Jesus
gave a summary of what would happen at his coming, and nothing else in
Scripture can be interpreted in a contradictory way. His words stand, and all
other Scriptures are quite harmoniously (and happily) measured by this
plumbline.
29 “Immediately after the
tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give
its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens
will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the
sign of the Son of Man, 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. 31 And
he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matthew 24)
Notice
that, when Jesus comes “with the clouds,” that “every
eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth
will wail on account of him.”[1]At
the same time as the whole world sees Jesus coming like lightning that flashes “from the east and shines as far as the west,”[2]
the angels of God will be flying around the whole planet gathering up the
elect, the beloved children of God.[3]
Since Jesus says
that, at his coming, both his enemies and his brothers will be confronted by
his appearing, we cannot interpret other Scriptures to suggest that Jesus’
brothers were already “taken up” or “raptured”. When Jesus appears, the five
wise virgins will be taken up, and the five foolish virgins will face the closed
door of heaven.[4]
The two “good and faithful” servants
will be raised to be with Christ forever, and the one “wicked and slothful” servant will be condemned in his sin.[5]
In the same
way as the closing of the door to the ark signaled that judgment would fall on
those outside, and salvation would rest on those inside,[6] so
the coming judgment of God will separate the sheep of God from the goats of the
red dragon.[7]
There
is a very profound, life-and-death difference between believing that the church
is raptured years before Jesus’ return, or believing that the church is
raptured (taken up) at the very time of Jesus’ return in judgment.
Believing
that the church is taken up years prior to Jesus’ return leaves Christians
thinking that all their unsaved loved ones and friends will get a second chance
to believe in Jesus after all the Christians are gone (that would be like Noah’s
sons thinking that their friends would get a second chance after the door to
the ark had been closed). These believers are convinced that the sudden
disappearance of thousands of God’s children will be the slap-upside-the-head
that proves to those who are left behind that the Christians in the family were
right, and they now only have a limited number of years to come to Jesus before
Jesus comes for them.
These
Christian family members fill their houses with Bibles and evangelistic books
in the hope that their loved ones will have more than enough material to read
during the really bad days that will usher in the return of Christ. They
console themselves about their failures in witnessing now by “storing up riches in heaven”[8] through purchasing all manner of resources to witness to their
loved ones after the church is gone from this world.[9]
On
the other hand, believing that Jesus’ return is the end, that it is the time
that the nations will call “to the
mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the
great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’”,[10] and it is the time that the whole church, both dead and alive, “will be caught up together… in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord,”[11] then all our witnessing to the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
has to be done now. We know neither when Jesus will return, nor when we will
finish our last day and have no further opportunity to share Jesus Christ with
loved ones, friends, neighbors, and enemies. We only know we have now.
Jesus
said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be
proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then
the end will come.”[12] That’s it. The end is coming, period. The church is in the world
until the end, and must preach “this
gospel” of the kingdom as purely as it is revealed in the Scriptures.[13] We must proclaim it fearlessly, with joy and peace, knowing that
there is a far better day awaiting God’s children than anything we could
possibly know in this lifetime.
I
have long been fascinated by these two-sides-of-the-coin in the life of the
apostle Paul. On one side, he clearly lived in the “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”[14] that is characteristic of the kingdom of heaven. And yet, he would
write that he had, “great sorrow and unceasing
anguish” in his heart”[15] because his fellow Israelites were not saved. His example to us in
this regard was, “Brothers, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”[16]
Let
us allow our hearts to feel the same weight of sorrow and anguish for all the Worldlings
around us who are still under the condemnation for their sin,[17] and let us have the same “heart’s
desire and prayer” for every unsaved person we know to be saved from their
sin so they can wait in joyful anticipation of the return of our Savior.
Now,
most of us will never be able to sift through all the clever interpretations of
Scriptures regarding the second coming of Christ, and the order of events
surrounding his sudden appearing. Much of what I read sounds very much like Jesus’
description of people adding and taking away from the words he gave to the apostle
John,[18] and their failure to abide by the apostle Paul’s exhortation to “not go beyond what is written”.[19]
I
write this in the hope that I can encourage us to leave the details of the end
times where they belong, in God’s hands, and take seriously the necessity to
have soul-winning churches[20] that are both salt and light in the world[21] until our Savior returns. His appearing is the end of the church’s
opportunity to shine as children of light in a crooked and depraved generation,[22] and the end of the world’s opportunity to hear and receive the
gospel.
All
kinds of arguments and theories may not agree with Jesus’ words about his
return, but I heartily testify that all the rest of Scripture does! So, as the
apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore encourage one
another with these words.”[23]
From
my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Revelation 1:7
[2]
Matthew 24:27
[3]
Ephesians 5:1
[4]
Matthew 25:1-13
[5]
Matthew 25:14-30
[6]
Genesis 6-7
[7]
Matthew 25:31-46; Ephesians 2:1-3
[8]
“19 Do
not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and
where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and
steal. 21 For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6)
[9]
Although such seeding of our homes with witnessing resources may not apply to
the rapture of the church, it is still a good thing to do since we may
predecease many of our friends and loved ones and God may very well use such
resources to draw them to Christ. Seed away, but not because we believe there
is a second chance after the taking up of the church at the second coming of
Christ.
[10]
Revelation 6:16-17
[11]
I Thessalonians 4:17
[12]
Matthew 24:14
[13]
“6 I am
astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of
Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some
who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from
heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let
him be accursed. 9 As
we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel
contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1)
[14]
Romans 14:17
[15]
Romans 9:1ff
[16]
Romans 10:1ff
[17]
John 3:18,36
[18]
“18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone
adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if
anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take
away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in
this book.” (Revelation 22)
[19]
I Corinthians 4:6
[20]
“45 Then
he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third
day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins
should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48 You are witnesses of
these things.” (Luke 24); “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:30)
[21]
Matthew 5:13-16; Ephesians 5:6ff
[22]
“40 And
with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save
yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and
there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2)
[23]
I Thessalonians 4:18
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