The
Mystery of the Rapture, Place of Safety, and the Wedding Supper
of the Lamb
What is the “marriage
supper” of the Lamb of God? Where will
it take place? Will
it take place in Heaven? Who are the
“guests”?
Who is the
“bride”? Will the saints be RAPTURED to Heaven
for this Wedding Feast?
Will they be protected in Heaven during
the Great Tribulation which rages on earth, as many
evangelicals,
such as
Tim LaHaye, teach? These questions are
answered in this
straight-forward, plain-spoken article. Don’t be deceived! Millions
are being confused and misled by a false hope and expectation!
William F.
Dankenbring
In Matthew 22:11-13, we read: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a
king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.
He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding
banquet, but they would not come. Again,
he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have
been invited: Look, I have prepared my
dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is
ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But
they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business,
while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those
murderers, and burned their city. Then
he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not
worthy. Go therefore into the main
streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and
gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled
with guests.
“But when the king came in to see
the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he
said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind
him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many
are called, but few are chosen” (Matt.22:2-14, NRSV).
What is this parable all
about? And how does it relate to the
so-called “secret rapture” of the saints?
Will the saints be raptured to heaven to marry
the Lamb, and thereby “escape” from the ravages of the Great Tribulation?
Who is the man not wearing a
wedding garment? Does this banquet take
place in Heaven when Christ marries the Church? Is the individual without a wedding robe an
evil spirit who arrives at the banquet uninvited?
Let’s understand this mystery of
mysteries! The “king” obviously is God
the Father, and the Son is Jesus Christ.
So who are those called to the wedding who
don’t come? They represent the Jewish
nation and all those who hear the gospel message, but reject it and refuse to
come to the wedding! They will not become
part of the “bride” – the
Who are those who are called from
the highways and streets, to become guests at the wedding? They represent all those who are called
during this age, and who respond, and come to the wedding. They are not the noble, the rich and wealthy,
but the poor of this world. As Paul
wrote: “Consider your own call, brothers
and sisters: not many of you were wise
by human standards, not many were powerful, not many
were of noble birth. But God chose what
is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things
that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast
in the presence of God” (I Cor.1:26-29, NRSV).
The wedding guests, therefore,
represent true Christians, those who are called during this life, to be members
of the body of Christ, the Church!
When will this marriage supper
take place?
The Coming of Christ
The apostle
John wrote, “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude,
like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals,
crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord
our God the Almighty reigns. Let us
rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride
has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine
linen, bright and pure’ – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the
saints” (Rev.19:6-8).
John
continues, “And the angel said to me, ‘Write
this: Blessed are those who are invited
to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And
he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God’” (verse 9).
This
marriage will occur shortly after the return of Jesus Christ – at his Second
Coming! Revelation 19 goes on to
describe His magnificent Second Coming in might power and authority, to put
down rebellion and to reign upon the earth (Rev.19:11-16).
Where does this awesome wedding
take place?
The vast majority of ministers and
evangelicals, today, teach that the saints will go to heaven, when Christ
returns, and will be “married” at the throne of God the Father.
But is this true?
We read in I Thessalonians, “For
this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are
left until the coming of the Lord, will be no means precede those who have
died. For the Lord himself,
with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s
trumpet, will descend FROM heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be
caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the AIR; and so we
will be with the Lord forever” (I Thess.4:15-17).
Notice! Christ will return FROM heaven, and arrive in
the AIR – the atmosphere surrounding planet Earth. THEN we will be caught up to MEET HIM, as He
is returning to the earth!
The prophet Zechariah goes on to
explain, “Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when
he fights on the day of battle. On that day his feet shall
stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the
Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley;
so that one half the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half
southward” (Zech.14:3-4).
When the Messiah returns, His feet
shall stand in
that very day upon the
Only then will there be time
enough for the great wedding feast of the Lord!
The wedding
will take place on
the earth, in the presence of all the nations, at
Not in Heaven!
Men don’t go to heaven. Jesus’ parable about
the wedding feast shows there will be many “guests.” But some of the guests will not wear “wedding
robes” – that is, the fine linen garments which reflect the righteousness of
the saints! They will try to “crash” the
party, and get in by other clandestine, dishonest, false means. They claim that you don’t have to obey God
and keep His commandments, to enter into His Kingdom – they say all you
need to do is “just believe!”
The invited guests who don’t respond to the
invitation are the nations and peoples of the world who don’t accept Christ as
their coming King, Ruler, Redeemer and Saviour. So they will be forcibly conquered when the
Messiah returns. The guests who try to
steal their way into the wedding are human beings who don’t really follow
Christ. They are wicked, hypocritical,
deceitful “church goers” and false brethren who simply don’t belong because
they have not come out of their sins!
Yeshua says, “Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who
does the will of my Father in heaven. On
that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name
and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew
you; go away from me, you evildoers” (Matt.7:21-23).
Good deeds and works are more important to God than
mere protestations of words and claiming to be a “Christina.” The proof is in the works, the deeds – the
“pudding”!
God loves His people. He wants them to be READY when He comes. Paul wrote, “Husbands, love your wives, just
as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her
holy by cleansing her by with the washing of water by the word, so as to present
the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the
kind – yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish” (Eph.5:25-27).
Note that Revelation 19 says the wife is ready,
the Lamb comes to marry her, and He comes back to earth to do so. She has
been cleansed, and purified, and made spotless and blameless in
righteousness! When He comes, these
saints, comprising the Church, will rise to meet Him in the air (I
Thess.4:16-17), and they immediately return to EARTH (Zech.14:4) – they don’t
go back up to heaven.
The wedding feast will be held on the earth
itself! The earth is God’s footstool
(Matt.5:35).
An Old Testament Type
An Old Testament “type” of this great event is
mentioned in Exodus 24 where Moses and all the elders of Israel “feasted” at
Mount Sinai and “saw God” as it were on a sea of glass – “And they SAW the God
of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire
stone, and it was as it were the body of heaven in his clearness . . . also they saw God, and did eat and drink”
(Exo.24:10-11). Notice that this
sparkling, brilliant “paved work of a sapphire stone” is on the earth, or hovering just above it – not way off up in heaven
somewhere!
A similar scene is depicted in the book of
Revelation, at the wedding supper of the Lamb.
We read in Revelation 15, “And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass
mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the
number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in
their hands. And they sing the song
of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God
the Almighty! Just and true are your
ways, King of the nations! Lord, who
will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you,
for your judgments have been revealed” (Revelation 15:2-4).
At
Many people have been misled by a
pseudo-rapture or variant rapture theory which does not hold water. When
Christ returns, He returns just as He went to heaven (Acts 1:9-10). He
went up in a cloud, once; He will return in the clouds of heaven – once – not
twice. He marries the church when He returns to the earth, after He is upon the
earth, before God’s throne (at His footstool – the earth).
Remember, the presence of the Father is EVERYWHERE
(Psalm 139). The man who did not have on a wedding garment does not refer
to some spirit being, fallen angel, or demon, but to a human being who did not
qualify to be part of the marriage of the Lamb. The wedding garment is
righteousness – “fine linen which is the righteousness of the saints”
(Rev.19:8). This man was not obedient to God and His commandments; so He
did not qualify, as he did not have on righteous garments – garments which
typify righteousness, which is obedience (Psalm 119:172; I John 3:4). He
had apparently not truly, in his heart, accepted Christ as His one true Saviour, and had not given himself to Him in total, abject
surrender, to obey Him – to say, “I do” – to make the full “marriage
commitment”!
.
He tried to enter the sheepfold by a
“different door” (John 10:1-10). This individual may have “thought” he was a
true Christian, but he will be cast in outer darkness – together with the
wicked hypocrites (Matt.22:13). He will not enter the
Let’s really understand this! The “secret rapture” theory espoused by Tim LaHaye and most “Christians,” today, is a serious and fatal
error. It will likely cause immense
multitudes to be unprepared for the diabolical reign of the Beast, or the
Antichrist! They assume they will be
taken up to heaven before the Great Tribulation, but God promises no
such thing! Be sure to read our article,
“The Secret Rapture – Fact or Fallacy?”
They will be completely, utterly unprepared for the great travail
and suffering that will come upon them!
Joseph Goode and other
teachers claim that Christ will take His church up to heaven for a period of
seven years. While there, the marriage
feast will occur in heaven. The saints
then will have to watch the horrible agony of the people “left behind” on the
earth! They will have to see the poor
Jewish Messianic believers go through savage hell on earth.
Is this what God
really intends?
Others claim that the Messiah returns to take
His flock up to heaven after 3 ½ years of the seven-year tribulation period
have passed. Still others say the saints
are taken to heaven for only a few months, and then return with the Messiah to
this earth.
All these theories are DEAD WRONG! The “secret rapture” is a serious deception
of Satan the devil, to destroy God’s people by misleading them into a totally
false sense of security!
When Christ returns, it will be a loud,
shining, shattering, incredible event.
The archangel will blow a loud trumpet.
Paul wrote, “Listen! I will tell
you a mystery! We will not all die, but
we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST
trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (I
Cor.15:51-52, NRSV).
When the Messiah returns, there will be a
mighty shout – the thundering voice of an archangel – which will shake up the
nations (I Thess.4:16). It will be heard
worldwide, and at that point the dead in Christ will rise, and the living
saints will be changed and given a glorious new body, and rise to meet Him in
the sky as He returns to earth.
When the Messiah comes, and the saints are
resurrected, and meet Him in the air, it will be accompanied by THUNDER! And the nations will “SEE the Son of man
coming on the clouds of heaven with POWER and GREAT GLORY. And he will send out
his angels with a LOUD TRUMPET CALL, and they will gather his elect, from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt.24:30-31, NRSV).
The saints will be with Him as He sets His
feet on the
Does that sound like a “secret” coming? The only thing “secret” about it will be its
TIMING! No one will know the “day or the
hour” (Matt.24:36). In that sense, His
coming will be like a thief – totally unexpected by the vast majority of people
(v.42-44).
The Second Coming will not be a silent,
clandestine, secretive, invisible event, with people “disappearing” suddenly
from wherever they are, as rapturists proclaim. Such a theory is in denial of the plain
scriptures. Such a hope is a false hope,
a satanic delusion, a deception of the devil who seeks to entrap and seduce
God’s people into a false sense of security.
They will stumble unwatchful and heedless into the Jaws of Great
Tribulation.
Before Christ returns, there are many things which must occur on earth first! Notice!
In
the prophetic chapter of Matthew 24, the Mount Olivet prophecy, Yeshua gave His disciples a point by point sequence of
events which must take place BEFORE His second coming. Read the entire chapter very carefully.
Yeshua’s disciples wondered about the return of the Messiah
and the end of the world. “Now as He sat
on the
What
did Jesus tell them?
“And
Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am
Christ,’ and will deceive many” (verses 4-5).
Can
you imagine that? The very first thing
Yeshua warned His followers was
to beware of deceivers – false prophets – who would deceive MANY! How true His words have become! Millions are deceived, confused, today, even about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! His
words have been misinterpreted, misunderstood, misconstrued, and manhandled by
many who simply refuse to believe He meant exactly what He said!
There
are many deceivers on earth today – many false prophets – and many of them even
come “in His name,” – that is, claiming to be His ministers, His servants, His
prophets. They claim to worship Him. The apostle Paul warned about such Christians leaders who preach Christ while they deny His
true teaching, His true message: “For such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as
the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their words”
(II Cor.11:13-15, KJV).
Yeshua Himself had severe words for those ministers who
claim to represent him, but in truth deny Him.
He warned: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew
Consider
these weighty warnings of Jesus. Let us
then read very carefully His own words in Matthew 24, about His second coming,
and not listen to the pied pipers of modern religion!
Yeshua clearly indicated God has not told us the day or
precise hour of His coming! If anyone
claims to know the day or hour, then, I would conclude he is a false
prophet. Jesus meant what He said! Guessing games with prophecy will do us no
good. Speculation will not help. But, notice what Jesus did NOT say. He did NOT say we couldn’t know the approximate
time of His return. In fact, He gave
us signs to watch for. He said: “So
likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even
at the doors” (verse 33).
Can Yeshua
Come At Any Moment?
There
is one school of thought which believes Jesus may return at any moment – even
this very night. Those who suggest this,
believe Jesus is returning to rapture away His saints to heaven, first, and
then will come a second time, after a few years, to punish the Antichrist and
the rebellious earth and to install the
Is
there any truth at all to this view? If
popularity is any criteria, then it must be true, because – most Christians sincerely
believe it. Bumper stickers on automobiles announce: “IF
I AM RAPTURED, TAKE THE WHEEL.” But
popularity is no basis of knowing what is right or wrong; we must search the
Scriptures to find out what is the real truth (John 17:17).
Jesus
warned first of all to beware of false prophets and ministers disguised as
ministers of Christ. Then He said: “And
you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled: for all these
things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom. And there will
be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, in various
places. All these are the beginning of
sorrows” (Matthew 24:6-8, NKJV).
We
certainly live in an age where the fear of war, even World War III, is a
breathtaking reality. The terrors of
modern warfare are unimaginable, causing the mind to reel. They are becoming so horrible that multitudes
will go into a catatonic state of shock (Luke
Yeshua’s words have been fulfilled to the very letter.
And famine? Never was
the threat of world hunger ever any worse than right now – and growing worse
daily. World population is burgeoning,
because few if any nations really practice birth control, and the food supply
is beginning to show signs of strain, faltering, and failing. Many millions are soon destined to die from
famine and starvation.
Earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions – these too are increasing.
Jesus said these signs would. be the
“beginning” of sorrows or tribulation.
Next
He prophesied increased persecution upon His true Church, His dedicated
followers. Whereas the
Jesus
told us it would happen. He said: “Then
shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be
hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall
hate one another. And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:9-11).
Jesus
foretold: “And because INIQUITY [lawlessness, sin] shall abound, the love
[natural affection for neighbor, for others, as well as love for God] of many
shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Next on
the Agenda -- The Great Tribulation!
Then
what did the Messiah say would happen?
What comes next? What is the next
sign or event which would happen before His return?
The
very next sign or event to look for, He said, is war in the
Notice it! Let’s pick up the story flow in Matthew 24:
“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, standing in the holy place (whoso reads, let him understand), then let
those who are in
“For
then will be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this
time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were
SHORTENED, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days
will be shortened” (Matthew 24:15-22, NKJV).
The
abomination of desolation will involve foreign Gentile armies surrounding
“Woe to
those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be GREAT DISTRESS on the
earth and WRATH against this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword
and be taken away as captives among all nations; and
Notice! We have seen there will be awesome,
devastating events which will presage the coming of Christ, including the Great
Tribulation itself – and up to this point, Yeshua has
said absolutely NOTHING about the “rapture of the saints”! How could He have left it out? If it is supposed to occur somewhere in the
middle of those fateful signs and events, then why didn’t Christ even MENTION
it?
The
answer is simple – because it isn’t going to happen that way! Modern proponents of a
rapture before the Great Tribulation have it all backwards!
In
this prophecy, Yeshua told His elect, His true
disciples, who are living at the End Time, “So when you see the desolating
sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel
(let the reader understand), then those in Judea must FLEE TO THE MOUNTAINS; the one on the housetop must not go down to take what
is in the house; the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those
who are nursing infants in those days!
Pray that your FLIGHT may not be in winter or on a Sabbath”
(Matt.24:15-20, NRSV).
He
made no mention whatsoever of a secret plan to RAPTURE the church to
heaven. But He DID warn His saints – His
elect – to be ready to FLEE to the mountains, to pray that their FLIGHT would
not have to occur in winter or on a Sabbath, when travel is curtailed. These things would not matter if they were to
be whisked off to heaven!
Thus
far, we have seen absolutely no evidence to support the rapture of the saints
to heaven before the Tribulation, or midway through it. But if there is no “secret rapture” to
protect the saints, how will they be protected?
What is all this about “fleeing”?
Let’s
notice other Scriptures which bear on this important subject.
Those Christians who are watchful, vigilant,
and pray continuously to be worthy to escape those horrifying events to come,
will be spared (Luke
God says of the
The “mountains” mentioned here means the
mountains of
In the Middle Ages, however, God’s Church
fled the confines of the Roman Empire because of its relentless, vicious
persecution, beginning in the days of Nero and continuing through Hadrian, Domitian, and many others anti-Christian emperors (see
Rev.12:6). They escaped to
God is able to protect His people wherever
they are, but when signs of trouble come, He warns them to flee out of danger
and not just stay behind in a dangerous, threatened location. He wants His people to prepare and plan
wisely. Solomon wrote, “A prudent man
foresees evil, and hides himself, but the simple pass on, and are
punished” (Prov.22:3, NKJV).
Isaiah tells us, “Come, my people, enter your
chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for
a little moment, until the indignation is past” (Isaiah 26:20).
I believe when the time comes, God will
reveal to His zealous, earnest, obedient people what they should do and where
they should go. Those who remain behind
will indeed be “left behind” – to suffer the wrath of the serpent, that old
dragon, Satan the devil (Rev.12:14-17).
In
the days when the Roman armies under Titus surrounded
During
those trying times, Josephus the Jewish historian relates, “there was a star,
resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a
whole year” (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Bk.VI,
v, 3).
During
the festival of Pentecost, Josephus relates, “as the Priests were going by
night into the inner temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred
ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and
heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude,
saying, ‘Let us remove hence’” (ibid.).
These
may well have been the voices of God’s people, taking the warning of Yeshua, and beginning their flight to a place of safety
from the ensuing attack and destruction that followed. History records that they fled to the region
of
In
the days of the early
F.
F. Bruce in New Testament History, declares, “At some point between
James’ death and the outbreak of the revolt in A.D. 66, Eusebius says, the
church received an oracle, given by revelation to those in
Says
Philip Schaff in History of the Christian Church, “The
Christians of Jerusalem, remembering the Lord’s admonition, forsook the doomed
city in good time and fled to the town of
“To the Mountains”
How
does this history help us, in our day, to determine how God intends to protect
His people?
The
suggestion that God sent a “warning’ – an “oracle” – to the leaders of the
Church is significant. Why wouldn’t He
do the same, in our generation?
The
Bible specifically says, “Then let them which be in
The
principle which God may intend for us in this generation to derive from these
Scriptures is that He will provide a place of protection for His people no
matter where they live. When we see
danger ahead, in our own region, we should flee to the mountains near us. It is possible that God may provide a number
of places of safety or refuge for the Church during the Great Tribulation. God will reveal what we need to know in a
timely manner, when we need to know it.
His message of warning will no doubt be given to those whom He
“approves” – those who are really doing His bidding, and serving Him, as the
early church in
In
these last days, when once again
But whether or not we are “approved,” or “accounted worthy,” or not, depends solely upon us, as individuals.
Jesus
Christ warned, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down
with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day
does not catch you unexpectedly, like a
trap. For it will come upon all who live
on the face of the whole earth. Be
ALERT at all times, PRAYING that you may have the strength to ESCAPE all these
things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke
When
the Great Tribulation is about to descend like a shroud upon all the earth,
where will God’s true saints go?
Although the Scriptures do not pinpoint an exact location, they do speak
clearly on this subject.
We
read in Revelation, “So when the dragon [Satan] saw that he had been thrown
down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male
child. But the woman [the church of God]
was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the
serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time,
times, and half a time. Then from
the mouth of the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep
her away with a flood. But the earth
came to the help of the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that
the dragon had poured from its mouth.
Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on
the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and
hold the testimony of Jesus” (Rev.12:13-17, NRSV).
The
woman will be protected IN A WILDERNESS region from the ravages of the
devil! But not all will be
protected. Only those who qualify to
escape the horrible things which are shortly going to come to pass, will do so – those who are praying, studying, preparing,
keeping vigilant and alert. Those who
are not doing so will be caught in the trap – seized in the maelstrom – and
will suffer the full wrath and fury of that old dragon, the devil and Satan!
This
protection will last for “a time, times, and half a time” – that is, three and
one half years (compare verse 14 with verse 6 – 3 ½ times equals 1260 days,
which makes a “time” equal to a Biblical prophetic “year”).
God
says, in Isaiah’s prophecy, “Come, my people, enter your chambers, and
shut your doors behind you; HIDE YOURSELVES for a little while until the wrath
is past. For the LORD comes out from his
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will
disclose the blood shed on it, and will no longer cover its slain” (Isaiah
26:20-21). The word for “chamber” is cheder and means, “apartment, secret chamber,
parlor,” from a primitive root chadar, meaning
“to enclose,” as a room or an inner chamber.
David
wrote, “One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days
of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his
temple. For he will HIDE me in his
shelter in the day of trouble; he will CONCEAL me under the cover of his tent; he
will set me high on a rock” (Psalm 27:4-5).
The Coming of the Lord!
What
will happen after the Tribulation?
“Immediately
after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken: AND THEN shall appear the sign of the Son of man
[Jesus Christ] in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and
they shall SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN with power and
great glory. And he shall send his
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together HIS
ELECT from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-3
1).
Notice
the proper sequence – First, Great Tribulation!
Next, heavenly signs! Afterwards,
the Second Coming of Jesus Christ – Yeshua Ha Moshiach!
What
could be clearer, more plain, than that? Yeshua makes it
perfectly plain, so simple a child can understand it. He said the heavenly signs would occur “immediately
after” the great tribulation of those days, not before. And Christ Himself would return AFTER the
heavenly signs, and therefore also AFTER the tribulation!
Notice,
too, that when this occurs, Yeshua will send his angels
to “GATHER TOGETHER HIS ELECT” (verse 31).
Who
are his “elect”? Let’s let the Bible
interpret this for us.
Peter
spoke of Christians as being God’s elect. He began his first epistle, “Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ELECT according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit,
unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1: 1-2).
Christ
said to His disciples, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry
out day and night to Him, though He bares long with
them?” (Luke 18:7).
Paul
wrote, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is
also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us” (Rom.8:33-34).
Paul
declared, “Therefore, as the ELECT of God, holy and beloved, put on
tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (Col.3:12).
Paul
also spoke of “the faith of God’s elect” (Titus 1:1). Peter warns us, however, “Therefore,
brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure” (I
Pet.1:10).
It
should be perfectly clear! We who belong
to Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, are the true “elect” –
“a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (I
Peter 2:9-10). Jesus Himself is the true
corner stone; “elect, precious” (verse 6), and if we are in Him, then we are
the elect of God also!
It
is for the sake of God’s “elect” – true servants of God, true Christians – that
God will cut short the days of coming Tribulation, so that the whole world will
not perish in nuclear flames! Yeshua promised, “And if those days had not been cut short,
no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be
cut short” (Matthew 24:22, NRSV).
Notice
that these same elect will be gathered up to meet Christ “with the great
sound of a trumpet” (Matthew 24:3 1). Obviously,
they have not already been gathered prior to this time in some sort of “secret
rapture”!!!
“A Thief in the Night”
Think
carefully. Be brutally honest with
yourself. Does all this sound like a
quiet, off-in-a-corner clandestine, surreptitious, secret affair? Will Christ quietly, mysteriously, secretly
come to spirit away His saints?
No,
not at all!
His
second coming will be accompanied with tremendous, high-decibel NOISE! there will be the
loud voice of an archangel, as well as the loud trumpet blast rending the
heavens! Jeremiah tells us, “The
LORD will ROAR from on high, and utter His voice from His holy
habitation; He will ROAR MIGHTILY against His fold. He will give a SHOUT, as those who trample
the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise will come to all the ends of
the earth – for the LORD has a controversy with the nations” (Jer.25:30-31,
NKJV).
Does
that sound like a secret rapture?
Christ
will be seen by the nations as He comes, Matthew recorded (Matthew
24:30). “Every eye will SEE Him”
(Rev.1:7). He will not be invisible or
secretive.
Why,
then, does Paul also say, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in
the night” (I Thess.5:2)? Why did Christ
declare, “I will come like a thief” (Rev.3:3)?
Does
this contradict all the other Scriptures, and mean that He will come
invisibly? Does a thief ever come
“invisibly”? Of course not! No man can be “invisible” – although a man
can “hide,” or come secretly, by stealth.
How
will Christ come as a thief? He Himself
answers that question. He goes on to
say, “and you will not know at what hour I will come” (Rev.3:3 again). In other words, He will come unexpectedly,
when most people are sound asleep, totally unalert,
and oblivious to the signs around them.
Solomon wrote, “For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds
caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time” (Eccl.9:12).
As
Paul declared, “When they say, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction
will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there
will be no escape!” (I Thess.5:3).
The
world will be caught unawares! But, Paul
continues, “But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you
like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are
not of the night or of darkness. So
then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us KEEP AWAKE and be
sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and
those who get drunk get drunk at night.
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the
breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for
obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that
whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up
each other, as indeed you are doing” (I Thess.5:4-11).
Yeshua also declared, “But know this, that if the good man
of the house had known in what watch [or hour] the thief
would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be
broken up. Therefore be
ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh” (Matthew 24:43-44).
What Is the "Last
Trumpet"?
Now
let’s notice another Scripture which spells out very clearly the Second Coming
of Christ. Paul wrote that the saints
would be resurrected at the “LAST TRUMPET” (I Cor.15:51-52). This is the trumpet which is blown when
Christ returns for His saints.
Does
this trumpet announce a secret rapture?
Which trumpet is the “last” trumpet blast?
In
the book of Revelation (which means a “revealing”, not a concealing of
information), we read a prophetic outline of the future. According to this outline, the future is
sealed with seven seals which will be opened consecutively (Revelation
5:1-9). Notice that the seventh seal
will consist of “seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven
trumpets” (Rev. 8:1-2). When each of
these trumpets are sounded, various events will take
place on the earth. The first angel
sounds his trumpet, and plagues are poured on the earth. So it is for the next three angelic plagues,
accompanied by trumpet blasts (Rev.8).
When the fifth angel blows his trumpet, another plague – a terrible war
– erupts on the earth (Rev.9:1-12). This
is followed by the sixth angelic trumpet blast, and an army of 200,000,000 men
from Asian nations attacks westward, killing one third of mankind
(Rev.9:13-21).
But
notice, now – notice what happens when the SEVENTH, or LAST, trumpet
will sound!
“Then
the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘THE
KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD HAVE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST,
and he shall reign forever and ever!’
And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on
their faces and worshipped God, saying: ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken
Your great power and reigned. The
nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the TIME OF THE DEAD, that
they should be judged, and that You should REWARD Your servants the
prophets, and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great; and
should destroy those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:15-19). Here again,
spelled out in careful detail, is what will happen when the last trumpet blasts
forth its shrill clarion call. Christ
will return; the dead in Christ shall be raised; the saints will be judged and
rewarded, every man according to his own works; and, the wrath of God will be
poured out upon a rebellious, defiant world.
How
clear it is! The theory of a secret
rapture, to whisk away the saints to heaven before the Great
Tribulation, is unbiblical, unscriptural, unfounded and unsound! It is unthinkable! Jesus Christ, Yeshua,
never taught it. The apostles did not
teach it. It did not become a teaching
in the Church until the nineteenth century.
Exactly where did it come from?
The truth is staggering – mind blowing!
The
escapist belief of the “rapture” has been employed by Jim Bakker,
Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell,
Hal Lindsy, and Tim LaHaye
in his series of novels built around the subject. Its supporters have lied, twisted, distorted,
and misrepresented the true origin of this fatal belief.
The
rapture belief entered the Plymouth Brethren through John Nelson Darby, their most
influential prophecy teacher. Its origin
traces back to 1830 when a certain Margaret McDonald had a “vision” of the
end-times. She had been ill and
bed-ridden for a year and a half. She
read Matthew 24:40 about someone being “taken”, and then read in Thess.2:7
about a “restraining” influence being “taken out of the way.” She put the two passages together and
reasoned that the “one” taken out of the way, before the rising of the
Antichrist, must be the church! Darby
and others subsequently took up this belief, and he popularized it in the Scofield Reference Bible, from where it has entered
mainstream Protestantism like a “thief in the night,” catching millions
unawares.
Margaret’s
“revelation” has led a charmed life. She
began “speaking in tongues” several months after her initial revelation, which
supports the conclusion that her source of “inspiration” was not the Spirit of
God. God is not the Author of confusion,
or phony “tongues” (I Cor.14:33; see my article on “The Truth about Tongues”).
For
a thorough study of the origin of the pre-Tribulation rapture theory, read The
Rapture Plot by Dave MacPherson (Millennium III
Publishers, Simpsonville, South Carolina, 1995).
But what about this passage in Matthew 12:40 about two women, one
being “taken” and one being “left”?
What does it mean?
We read, “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 into the ark, and did not know till 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 [that is, killed, as the flood “took them all away,” in Noah’s day], and the other left [alive]. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken [die] and the other left [alive]. WATCH therefore, for you do NOT KNOW what HOUR your Lord is coming” (Matt.24:37-42).
Notice that it was the “Flood” that “took them all away.” The masses died as a result of the Flood! They were not “taken” to heaven to be spared! Likewise, Yeshua is telling us, when He comes, and when the Tribulation is about to begin, one person will die in the melee, and invasion, and one will be left alive. That is the import of His statement here. Those “taken” and who die are those who have not been alert, watchful, and vigilant, observing the “signs of the times.” Those who are left alive are those who will be more heedful, watchful, and prudent (see Proverbs 14:26 again).
On the other hand, what about the passage in II Thess.2:6-7? Paul tells us, “And you know what is restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work but only until the one who now restrains it is removed.” What is restraining the arising of this key end-time figure? In the ultimate sense, of course, it is God Himself and His Spirit, His influence on the earth. God is holding it back until His time comes for the final revelation He is holding it back, I suggest, to give His people time to prepare themselves, to grow spiritually strong, to overcome and get ready.
The one “taken out of the way” to prepare for the rising up of the Antichrist is not specifically identified in II Thessalonians 2:7. However, it would appear that this could also refer to a person or nation which stands in the way of the arrival of this supreme Dictator – one who must depart the political scene before the “Beast” can take his place in full power. This restraining power could well be the United States and President George Bush! When the power of the United States is diminished due to onerous debt and over-extending its reach, the resultant world configuration will be free to elect a man over the United Nations – the end-time “Beast” – who will fulfill the prophecies of the Antichrist!
In other words, the passage Matthew 24:40 does not mention a “rapture” at all. The ones who are “taken” are going to be KILLED – their lives “taken,” as occurred in the Flood. The ones who are “left” are left ALIVE – as survivors – during the coming Great Tribulation and Holocaust that are fast approaching.
Yeshua warned: “But
about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son,
but only the Father. Beware,
keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he
leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the
doorkeeper to be on the watch.
Therefore, keep awake – for you do not know when the master of
the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at
dawn, or else me may find you asleep when he comes
suddenly. And what I say to you I say to
all: Keep awake” (Mark
13:32-37).
What
about you? Are you watching and keeping
alert? Are you preparing for the Wedding
Feast of the Lamb? Are you praying day
and night for God’s mercy and protection and deliverance from the frightful
days to come, and to stand worthy before the Son of Man?