The Return of the King of Kings Part 6

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
                1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
 
                “Behold, I tell 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 trumpet.  For the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
                1 Corinthians 15:51-52
 
The above verses come from Paul’s messages to the churches in Thessalonica and Corinth.  They speak of a miraculous event whereby believers in Christ, both alive and dead, will have their bodies transformed into perfect eternal forms and be brought up to Heaven to be with Jesus.  This event is commonly called “The Rapture”.

There is some controversy among Christians as to when this event occurs, and from this dispute come the terms “Pre-trib”, “Mid-trib”, and “Post-trib” Rapture.  “Pre-trib” Rapture means that the Rapture will occur just prior to the seven-year tribulation period leading up to the Second Coming of Christ.  “Mid-trib” Rapture means that the Rapture will occur in the mid-point of the entire seven-year tribulation period.  “Post-trib” Rapture means that Christians will have to go through the seven-year tribulation period and will be caught up to meet Jesus as he is returning to reign on Earth.

I believe in the “Pre-trib” Rapture.  The “Mid-trib” and “Post-trib” Raptures do not properly account for the fact that the Church Age needs to end so that God’s set timeline for his chosen people, the Jews, can resume.  There are still seven years left on that timeline.  It was put on pause when the Jews denied Jesus as their Messiah. 

There are some Christians who mistakenly believe that Israel and the Jews play no further role in God’s prophecies.  They believe in Replacement Theology, whereby the promises God made to Israel were transferred to the Church as a result of the Jews having rejected Jesus as their Messiah.  This is just wrong.  The role of Christians is to reign with Christ in his Millennial kingdom.  The kingdom itself will have at its core the nation of Israel and the Jews will live and multiply to the point where they cannot be numbered, fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham.  What was transferred was the governance and priesthood of the kingdom.  Had the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’s day accepted him as Messiah, they would have reigned with him and served as priests in his kingdom.  But because they denied him, those roles will be filled by those in the Church.

If God had truly meant to bring a final end to Israel’s role in his plan, he would not have left seven unfulfilled years for Israel in the timeline he revealed to Daniel.  God knew that the Jews would reject Jesus, so he used the Church to spread the Gospel to the entire world.  As we drew near the point where the mission of spreading the Gospel was reaching completion, God turned his attention back to Israel and brought them back to their land. 

The resurrection of Israel as a nation is one of God’s greatest miracles and should not be dismissed out of some ill-conceived need by some in the Church to have themselves called the new chosen people of God.  There is room enough in God’s heart for all of us, Jew and Gentile alike.  The Gentile Church has been grafted into the vine of Israel.  We comprise a symbiotic relationship.  Our Savior was a Jew from the royal line of Israel.  Gentiles have carried his message throughout the ages and paved the way to re-establish the revived nation of Israel that he will return to rule.  Do you really think that God would allow the title King of the Jews to remain forever as a mere term of mockery?  The Jews of Israel will one day truly call Jesus their king.

Getting to that point requires completing the final seven years of Daniel’s timeline. The resumption of the final seven years is marked by the Anti-Christ confirming some kind of covenant or treaty with Israel.  But the Anti-Christ cannot be revealed until the Holy Spirit is taken away, as Paul describes:

                “Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.  Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
                “Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?  And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.  For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.”
                2 Thessalonians 2:1-8
 
The restraining force to which Paul is referring is the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is manifested on Earth in all those who believe in Christ.  It filled the followers of Jesus on the Day of Pentecost and has resided in the Church from that day forward until now.  It is the force that has empowered believers to spread the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.  And as Paul described, it has held in check Satan’s ambition to elevate the Antichrist to power.  Satan has flashed glimpses of what the Antichrist will look like.  From Nero to Napoleon to Hitler we have seen characteristics that the infamous Apocalyptical leader will possess.  But each time such a figure has emerged, the Holy Spirit has intervened to end their reign.

But the fact that the Holy Spirit will be taken away so that the Antichrist can finally take the stage means that the Church must be taken away (i.e. Raptured).  God simply would not remove the Holy Spirit and leave the Church behind.  But what of those who turn to Christ during the seven-year tribulation?  Are they to be left on their own without the aid and comfort of the Holy Spirit?  Consider the following verse:

                “Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar, He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.  Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth.  And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.”
                Revelation 8:3-5

On the surface this sounds like another judgment being unleashed on Earth during the Tribulation.  But I believe this is actually the return of the Holy Spirit to fill the new Christians who have emerged during the Tribulation.  Here is how the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was described:

                “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
                Acts 2:2-4
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Admittedly the descriptions don’t match exactly, but there are similarities.  Also, keep in mind that on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was only filling a single house were followers of Jesus had gathered.  During this second manifestation there will be new believers spread across the planet, which I would think would cause a much more dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit

I will continue to discuss the Rapture in the next post.
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