Two Second Comings??

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Audio for this article here: SermonAudio.com/StudyGrowKnow

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas filled with family and friends. Happy New Year as well as we move in 2022. What can we expect? What can we hope for? We’ll have to see, but mandates and fascism surrounding CV is probably not going away.

Regarding the question asked in the title of this article, nope, there is only one Second Coming of our Lord and Savior. The Rapture and the Second Coming are not connected in any way. That would be like saying that the Great Flood of Noah’s day and the Great White Throne Judgment are connected because they are both judgments of God.

Years ago, when I was at Bible college, the PreTrib Rapture position was the accepted view there. A few professors taught that the Rapture was the “Part A” of the Second Coming while the actual physical return of Jesus to the earth is “Part B,” but together both constituted the Second Coming. At the time, I thought, okay, I guess so. Years later, I’ve come to understand that the Rapture is its own stand alone event altogether and has nothing to do with the Second Coming.

Recently, I came across a guy with whom I had attended Bible college with when we both attended in the 1970’s. We chatted via email and he mentioned to me that he was now a PostTribber, having fully rejected the PreTrib Rapture position, stating emphatically that nowhere does the Bible teach two second comings. That was a statement I could agree with him about, but the implication that PreTrib Rapturists believe in two Second Comings is erroneous. There is only ONE Second Coming and hopefully, you are looking forward to that as much as I am and it will happen at the end of the Tribulation. In fact, it is the actual closing event so to that end, he and I fully agree.

The Rapture, I believe, occurs prior to the start of the Tribulation. We do not know how far in advance it will occur. We do not know the day that it will occur. We do not know the exact circumstances which will exist on this planet when God in Christ calls His Bride home to be forever with Him in the heavenly realms. We will be welcomed to the Father’s house because Jesus went there ahead of us to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-3). This is exactly like the ancient Jewish Bridegroom, who, once officially betrothed, leaves his engaged bride while he prepares a place for her at his father’s house. We covered this in our recent article, The Bridegroom Cometh (which I wished I would have named something else entirely like “Rapture vs Second Coming” or something. Oh well).

In that article, I lay out what I believe are the facts regarding the Jewish wedding ceremony. As noted, when the Bridegroom eventually comes for his bride (having completed all his preparations), he does not come all the way to her house where she is staying with her wedding party. As he approaches her home with his groomsmen he blows the Shofar and she hears the sound and goes out to meet him as he is on the way. Once they come together the bridegroom does not continue with her to her house. He takes his bride and goes back toward his father’s home (where he has prepared a place for her), stopping at the banquet hall where he has also prepared a marriage feast. This is exactly the process that Jesus laid out for His Bride, the Church throughout New Testament Scriptures.

We get a snippet of this in John 14:1-3, where Jesus promises His disciples that even though He is leaving them for a while, there is a specific purpose in His absence. He will prepare a place for them and will then return to get them, (“that where I am, there you may be also“), bringing them to the place where He prepared a place for them. As I mentioned, He is not currently preparing such a place here on earth. He is in the heavenly realm, in His Father’s house preparing such a place for each member of the Bride/Church.

Compare this to when Jesus returns at the end of the Tribulation. At that point, He will touch down on and remain on this earth for 1,000 years reigning from His earthly father David’s throne in Jerusalem. He isn’t going to go back to heaven because He will have work to do here on earth. We (His Bride), will return with Him at that point from heaven. Those believers who are here and alive on earth when He returns are not part of the Bride of Christ. Yes, they are believers, but just as the Old Testament saints are not part of the Bride/Church, things will tend to revert back to the way things were during Old Testament times when the Lord raptures His Bride/Church from this earth.

So with respect to the Rapture, it has nothing to do with the Second Coming. Once the Church is gone from this earth, the Holy Spirit (the Restrainer), will be moved out of the way because He currently indwells and works through the life of every authentic believer making up the Church now. When the Church is removed, that “restraining influence” or Holy Spirit influence if you will, that is now keeping back abject, unfettered evil, and will no longer be in the way to do that. I realize that some see this “restrainer” as an angel or group of angels, however, this is difficult to believe because angels cannot be everywhere at once, no matter how many there are. The Holy Spirit (God), can and is everywhere at once, though He has chosen in this period of time since the time of Christ to indwell the Bride of Christ (individually and corporately). The Rapture does not “remove” the Holy Spirit from the earth as some have erroneously taught. The Rapture simply removes the vehicle (the Church), through which the Holy Spirit has worked since Acts 2.

By the way, a pet peeve of mine regarding the Rapture has to do with it being called the “escape clause.” I’ve said this many times but it bears repeating; I could physically die long before the Rapture happens. Life could change in the USA so drastically that Christians become hunted, persecuted, thrown in jail and/or killed for their faith. This has never happened in America but it certainly could. To believe the Rapture is going to save me from this is immature and unbiblical, in my opinion. The Rapture has never saved any other generation of Christians from persecution or death and it isn’t saving any Christian from that today outside of the USA. Many of our brothers and sisters face death daily for their faith. What about them? Christians in America really need to wake up to reality. Times are getting bad and evil is mounting a growing opposition against all that is God and those who follow Him.

So when will the Rapture happen? Aside from it happening prior to the start of the Tribulation, we simply do not know. If it happens in the middle or the end of the Tribulation, then it wouldn’t be a surprise would it? It wouldn’t be that “thief in the night” (Matthew 24:43; 1 Thessalonians 5:2), event, would it? In fact, it would be fairly easy to determine at least a close estimate when Jesus would return. Once the Tribulation starts, all a person has to do would be to just start counting down seven years. Believers then who are alive will know. In fact, Jesus says that when certain signs are seen in the sky, they should look up because their redemption draws near (Matthew 24). The PreTrib Rapture is the only timing of that event that truly allows for that “thief in the night” unexpectedness. There is no sign signaling the Rapture is near. However, the end of the Tribulation presents many signs that foretell His return is near.

The Rapture will happen when one thing occurs: the fullness of the Gentiles comes in (Romans 11:25), otherwise known as the last Gentile to be saved into the Church, prior to the Tribulation. God will then say, “It’s time!” and He calls His Bride home. Following the Rapture, the raw, unfiltered evil currently held back by the restraint of the Holy Spirit working through the Church will flood the world. Even a cursory reading of Revelation reveals that things become exceedingly evil during the Tribulation (Revelation 6-19), and the time immediately leading up to it (2 Timothy 3). I personally believe we are seeing that evil beginning to leach into society now.

God’s removal of His Bride/Church at some future point will coincide with the world’s cup of sin that will have become full. God will begin to pour out His wrath onto this world in a series of judgments that will shock the world to its core. There is no reason for God to keep His Bride/Church here when He begins to pour out HIS wrath onto the people of this world and the world itself; no reason at all, because Jesus was the recipient of God the Father’s wrath for all believers as He hung willingly on the cross in an exceedingly agonizing death. He didn’t have to do that but He did because of His tremendous love for us (John 3:16).

Authentic Christians are not appointed to endure even one second of God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). I realize there are those who believe the Rapture will happen at the midpoint of the Tribulation, while others embrace a “PreWrath” Rapture because they see many of the first set of judgments not poured out by God, but by human beings onto human beings. However, I see the entirety of the seven years of the Tribulation as God pouring out His wrath onto the people of this world and the world itself. God directs the action from the first seal in Revelation 6 from His throne room. John has been called up to that throne room to view the happenings. God is fully in charge of everything.

PostTribbers believe that God will protect His people from His wrath in the midst of the Tribulation. Yet, it is clear that multitudes and multitudes of believers will die during the Tribulation (Revelation 6:9-11; the fifth seal). I’ve heard PostTribbers refer to Noah and how God saved Noah “through” the Flood. In reality, God fully removed Noah, his family and the animals on the Ark from the wrath that He poured out onto the world. There was absolutely no place God could have kept everyone in the Ark safe from the floodwaters on the earth. His only two choices were to take Noah et al as He had taken Enoch (which would have meant going to the afterlife then bringing them back to this world), or placing them safely inside a huge boat that literally floated above the earth. Where else could God have sequestered Noah and the rest from His wrath? God obviously chose the latter measure. Noah, his family and all the animals were perfectly safe from the disaster underneath them where every living thing on the earth died. Those in the Ark experienced none of it. In essence, the Ark was a type of PreTrib Rapture event and when it was all over 150 days later, the Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat and then after many more days, the floods finished receding and it was then save to go back out onto the earth.

The Rapture is where God removes His Bride/Church so we are completely out of harms way of His wrath. After a time of enjoying the pleasure and true rest of heaven, we will return with our Lord to this earth over which He will rule for 1,000 years with a rod of iron, in perfect righteousness and justice.

There is one Rapture. There is one Second Coming. The two are not connected.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective