by
William T. James
A
young mother will be walking the aisles of a Wal-Mart store, or perhaps a
K-Mart or a Kroger store, her two-year-old daughter riding securely and happily
in
the shopping cart while they both look over all the brightly packaged goods on
the shelves. A businessman will be entering an on-ramp to a freeway near
Los
Angeles, giving a nervous glance to his left to make sure he will have room to
merge smoothly into the flow of traffic.
Half
a world away, the captain of a 747, having just received permission to take
off, will push the throttles fully forward and the gigantic bird will begin
its
roll between the runway lights that appear to come together in a sharp point in
the distant darkness. A mother-to-be will reach for a ringing telephone,
a
broad smile on her face anticipating talking with her husband, who had promised
to call once he was settled in at the airport hotel where his company
is
holding its quarterly sales meeting. Then, in a mind-confounding split-second,
it will happen!
A
surgeon in a Boston hospital who has just started the scalpel moving along the
man's chest suddenly finds the blade cutting only air. The patient is gone!
A
mortician in Dallas recoils in astonishment when the suit he is smoothing to make
a corpse presentable collapses. The body is no longer there! The mother
pushing
the cart in the store turns back toward the basket with the items she has
gotten from the shelf. Her little girl is missing! Only her toddler's
colorful
little dress and shoes remain in the cart in a crumpled heap. The woman's
scream pierces the air, joining screams of panic reverberating throughout
(he
store. At the same moment in time, the commuting businessman in Los Angeles
sees the big semi rig directly in front of him swerve sharply right and
begin
tumbling down the steep embankment while the roadways ahead and on either side
of him explode with violent wrecks.
Precisely
at that instant, the co-pilot in the 747's right seat panics when he realizes
that the huge jet, now screaming down the runway at more than 100
miles
per hour, is totally out of control, its pilot having disappeared!
The
young father-to-be is shouting into the telephone, wanting to know what is
wrong with his wife, who he hears crying hysterically. She has fallen to
the
floor and is desperately groping her abdomen, nearly insane because she cannot
feel the baby who is no longer in her womb.
I
believe literally billions of people around the world will suffer shocks
similar to those depicted above, or will awaken to find they live in a world
phenomenally
different than the one they knew when they went to bed the night before.
Planet
Earth reels with foreboding that something unknown is poised to thrust
terrifying events upon our tumultuous generation. Anxiety swells within the
collective
mind of humanity as the new millennium rumbles in storm-like fashion toward us
across the twenty-first century horizon. While optimism abounds
that
the new century will produce a brighter, better world, the foreboding eerily
warns that the year 2000 likely harbors within its untraveled time region
and
beyond, perils of apocalyptic dimension.
Although
worries about the future of our world grow daily, the overwhelming majority of
earth's inhabitants, if they consider these matters at all, shrug
off
the beginning of the third millennium since the birth of Christ as portending
nothing more than a continuation of things as they have always been.
"Change
of any kind for the masses will be for the better" is the general philosophical
mindset of the globalist thinkers elite while they wrestle with
the
complex factors involved in dealing with miserable Third World squalor. Still,
even through the malaise caused by their often heart- wrenching, day-to-day
misery,
there beats within the common pulse of the billions living in abject poverty
seething unrest that leads to the inescapable sense that profound
rearrangement
on a planetary scale is about to take place.
Although
scoffers at doomsday talk most often attribute that talk to bizarre religious
thinking and more and more in our day to religious right-wing fundamentalists,
such
gloomy predictions by secular writers and speakers far outnumber those issued
by religionists of our time. Dr. J. Vernon McGee gave us a number of
quotes
from secular notables in his commentary introduction to the Book of the
Revelation.
Knowledgeable
men have been saying some very interesting things about this present hour.
Please note that I am not quoting from any preachers but from outstanding
men
in other walks of life.
Dr.
Urey, from the University of Chicago, who worked on the atomic bomb, began an
article several years ago in Collier's magazine by saying, I am a frightened
man,
and I want to frighten YOU."
Dr.
John R. Mott returned from a trip around the world and made the statement that
this was "the most dangerous era the world has ever known." And he
raised
the
question of where we are heading. Then he made this further statement,
"When I think of human tragedy, as I saw it and felt it, of the Christian
ideal's
sacrificed
as they have been, the thought comes to me that God is preparing the way for
some immense direct action."
Chancellor
Robert M. Hutchins, of the University of Chicago, gave many people a shock
several years ago when he made the statement that "devoting our
educational
efforts
to infants between six and twenty-one seems futile." And he added,
"The world may not last long enough." He contended that for this
reason we should
begin
adult education.
Winston
Churchill said, "Time may be short."
Mr.
Luce, the owner of Life, Time, and Fortune magazines, addressed a group of
missionaries who were the first to return to their fields after the war.
Speaking
in San Francisco, he made the statement that when he was a boy, the son of a
Presbyterian missionary in China, he and his father often discussed
the
pre-millennial coming of Christ, and he thought that all missionaries who
believed in that teaching were inclined to be fanatical. And then Mr. Luce
said,
"I wonder if there wasn't something to that position after all."
It
is very interesting to note that the Christian Century carried an article by
Wesner Fallaw which said, "A function of the Christian is to make
preparation
for
world's end."
Dr.
Charles Beard, the American historian, said, "All over the world the
thinkers and searchers who scan the horizon of the future are attempting to
assess
the
values of civilization and speculating about its destiny."
Dr.
William Yogt, in The Road to Civilization, wrote: "The handwriting on the
wall of five continents now tells us that the Day of Judgment is at hand."
Dr.
Raymond.B. Fosdick, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, said, "To
many ears comes the sound of the tramp of doom. Time is short."
H.G.
Wells declared before he died, "This world is at the end of its tether.
The end of everything we call life is close at hand."
General
Douglas MacArthur said, "We have had our last chance."
Fortner
president Dwight Eisenhower said, "Without a moral regeneration throughout
the world there is no hope for us as we are going to disappear one day
in
the dust of an atomic explosion."
Dr.
Nicholas Murray Butler, ex-president of Columbia University, said, "The
end cannot be far distant."'
Speculation
about the end of the world spans the broad spectrum of both secular and
religious thought. Postulation and propaganda on the subject ranges
from
the declaration that man is totally in control of his own destiny and therefore
will always find ways to prevent doomsday, to wild-eyed fanaticism
that
preaches precise dates the world will end and urges followers of that preaching
to engage in bizarre practices that include such things as adorning
themselves
in white robes and going to their rooftops to wait for the end to come. In a
growing number of cases, dangerous cult leaders command their followers
to
go so far as to commit atrocities such as have been witnessed through the Jim
Jones massacre and mass suicide in Guyana and the more recent Japanese
nerve
gas murder.
Thinking
on both ends of this spectrum of end-time matters is dead wrong, as is easily
provable by historical facts. Every peace made by man has eventually
been
broken by war. Conflicts grow increasingly more violent with each generation of
war-making technology. Despite the incessant call for mankind to come
together
as one great planetary community, the divisions widen and become more numerous.
Obviously, mankind cannot prevent doomsday. The fanatics who have
set
dates for the end of the world have time after time been proven wrong. Their
antics and weird pronouncements and activities have served only to bring
scoffing
and derision upon themselves. Sadly, their lunacy has erected a barricade that
adds to the difficulty of reaching the minds of men with the Word
of
God, who is the only One who knows all there is to know from beginning to end.
Jesus Christ is the Living Word. To know the truth about the future,
one
must know Him.
Based
upon the only Truth there is, and without apology, this chapter's purpose is to
proclaim with absolute confidence the fact that there is indeed coming
one
electrifying instant in time which will cause changes of epic proportion for
all who live upon Planet Earth. That event will precipitate massive
rearrangements
in
every facet of human existence. Those rearrangements will ultimately eventuate
in what Jesus himself called the Great Tribulation, a time of trouble
unprecedented
in human history.
Jesus
Christ, who is the Living Word (John 1: 1, 14), inspired the apostle Paul to
write, "Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we
shall
all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for
the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and
we shall be changed" (I Cor. 15:51-52;KJV).
God,
the Holy Spirit, further wrote through Paul, "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 who 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. Wherefore, comfort one
another with these words" (I Thess. 4:16-18).
That
this will be an electrifying moment for the child of God is perhaps the
understatement of understatements! God's Word promises that the body of each
believer
in Jesus Christ who is alive at the time this indescribably momentous event
takes place will be converted in "the twinkling of an eye" from a
body
that is in the process of decay leading toward death into a body eternally
indestructible and beautiful beyond imagination.
The
apostle Paul writes through inspiration: "For this corruptible must put on
incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So, when this corruptible
shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed
up
in victory. 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?"
(I Cor. 15: 53-54).
That
instantaneous translation from mortal to supernatural being will be
exhilarating beyond anything we can imagine within the framework of our
present,
finite
intellectual capacity. Far exceeding that exhilaration, however, will be the
joy of seeing Jesus Christ face to face and at last understanding through
transformed
and perfected senses the width and height and depth of God's holiness and love.
Christians will at last know Christ as He truly is. Each believer
will
be like Him in that moment and will be eternally in His majestic presence.
"But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we
shall
see
him as he is" (I John 3:2).
The
reason for Christ returning for true believers in Him will be achieved in less
than one stunning second! All who have died in Christ since He began
forming
His Church at Pentecost will be made ready for heavenly citizenship on the
spot, as Jesus himself promised His Bride, the Church. This includes
all
people who have accepted Him as Savior and Lord since the day of Pentecost
(Acts 2):
"Let
not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my
father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may
be
also. And where I go ye know, and the way ye know" (John 14:1-3).
God
Speaks to Us Through Contemporary Voices Jesus Christ's sudden catching up of
all living believers from the planet's surface, to meet himself and all
believers
who have died since the day of Pentecost, to begin the journey to the heavenly
city where He has been preparing mansions for them, will leave
earth's
inhabitants gasping in fear and wonderment. That secret taking away of Christ's
Bride, the Church, although termed a mystery by the apostle Paul
(I
Cor. 15:51-58) when he penned the words under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, needs no longer be a mysterious prophetic doctrine. Truth about this
miracle
of God, which will be perhaps the most spectacular of all miracles surrounding
the greatest of His works - His amazing saving grace through the
shed
blood of His only begotten Son on the cross at Calvary - has been unveiled for
clear understanding by the Christians of our day.
The
prophet Daniel foretold that as the time for the end of God's plan for the
present earth system nears, "knowledge shall be increased" (Dan.
12:4). That
knowledge,
many biblical scholars believe, while including the vast body of general
knowledge, refers most particularly to revealed biblical truths. When
Daniel
was told by the angel of God, "Seal the book, even to the time of the
end" (Dan. 12:4), it is obvious that God planned to make at least some
portion
of
His mysteries understandable to the generation alive at the end of this present
earth system. The discipline eschatology - the study of end time matters
-
is a recent development in the mining of the deep truths of God's prophetic
Word.
Has
the book Daniel was told would be sealed up until the end now been opened for
examination? If so, do the new truths unveiled through eschatological
methods
as men and women of God are infused with understanding by the Holy Spirit make
clear the mystery that Paul wrote about in I Corinthians 15:51-52
when
he said, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye"? Does any new understanding give credence to
any
of the several rapture theories?
Liberal
theologians, almost without exception, proclaim prophecies clearly yet
unfulfilled to be spiritual concepts that have already come to pass or
spiritual
concepts
yet to come to pass. They see no physical reality in God's prophetic Word;
rather, they consider the prophesied events merely interesting ideas
to
be used in the exercise of mental gymnastics upon the floor of theological
debate. Tragically, many otherwise fundamentalist, conservative Christian
scholars
fall into the same trap of rationalizing and/or spiritualizing away future prophetic
events such as the I Corinthians 15:51-58 description by
the
apostle Paul of a stunning event yet to come which he, under inspiration,
interpreted to be literal.
Again,
without apology, this chapter is meant to examine the coming microsecond of time
in which millions of people will vanish. The Rapture of all living
true
believers and the resurrection of the bodies of all believers who have died
since the Church Age began is a prophecy as Holy Spirit-given as was the
prophecy
in the Old Testament that promised Jesus Christ's first advent. This book's
intention is to explore the many aspects and effects of that coming
moment
from the spiritually based perspective that the rapture will take place before
the time known as Jacob's trouble (Jer. 30:7). That era will be the
last
seven years of the present world system, which will culminate with Christ's
return to Planet Earth to put an end to man's madness. In other words,
Raging
into Apocalypse comes from the pre-Tribulation view.
The
pre-Tribulation view of the rapture of the Church, indeed, the belief that
there will be a rapture or a partial rapture at any intervening moment in
history,
has increasingly come under attack by theologians who are Christians as well as
those who are not. Scoffing at the notion of the translation of
and
snatching away of Christ's own from the planet has intensified in recent times.
While many true believers are firmly convinced that Christians who
are
alive at the end of the Church Age will go into the Great Tribulation called
Jacob's trouble by Jeremiah the prophet, we who are also true Christians
who
believe that Christ himself will keep us from the very hour of temptation (Rev.
3: 10) by calling us to himself in the air above the earth (I Cor.
15:51-58)
are accused of having "Star Trek" mentality. The pre- Tribulation
Rapture view in particular is disparaged as "pie in the sky" and
"beam me up,
Scotty"
fantasy.
Strangely,
a significant segment of world observers apparently anticipates some sort of
cosmic disruption in which millions of earth's inhabitants will
be
abducted in some fashion by superior beings from other worlds. Hope, according
to the scoffers, puts us in the same company as science fiction buffs
and
New Age dreamers of our day. Many of them, like us, believe that at some point
in the near future the earth will suffer a sudden disappearance of millions
of
its inhabitants.
"You
are known by the company you keep" is an admonition many of us received
from our parents early on in our lives. Those Christian theologians and others
who
criticize the pre-Tribulation view or even the Rapture in general most likely
agree with that admonition. It would appear at surface level that such
criticism
is justified. And certainly it would be justified if, as they loudly proclaim,
the view of Christ's "secret coming" for those who believe in
Him
is a false doctrine only recently concocted by those who preach it. So the
question is: Are we in bad company with these sci-fi addicts and New Agers;
or:
Are we in good company - with those early believers through whom Christ began
building His Body, the Church?
Dr.
J. Vernon McGee, referring to the Book of Daniel, stated in his radio program,
"A great many use verse I to try to prove the Church is going through
the
Great Tribulation period. Well, if we've been following Daniel and listening to
him, we understand he is talking about his people in the last days
and
he's not talking about the Church. The Church has already been raptured. The Church
is not here. This is the resurrection of the Old Testament saints,
which
does not take place at the time of the rapture of the Church"
And
in his commentary on Daniel, McGee continues: "Scripture clearly states
that at the rapture those 'which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him' (I
Thess.
4:14). Only, 'the dead in Christ shall rise first' (1 Thess. 4:16). We are in
Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit which began on the day of
Pentecost
and will end at the Rapture. This particular body of believers is called the
Church. We are told in I Corinthians 12:12-13, 'For as the body
is
one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many,
are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we, all baptized
into
one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have
been all made to drink into one Spirit.' 112
Much
of the disagreement involving the subject of the Rapture revolves around
misunderstandings about what God's Word has to say regarding God's dealings
with
the nation Israel on the one hand and His program for Christ's church, or
Bride, or body, on the other. The distinctions between these two separate
programs
are not easily or clearly discerned without a careful and prayerful study of
the 70 weeks of Daniel (Dan. 9). Here, God outlines His program for
"thy
people" - meaning Daniel's people, Israel - and tells Daniel that there is
a disruption of unspecified time between the sixty- ninth and seventieth
weeks.
Serious study with a heart toward understanding what this disruption is all
about leads to the unraveling of the mystery called the Church in the
New
Testament (I Cor. 15:51). The sixty-ninth week given in the Daniel account is
history. The seventieth week - the seven- year Tribulation period spoken
of
by Jeremiah the prophet (Jer. 30:7) and by Jesus (Matt. 24) - is yet future.
This age of disruption for God's nation Israel - this period in which you
and
I are privileged to live - is the Church Age.
I
So are we who believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture and a pre-millennial view
(that is, that Christ will return literally to earth before earth enjoys
a
prophesied thousand years of peace and harmony called the Millennium) in good
company or bad? Again, Dr. McGee provides some clear commentary in answer
to
the divisive question.
I
am going to give you the viewpoints of many men in the past to demonstrate that
they were looking for Christ to return. They were not looking for the
Great
Tribulation, they were not even looking for the Millennium, but they were
looking for Him to come. This expectation is the very heart of the pre-millennial
viewpoint
as we hold it today.
Barnabas,
who was a co-worker with the apostle Paul, has been quoted as saying, "The
true Sabbath is the one thousand years ... when Christ comes back to
reign."
Clement
(A.D. 96), bishop of Rome, said, "Let us every hour expect the kingdom of
God ... we know not the day.
Polycarp
(A.D. 108), bishop of Smyrna and finally burned at the stake there, said,
"He will raise us from the dead ... we shall ... reign with Him."
Ignatius,
bishop of Antioch, who the historian Eusebius says was the apostle Peter's
successor, commented, "Consider the times and expect Him."
Papias
(A.D. 116), bishop of Hierapolis, who according to Irenaeus - saw and heard the
apostle John, said, "There will be one thousand years ... when the
reign
of Christ personally will be established on earth."
Justin
Martyr (A.D. 150) said, "I and all others who are orthodox Christians, on
all points, know there will be a thousand years in Jerusalem ... as Isaiah
and
Ezekiel declared."
Irenaeus
(A.D. 175), bishop of Lyons, commenting on Jesus' promise to drink again of the
fruit of the vine in His Father's kingdom, argues: "That this ...
can
only be fulfilled upon our Lord's personal return to earth."
Tertullian
(A.D. 200) said, "We do indeed confess that a kingdom is promised on
earth."
Martin
Luther said, "Let us not think that the coming of Christ is far off."
John
Calvin, in his third book of Institutes, wrote: "Scripture uniformly
enjoins us to look with expectation for the advent of Christ."
Canon
A.R. Fausset said this: "The early Christian fathers, Clement, Ignatius,
Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus, looked for the Lord's speedy return as the
necessary
precursor
of the millennial kingdom. Not until the professing Church lost her first love,
and became the harlot resting on the world power, did she cease
to
be the Bride going forth to meet the Bridegroom, and seek to reign already on
earth without waiting for His Advent."
Dr.
Elliott wrote: "All primitive expositors, except Origen and the few who
rejected Revelation, were pre-millennial."
Gussler's
work on church history says of this blessed hope that "it was so
distinctly and prominently mentioned that we do not hesitate in regarding it
as
the general belief of that age."
Chillingworth
declared: "It was the doctrine believed and taught by the most eminent
fathers of the age next to the apostles and by none of that age
condemned."
Dr.
Adolph von Harnack wrote: "The earlier fathers Irenaeus, Hippolytus,
Tertullian, etc. believed it because it was part of the tradition of the Early
Church.
It
is the same all through the third and fourth centuries with those Latin
theologians who escaped the influence of Greek speculation."
My
friend, I have quoted these many men of the past as proof of the fact that from
the days of the apostles and through the church of the first centuries
the
interpretation of the Scriptures was pre-millennial. When someone makes the
statement that pre-millennialism is something that originated one hundred
years
ago with an old witch in England, he doesn't know what he is talking about. It
is interesting to note that pre-millennialism was the belief of these
very
outstanding men of the early church.
Since
these great forefathers of the Christian church eagerly longed for - even
expected - Jesus Christ's return during their lifetime, it should be obvious
to
any believer with a heart toward inviting Holy Spirit discernment that they
held unwaveringly to the belief that the Lord could return at any moment.
If
they had believed that Great Tribulation had to first occur before Christ
returned, they would have certainly and ceaselessly warned all believers within
their
sphere of influence to be watching for the catastrophic occurrences and for the
Antichrist, both of which Scripture tells us will have to come onto
the
scene before Jesus physically returns to earth to judge the nations and set up
His millennial kingdom. That great cataclysm has not yet occurred. That
last
and most vicious tyrant of all, the Antichrist, has not yet come to power and
subjected all the world as prophesied in Revelation 13. Man's final
war
called Armageddon is yet future. Yet these early saints of the Church Age
anticipated that Jesus could have returned at any moment during the time
they
lived. They were most assuredly believers in the pre-Tribulation Rapture! We
who hold to the belief in the imminent coming of Christ for His saints
above
Planet Earth to rapture them into His presence are not looking for "pie in
the sky." We do, however, look for that great escape from God's coming
wrath
and judgment, as eloquently voiced by Dave Breese, one of the pre-eminent
biblical prophecy scholars of our own day:
The
Scripture says to Christians, "Because you have kept the word of my
patience, I will keep you from that hour of trial, temptation, tribulation,
that
will
come upon the whole world to try them that dwell on the earth."
Therefore,
we see in Scripture that the Bible says that Christ will come for His saints
before the beginning of the Tribulation and take all believing Christians
up
to be with Him in heaven. Spoken of in I Thessalonians 4:16, "The Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the
trump
of God; the dead in Christ shall rise first. We who are alive and remain shall
be caught up together with Him in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the
air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Paul
expands on this a little bit in I Corinthians 15, saying to the Corinthians,
"Behold, I show you a mystery," something you could not figure out
just
by
Aristotilian syllogism. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; the
trumpet
shall
sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
So
we can assure every believer ... that there will come a moment when they will
be caught up in their physical body into the presence of Jesus Christ so
as
to ever be with the Lord."'
Dr.
Dwight Pentecost, in his masterful work, Things to Come, .addresses the fact
that God's prophetic Word points absolutely to the any-moment coming of
Jesus
Christ to fulfill His promise of John 14. This truth is termed the doctrine of
imminence.
The
church was told to live in the light of the imminent coming of the Lord to
translate them in his presence.... Such passages as I Thessalonians 5:6;
Titus
2:13; Revelation 3:3 all warn the believer to be watching for the Lord himself,
not for signs that would precede His coming. It is true that the
events
of the seventieth week will cast an adumbration before the rapture, but the
object of the believer's attention is always directed to Christ, never
to
these portents.
This
doctrine of imminence, or "at any moment coming," is not anew
doctrine with Darby, as is sometimes charged, although he did clarify,
systematize, and
popularize
it. Such a belief in immanency marked the pre-millennialism of the early church
fathers as well as the writers of the New Testament.
Although
the eschatology of the Early Church may not be altogether clear on all points,
for that subject was not the subject of serious consideration, yet
the
evidence is clear that they believed in the imminent return of Christ. This same
view of imminence is clearly seen in the writings of the Reformers,
even
though they have had different views on eschatological questions.
The
doctrine of imminence forbids the participation of the Church in any part of
the seventieth week. The multitude of signs given to Israel to stir them
to
expectancy would then also be for the Church, and the Church could not be
looking for Christ until these signs had been fulfilled. The fact that no
signs
are given to the Church, but she, rather, is commanded to watch for Christ,
precludes her participation in the seventieth week .5
The
apostle Paul tells in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 that there will come a startling
change in the moral order for the end-time generation of mankind: "Only
he
who now hindereth will continue to hinder until he be taken out of the way. And
then shall that wicked one be revealed." Author and lecturer Hal Lindsey
gives
an excellent overview of the truth about the office of the Holy Spirit in this
Church Age and what the Holy Spirit's removal in performing His restraining
office
will mean.
First
Corinthians 12:13 says: "For by one spirit we have been baptized into one
body, whether bond or free, Jew or Greek, we have been made to drink into
one
spirit, for the body is not one member." So how do we get into one body?
By the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit. There could have been no Church
before
the Holy Spirit came and started His ministry of taking each believer at the
moment of salvation and baptizing into living union with Christ himself,
joining
us in a living, organic union with Christ, so that we are in Christ from that
moment on.
He
takes up permanent residence in every believer. He puts every believer in union
with Christ. He makes it possible for us to be sealed With His Spirit,
which
is God's guarantee that we will be redeemed in a resurrection body and brought
into His presence. It's what is called the filling of the Spirit....
So
these are the days of the Holy Spirit. This is the age of the Holy Spirit.
What
does 2 Corinthians say is going to happen before the Antichrist is revealed?
The restrainer is going to be removed. You see, the Holy Spirit resident
within
the Church is the restrainer. So when you remove the restrainer, you also have
to remove the containers in which He dwells, i.e., you and me. So,
you
see, it was a miracle the way the Church began; it's going to be another
miracle the way it departs. And that is when the Holy Spirit resident in the
Church
is taken out, and we with Him.
Lindsey
further brings into focus the change that will take place for mankind in that
twinkling of an eye.
God
does not mix His program for the Church with His program for Israel ... in the
Book of Revelation in the first three chapters, the Church is mentioned
by
name 19 times. From chapter 4 through half of chapter 19, the Church is not
mentioned once by name. That is no oversight; the Holy Spirit knows better.
The
Holy Spirit does not mention them (the Church) because chapters 4 through 19
talk about the judgment of the earth and the spotlight is once again on
Israel.
I
believe the next intervention of God into human history will be that time when
Jesus says, "Come up here!" And only believers will understand what
the
noise
meant. The world will hear some noise, but they won't understand it. Then
suddenly, all over the world, people will disappear .... I believe God
is
going to do it just like that in order to shake them up and let them know that
something dramatic has happened. If God is going to remove His ambassadors,
you
can expect there will be some repercussions that will shake people up and I
really believe that when every living believer is snatched out, there's
going
to be planes crashing, cars crashing; there's going to be all kinds of weird
things happening because God wants to shake up the world and let them
know
that something supernatural has intervened.
Dr.
Charles Stanley, in dealing with the immanency of Christ's return, recently
said:
Jesus
said "I don't know when I'm coming back ... not even the angels in heaven
know; only my Father knows." Matthew 24:27 and Matthew 24:36-41 ... remind
us
of His warnings. He's coming without a warning; He's coming instantly without a
warning. The skies are going to break open. The shout, the sound of
a
trumpet. And I believe that only believers are going to hear and only believers
are going to know what is taking place.
Stanley
then punctuates the message about Christ's imminent return with words starkly
relevant to the time in which we live.
I
wonder how many of us really do watch, wait, look forward to, think that at any
moment Jesus Christ could come. There's not a single thing that has to
be
done before Jesus comes. There are some things that have to be done before He
comes a second time back to earth to judge this earth to set up His millennial
reign
- there are some things that are going to take place. That's why, when He talks
about the signs in Matthew 24, He is talking about His second coming
to
earth. There are no signs about the rapture, except this. If there are
evidences, scriptural signs of His coming the second time, what should that say
to
you and me today? ... If there are evidences of Christ's second coming, if
things are happening in the world about us that are very evidently signs
mentioned
in the Scripture, what should that say to us about the rapture? Close! How
close? I don't have any earthly idea and you know what? Nowhere in
the
Bible does it say, "You'd better be checking your clock, checking your
calendar, checking the time." What does it say? Just be ready. I don't have
to
worry about when it's going to happen. All I have to do is be ready.
Although
there are many signs given to warn the nation Israel that Jacob's trouble or
the Great Tribulation is upon them - signs that point directly to
Jesus
Christ the Messiah's return to Planet Earth in power and great glory - no such
signals are given Christ's bride, the Church. Dr. David Jeremiah says
regarding
this fact:
There
is not one single statement to warn the Christian of future tribulation or to
help them get ready for it. Not one single statement. There are all
kinds
of statements about the kinds of problems we have now. The Bible says,
"They that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." But
can you
believe
that the God who would warn us against false teachers and false prophets and
would warn us against the serious things that will come upon this
world
in the future, if He knew that His church was going to face judgment in the
tribulation period, is it possible that God, who gave us this Book to
prepare
us for things to come, would leave out any encouragement or challenge or
information to help us to know how to deal with the tribulation we were
going
to experience? I just want to tell you again there is not one single statement
in any of the epistles directed to the Church as to how they are to
endure
or experience the Tribulation.
There
is only one reason for that: We aren't going to be here. Some people ask me,-
"What difference does it make whether you believe in the pre, the mid,
the
post, the pan, or whatever; do you believe that Jesus Christ is coming back? Do
you believe He could come [right now]? Are you sure? [If you do], then
I
want to tell you that you are ... pre-tribulational. If you say you believe
[Jesus can come back right now] ... the only way you can say that, even if
you
don't understand what's involved in it, is if you are pre-tribulational.
You
see, if He doesn't come back for the rapture until seven years, He can't come
back tonight. Can He? If He doesn't come back for the rapture until three
and
a half years of the Tribulation period, He can't come back for at least three
and a half years. The only doctrine in the Bible which is historically
proven
from the beginning all the way through is the doctrine of the immanency of
Jesus Christ. Immanency means He can come back at any time. And one of
the
reasons I believe so strongly in the pre-tribulational rapture view from the
Scripture that it is the only view that is consistent with the imminent
return
of Jesus Christ. The Bible clearly teaches from almost every perspective that
the Christian waits in hope of the return of Christ, that we are to
constantly
be watching for His return, that He could come [right now] .... If He can't
come until seven years of tribulation have happened on this earth,
there
is no such thing as an imminent return of Christ.'
Dr.
Renauld Showers, professor for the Institute of Biblical Studies and author of
Maranatha, Our Lord Come, states:
The
Bible makes it clear that nobody living on Planet Earth knows exactly when the
Lord Jesus will come for His bride, the Church. It's an imminent event.
It
could happen at any moment. In fact, it could even happen today! ... Paul tells
us in I Thessalonians 4 when Jesus comes for His bride, the Church,
He
will not come all the way down to Planet Earth where His bride is living. He
will stop outside the Earth in the air and wait there. And then His bride,
the
Church, will come out and meet Him.
After
the Jewish bride would come out of her home with her bridesmaids and meet her bridegroom
and his male escorts, now the enlarged wedding party would
have
a return torchlight procession to the groom's father's house. By analogy, after
Jesus has caught up His bride the Church from the earth to meet Him
in
the air, we are convinced in light of this passage in John 14 that He will
return with His bride from the air above the earth back to His Father's house
in
heaven to begin living in the living accommodations He has prepared there.'
What
Difference Does Belief in Christ's -Imminent Return Make, Anyway?
God's
Word says that the time of Christ's return will be like it was in the days of
Noah., Although there will be gross immorality, violence, etc., it will
nonetheless
be business as usual for industry, commerce, society, and all other human
activity. Again, God's Word warns Christians to not be caught up
in
the flow of worldly pursuits to the extent their hearts and minds are diverted
from their thoughts of their real home, the eternal, heavenly city where
the
Father dwells. It is sadly unfortunate that most Christians have their noses so
down on the earthly grindstone that they never think to look up toward
their
hope from Heaven. It seems quite obvious from the way many Christians live
today that a significant portion of Christ's body, His bride, the Church,
disregards
the commandment of Jesus, their bridegroom: "Watch ye, therefore; for ye
know not when the master of the house cometh, at evening, or at cockcrow,
or
in the morning; Lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say
unto you I say unto all, Watch" (Mark 13:35- 37).
Peter
LaLonde summed up the importance of living in expectancy of Christ's imminent
return. The Lord could come at any moment. There is nothing that has
to
precede [His coming].... We have to be ready and living and expectant at all
times.... Some people say why study prophecy, why study all this stuff?
...
Why get on all this rapture stuff? ... The fact of the matter is, when the
disciples came to Jesus and said, "What will be the sign of thy coming and
of
the end of this age?" He gave them great detail. He didn't say,
"Don't worry about it. If I come, I come." He gave them great detail.
We are to be expectant
at
all times.
What
we see now in the world today are signs of the second coming of Christ, which
is seven years after the rapture. And if those signs are beginning to
come
to pass, how much closer the rapture must be! So that gives us a sense of
urgency. [The rapture] has always been imminent since the time of Christ
and
we are to be excited and expectant because in a moment - if we as Christians
could come to grips with this - in a moment we will be in the presence
of
our Lord forever. How it would transform our lives!
Dr.
John Walvoord, past president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and one of the
world's preeminent biblical prophecy scholars, whose chapter titled "Why
We
Watch" appears in this volume, said about the imminent rapture of the
church: "I've been teaching prophecy for more than 50 years on the
seminary level.
It's
a very precious truth and a very practical one, but it's more than just a
doctrine to me. The idea of being able to see Christ - perhaps any day -
face
to face, is an amazing, electrifying anticipation. And that's what the Bible
teaches, and I believe that's what God wants us to realize and hope for.
And
so as I am dealing with this subject, perhaps from a theological, biblical
standpoint, it is also from the standpoint that if you really love Christ,
you
are going to love His appearing. And this is going to be a precious truth to
you." I I Indeed, the scriptural text is abundant within God's Holy Word
that the hope of Christ's imminent return to rapture all believers to himself is not pie in the sky, in the sweet by and by fantasy, but precious truth
of
the coming great escape from a time of hell on earth.