Got your attention didn't I. Why did I decide to write this? Because on further study I found no place in Scripture where there is a silent, unheard, second coming of Jesus Christ for the church. Or that there are two second comings. One secret, quite the other loud and earth shaking. Or even a third coming of Jesus Christ for that matter. The thing about this is if you don't believe it won't happen that way, Christians who are stuck in this world, are quite snoddy about it. You are ostracized, looked down upon, almost to the point of being shunned.
Frankly, when I became a Christian I studied with people who when we studied Romans 9 or Ephesians 2 John 6:44 and 65 or other Scriptures hinting to God's choice of who comes into His kingdom, they avoided them like the plague. Or it doesn't mean that? How many times I have heard that. (I scream here) Or it means something else.
Chosen before the foundation of the world? No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws them...Indicating God does the choosing of those who come to Him. But I'm not going to get into that topic here. That requires much more study. RC Sproul's Chosen By God is the best book for that topic. But I will say this. I did not chose to be born. Did you?
Now the pretribulation rapture. They write books about it. There were movies about it. Don't get Left Behind. Etc. But search the Scriptures. Oh, you say 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18. But Paul is speaking about the fate of believers....those whose bodies are in the grave and those who are still alive at His second coming. How do I know this? Chapter 5. (remember there were no chapter and verses in Paul's orginal letters) We don't just stop there. we continue on where after talking about the dead being raised and believers caught up at His second coming, Paul in chapter five says ,"But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, (those times and things he talked about in Chapter 4) you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night."
Oh no! There it is "the Day of the Lord!" Jesus Christ second coming to judge the earth in righteousness and gather His people. (See 2 Thess 2 "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him".... "the antichrist-lawless one is revealed"..... "who the lord will destroy with his breath (greek-pneuma english translation=spirit) of His mouth" "and destroy with the brightness of His coming"
You see the same idea from the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night..."
The Day of the Lord comes as a thief....**the unexpectiveness of a thief, and the unpreparedness of those to whom he comes....** (Vines Complete and Expository Dictionary) Those who are unprepared for the Day of the Lord, who have not believed and have rebelled against God's truth. What will be their reaction on the day of the Lord, when "the sky recedes as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island is moved out of its place."
Well, the "the kings of the earth, the great men,the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, will hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:14-17; see Isaiah 3 especially verses 17-19; 21 )
The lost unbelievers will cower in fear. There's nothing they can do. Guilty as charged for all have sinned and far short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous, no not one. No one who seeks God. There is no fear of God before their eyes. They have rebuffed the savior. Refused to believe because their deeds were evil. (Romans 3:10-18) For God has appointed a day when He will judge the world in righeousness, by the man he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)
For all those who have not been born again, born from above, regenerated by God the Holy Spirit, only now will they understand and know their fate without the only name under heaven by which we are saved. They will now know the fear of the Lord and it will be terrifying. And as Adam and Eve hid from God after disobeying his command, and believing the lie of the evil one, these also on the Day of the Lord will try to hide but to no avail. For our God is a consuming fire. And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But for God's chosen people, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. By grace through faith and not of themselves, those who have responded to God Himself who drew them to His Son, The return of Jesus Christ at His second coming is our "Blessed Hope."
It is not some invisible quiet second coming. It is a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, and in 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul assured believers when Christ came they will be rescued by being "Caught Up" (Raptured-translation from the latin bible). God's people will not suffer wrath as he returns "in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Jesus Christ himself said about his return “Immediately after the tribulation of those days (tribulation and travails of humankind from the time of his resurrection till the Day of the Lord) the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Yes Jesus second coming will be felt, seen and heard by all the tribes (people) of the world. Peter alludes to this in 2 peter 3 "the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Sounds as familiar a second coming as Paul when he spoke of Jesus coming in flaming fire and taking vengeance on those who do not know God or obey the gospel in 2 Thess 1:7-10.
Peter adds, "Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be. In holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail (mourn) on account of him. Even so. Amen. (Rev. 1:7)
There it is again. When Jesus Christ comes a second time, it will be noticed by the entire world. For it will affect all the world. The ungenerate will not be able to make excuses. In fact, they won't want to. As the angel said to John, "Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Well then. Where does the rescue of His people occur ....the catching up (rapture) and raising of the dead in Christ. Jesus Himself answers the question in Matt 24 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (:30-31)
Jesus will send His Mighty angels to gather his people, His elect to himself. Therefore says Paul "comfort one another with these words." And the Apostle John writes" we know that when He is revealed, (Jesus at His second coming) we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is." And John adds these reassuring and comforting words "Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:2-3) That is the Blessed Hope" For our citizenship is in heaven, writes the Apostle Paul, and we eargerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. who will transform our lowly bodies to be conformed to His glorious Body. (Phil 3:20-21)
For the trumpet will sound (at Jesus Christ's second coming) the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. The trumpet sounding announces the Savior has come for His elect and chosen people, but also announces the total destruction of this creation. Subjected to the sinful desires of mankind and a system of death. It will be burned up...laid bare...nothing will remain of the old corruptible and fallen system that was subjected to futility.
God will create a new heavens and new earth, the first heaven and first earth will pass away...all things will be made new, regenerated... "and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. (Rev 22:3-5)
Put your trust in Jesus Christ second coming to catch you up to him, whether to unite you in the resurrection in a glorious body as His or transform you in the twinkling of an eye if you are here when Christ Jesus returns. Then the new heavens and new earth shall be created where God will wipe away every tear from your eyes, there will be no more death, nor sorrow or crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. That is our Blessed Hope. Jesus Christ is our Blessed Savior. The Way, the Truth and Life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. (john 14:6)
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...(Titus 2:11-13)
(Various Christian writers on 2 second coming)
Bishop Frank Houghton General Director of the China mission 1940--as the years go by, I am more and more amazed that anyone should have found in the Scriptures justification for the view that the coming of Jesus Christ is in two stages (one secret, the other public) and that the church will escape the tribulation.
Philip Mauro one of the writers of Fundamentals wrote "once espoused dispensationalism and the secret rapture of the church, "it is mortifying that I not only held and taught these novelties myself, but that I even enjoyed a complacent sense of superiority because thereof, and regarded with feeling of pity and contempt those who had not received the new light and where unacquainted with this up-to-date method of "rightly dividing the word of truth"
Two testimony's from George Eldon Ladd A Biblical Study of the second advent and the rapture-- The Blessed Hope 1956
