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A MAGAZINE OF PURE UNDERSTANDING Online Edition Volume 4 Number 2 March—April
2009 |
Personal—What
Difference Does It Make |
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The
Secret Rapture Question: Fact or Fiction?
By Michael W. Stevenson
Pastor General,
Most people simply assume that they know for a fact that the Bible
teaches that there will be a “secret rapture” and that millions of “Christians”
everywhere will disappear. But, do you really know the truth on this very
subject? Do you even know what God’s Word really says? Chances are, you don’t
even understand or know what your own Bible says—chances are, you have listened
to man rather to God! Now, here is the PRECIOUS TRUTH that you need to know
regarding the “Secret Rapture!”
DID YOU KNOW THAT many people simply
believe what they are taught, thinking that it is truth? Did you know that what
most men have taught in their churches becomes the beliefs of many churches as
a whole? Yet, people don’t bother with checking up on many of these
teachings—they just simply believe them without finding out the truth!
One of the very
teachings that man has believed which is based upon theory and not based upon
the Bible is the very question regarding the “secret Rapture” which men have
supposed is true and correct and comes from the Bible. But, let’s drop all our
previous conceived beliefs on this subject and turn to God’s Word and find out
what God says about the soon expected return of Jesus Christ! You just might be
surprised to see the truth and to see you might have been deceived!
There is a time
of fiendish, diabolical torture which is now upon us that is beginning to take
place in the very name of religion and chances are—YOU ARE A PART OF THE
VICTIMS!
Millions of
others along with you are also victims, thinking that they are going to escape
the tribulation which is just about to really start! They think that they are
going to escape the torture of the Antichrist, the tribulation, and he plagues
of Revelation. Yet, are they sure that they are going to be escaping these
things through anything such as a secret rapture?
It is time that
you truly know what is coming and how you can truly escape it!
The common idea
today among the many fundamentalists is that Christ is going to secretly return
“at any moment” to “rapture” or to “catch away” the Church before the
tribulation even begins and that the appearance of a superhuman who is referred
to as the “Antichrist” will arise and that people will escape it. The secret
return of Jesus Christ that they call the “first phase” of Christ’s second
coming will happen as they claim. But, let’s turn to the Bible and see what God
really has said.
Will There Be Two Phases?
Most churches teach that Jesus will suddenly descend from heaven
this very night! But, he will stop in mid-air! They teach that he will return
and will secretly catch up his people.
They teach that
the dead who are righteous will be raised and all true Christians who are alive
will be “translated.” The Christ will take them to heaven—some say for 3½ years
and yet others also say that it will be for seven years.
During this time,
they say that God is going to pour his wrath upon the world by permitting the
Antichrist to deceive the nations—especially the Jewish people—and to torture
those who don’t submit to him. This time of torture, they say is the
“Tribulation” or the “Day of the Lord” and they really and sincerely believe
that what they are speaking of is really found in the Bible. But, is this what
the Bible really teaching us?
Are there really
two phases to the real Second Coming of Jesus Christ? Will he return in secrecy
or will he return openly so that all might see him? Why is the word “RAPTURE”
not even found anywhere in the Bible if this is a true theory?
Just when was it,
why was it, and where did it come from? The answers to these questions will
more than likely surprise you! It is time that you understood just what your
Bible says regarding this “theory”!
A Time Sequence of Real Events!
For a while, I had even supposed that there was going to be a
“secret rapture” and that I knew that my Bible taught it. But, I did not
understand my Bible at all. I did not even understand that Jesus had given us a
time sequence of real events that is going to soon be upon the world and which
is upon the world already! I firmly believe we are now seeing the very start of
these things! This time sequence is revealed to us in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and
Luke 21. These three chapters contain a thorough order of events that are at
the close of the present age of man’s rule upon the earth. I want you to see
what Jesus told his very disciples—and that also includes you and me today if
we are obeying him and keeping his commandments!
These events are:
false teachers, the proclamation of a false gospel, yet coming in the name of
Christ and saying that they are of Christ; wars, famines, pestilences,
earthquakes, floods—all taking place within that order! There then would be
what take place?—the secret return of Jesus Christ to take away his people into
a secret rapture before the tribulation? No! Just the opposite as you will see!
Here are the very words of Jesus: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, and famines shall be and earthquakes in divers places.
But all these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up unto
TRIBULATION, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my
name’s sake”—Matt. 24:6-9.
I want you to
again read that! Jesus did not say that you will be “taken away” but that you
“will be deliver up to tribulation”! So then, how can
the people of God be in tribulation if they are not on earth to be in
tribulation? It says that we will be “hated” and why? For Christ’s name!
Because we are in the name of Christ will we be hated! This is obviously
referring to the true Christians!
Mark further says
the same thing “And ye shall be hated of all for my name’s sake”—Mark
So Then, Will There Be
Even though Jesus had prophesied that Christians will be
persecuted in a coming tribulation, he also had said that there is for some a
way that they will escape!
That way of
escape is NOT through any secret rapture—but through something quite different!
“But watch and pray always that ye be
accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and
stand before the Son of man”—Luke
Again, today,
Jesus has repeated this very same promise to his very Church: “Because thou
didst keep the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of
trial”—the tribulation and events that are going to be following—“which is to
come upon the whole inhabited earth, to try them that dwell upon the
earth”—Rev. 3:10!
But, just exactly
how and where are the Christians who watch and pray going to be escaping to? We
find the answer in Revelation 12!
It is here that
we find that the true Church—God’s Church which is pictured! A woman, remember, is the symbol of the
Church (II Corinthians 11:2). This chapter shows us the true Church, whereas
Rev. 17 pictures the false churches—a mother church and her daughter churches.
But, let’s look at Rev. 12:6 which tells us that “And the woman fled into the
wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her
there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”
Now I want you to
understanding that during the Middle Ages, “the woman”
or the
Here, we see the
very persecution that is still in the future, a persecution which is now
currently being planned against the Church of God—and let me say that I believe
that it is about to come upon us within the next couple of years! But, how does
the Church escape? Verse 14 tells us that the Church will escape on two wings
of a great eagle, she will fly to the wilderness to
the place which is prepared for her. It will be for 3½ years that the Church
will be in the wilderness!
If you notice
clearly, the Church is NOT taken into heaven! The Church is rather taken to a
wilderness area “And the earth helped the woman”—Rev. 12:13-16.
Could anything
become more plain that this—that the Church will NOT be going to into heaven,
but will be taken to a literal place upon the earth?
But, what about
those who are not worthy to escape this, what will happen to them? We read that
“…the dragon. went away to make war with the rest of
her seed?”—that is the remainder of the
It is plain that
some of the
Will the Tribulation Be the Time of God’s Wrath?
There is another mistake that often times,
all who believe in the rapture have taken for granted without proof. It is that
the “tribulation” and the “Day of the Lord” are the same time period!
The Bible reveals
to us that the tribulation is the wrath of Satan, the wicked spirit ruler of
this present age who also is referred to as the “god of this world” or the “god
of this age” (II Corinthians 4:4). We read of this in Rev. 12!
Notice that Satan
is who is angry! He is very much responsible for the persecution of the Christians
who are not accounted worthy to escape out of the world to the place of safety!
Satan hates the ways of God. So does this world! It is the world of Satan—for
it belongs to Satan and that is why he is referred by Paul as the “god of this
age”! It is no wonder that it hates the Gospel of the soon coming
But, what did
Jesus say would come immediately after Satan’s wrath—the tribulation time? The
rapturists would have you to think that it is the “second phase” of Jesus’
return which would immediately occur. But, notice carefully that Jesus said
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and
the powers of the heavens shall be shaken”—Matthew 24:29!
Now, I want you
to look at Joel
This Day of the
Lord comes as a thief in the night as Paul wrote (1 Thessalonians 5:2). This is
not speaking of the rapture at all, but rather, it is speaking of a time when
God himself will intervene in the affairs of this world shortly before Jesus
returns!
Now, compare
Revelation 6:12, 16-17. You will see this truth that “the sun became black as
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And said to the mountains and
rocks, 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?” I want you to see plainly that it is talking
about the day of God’s wrath which is going to come unexpectedly—as a thief in
the night!
However, the
tribulation will take place before “the Day of the Eternal’s Wrath”! Notice
that it is during this day of the Lord that the trumpets will begin to sound
(Rev. 8:6)! You need to know this truth because it is going to happen. Trumpets
are a sound of war. This is the time when God’s restraint over the nations is
taken off! For this is when the nations warn upon each other—World War III
until they learn that ONLY God is able to bring peace and that his laws will
make life worth the living! For the Feast of Trumpets is the annual Holy Day or
annual Sabbath which pictures the trumpets blowing!
Now, I want you
to carefully notice a great fact which very few even understand!
The seventh
trumpet sounds!
What happens at
the time that the seventh trumpet sounds? “And the seventh angel sounded: and
great voices in heaven came saying, The Kingdom of the world is become our
Lord’s and His Christ’s, and He shall reign unto the ages of the ages’…We thank
thee, Lord God, the Almighty who is and who was; because thou hast taken thy
great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath is
come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to
the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shoudst destroy them which destroy the earth’”—Rev. 11:5,
17-18)!
I want you to see
carefully that this is the time that the prophets will receive their reward and
that it is also the time of the resurrection! And this, remember, takes place
at the very seventh or the last trumpet which is blown!
Now, I want you
to further compare this with 1 Cor. 15:51-52: “Lo, 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 trump: for the trumpet”—the seventh and last trumpet
that sounds—“shall sound and the dead”—those who have died that have been a
part of God’s Church—that includes the very prophets of God—Rev. 11:18 “shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
Do you understand
the very significance of this very passage of Scripture? After the tribulation,
after the intervening signs, during the Day of the Lord, as the sounding of the
seventh trumpet, then the dead who are of Christ, are resurrected and those who
are alive, who believe and keep God’s truths, are changed from this mortality
into immortality! What a glorious even that will be—for those who are of God
will become SPIRIT!
Again—this is NO
“secret rapture”! The dead are not resurrected twice! Those who are still
living are not changed into immortality twice! Of course they are not! There is
not the slightest indication here of any type of “secret rapture” taking place
and a resurrection of the saints before the very tribulation!
But, it is not
all!
Turn now to
Matthew 24:30: “And then”---after the very heavenly signs that follow the
tribulation—not before, but AFTER the tribulation and during the Day of the
Lord which takes place—“THEN shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and shall
see the Son of man”—Jesus Christ—“coming in the clouds of the heaven with power
and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a great trumpet (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.” It does not refer here to a
“secret rapture” because everyone on earth will SEE
CHRIST return!
This verse shows
us the second coming of Christ is going to be a visible return—not a secret
rapture or secret return! It will happen at the seventh trump and is the time
of the very resurrection of God’s people that have died! The elect are the
Just Who Are the Elect?
We find that Luke 18:7 tells us that “And shall not God avenge His
ELECT, that cry to Him day and night?”
These are not the
Jews! The Jews will not be converted as a nation until Jesus returns! The Jews
today are the “enemies of the gospel”—Romans 11:28, not elect or chosen. Any
concordance will show you with many other passages (1 Peter 1:1-2; Col. 3:12;
Rom.
Paul then further
mentions the same awesome noise of the seventh trumpet that sounds at Christ’s
return. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with an
archangel’s voice, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise
first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be
caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air”—1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
Did you notice
that this is the very time of the resurrection? It is the very same time of the
last trumpet—according to 1 Cor. 15:52. In Rev. 11:15, 17-18 the seventh or
last trumpet is also the time of the resurrection! The time order of Jesus’
There is no
possible room for a “secret rapture” at all from all that we are showing!
Therefore, it is impossible to make the claim that there is going to be a
secret rapture!
One famous text
that often is used to contradict these passages is often 1 Thessalonians 4:14
which reads “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, even so them also that
are fallen asleep”—the dead are just that—they are truly asleep—they don’t go
anywhere at death! They are asleep in their graves,
nor awake in heaven as Paul tells us—“will God through Jesus bring with him.”
Thus, this verse is supposedly teaching us that 3 ½ years or 7 years before
Christ comes, there will be a “secret rapture” that will take place, that the
dead who were secretly taken into heaven and now they are returning with
Christ.
But, as you are
going to see, this is not so either! The scripture does not say that!
How is Jesus
going to bring with him, those who are sleeping in death? Notice carefully that
it says “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we that are
alive, that are left unto the presence [or coming] of the lord, shall in no
wise precede [the Old English word: “prevent” meant
“precede”] them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven”—does this say with the saints coming with him? No!
Not at all! “and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”
So what will happen? The dead in Christ will arise first—that means that the
Christians who have died, the ones who have been a part of God’s true Church
through all time, they will be the ones who will rise first—they will be
resurrected! Christ will not bring them with him!
Notice plainly
that Jesus, along with the angels from heaven, descends toward the earth and
that it is NOT with the saints, but
in order to resurrect them—raise them from the dead—and that he will descend
and the dead will then arise!
After Jesus
descends toward the earth, the dead are going to plainly rise first! They will
meet Christ in the air!
Now the dead are
with Christ in the air—the atmosphere that surrounds earth. “Then we that are
alive and remain shall together with them be caught up in the clouds”! We, too,
shall be together in the air with those who have just been resurrected from the
dead, those who Jesus is bringing with him to the earth! Notice further that
being “caught up”—Paul does not say at all “raptured
up”—and notice that this occurs AFTER the tribulation, at the last trumpet when
Jesus descends visibly in power and in glory!
Suppose now that
you had a friend who is returning today. You would probably meet him or her at
the bus or rail station or wherever they were returning to. Then you would
return with them to your home. In this same way, it is only natural that we
that are alive meet Christ at the Mount of Olives by Jerusalem—in other words,
we will meet Christ to welcome him joyously back to the earth!
If your friend
were returning today, he would not take you back with him to the place that he
had come from, and then return all over again, now would he? That would be
completely absurd. Same is true with Christ; he will not come, take you with
him to where he came from and then return again!
Yet, that is the
concept that the people who believe in the “rapture” try to push off—that Jesus
will meet you, take you to the place he left—heaven—in order so that he could
return again to earth!
Christ Returns In Like Manner!
How is it that Jesus had left this very earth? Did he just leave
secretly or did he leave visibly so that his very disciples could see him
leave? “He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight”—the
disciples were looking at him—“and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven
as he went up, behold, which also said, “Ye men of
Were there two
phases of Jesus’ ascension? No! Then there will not be two phases to his very
return—he will come in the same manner in which he had left!
Now, further
notice that the prophecy concerning the fulfillment of this very promise:
“Behold, the day of the Lord cometh…his feet shall stand in that day upon the
Jesus had then
ascended visibly from
That is what the
Scripture tells us.
There is no
secret rapture that will happen before the tribulation or at any time after!
The resurrection is at the sound of the trumpet in the day of God’s wrath which
will be coming after the tribulation! The tribulation is not the Day of the
Lord!
Let me say it
bluntly that there are two separate and distinct time periods here. Christ does
not return at all in two phases, one secret, the other
visible! He returns in the same manner as it was when he left to go to his
Father! At that day he will return very plainly, visibly and in a manner that
all will see!
Most people,
however, take the time to look only at minor scriptures and misinterpret them to
understand their own theories. Take Revelation 4:1-2 for example. This, we are
told, represents the rapture. But yet, these two verses do not say that at all.
John was seeing the prophecy of the Book of Revelation unfolded in heaven
because that is where Jesus is—not because of any type of secret rapture at
all!
The very plain
and precious truth is that one must see what is really being said!
One prominent
write attempts to prove that II Thessalonians 2:7-8 is referring to the
rapture. His theory, however, is that this prophecy has not yet begun to be
fulfilled—that Christ has to come first “to rapture the Church before the
tribulation” and yet, we find that even his theory is wrong.
If you will
notice in those two verse, it is Paul saying that the “mystery of iniquity doth
already work” which obviously is telling us that it was already being
fulfilled!
The prophecy
therefore was already being fulfilled!
Let us, however,
further notice that the tie setting of this prophecy is essential. The
Thessalonians had asked Paul how long they would have to wait until the return
of Christ and the resurrection. Paul had answered them that the day of Christ’s
return and the resurrection of could not come at all “except there come a
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed…”—v.3.
Further, I want
you to notice the time sequence again! An apostasy will have come first and the
man of sin shall be revealed before Christ returns! We have already seen the
apostasy take place! God’s Church has already apostatized with what has
happened in the Worldwide Church of God. Now, until the man of sin is revealed,
the day of Christ is being withheld—restricted! Christ is not coming and the
resurrection will not take place until after the next part when the man of sin
is revealed, this is the one who rises out of its midst, seats himself in the
temple of God and says that he is God (v.4).
Now, continuing
on with verses 6-9, as to the original Greek: “And now you know what withholds
[or, is keeping back the Day of Christ’s return], so that he [the man of sin]
might be revealed in his own [or appointed] time. For the mystery of iniquity
is already working: there is only one who is already working [or keeping back
the day of Christ] until he [the man of sin] comes on the scene out of the
midst [of the apostasy]; and then shall that Wicked be revealed [seated in the
temple of God, claiming to be God], whom the Lord shall consume…by the
brightness of his very coming…”
I want you to
notice plainly that this must all happen before Christ
even returns “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and
that obey not the gospel”—II Thessalonians 1:8.
Notice that the
man of sin must appear or come out of the midst of the apostasy!
Christ cannot
come for his people until the man of sin, who today heads a great apostasy—a
great fallen Church (Rev. 17)—moves his headquarters to Jerusalem and seats
himself upon the temple of God (Daniel 11:44-45 and Rev. 11). Thus, is it
possible that this is the Roman Catholic Church? Recently, the Pope has started
work on making an alliance with
So How Did the Secret Rapture Come About?
Now comes the very surprise of all this! The doctrine of the
“secret rapture” comes from Antichrist—that man of sin who is claiming to be
God!
The very earliest
generally recognized modern adoption of this very doctrine of a superhuman
Antichrist preceded by a “secret rapture” occurred around 1825. Samuel R. Matland, librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
swallowed this theory. Around 1830, J.N. Darby, the founder of the Plymouth
Brethren, accepted it and began teaching it. The Scofield
Bible propounded the same erroneous theory—and from that point it has since
spread into mainstream Christianity.
Today, we see how
it has caught hold and even has become the subject of many movies, novels, and
books. It has been the topic in magazines and so forth.
Now you know the
precious truth—there will be no “secret rapture”, but rather, there will be a
visible return of Jesus Christ in all his glory and awesome power of God to
bring forth upon the earth the awesome