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The
RAPTURE of the Church "what is it?" One
of the most persistent doctrinal questions from sincere, truth seeking people
today is: What about the "rapture"? What happens when Jesus returns
to earth? How soon is it going to happen? Who will be in it' Many saints, enlightened
by the Spirit, have come to an awakening realization that the old traditional
theories of religion do not harmonize with the pure simple teaching of the Word
of God. We know that Jesus will return soon. Of this there
is no doubt. The Bible makes this much plain. But how soon? And what happens at
that time? Who will see Him? These are questions that deserve an answer. First
let us start from the negative side, and expose the old false teaching so many
hold to. We will examine the teaching and then show when and where this teaching
originated. Then we will look at the Bible and see what it actually says, letting
the Holy Spirit throw divine light on the Word and show how it harmonizes with
what God is doing in the earth today. The word "rapture" does not appear anywhere
in the Bible. Yet His word has been associated with the coming of Jesus, and spoken
of as the "hope of the Church". Although this word is not found in the
Bible, it is found in the dictionary. Some dictionaries give more definitions
and shades of meaning than others, but the dictionary I now have before me says
simply "RAPTURE...strong feeling that absorbs the mind; very great joy." However, to most fundamentalist and Pentecostal people, the
word rapture brings to their mind a picture of white robed saints leaving the
earth and soaring through the air to a meeting on some clouds somewhere in outer
space. This image has been preached evangelistically until many people have come
to accept it as gospel fact, without bothering to check and see if that is what
the Bible actually says. According to the evangelists,
the Trumpet may sound before he finishes preaching, or before you wake up in the
morning. When that happens, the cemeteries burst open and the dead rise, and those
still living go zooming off into space to meet the Lord. The reason for this is,
they say, because the Antichrist will then appear and the Great Tribulation will
begin. And God is far too good to let His people go through much tribulation.
The implication is that they are far too weak to survive in the face of such demonic
power. They will then attend the Marriage supper of the Lamb up in Heaven, get
their "rewards" for their labors here, and have a wonderful seven years
of joy and singing. While their unsaved loved ones, their children who may not
have been born again, and the untaught millions of heathen are suffering untold
agonies on earth. "Good enough for them", seems to be the general attitude.
"They should have gotten prepared, like me." This
may not be your attitude, and this may not even be the way you see the "rapture".
Even within denominations, there are wide differences of opinions on this subject,
ranging from violent "escape rapture" adherents, to those who are shaky
or just don't know. I have had many Pentecostal preachers to write and say, "Brother
Britton, I know my denomination preaches this theory, but I have never gotten
a witness to it, and just can't find it in the Scripture." Because we dare to look
into the Bible on this glorious subject of His coming, and dare to teach differently
than the fundamentalist denominations, some spread the word that we do not believe
in the coming of the Lord, or the catching up of his saints. This is not so. We
believe in a very real "coming of the Lord", while the "rapture"
people actually believe in the "departure of the saints". While we teach
the "appearing of Jesus", they teach the "disappearing of the Church".
I will explain more on that later. "Come
up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately
I was in the Spirit: and behold a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the
throne." They say John was a type here of the Church
being caught up off the earth into heaven. But it says no such thing. It does
not even imply that John left the Isle of Patmos during this time that he was
"in the Spirit". In fact, in Revelation 1:10 John states that "I
was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of
a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega". Here he was in the Spirit first,
then heard the trumpet. I have heard no one argue that he was a type of the "rapture"
here, in Revelation 1. Next we come to the Mid-trib. They believe that the Bible
teaches that the Church will have to go through the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation
while the Antichrist is warring against the saints, but will be raptured and spared
the last three and a half years while God is pouring out the worst judgments upon
the earth. They believe this because of the many scriptures that show God bringing
His people through great fire and into glorious victory. Yet there are other scriptures
which indicate a place of great joy and glory for the Overcomer during this time,
so they surmise that God will take them off the earth during the last half. This
is a "middle of the road" position, designed as a compromise between
two seemingly different concepts in scripture. Finally
there are the "Post-tribulation" people. They believe that the Church
goes through the entire seven years of tribulation (some believe in only 3 1/2
years total), and that only after the tribulation are the saints "caught
up", as according to Thessalonians. They see a Church being empowered by
the Spirit to survive the worst onslaughts of Satan. They believe God is able
to keep His saints in the midst of the fire, as with the three Hebrew children
in the fiery furnace. This is an admirable attitude, and much closer to truth
than the "Pre-trib" view that was born out of fear and selfishness. Some think that if the "post-trib" teaching is right,
that this would mean seven years of horrible suffering and untold agony for God's
people, and almost total destruction of the Church. But this is not so. A beautiful
scripture in Isaiah 26:20-21 shows us that the Lord does not intend for His people
to suffer the horrors of the Tribulation. Someone asks if the Church will be here
on earth for the Tribulation, and the answer is NO! We will be here DURING the
Tribulation, but we will not be here FOR it. While the Day of the Lord is a day
of judgment for the wicked, that same Day of the Lord will be a day of glory and
power for His anointed people! I intend to be here for the GLORY! Isaiah
says: "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors
about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpass. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants
of the earth for their iniquity:" Now, the pre-tribulation rapture people
say that this scripture proves that God will remove His people from this earth
during the tribulation. It proves no such thing, and in fact, it says exactly
the opposite. We will be here while the wrath of God is being poured out, but
it shall not be poured out upon us, for we shall be hid in Christ. We shall be
in an Ark of safety, as Noah was. "As it was in the days of Noah". Some like to point at Enoch,
who was translated that he should not see death, and say that he is a type of
those who are raptured before Tribulation. But Enoch did not live during the time
that judgment was being poured out on the earth in the form of a flood. Enoch
was translated 669 years before the Flood, and never met Noah. In other words,
his translation was not for the purpose of helping him escape the flood. Jesus
did not say: "As it was in the days of Enoch"...He said, "As it
was in the days of NOAH". And Noah went through the flood, protected by the
Ark he had prepared and entered into. And when the flood was over, and the wicked
had been "taken", he stepped out of the Ark, and inherited the earth.
He and his family were the only ones to own the earth now, for everyone else who
might have had a deed to a piece of property was gone, along with their heirs.
So there was no one left to dispute Noah's claim. He inherited the earth. Read
Psalm 37 and see the principle laid down in Scripture. Paul
never preached that message of fear. He never told the people they would escape
the battle. In fact, in Ephesians 6 he urges them to put on the entire spiritual
armor of God in order to be ready to face whatever came in the Tribulation. I
don't know how anyone could miss that, but they just seem to ignore it. Let me
quote from Ephesians 6:13 to see how plain it really is: "Wherefore take
unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand IN THE EVIL
DAY, and having done all, TO STAND." Not fly away, but stand! That's the
gospel Paul preached. That's the true teaching concerning the Day of the Lord,
the Great Tribulation, "that evil day". The
"escape" that the Bible teaches is found in I Corinthians 10:13..."God
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear
it." God and His faithful people have always been victorious, and our "hiding
place" is in Christ. "Your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians
3:3). It is the fearful, the faithless, or the wicked, who seek a geographical
hiding place. Some want to leave the earth and go somewhere else while some cry
for the natural rocks and mountains to hide them. (Rev 6:15) Today, some are seeking
a hiding place in some natural place, a farm, a desert, a foreign country, a wilderness
area, etc. But it will not work. It is only another form of "self-rapture".
You cannot escape from the devil or Antichrist that way. Your protection and safety
is only in Christ, and in absolute obedience to the Spirit of God. Whether it
be on a farm or in the city, in a wilderness area or in a metropolitan center,
the hiding place is the same...in Christ! Hallelujah! Don't criticize those who
leave the city, or move out of California, or go to a farm somewhere. Perhaps
the Spirit has instructed them to do so, and their safety is in their obedience.
And don't criticize those who stay in the city, or refuse to flee from the coastal
areas. They may simply be obeying the Spirit also. And this is where their safety
lies. Everyone must be led of the Spirit, and not persuaded by someone else that
the true doctrine is to "run and hide". Confused by now? No doubt. For as yet we have only explained
the various theories that are being preached about His coming, and given a negative
and confusing picture. But hold on. The picture is getting brighter, and clearer.
The big hassle about the return of the Lord has mostly been as to the time it
happens...Pre-Mid-or Post. But the Spirit is speaking expressly these days, not
so much as to the time of it, but rather as to what takes place when it happens. Everyone has assumed that whenever it happens, we will go
zooming off the earth into outer space to meet the Lord somewhere in another geographical
location. Pictures have been drawn by artists, and distributed by the multiplied
thousands, of Jesus standing on a stratocumulus cloud a few thousand feet in the
air, while Christians are being lifted out of a village below. Some are a few
feet off the ground, others halfway to the cloud, etc. A most unscriptural picture,
yet many form their beliefs from this sort of thing, and take it as acceptable
gospel truth. Let me give you the history of how this theory got started. Perhaps
you have heard of the Irvingite movement, known as the Catholic Apostolic Church.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 12, 1966 issue, pages 648-649, describe Edward
Irving and the controversy over his teachings in Scotland and England in the early
1800's. He was excommunicated by the London presbytery, and in 1833 was condemned
and deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland because of his teaching
concerning "the sinfulness of Christ's humanity". He also began to teach
a "rapture of the Church", after a young scottish lass by the name of
Margaret MacDonald went into a trance and described a vision in which she said
she saw the saints leaving the earth at the return of the Lord, before the tribulation.
Her trance and vision took place in the spring of 1830, while living in Port Glasgow,
Scotland. Her "revelation" was recorded in a book written by R. N. Norton
and printed in London in 1861. I have a copy of this portion of the book, though
it is now out of print and almost impossible to obtain. Prior to this time, the
Church, clear back to the Apostles, had always preached that the Church would
go victoriously through the tribulation. There is no record of the "escape
rapture" theory being preached before 1830. On April 30, 1831, a Mrs. J.
B. Cardale, who later joined Irving's church, had uttered a personal revelation
in a home prayer meeting, echoing Margaret MacDonald's revelation of a pre-tribulation
rapture. It was from this supposed revelation that the
modern doctrine and modern phraseology respecting it arose. It came not from Scripture,
but from that which falsely pretended to be the Spirit of God. Edward Irving accepted
this teaching, and it was taught at prophetic meetings at Powerscourt House in
Ireland, attended much by Plymouth Brethren organizer John Darby. Irving's views
influenced Darby, C. H. Mackintosh, and C. I. Scofield (whose Bible notes popularized
the new theory). So it was a young Scottish girl who originated this idea, and
is so recorded on page 15 of Norton's book on the Catholic Apostolic Church. Darby,
Scofield along with Clarence Larkin and his charts began to teach this new theory,
and in the early 1900's it reached a peak in popularity. So much for the history of the false. Now let us look
at the Bible, and see what it really says about what this "catching up"
is all about. While many Pentecostal people, churches, and denominations were
"dying on the vine", God was still moving by His Spirit. Hungry, concerned
saints began to hear from God in a fresh and glorious way. Half a century after
the restoration of the Holy Ghost Baptism and gifts of the Spirit had begun, a
fresh outpouring of the Spirit swept across America and around the world. Among
the vital truths established through that Move of the Spirit was the fact that
the Body of Christ was one body, and that divisive denominational systems were
not of God. "Come out of her, my people" was the call that went forth.
It became clear to many that no man-made ecclesiastical system would accept or
contain the great thing that God was preparing to do in the earth. In fact, what
God was about to do would be a means of destroying the power of Babylon and the
whole Harlot system. So the Move of God became the worst enemy the denominations
had. Let me make a difference between the denominational systems that divide God's
people and the precious people, preachers, and even officials bound up in these
systems. God loves those dear people, and so do I. But He hates the Babylonian
systems that divide the saints into warring camps and prevent them from progressing
into new spiritual truths. . and SO DO I! Another wonderful
truth that God began to give revelation on was the coming of Christ. First of
all, He gave glorious revelation on the mystery of the appearing of "Christ
in you, the hope of Glory". Light began to break on our hearts, from the
Scriptures, regarding the sons of God, the Overcomer, the Manchild company, the
Army of the Lord, the Melchisedec priesthood, etc. Then the Spirit began to show
us that the old rapture theory of escape did not fit in with the very nature of
God nor the principles by which He always operated. Back to the Bible we went,
to examine again the scriptures we had based this teaching on. Besides the ones
I mentioned in the book of Revelation, there was I Thessalonians 4, Matthew
24, Luke 17, Isaiah 26:20 and others. Other scriptures such as Matthew 25 and
the ten virgins, had been twisted all out of shape trying to make them look like
they were saying that we had been taken off the earth at the rapture. To
give you an idea of the way the scriptures were mutilated by those straining to
prove this theory, let us look at the example in Matthew 24. Here it tells us
that at His coming, "one shall be taken, and the other left". Songs
were written, and sermons were preached, to urge us to be ready to be "taken"
when Jesus comes. When actually, the Bible is saying the exact opposite. It was
the wicked that were "taken" in Noah's day, and the righteous were left
to inherit the earth. So shall it be in the day of the coming of the Son of man. Matthew 24:37-41 says: Now who was taken in Noah's day? The wicked! Will it be different
now? No, it will be like it was in Noah's day. That's what the Bible says. And
if there is still any doubt in your mind as to whether the saints will be "taken
when Jesus comes", let us turn to Luke 17:27. While Matthew says that the
"flood came and took them all away", Luke gives the same account of
this teaching of Jesus, except that in Luke we read: "and the flood came
and destroyed them all". So to be "taken" means to be destroyed
by the judgments that are coming upon the earth. Do you still want to be taken? In
the early part of this 24th chapter of Matthew, Jesus is telling of the signs
of His second coming and the end of this age. In verse 21 He speaks of the Great
Tribulation, and in verse 22 He says that the "elect" will be here at
that time. And in verse 24 He says that the false prophets and false Christs would
try to deceive "the very elect". Then in verses 29-31 He gives a sequence
of events: "After the tribulation of those days,
the sun and moon shall be darkened and the powers of heaven shaken, then the tribes
of the earth shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory, then His angels shall gather the elect together." Now
this should be plain enough, and stop all arguments. But men have devised a scheme
to get around these scriptures. They simply say that "the elect" are
not Christians, they are the Jews who are left here after the rapture. All you
have to do is get a concordance, and read every scripture that mentions the "elect"
of God, and see who they are. Start with Romans 8:33, Colossians 3:12, I Peter
1:2 and Mark 13:20. Good question. The answer is, I believe it and preach it.
But I believe what it says, not the fables men have built around it. Turn with
me now to I Thessalonians 4:13-18... Read the entire context, and see the subject
he is dealing with. He starts out by saying "I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep" (in death). So the subject matter
in this portion of scripture is what happens to those who have died, those who
did not survive until the coming of the Lord, until the manifestation of the sons
of God that he preached and wrote about. Will they miss out on the glory of that
Day of the Lord? Oh, no. Paul tells us in II Corinthians chapter 5 that when a
man of God dies, his body goes to one place and his spirit (his conscious life)
goes to another. "To be absent from the body is to be in the presence of
the Lord." We are not sleeping or unconscious in His presence. That part
of us that has eternal life is still living and conscious when we go into His
presence. Our dead bodies, that part of us that ceases to have life, sleeps in
the grave. Whether it is put into a tomb, or is cremated, or eaten by lions, makes
no difference. When the spirit leaves the body, the body immediately "descends"
into that state of death (lower parts of the earth), while the spirit "ascends"
into His presence. At the second coming of Christ, the
order is reversed. The physical body "rises" or ascends from the state
of death, no matter whether it has become bones, dust, ashes, or food for the
birds. Out of the state of death that physical body rises into a glorified state,
like unto His "body of glory" (Philippians 3:21). Meanwhile, not leaving
the presence of God, but descending with Jesus back into this visible earth realm,
the conscious spirit once again is joined to the body which it left at death.
Only in a much higher realm. (And "higher" does not mean somewhere up
in the sky where airplanes fly and rain clouds drift about). Someone says "Oh,
I want to go to heaven and get my rewards . In Rev 22:12 Jesus said "Behold,
I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work
shall be". Is there a heaven? Of course there's a heaven! Will we go there?
Of course we will go to heaven! But what we are talking about today is the return
of Jesus to this earth, and what happens at that time. I Thessalonians 4 says
nothing about us being "caught away" to heaven. What it does say is
that we who are alive and remain until His coming shall be "caught up".
And it does not say anything about us coming back down after we are caught up.
Once I get caught into that realm of glory where Jesus is, don't ever talk to
me about descending back down into this life of mortality, sickness, aging and
death. The song
writers have said that Jesus "is coming back to catch His waiting Bride away".
The Bible never said that. It never implies that the return of Jesus is to rescue
His bride off this planet earth, take her to another geographical location where
there are no battles or hide her from the face of the Antichrist! When the Bible
speaks of being "caught up", it is not speaking in terms of miles or
light-years away. Turn with me to II Cor 12:1-4... "It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) how that he was caught up to paradise."
Paul had already ascended into the first
two heavens with salvation and baptism in the Spirit. Now he is saying that God
took him for a little while into that realm of life, that third heaven, which
is our inheritance in Christ. Moffatt's translation says "In the body or
out of the body? I do not know. I simply know that in the body or out of the body
(God knows which) this man was caught up into paradise and heard sacred secrets
which no human lips can repeat". In this experience, it was not important
to him to know whether or not his body went into that realm or place. Fourteen
years later he is still suffering the afflictions of a mortal body. But he has
been into that third heaven. He knows it is there. And if he has to lay his body
down in death, he knows that it eventually has to come into that realm of glory
also, by the resurrection power of Christ. Caught up. Of course your answer would be given to that question
by pointing over your head, into the sky above you. But the man in Australia,
or China, or Palestine, would say otherwise. If we all went "up" physically
in relation to where we are, the people of earth would all be flying off in different
directions. If you point up today at noon, then twelve hours later at midnight,
the part of the universe you pointed to at noon would now be down, not up. Actually,
this physical universe is so created so there is no such a place as "up"
in the universe. We can go farther out from the earth, and send space ships to
the moon, and Mars. But the earth is constantly turning, and so is the entire
universe. That's what causes day and night, summer and winter. The
Bible never says that Jesus returns "to" the clouds, or "on"
clouds. It is very careful to tell us that He comes "in" the clouds,
or "with" the clouds. Clouds of glory. Daniel 7:13 says "with"
the clouds of heaven. Does Heaven have clouds? Oh yes. Revelation 1:7 also says
that He comes "with" clouds. Matthew 24:30, 26:64, Mark 13:26, 14:62
and I Thessalonians 4:17 all say "in" the clouds. Hebrews 12:1 tells
us that the heroes of faith are a cloud. Those Old Testament saints that have
gone on to be with the Lord are a great cloud of witnesses. II Peter 2:17 and
Jude 12 both tell us that false ministries are clouds without water. They appear
to be a witness, but they have no life to give. Ecclesiastes 11:3 says that "if
clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth". A true ministry
has life to give, and is willing to empty himself in order to be a blessing to
a dry and thirsty people. Pour his life out for others -- that's what Jesus did.
The Old Testament speaks about a cloud of incense over the Mercy seat in the Holy
of Holies, and says that is where God will appear. "I will appear in the
cloud upon the Mercy seat" (Lev 16:2). Acts 1:11 is a scripture some like to quote,
and they say "See, it says that as He went away, He shall come in like manner.
And He left from that cloud and went up into heaven didn't He?" No, He didn't.
Read it again. Acts 1:9-11... In
like manner. Some say that He will come out of the sky and stop on a cloud where
we will meet Him. But notice that in Acts 1:9 He did not start from a cloud and
ascend to outer space. He started from their visible presence, and disappeared
from view in a cloud, ascending by that means into heaven. Reverse the order,
and we see Him appearing from out of a cloud and descending back into our visible
presence where we can see Him and be with Him. Glory to God! "As He went"
"In like manner". "To
meet the Lord in the air". Not meet Him up in the sky, or in outer space.
But in the air. Air. The stuff we breathe. It is all around us. It's what there
isn't any of in outer space. When airplanes fly up above the clouds, they have
to take their air with them in order to breathe. Wuest translation says we meet
Him "in the lower atmosphere". But it will be in a much higher spiritual
order. Caught up...Hallelujah! I like that. "So shall we ever be with the
Lord." But aren't we with Him now? In one sense, we are. But II Cor 5:6 makes
it plain that "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the
Lord." But when we are "caught up", our bodies are also involved
in this ascent, so that we can be forever in the presence of the Lord in a way
we cannot know now, and still have our body. A glorious body then. So
the sum of what we have said is this: The old pre-tribulation escape rapture theory
that originated with Margaret MacDonald in 1830, and now held by many Fundamentalists
and Pentecostals, has been proven to be false and contrary to scripture. God has
promised to deal with those preachers who lull the people to sleep with this doctrine.
In Ezekiel 13:4-5 He says: God's complaint against the prophets was that they did not prepare the people for what was coming in the Day of the Lord. And in verse 10 He says "Because, even because they have seduced my people saying Peace. And there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar." Irving built the wall, while Darby, Larkin and Scofield daubed at it. But God says it shall fall. The storm is coming. The prophets have said "Peace", and there was no peace. Back to I Thessalonians now...in chapter 5, verse 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."
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