some of the pre-trib people say that this rapture is going to be a silent, almost a secret event. That the world is just going to look around and all of a sudden the Christians are going to be gone. What happened? Where did they go? Others admit that there will be maybe a trumpet blast or a big shout and then all of a sudden, all of them are gone. The post-trib people, we believe this parousia is going to take place when Christ returns, that the apocalypse takes place when Christ returns, that the epiphany takes place when Christ returns. In other words, we do not separate the coming of Christ into two events, but we believe that these three words all refer to this one event. The pre-Trib people believe the Paraseer refers to the Rapture, and the other two words, Apocalypse and Epiphany, refer to Christ's return. Okay, you see the differences? Post-Trib say all three words describe one event. Preacher, people say, no, there's actually two events to His coming. And parousia refers to the first one when He comes for His church, and apocalypse and epiphany refers when He comes with His church at the end of the tribulation. Now, what we're going to do today, and as I began to study what the Bible said about the rapture and the tribulation, I began to become more and more convinced that the church was going through the tribulation. And I want to share with you some of my understanding and some of my findings. And what I want us to do tonight is we're going to look at these three words that the New Testament uses for Christ's return. Parousia, Apocalypse, and Epiphany. And as we look at these passages of Scripture, I want us to ask ourselves, where does each passage fit the best? Does it make more sense, the meaning of this passage, if we hold to this pre-trib view? Or does the passage make more sense if we hold to the post-trib view? In other words, let's see what the Scripture says. If we went to it without any bias whatsoever, what would it tell us? First, let's look at the word Now what I have done is I have labeled each of these passages with a letter and a number because I want us to put on this board where this passage fits the best. What makes the most sense about this passage and the understanding that would make this passage make sense. First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 15 through 18. Now you might want to open your Bibles and go along with this. I would encourage you to do so. And we saw this a moment ago. 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." That word coming is that word parousia. We're looking at passages right now that use this word to talk about Christ's coming, parousia. The parousia of the Lord will not precede those who've fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." Now, from this passage, it's clear to us that Christ coming for His church will be attended by a shout, the voice of an archangel, and the heavenly trumpet blast. That's what it says. So there seems to be nothing secret or silent about this coming of the Lord for His people. As you look at these two positions, the pre-trib rapture or the post-trib rapture, which category does this verse make the more sense? If you hold to a secret rapture, then it clearly couldn't fit there because we got a sound of a trumpet and we have a shout of an archangel, okay? But not all preacher people say it's going to be a secret rapture. There's one other word I think that will help us to know where to place it. And that is the word found in verse 17, meet. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with Him. Now that word meet is an interesting word. It's only used two other times in the entire New Testament. Once on the lips of Jesus and once Luke gives it in Acts. But what it refers to, it refers to a delegation going out to meet a person of honor and then accompanying them back to the city or the destination. A person of honor is coming so you want to go out and meet him. So you go out and you meet him and then you walk back with him to the destination where you came from. Now look over in Matthew 25 where Jesus uses it in the parable of the ten virgins and you'll see that picture coming out of them going out to meet the bridegroom. Matthew 25, then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Same word for meet, right there. Meet him in the air. They went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flashes of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, They all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, Here's a bridegroom, come out to meet him. And all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. The picture is they went out as the bridegroom was coming, met him, and then they went back to the bridal feast. Going out and then coming back. Over in Acts chapter 28 verse 15, Paul is traveling to Rome. And as he approaches Rome, when he is still about 20-something miles out, a delegation from Rome, go out to meet Him, and then they come back with Him to Rome. Verse 15, And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as a forum of a pass and three taverns to meet us. Meet, that's a word. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. And as we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay with himself with the soldier that guarded him. So what's the picture here? This delegation from the church at Rome hear Paul's coming, so they in honor go out and meet him and then walk back with him to Rome. Now with that understanding of the word meet, and we read over in 1 Thessalonians, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The idea of going up, meeting, coming back, which one of these two views best suits that understanding of meet? The preacher of people say that Christ comes, His people come up and meet Him, and then they go back into heaven for an undetermined period of time, at least for seven years. The posterior people say that when Christ returns, the church will be called up to meet Him in the air and then come back with Him. So which one of those two positions best explains this verse? Anybody want to say? Would not it fit better in this position, that they would meet Him and come back? Well, we all would like to be raptured out before, but it's not again a matter of what we prefer, but what does the Scripture teach? All right, now let's look at the next passage, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8. Here again the word parousia is mentioned. It's used. Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth. and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming, His parousia. According to that verse, Jesus' parousia, His coming, is associated with what? Whose destruction? The Antichrist. Alright, so, according to this verse, which one of these positions better meets that passage? that he will appear, the parousia, will come when he destroys the Antichrist. All right? So we've got another one over here, P2. All right? Next verse, P3, 1 Thessalonians 3, 13. So that he may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming, the parousia, of our Lord Jesus with all His saints." Now this says the parousia occurs when He does what? Comes with all His saints. Comes with them. So which one of these two positions does that passage in the understanding best? It would have to be here because here He is coming for His saints. Here He is coming with His saints. All right? So let's put... That's correct. That's correct. All right. All right, now let's look at the next passage. Matthew 24, verses 27 through 31. Again, these are from our own Lord speaking. He says, Well, just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, So will be the coming, the parousia, of the Lord. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky. The powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other. Now from this passage the parousia is definitely a glorious event things are happening Bright sky and all this stuff great power and glory it takes place after the tribulation Jesus has talked about the tribulation before these verses and it takes place concurrent with the rapture, verse 31. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together the elect from the four winds, one end of the earth to the other. Which of these best suits that verse? So we've seen all the uses of parousia. None of them fit the pre-trib position. All of them fit the post-trib position. Is it really wise to say that this is two different events, the parricia, the apocalypse and the epiphany? Let's look at the word apocalypse, which basically means revelation. Now the pre-trib position says that the apocalypse of Jesus will occur at the end of the tribulation when He comes back. That is His revelation. The post-trib, we also say it will occur when He returns, because again, we say all three of these words refer to one event, not two separate events. First, over in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 7 and 9, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation, the apocalypse of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now what's Paul telling these people to eagerly wait for? Eagerly wait for the apocalypse of Jesus. Eagerly wait for the apocalypse of Jesus. Now does that make any sense? that the church should be eagerly waiting for the apocalypse of Jesus, if they're already in heaven with Jesus, having been married to Jesus, having already been rewarded for all their good deeds, why would they be awaiting, looking for the Second Coming when they've already gone to be with Him? And they're enjoying fellowship, and they've been married, and they've already received all their rewards. So that passage really doesn't make much sense that Paul would say, hey, eagerly waiting for the apocalypse of Christ if they are already in heaven with Him now. Would you agree? So that's A1. Suits best, makes more sense over here. A2, 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 6 and 9. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed, apocalypse, from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Now Paul is saying here that it's only just that God render and repay those who have afflicted them and give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well. And when will this relief come? When will He repay their affliction? when Jesus will be revealed. That's the word, apocalypse. And it seems to me that Paul is expecting the church to experience affliction until the apocalypse of Jesus. And it is at the apocalypse of Jesus that they will experience relief. And it is at the apocalypse of Jesus that he will repay those who have afflicted them. Again, that doesn't make sense if they've already been removed. Why is it that they've got to wait until the apocalypse to get relief? And again, the indication is that Paul expects them to keep on experiencing this affliction until Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty flaming angels. Now again, there's no way you can see that as anything other than His return. Nothing secret, He's flaming angels. Nothing about the pre-trib rapture, if He comes to get His church, says anything about flaming angels. So that passage would suit better under this position as well, where it makes sense. Another place apocalypse is used is in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 13. but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation, at the apocalypse of His glory, you may rejoice with exaltation." Now what's Peter saying? He's telling these Christians that they will be rewarded for their sufferings when Jesus returns in great glory at His apocalypse. He says, keep on realizing the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so at His apocalypse, at His return in great glory, you can share in that glory. Now, if Christians have already been taken out and they've already been rewarded in heaven, and they've already married to Christ and enjoy blessed fellowship, then why does he tell them that they're going to be rewarded when Christ returns at His apocalypse? That doesn't make sense, does it? That verse fits better with the poster of view. All right, now let's look at A4. Peter again. He says, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor." When? At the revelation, at the apocalypse of Jesus Christ. He says, the proof of their faith, how precious it is, will come out and be revealed at the return of Jesus. The fiery trials that they're experiencing now are purifying their faith. He seems to be indicating that the fiery trials will not end until the revelation of Jesus. And it is their steadfastness in the tribulation that has shown the high value of their faith. And this will result in praise and glory and honor at Jesus' return. Now this verse, again, makes no sense if the church has already been taken out, already been rewarded. They've already received their rewards. That doesn't make any sense. He says, hang in there, buddy, and when Christ returns at His apocalypse, your quality of your faith will be revealed. Are we in somewhat agreement then that this verse fits better with that position as well? There is a third word that's used to speak of the coming again of Christ, and that's the word epiphany, which means manifestation. Now the pre-tribs say the epiphany of Jesus is after the tribulation and coincides with his apocalypse or his revelation. Hence, you see the green line, which stands for the pre-Trib view, going from Apocalypse up to Christ's return and from Epiphany up to Christ's return. So, they agree with the post-Trib folks that the Epiphany has to do with Christ's return. The only word they disagree on is this Parousia. Let's look at the Epiphany then. Look in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. He says, then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring an end to the appearance, that's the word epiphany, by the appearance, bring to an end by the appearance, epiphany of His coming, His parousia. Certainly, there is truth here that the epiphany occurs at the end of the tribulation. But it also seems clear to me that parousia and epiphany are put together. As it says, put to an end by the appearance, epiphany, of His parousia, of His coming. So that clearly fits better with the post-trib view that the parousia and the epiphany and the apocalypse all refer to Christ's return in power and glory. So, I think we would have to say that this fits better with the post-trib view. All right, let's look at the second one. 1 Timothy 6.14, Paul says, so that you keep the commandments without staining or reproach until when? Until the appearing, the epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul is saying. He says that you keep the commandments without stain or reproach until the appearing, the epiphany of Jesus Christ. Now how can that make sense that he'd be telling Christians to keep the commandments of the Lord and to live above reproach if they already raptured out? They've been taken out long before the epiphany ever takes place. The only way that passage makes sense if he's talking to Christians who are still here when the epiphany happens. Because he tells them, hang in there, keep obeying the Word until the appearing of our Lord Jesus. So they must be on earth until this appearance of Jesus takes place. So we would have to put this verse up there as well. Let's look at the next verse on the epiphany. That's 2 Timothy 4.8. Paul says, In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His epiphany. who've loved his appearing, who've loved his epiphany. Paul said there is a righteous crown awaiting for those who have longed for and looked for Christ's return. And that doesn't make sense if they've already been taken out and rewarded and given their crowns and the blessed fellowship. Why does he tell them then to wait for this day and rejoice about this day coming when they've already received it, if they've been raptured out before. But if indeed they are living and only taken up to be with the Lord at the end of the tribulation, then it makes sense that they are eagerly waiting and rejoicing at His coming. So what is the blessed hope? The blessed hope for the pre-tribber is the rapture. That's what he's looking forward to. That's going to get him out of everything. That's the blessed hope, the rapture. But for the post-trib person, the blessed hope is Jesus coming back. Because that's going to happen at the same time that the rapture takes place. All right, look in Titus chapter 2. So E3 would be up here as well. Titus chapter 2 verse 13 and 14, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing epiphany of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." Here it says, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing, the epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how does that make sense if I've already been taken out and I'm with the Lord? How then and why then should I look forward and why should my blessed hope be Him coming back when I'm already with Him, rewarded, married? But it makes perfect sense if the blessed hope is His appearing, His epiphany. And that passage fits in perfectly with this understanding. So as we look at the board now, having looked at the passages of Scripture that use the word parousia, apocalypse, and epiphany, all words that deal with the return of Christ that the New Testament uses, what we see is when we look at those verses and let them speak for themselves, the way they make the most sense is to understand them in the framework of the post-trib rapture. That the Christians will go through the tribulation and be raptured out when Christ returns. In fact, you cannot make much sense of them at all if you place them in the pre-trib rapture scheme. It just don't make sense. So, it seems to me that from these passages that we saw, that the parousia, and the apocalypse, and the epiphany, the appearing, the revelation, and the manifestation of Christ, these words all refer to this single event of Christ's return in great power and glory. I do not see a warrant for saying that the parousia refers to Him coming for His saints, as opposed to coming with His saints. So that is a conclusion I have come to. Let me encourage you to look at these passages of scripture as well and see if you can honestly come to any other conclusion. This was one of the strongest evidences to me as I looked at the scriptures as to what it really taught to believe the church would go through the tribulation. Next week, Lord willing, we will look at this question of when the rapture will take place we will look at what does jesus say when did he think it would happen we'll look at paul and see when did paul think it will happen then we will also look at it in reference to the resurrection How many resurrections do you have to have if you have a pre-trib rapture? Does the Scripture speak of those resurrections? How many do you have with the post-trib position? And does the Scripture speak of those resurrections? And then I've saved to the end just to simply make a comment about the early church. What was the position of the early church? Did they believe the church was going through the tribulation or did they believe the church was going to be raptured before the tribulation? When did this pre-trib rapture teaching become popular? Does it go all the way back to the first and second century church fathers? Or do we not hear about it until the 1800s? We'll look at that briefly. I saved that for last because that really is not the determining factor on which one is right. The Scriptures is our determining factor. But I do wonder if this position is right. I would expect to see some of the early church fathers holding this position. and would wonder why God waited 1800 years to show his people this was the correct understanding. But again, that is a minor consideration in my opinion. The main thing is what saith the Lord? What does the scripture actually support? Now there are two books that I recommend to you if you want to do further reading on this. One of them is a book called The Blessed Hope. by George Eldon Ladd. That's L-A-D-D. George Eldon Ladd. And then another book is a series of lectures called Historical Premillennialism. Historical Premillennialism. You can look that up on Google and it will give you the book. I can't pull the name right out of who. That concludes our study.