When Hal Lindsey wrote his book
The Late Great Planet Earth back in the 1970s he touched off a
firestorm of interest in the study of prophecy.
What was once only of interest to scholars suddenly became a subject of
discussion for everyday people. And
by the millions, they wanted to know more.
Since then, numerous books and articles have been written in an attempt
to interpret the Bible’s descriptions of the end times, and in particular, its
prophecy of the Rapture. During that
time, a rather curious consensus seems to have emerged.
It seems to be the opinion of most theologians, prophecy scholars, etc,
that Paul was the first to reveal the promise of the Rapture, and that Jesus
never mentioned it.
Actually, he did.
Just to make sure that we will recognize a
prophecy of the Rapture when we happen across it, let’s look at the descriptions
of the Rapture in the letters of Paul.
1 Cor 15:51-53 (NRSV) – Listen, I will tell you a mystery!
We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and
we will be changed. For this
perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on
immortality.
1 Thess 4:13-18 (NRSV) – But we do not want you to be
uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not
grieve as others do who have no hope.For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through
Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.
For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are
alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those
who have died. For the Lord himself,
with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s
trumpet, will descend from Heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds
together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord
forever. Therefore encourage one
another with these words.
Paul says that he will tell us a mystery, meaning that he
will explain to his readers something that had been a secret, not previously
revealed to them. Although Jesus had
already lived, died, and rose again, the Gospels had not yet been written and
circulated at the time Paul wrote these letters.
What is the word picture that he paints with these two
passages?
Jesus will descend out of Heaven.
With the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God,
Jesus will command his dead believers out of their graves.
The dead will rise to life in new, immortal bodies.
Then, the bodies of those believers who are still alive
when that happens, will be changed to immortal bodies also.
The change will be fast, happening in the twinkling of an
eye.
Both those believers who had been dead and those who were
still alive will then be caught up into the clouds to meet Jesus and be with him
forever.
Notice in the Thessalonians passage that Paul makes a
distinction between God the Father and Jesus the Son, and he indicates that
Jesus is the agency through which God will accomplish these things.
Notice also that when he uses the term ‘Lord’, he is referring to Jesus.
And lastly, notice that he declares these things
“… by the word of the Lord…” which would seem to indicate that Jesus
had mentioned them to his disciples.
Paul is claiming that Jesus had actually talked about these things while he was
here on Earth.
That being the case, it would be reasonable for us to
search the Gospels to see if any of the writers recorded Jesus’ words on the
subject. Will we find any?
Yes we will.
In the fifth chapter of John, we find Jesus speaking to the
Jewish authorities in Jerusalem.
John 5:25-29 (NRSV) – “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is
coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live. For
just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have
life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he
is the Son of Man. Do not be
astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will
hear his voice and will come out -- those who have done good to the resurrection
of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
The phrase ‘...the Father has life in himself…’ doesn’t
merely mean that God is alive; it means that God the Father has within him the
capacity and power to bestow life.
Jesus then indicates that God the Father has given Jesus that power also, along
with the authority to decide who to give life to.
In this passage, Jesus doesn’t go into as much explanation
as Paul did in his letters, but we do have some of the elements listed by Paul:
Jesus is the agency who will accomplish these things.
The dead saints will be called out of their graves.
The dead saints will be raised to life, not condemnation.
Later on, in Chapter Six, we find Jesus speaking to a crowd
along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
John 6:39,40 (NRSV) – And this is the will of him who sent
me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on
the last day. This is indeed the
will of my Father, that all who see the son and believe in him may have eternal
life, and I will raise them up on the last day.”
In this passage we find that:
Jesus is the agency who will accomplish the feat.
He will raise up (from the dead) those who believe in him.
The raised believers will have eternal life.
In both of the instances cited above, we have some of the
elements listed by Paul, but not all.
Jesus talks about what he will do about believers who have died, but in
neither case does he talk about those who are still alive.
Fortunately for us, elsewhere he does.
In Chapter 11 of his Gospel, John records the death of
Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha.
When Jesus arrives in Bethany four days after Lazarus had died, Martha confronts
him on his way into town.
John 11:21-26 (NRSV) – Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you
had been here, my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection
on the last day.” Jesus said to her,
“I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives
and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
The phrase ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ mirrors the
comments Jesus made in Chapter 6. He
is the agency through which the resurrection will be accomplished, and He has
the capacity to bestow life.
Actually, Jesus appears to be correcting Martha’s misguided understanding of the
concept. She espouses a generalized
belief in a resurrection, and Jesus, in effect says, “No,
I am the one who will accomplish the resurrection.”
He changes the concept from something, which will merely happen, to
something, which He will personally carry out.
The first half of the next sentence is rather
straightforward; the dead who had believed in Him will be brought back to life.
This also agrees with chapter 6.
The second half of that sentence, however, deserves a bit
of analysis and explanation, because Modern English does not always use verb
tenses in the same way that Koine Greek did.
“…and everyone who lives and believes in me will never
die.”
At first glance, to the Modern English speaker, this
appears to say that all the people who ever became believers in Jesus would
escape death. But that would
contradict the first half of the sentence, which indicates that some will,
indeed, die. It would also mean that
people like Martin Luther, William Tyndale, Jonathan Edwards, and Dwight L.
Moody would still be around, collecting Social Security, and perhaps still
teaching at the seminary. But
they’re dead. Believers have been
dying for about twenty centuries now, so the sentence simply must mean something
else. What might that be?
Consider the following:
If someone were to ask you how Old Man Smith was, you could
reply, “He lives.” But, your
listener would be left hanging by such a reply, expecting you to complete the
thought by saying where Old Man Smith
lives. He will be expecting a phrase
like ‘on Elm Street’ or ‘in a nursing home.’
Even though the word ‘lives’ is the present tense, continuing action form
of the verb ‘to live,’ we normally don’t use it that way.
The word ‘lives’ is most commonly used to mean ‘resides.’
Thus, ‘Old Man Smith lives on
Elm Street.’
If we merely wanted to express the thought that Old Man
Smith had not yet died, instead of saying, “He lives,” we would more likely say
instead, “He is still alive.”
Since ‘is still alive’ means exactly the same thing as the
present tense, continuing action verb ‘lives,’ let’s make a substitution and
compare the second half of the sentence again.
“…and everyone who lives and believes in me will never
die.”
“…and everyone who is still alive and believes in me will
never die”
The meaning comes through a bit more clearly, doesn’t it?
But now, the sentence begs the question, ‘Still alive,
when?’ Well, it’s the second half of
a sentence. Obviously it means still
alive when whatever is contained in the first half of the sentence, happens.
Still alive when those who had died, come back to life.
Let’s reprint the whole sentence with the substitution and compare.
“I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone
who lives and believes in me will never die.”
“I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone
who is still alive and believes in me will never die."
Suddenly, what was cryptic becomes understandable.
Jesus claims the capacity to grant life.
Jesus says that he will accomplish the resurrection.
Dead believers will be brought back to life.
Believers who are still alive will live forever.Now, that has to
be the rapture! Jesus may not have
gone into as much detail as Paul did, but he said enough for us to recognize
that they were talking about the same event.
What Jesus said was a flat-out promise of the Rapture!
What happened in Bethany that day was an astounding
sequence of events. Martha
confronted Jesus and accused him of letting Lazarus die instead of healing him.
In response, Jesus did the following:
He claimed the power to grant life.
He promised to raise dead believers back to life.
He improved the promise to not just life, but eternal life.
And he included believers who would still be alive at the
time.
Then he called a dead man back to life out of the grave to
prove that he could do what he promised!
In his letters, Paul gave a testimony of words when he
explained the Rapture. In Bethany,
Jesus gave us a more powerful testimony of action.
Scripture quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright
ã
1989 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All
rights reserved.