The Lord said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline,
Amos 7:8 (TLB)
The Blessed Hope
Titus 2:13 (NASB) looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of
our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
The definition
of the term “Second Coming” is broad, used in at least two different ways.
Sometimes this term is used of the total end-time drama, encompassing both the
rapture of the Church and the revelation of Christ in triumphant glory (2 Thess
1:7), when He will stand on the Mount of Olives (Zech 14:4). Sometimes the term
is used specifically of the revelation of Christ, in distinction to the
Rapture, which precedes it. The first phase of the Second Coming, then, used in
this broader sense, refers to the rapture of the Church. Abruptly and without
warning, Jesus will catch away those who are prepared for His coming, but He
will not descend to earth itself at that time (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 (NKJV)
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the
Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.; 2 Thess 2:1). Those
“in Christ,” both those resurrected and those still alive, will together be
“caught up” (Gk. harpagēsometha),
“snatched away powerfully” in the clouds (possibly clouds of glory) for a
meeting with Him in the air—above the earth.
Because Matthew 24:30–31 mentions
the angels gathering the elect after it mentions all nations mourning when they
see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory,
some take this to mean that the Church will not be caught away until after
Jesus comes to destroy the armies of the Antichrist at the end of the
Tribulation. But Matthew 24 does not give events in the order of their
occurrence. Jesus had no intention of revealing the day or the hour (Matt
24:36). The words “At that time” (“then,” KJV) in Matthew 24:30 translate a
very general Greek word (tote),
meaning that these events will all occur in the same general period of time,
but not necessarily in the order given.
Jesus further emphasizes that when
the Rapture takes place, everything in the world will still be going on as
usual. In New Testament times, the economy was agricultural and men went daily
into the fields. Since there were no tight containers to keep insects out of
flour, a daily task of women was to clean the grain and grind fresh flour in
the small stone hand mills for their daily bread. So when Jesus says, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken [taken along to be
with Jesus] and the other left [abandoned, left behind to suffer the judgments
about to come on the earth], two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one
will be taken and the other left” (Matt 24:40–41), This seems to
indicte people will be going about their daily tasks when He comes again.
Everything will seem to be “business as usual.” Then, without any special
warning, one shall be snatched away to meet the Lord in the air, while the
person by his or her side will be left to suffer the wrath of God that is about
to be poured out on the earth. There is no indication whatever of the world
being dominated by the Antichrist at this time or of the armies of the
Antichrist being gathered for the battle of Armageddon. It seems obvious,
therefore, that the Church will be caught away prior to the great judgments of
the Tribulation period, so vividly pictured in the Book of Revelation.7[1]
[1]
Menzies, W. W. (1993). Bible Doctrines: A
Pentecostal Perspective (S. M. Horton, Ed.) (216–218). Springfield, MO:
Logion Press.
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