There have been a lot of theories on when and how Jesus will return and the events surrounding His return. One of the most popular view in mainstream Christianity is the pretribulation dispensationalist view where the Church is secretly raptured away followed by a seven year period of tribulation on the earth. During this tribulation the Antichrist comes unto the scene promising peace in uniting the world but breaks this covenant, showing his true colours, half way through the seven year tribulation and brings about the mark of the beast. At the end of the seven year tribulation Jesus returns to set up an earthly kingdom where He reigns with the saints for 1000 years. This scenario makes for a great action packed story, (and has been made into a number of popular novels and movies), but what does the Bible have to say on the subject of Christ's return?
Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:20)
Why would Jesus promise to be with the church until the end of the world if He intended to come seven years before the end to take them out of the world?
Lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. (Matthew 13:29-30)
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. (Matthew 13:40)
Jesus said that the wheat and the tares would grow together until the "end of the world" at which time they would be separated.
This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:40)
Christ said, concerning the righteous, that He would raise them up "at the last day." Paul declares that the saints are caught up to meet the Lord at the same time the dead in Christ are raised.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. (Revelation 1:7)
When Jesus returns, every eye will see Him and the wicked will cry out to the rocks and mountains...
Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:16-17)
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the ligthning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:26-27)
For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised (1 Corinthians 15:52)
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 24:30-31)
Christ's return will be anything but secret. It will be a very loud event, across the whole of the earth the righteous who have died in Christ will rise from their graves and every eye shall see and the wicked will mourn and cry out in great anguish.
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. (Psalms 50:3)
The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10)
The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, ...But ye brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4)
The day of the Lord will only come as a "thief in the night" to those who have not been awaiting nor preparing for Christ's return. The day of the Lord will be very hard to miss as the wicked along with their works and the earth itself will be burned up at His return.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch 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 24:42-44)
Some teach that two stages of Christ's coming are indicated "in the Greek." The first will be a secret coming, the rapture (parousia), followed by a seven year period of tribulation ending with Christ's revelation (apokalypto/apokalupsis), when He comes in power and glory. But, instead of describing two separate events, the Greek terms are used interchangeably in the Bible and give no indication of a seven-year interval.
...we which are alive and remain unto the coming (parousia) of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:15)
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming (parousia): (2 Thessalonians 2:8)
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation (apokalupsis) of Jesus Christ; (1 Peter 1:13)
Matthew and Luke respective accounts of the same event show that the Greek terms are used interchangeably.
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming (parousia) of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:37)
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. ...Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed (apokalypto). (Luke 17:26, 30)
The following scripture is used to prove that the righteous will be taken out of the world before the tribulation.
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)
The verse below is talking about the same group of people, the faithful (notice the similar "they have kept thy word"). The faithful, who "kept the word", are to be "kept from the hour of temptation" (or evil) without being taken "from the world."
They have kept thy word. ...I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. (John 17:6, 15)
After all...
We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
There is not one single scripture that describes a seven-year period of tribulation at the end of the world. Supporters of this doctrine will often lift the final week of the 70-week prophecy given to Daniel.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: (Daniel 9:24-25)
Following the prophetic day for a literal year principle (Ezekiel 4:6), 70 prophetic weeks translate into 490 literal years. From the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem given by Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. (Ezra 7:13), the Jew would have 70 prophetic weeks, or 490 literal years to fill up their cup of iniquity by rejecting the Messiah.
This 490-year probation ended in 34 A.D. when the Jews ceased to be God's chosen people (the year Stephen became the first martyr for Christ when he was stoned to death by the Jews for his testimony, Acts 7:54-59).
Daniel 9:25 says that the Messiah would be anointed after sixty-nine of those prophetic weeks. That would be 483 literal years from the decree date of 457 B.C. which would bring us to the year 27 A.D., the year Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was anointed by the Holy Spirit to begin his ministry.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: ...And he shall confirm the covenant with many for the week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, (Daniel 9:26, 27)
The final (70th week), which begins with Jesus's baptism and ends with the close of probation for the Jewish nation in 34 A.D. Christ is "cut off", mid week, when He is crucified, His death confirming the New Covenant making the shadows of the service and sacrifices of the earthly temple obsolete. (Hebrews 9:15-23)
In order to make the seventieth week of Daniel 9 reference a seven year, post rapture tribulation, they have to lift that final week from the other sixty-nine and insert a 2000 year gap before the seventieth week is fulfilled. To do this, proponents of the pre-tribulation rapture take the amazing prophecy of Daniel 9 that predicts the coming of Jesus, even the year of His baptism, and His crucifixion where His sacrifice as the Lamb of God causes the sacrificial system to end and instead apply this prophecy to a future Antichrist who will cause these to end three and one half years into a seven year tribulation.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)
The Bible clearly states that Christ will not return before the Antichrist is revealed. Paul is not referring to some future entity but an already emerging spirit that would mature by the sixth century. This Antichrist will perform their crowning act of deception just before Christ returns.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: ...And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:7, 8)
I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; (Revelation 20:4)
Some of those raised in the first resurrection are those who refused to worship the beast or receive his mark, but those who hold to a pretribulation rapture believe that the church will be raptured before the appearance of Antichrist and the enforcement of his mark.
Lastly, the false belief in a secret rapture gives the false belief that those who are not raptured will get a second chance to be saved. However, the Bible says otherwise.
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. (Revelation 22:11-12)
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. ...And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. (Revelation 14:14, 16)
The harvest is the end of the world; (Matthew 13:39)
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20)
In summary:
- Jesus will return the at the end of the world.
- It will be a literal, visible, and very loud event that everyone on earth will witness.
- At Christ's return the righteous dead will be raised and the righteous living will be translated.
- At Christ's return, not only will the wicked be destroyed, but the earth also.
- It will come after an unspecified time of tribulation where the Antichrist will be revealed, the mark of the beast enforced and the saints of God will be persecuted.
- There will be no second chance to those who are not ready for Christ's return.
- Christ's return will come as a surprise to the wicked but not to those who have been waiting and preparing for His coming.
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