Professor’s Corner: Rapture Vs Second Coming
Pastors Matt and Paul have honored their old Greek and Hebrew professor with the privilege of writing to you each week under the heading of “Professor’s Corner.” I look forward to addressing a wide-variety of topics relating to our faith. This first submission will discuss eschatology, that is, the doctrine or study of last things, specifically the often debated subject of the Rapture. The Rapture is the name applied to the Scripturally-based truth that teaches before the final Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ where He will physically return to earth to do away with all evil and sin and rule His creation from Jerusalem, He will appear in the air above the earth to “catch up” (the literal meaning of the word “rapture”) all believers, both those who are alive and those who have already died. I pray the Holy Spirit will apply this brief but important lesson to your heart and that it will be a blessing and encouragement to you in your studies of God’s Word, as well as in your daily walk with the Lord. I welcome your questions or suggestions for future writings.
The following chart, taken in great part from Ice & Demy’s Fast Facts on Bible Prophecy, is intended to demonstrate that the Rapture and the Second Coming cannot be considered the same event, that the Rapture is a related but separate event to the Second Coming, and that because the Rapture is a separate event, as clearly taught in Scripture, its validity as an eschatological reality is established. Both those who claim there is no Rapture and those who maintain that the Rapture is but an integral part of the Second Coming deny the clear teaching of the literal interpretation of Scripture. The distinctions between the two events cannot be resolved apart from a pretribulational, pre-millennial hermeneutic. Additional notes are taken from Ice’s The Thomas Ice Collection.
| RAPTURE CONTRASTED WITH SECOND COMING | |
| Rapture | Second Coming |
| Translation of all believers | No translation at all |
| Translated saints go to heaven | Translated saints return to earth |
| Believers go up | Christ and believers come down |
| Christ does not come to earth; He comes in the air | Christ comes to earth |
| Earth not judged | Earth judged and righteousness established |
| Imminent (could occur at any moment) and signless | Follows definite predicted signs |
| Precedes Tribulation (before the Day of Wrath) | Follows Tribulation (concludes the Day of Wrath) |
| Tribulation begins | Millennial Kingdom begins |
| Not in the O.T. | Predicted often in the O.T. |
| Believers only | All humanity |
| No reference to Satan | Satan is bound |
| Only believers see Christ | Every eye shall see Him |
The rapture is most clearly presented in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. In verse 17, the English phrase
“caught up” translates the Greek word ἁρπάζω “harpázô,” which means literally “to seize upon with force” or “to snatch up.” Latin translators of the Bible used the word “rapere,” the root of the English term “rapture.” At the rapture living believers will be “caught up” in the air, translated into the clouds, in a moment of time.
John Walvoord, eminent biblical scholar of a past generation, concludes that these “contrasts should make it evident that the translation of the church is an event quite different in character and time from the return of the Lord to establish His kingdom, and confirms the conclusion that the translation takes place before the tribulation.”
Paul speaks of the rapture as a “mystery” (1 Cor. 15:51-54), that is, a truth not revealed until its disclosure by the apostles (Col. 1:26), making it a separate event, while the second coming was predicted in the Old Testament (Dan. 12:1-3; Zech. 12:10; 14:4).
The movement for the believer at the rapture is from earth to heaven, while it is from heaven to earth at the second advent. At the rapture, the Lord comes for his saints (1 Thess. 4:16), while at the second coming the Lord comes with His saints (1 Thess. 3:13). At the rapture, the Lord comes only for believers, but His return to the earth will impact all people. The rapture is a translation/resurrection event where the Lord takes believers “to the Father’s house” in heaven (John 14:3), while at the second coming believers return from heaven to the earth (Matt. 24:30). Ed Hindson, a modern biblical scholar, says, “The different aspects of our Lord’s return are clearly delineated in the scriptures themselves. The only real issue in the eschatological debate is the time interval between them.”
Since Revelation 19:7-8 indicates that the church, Christ’s Bride, is made ready to accompany Christ to earth (Rev. 19:14) before the second coming, how could this reasonably happen if part of the church is still on earth awaiting Christ’s Advent? If the rapture of the church takes place at the second coming, then how does the Bride (i.e., the church) also come with Christ at His return? There would not be sufficient time for this to happen within a posttribulational sequence, but the pretrib position has no such problem.
CONCLUSION
The distinctions between Christ’s coming in the air to rapture His church are too great to be reduced into a single coming at the end of the tribulation. These biblical distinctions provide a strong basis for the pre-trib rapture teaching.
ESV 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left 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 cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
If we study the scripture carefully, it must be concluded that the Rapture and the Second Coming are two different events.
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
