The Rapture & The Second Advent

So this morning we come to one of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith, and that is the second coming of Jesus Christ.

And why is that so important? Not only is the return of the Lord one of the key doctrines of the faith, this is something that is still yet in our future.

Most of the time when we teach and preach and look at things, the things that happened in the past, but this is, this is going to happen, perhaps it could happen in our lifetime.

So this is something we want to know about. Let's turn to John chapter 14. John chapter 14.

So this is one of the essential teachings of Christianity, and true

Christians have always believed that Jesus is coming back. Now what

Christians disagree about are the timing and the details, that kind of a thing.

But every faithful believer understands that Jesus is coming back a second time.

In fact, Jesus himself promised it. Look at John 14 starting in verse 3.

Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will do what? I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

All right, now let's turn to Acts chapter 1. But you notice that statement, Jesus says, where I am.

Well, where is Jesus right now? Where is he right now?

I heard a few different answers. Okay, so he's seated at the right hand of God.

Jesus is in heaven. Jesus is going to come back, and he is promised that he will come back and take the church to be where he is.

So he's coming back to take his people to heaven. And then there are also some verses that talked about Jesus returning to the earth, however.

So statements about Jesus taking us to heaven, but also, for example,

Zechariah chapter 14 says that Jesus will step foot on the Mount of Olives.

So you have statements about him coming back for his church to take us to be to heaven, then coming back to the earth.

So here's the premise. This is my position, the church's position, that when it comes to the second coming, there are two phases of the second coming.

There is the rapture of the church, takes us to heaven, and then there is the second advent of Christ to the earth.

I think both can be described as the second coming. So two phases of the second coming.

All right, you're turning to Acts 1. You're in Acts 1? All right, so these verses give us some insight into how

Jesus will return to earth. Look at verse 9. It says, Now when he had spoken these things, while they watched,

Jesus was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said,

Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.

What is he saying? Just as you saw him go up from the Mount of Olives, he's going to come down.

People are going to visibly see him come down on the Mount of Olives.

So when Jesus comes back, is he coming back to the United States? Well, no, he was never here.

When he comes back, he's going to come back to Israel on the Mount of Olives.

So we see in Scripture the Lord's return described, again, in two different ways.

So we have to be solid on this. His return for his people in the rapture, and then his return with his people in the second advent.

Because Jude says, and we'll look at this, but Jude says that the Lord comes with his saints.

Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints. So that's the position. And you missed this, so I'll let you know.

There's two phases. We're talking about the second coming of the Lord. There are two phases of the second coming.

First one we call the rapture, and then seven years later we're going to call that the second advent.

Here's the thing. If you call the second advent when he returns to earth, if you call that the second coming, that's what we commonly do.

Well, the rapture is called the coming of the Lord too. So I think this is the best way to describe it.

Both are the second coming. Two phases, the rapture and the second advent. Okay, so people will argue and debate the terminology and the timing and everything else, but here's what our church doctrinal statement says.

Okay, from the Morris Corner Church Statement of Faith, it says, we believe in that blessed hope, the personal, imminent, pre -tribulational, pre -millennial coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ for his redeemed ones and his subsequent return to earth with his saints to establish his millennial kingdom.

All right, so there is some theological language there. First, the blessed hope.

What do you think the blessed hope refers to? Which one? The first one, because when

Jesus comes at the second advent, one of the things he is going to do is fight the battle of Armageddon.

Okay, so this is a time, a day of darkness and judgment. It's going to be received by the believers alive at the time, but the blessed hope,

I believe, refers to the rapture. Jesus taking the church to be with him, which is in heaven.

That's where he is. So Jesus comes personally. Don't miss that. It's really him who returns.

He doesn't send an angel to gather everybody at the rapture. The Lord's return is him and we believe this event, the rapture of the church, is imminent.

What is the term? What does that mean, imminent? Okay, yeah,

I believe any generation could be the generation that sees this event.

So this church takes the position that the rapture is pre -tribulational, that Jesus returns before the seven year tribulation.

After the seven years, that's when Jesus comes back to the earth at his second advent.

And then the next thing after the second advent is what? The millennium, the thousand years.

So Jesus comes before the millennium. Pre - means before, so his,

Jesus' return is pre -millennial. All right, now let's turn to 1

Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians 4.

This is the chapter where we get the term rapture. Some people say, well, the word rapture is not in the

Bible and you've heard this before. And our response is, well, you're right.

The word, the English word rapture is not in most translations, but neither is the word trinity.

Neither is the word Bible. It doesn't mean we don't have a Bible or there's not a trinity.

The word rapture means a snatching away or to be caught up. In 1

Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18, it does talk about believers being caught up.

Therefore, yes, the rapture is indeed in the Bible. But again, the second advent is when

Jesus returns physically to this earth.

Okay. So the rapture can happen when? Anytime. The second advent we believe is always, well, it's at least seven years away.

Yes, Marcus. The word rapture comes from the Latin, raptura. Just, you know, caught up.

I don't know why it went from Hebrew or Greek to Latin, but that's where we get the word raptures.

Sure. Yeah. I think the Greek word is Harpazo. And then in the first few centuries, the

Latin Bible is what they used. Raptura. And then I think it went through several languages or French.

And then it came to us finally in English as rapture. It doesn't really matter though.

You argue about that term. It's the concept. That's what makes a difference. So just one quick statement, because we're kind of glossing over the whole idea of the seven year tribulation.

We only have so much time in this class. Where does the idea of a seven year tribulation come from?

Well, that comes from Daniel chapter nine, Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks that there is one week of years.

Okay. Basically seven years that remains to be fulfilled in Israel's history before, as Daniel says, everlasting righteousness is ushered in.

That hasn't happened yet. So we're still waiting or better put Israel is still waiting on this final week of prophecy in their future.

So that's where we get the seven year tribulation. Also in the book of revelation, it talks about 42 months or a time times and half a time.

That's a year, two years and a half a year and three and a half years plus three and a half years as well.

Seven years. And of course, Jesus in Matthew 24 speaks about the most terrible time in the history of the world.

He calls it the great tribulation. So that's, that's where that comes from.

Okay. So that time again is a future period for Israel, not the church.

Daniel's 70th week. That's for Israel, not the new

Testament church. All right. Look at first Thessalonians four 13 through 18.

The apostle Paul is speaking to who that's the

Thessalonians. And this was a new Testament church. He says, but I do not want you to be ignorant brethren.

That is, I don't want you to be unaware of these things concerning those who have fallen asleep or those who have died.

Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope for, if we believe if Jesus died, that if Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the

Lord, we will by no means proceed those who fall asleep.

So we will not go before those who have died before us 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.

That's, that's the term rapture. That's where we get it. 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

So where is the Lord in heaven? The saints are going to be caught up in the air to meet the

Lord. We will forever be with the Lord in heaven, but he is coming back down to earth.

So if we're forever with him, when he comes back to earth at the second advent, guess what?

We're going to come with him then because we're always, always with the

Lord. So those who have died in Christ, those loved ones and saints throughout the ages, their body is in the ground.

Their spirit is with the Lord right now. At this event, Jesus returns in the clouds, their bodies are raised, body and soul is reunited and that happens of course, in the twinkling of an eye.

And then at that moment, those of us, if we are that generation or whoever that generation is, that's alive at that moment, that happens first and we're caught up and we're translated.

Our body never dies. We're just changed and we receive that glorified body. And then all of God's people, the church is with the

Lord from that time forward. Yes, Jim. Now that explains the mystery because there's several factors included in that mystery.

Number one, there's no sign as to when he's going to come and he will come unannounced, you know, beforehand.

The announcement will be with a sound of a trump, the voices of angels.

So that's all a mystery because we have no idea of when his return for us will be.

Sure. So why? Yeah. But why is it a mystery? Because it was never foretold in the

Old Testament. Okay. But in the Old Testament, they did know about the resurrection of the dead.

What they didn't know is that there would be a generation of believers who would never die.

So the catching up of the saints was a mystery. It wasn't known in the Old Testament.

Paul revealed it. First Thessalonians four, first Corinthians 1551 through 58, where he calls it a mystery in that passage.

Okay. So let me just go through some of these things quickly. Uh, the rapture and the second advent.

Okay. Two phases of the second coming. What are the differences? And there's several reasons why we believe there are different events or different phases of the same event, however you want to put it, because the

Bible describes them differently. So in the rapture, Jesus comes in the air and the second advent, he comes to earth.

Uh, in the rapture, he comes for his people. He comes for the church. And then since we're always with the

Lord from that time forward, when he returns to earth, he's going to bring us with him. Uh, the rapture is a mystery as, as Jim said, in the

Old Testament, this was not known. Uh, the second advent is not a mystery.

Uh, the, the prophecies about the second advent of Christ were known. So this, it wasn't anything new.

Um, the rapture, there are no signs proceeding the rapture. This is why we believe it could happen in any generation.

There's not going to be any, any sign. Uh, but if you read Matthew 24, the passages on the second advent, when

Jesus comes to earth, sets up his kingdom, there's all sorts of signs for that. So during the seven year tribulation, there's plenty of signs, uh, the day.

Okay. Now this, this one is going to make a difference. Uh, we talked about the difference between Bible translations last week.

Um, but in the King James and the new King James version, when it says day of price, that's a reference to the rapture, right?

When it says day of the Lord, that's a reference to the day of darkness and judgment, the second coming, the day of the

Lord. But if you use the other modern translations, they call the day of the price, the day of price, day of the

Lord. So that, that, that distinction does not work unless you use the King James or the new King James. Uh, the rapture is a day of blessing.

That's how it's described. I mean, Jesus coming back. How great would it be? I mean, honestly, if Jesus came back right now, how great would that be?

I thought about that last night. Yeah. What a tremendous blessing. So, Oh no, but I might miss the football game later.

Oh, I know it's not football season. I know that, but Hey, listen, you, you, you need to re rethink some things that that's the way you look at it, but it's a day, it's a time of blessing.

The second advent will be a blessing for the believers living during the tribulation.

I mean, that's true, but the way it's described, it's, it's a day of judgment because that's when the battle of Armageddon happens at the end of the seven years, the rapture happens in a twinkling of an eye.

Nobody is going to see it. I mean, people will notice the disappearance of millions and millions of Christians, but you're not going to see the

Lord in the rapture. That is the world is not going to see the Lord in the rap. Sometimes it's called the secret rapture.

And people critique that because, well, um, it's not going to be a secret because people are going to know something happened true enough, but with the second advent revelation chapter one, it says every eye will see him.

So Jesus will be seen not here by the world. He will be seen by the world when he returns to the second, second time to earth.

And then the rapture is for the church. The second advent, this is going to affect the whole world.

Of course, the rapture technically will affect the world, but you understand Jesus is coming for his church.

The second advent deals with Israel as a nation. All right. Any quick comments for sake of clarification or any quick clarifying questions on this twinkling quick.

Yeah, because you can't just, you can't just say that you blink.

That's, that's a, that's quick. That's fast. So does it mean within fractions of a second?

Yeah. You're not going to be able to measure it. It's just gonna sure.

Much, much faster than the blinking of an eye. Right. Yeah. Instantaneously. You're going to be translated and caught up.

Yeah. All right. So this is the rapture that what we read in first Thessalonians four. And again, it's called that because in verse 17, the

Greek word Harpazo, it's translated through the languages and comes out in English centuries later as rapture, meaning to be caught up or snatched away.

So this is pretty simple. I think if you, if you just read the Bible and then take it at face value,

I believe this is what you will come up with. There will be critics who will say, no, no, this doctrine was created in 1830 by John Nelson Darby and blah, blah, blah.

Well, no, I believe it was created by the apostle Paul in the first century AD because we're not, have

I quoted John Nelson Darby at all? Am I, are we looking to him as our authoritative source?

No, we're looking at Paul. Paul's the one who revealed this. So just to drive this point in, in the rapture, the

Lord comes for his saints in the second coming or the second advent, he comes with his saints.

Turn to Jude for a moment. Just want to read this. Jude only has one chapter and where is it in the

Bible? Who knows? All right. Right at the end. Real easy to find. First, second, third,

John, Jude, and then the revelation. Look at Jude who would like to read verses 14 and 15.

Get a volunteer. Okay. Jen. Okay.

Thank you. That sounds kind of like a frightening thing when, when the

Lord comes at that moment. Well, that's not the blessed hope. That's the second advent.

The rapture, he comes for his people to catch us up the second advent.

You heard it. He comes with 10 thousands of his saints.

And in the, in the Bible there's, they didn't have words for 10 million or billion or trillion.

I mean, basically 10 thousands was the largest number they had. So 10 thousands, plural, it just means a innumerable company.

Okay. Now let's turn to the book of Zechariah, old Testament book of Zechariah.

It's in the minor prophets towards the end, towards the end of the old

Testament. Yup. Malachi is the last book.

Zechariah is before that, as you're turning there, as you see on the TV, there's the difference between the rapture and the second advent.

And again, we're going to give you a chance to ask all your questions and feel free to, um, uh, you know,

I don't want to say disagree or anything, but, uh, you know, if you want to challenge some things, Hey, I don't get this.

How does this work? You're shut down discourse do that because they know they can't defend their position.

So anytime you want to have people censoring things or shutting down conversation, it's because they can't back up what they're saying.

So that that's not where we're at. I believe this can be defended. So you're turning to Zechariah 14.

Did I tell you the chapter 14, if you remember our study on dispensationalism, which

I guess was two weeks ago, really the pre -tribulation rapture and dispensationalism go hand in hand.

Uh, if you don't, you, you can't believe in one and not the other. And if you say, well,

I do, well, you're confused the two, the two, you can't have it any other way, but that's, that's a whole other topic.

Zechariah 14, or just for the sake of time, we're going to read verse four, Zechariah 14, verse four says, and in that day, speaking of the

Lord, his feet will stand on the Mount of olives, which faces Jerusalem on the

East and the Mount of olives shall be split in two from the East to West, making a very large

Valley. Half the mountains shall be moved toward the North North and half of it toward the

South. And if you were to look at this chapter more in depth, you would see, this is a talking about where all nations move against Jerusalem.

This is headed towards the battle of Armageddon. So his feet, we believe this is speaking of the

Lord Jesus, his feet step where on the Mount of olives, just like the angels in Acts chapter one said, you saw him go from the

Mount of olives. Guess what? He's coming back in like manner, very simple. So this in Zechariah 14 is talking about which phase of the second coming the rapture or the second advent, the second coming.

And I don't know if you caught this, but at the beginning, here's my position. Both can be described as the second coming.

If you read first Thessalonians four on the rapture, it calls it the coming of the Lord. There's not three comings.

So we're calling both of these, the second coming to phases, rapture and second advent.

I think the difference is on the rapture. He doesn't actually touch the earth.

He's in the air with the second coming. He comes to the earth, his feet and the whole body are on the earth.

Right. That's the difference. Right. And the second, I think it's better to call it the second advent because around Christmas time churches celebrate, they have four weeks of what?

Advent. And what are churches celebrating during advent?

First coming. Right. We're celebrating Jesus coming the first time to earth born in Bethlehem.

So the term advent speaks of him coming here, not in the clouds and no here on earth.

So the second advent speaks to him coming here on earth a second, a second time.

All right, now let's turn to revelation 19, revelation 19. This is the battle we call

Armageddon. And if we were to keep reading again, Zechariah 14, it would have described this battle where it says that all nations shall gather against Jerusalem.

Guess, guess which nation is the least popular nation at the

United nations? Well, it's probably Russia right now, but yeah. But you know, before all this happened yeah.

Israel is probably the most hated nation on earth.

Of course the Muslims call them Satan, the devil. Right. And there's the great Satan, the

United States, but there is a lot of animosity and hostility towards the nation of Israel.

And that's only going to increase as we get towards the end.

And by the way, in Zechariah 14 verse nine, it says, then the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day, it shall be.

So this is what revelation 19 is describing when Jesus, he is going to come in the clouds and he has to get here somehow he's going to come in the clouds and then come right back down to earth.

Once Jesus is on the earth, fights the battle of Armageddon, then what happens?

The kingdom is set up, right? The same thing you see in Matthew 24, Jesus comes back.

Matthew 25, the kingdom is established. Okay. Revelation 19 verses 11 through 16 says, now

I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true.

And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. Verse 12, his eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns.

And he had a name written that no one knew except himself. And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God.

And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean followed him on white horses.

Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it, he should strike the nations.

When Jesus comes at the rapture, there's no talk like this. And it says he himself will rule them with a rod of iron and he himself treads the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of almighty

God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh, a name written king of Kings and Lord of Lords.

All right. Just to go back to the Morse corner church statement of faith. It says, we believe in that blessed hope, the personal imminent pre -tribulational pre -millennial coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ for his redeemed ones. And then seven years later, his subsequent return to the earth with his saints to establish his millennial kingdom.