Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (28 page)

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First, Christ’s second advent will be sudden
. There will be no immediate warning preceding it. There will be no eight signs with five amplifications. As with lightning, we may be aware that storm clouds are gathering, but there is no way to predict precisely when or where the lightning will strike.

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Second, the return of Christ will be very public and unmistakable
. There is nothing private or secretive about lightning; no one need tell anyone else about its advent. It is immediately experienced by all.

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Third, at the second coming, Christ will draw to Himself those who are His
. I believe this is the best interpretation of the enigmatic statement, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”

Luke records this statement as an answer to the disciples’ question, “Where will those taken at the second coming go?” (17:37). The false messiahs must drum up support for their leadership through recruiting drives out in the desert. In contrast, Jesus’ followers will be inexorably, irresistibly, and immediately drawn to Him when He returns. In other words, don’t worry about finding Christ at the second advent: the connection will be automatic.

To summarize, the second coming of Christ will be unmistakable because it will be so public. Everyone will experience it firsthand. It will come with no immediate warning. Christ’s presence at that moment will draw His faithful people to Him automatically and immediately. This does not resemble a secret rapture in the least.

The entire thrust of Jesus’ message in this second question is readiness: there will be no signs, so we must live each day as though His coming could occur that day. “You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matt. 24:44).

Matthew includes an interesting play on words. Jesus is recorded as saying, “You do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (24:42). Then He starts the very next sentence with the command “Know this” (24:43). We may not know the time, but we must know our duty: to “be ready.” It is our duty to wait watchfully, lest we be unprepared for the second coming. This second answer is written for you and me. We do not know, so we must always live as though we were ready for eternity.

The coming of Christ will be so sudden that two men will be outside doing chores together, and “one is taken, and one is left” (Matt. 24:40). Two women will be preparing food together and “one is taken, and one is left” (Matt. 24:41).

Now, we must give credit where credit is due. Rapturists have done a magnificent job in convincing Christians that this is a prediction of the rapture, when Jesus will return secretly for His Christians, take them to Heaven, and leave the unbelievers to suffer here on earth. They insert the word
behind
into the passage. They understand it as “one is taken, and one is left behind.”

But this is not what the verses say, nor does the Greek language support this interpretation. Jesus does not mean one of these people will be left behind. Jesus is speaking here of the second coming that will usher in eternity. It will be impossible to be left behind, because the world will come to an end. No, Jesus is saying they will be left
out
, left out of His eternal Kingdom when He returns.

The Gospel account uses the Greek verb
aphiemi
, which most commonly has the meaning of being left, left alone, forsaken, or even sent away. There is another Greek word that would have made it clear that Jesus meant “left behind.” This word is
apoleipo
, or
hupoleipo
. The idea that the first person will be taken to Heaven and the second left behind is not justified by the Greek text.

But the context of Jesus’ discourse argues even more strongly against the rapturist understanding of being left behind. How do we know this? Jesus proceeds to tell three parables. When we get to the second parable, we will see that the only reasonable understanding of Jesus’ meaning is not “left behind,” but “left out”—left out of the eternal marriage feast of the Lamb.

The “left behind” controversy should not obscure an important assertion of Jesus: the daily lives of loyal Kingdom subjects will remain entirely comingled with those of the disloyal. People are not sorted into or out of Christ’s Kingdom by physical or national boundaries. Christ’s subjects will be neighbors and friends with unbelievers until the very end, at His second coming. They will be working, living, and socializing together. Some will enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the end, and some will be left out of it. This is the part of these verses that would have shocked any first-century citizen of Rome. This is unlike the four earthly kingdoms that the Kingdom of Heaven replaces in Daniel’s vision. Christ’s Kingdom will not have physical boundaries, because it is spiritual.

Jesus was a master at using parables to clarify His meaning. This case is no exception. The next three stories illustrate how we must live in the light of Jesus’ teaching concerning the suddenness of His second coming.

The first story is about two servants. One of them is faithful and wise; when his Master returns, he is rewarded. The other servant is wicked, and he is punished for his wickedness when his Master unexpectedly returns to find him abusing his freedom. Notice that at the return of the Master, the judgment is the final one, and the return has no warning: “The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him … and will punish him, and put him with the hypocrites; there men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Matt. 24:50–51).

Jesus is clearly alluding to His second coming, which will usher in the final judgment of all humankind. The only thing after the judgment is eternity. Unfortunately for the rapturist, Jesus does not mention any hint of a seven-year tribulation or a Millennium after this coming. All that remains is either eternal bliss or eternal damnation.

Our lesson in this? Never do anything of which you would be ashamed if your Master caught you in the act of it at His second coming. He will come suddenly and unexpectedly. We will be judged. Eternity will immediately follow.

The second story is about ten maidens waiting for the bridegroom, an obvious picture of the Church waiting for the second coming. Five of the maidens were wise and took extra oil for their lamps, so that when the bridegroom was slow in coming, they were still ready. Oil in the New Testament is usually a symbol of the Holy Spirit. These five maidens had prepared themselves for a marathon rather than a quick dash to the final eschaton. The other five maidens were foolish. They ran out of oil before the bridegroom appeared and left to buy more. “While they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut” (Matt. 25:10). When the bridegroom took the five wise maidens into the marriage feast, the five foolish maidens were left out.

The mention of the marriage feast is a hint that once again we are in eternity. The joy at a wedding reception is analogous to the joy of Heaven. We will encounter the marriage supper again in The Apocalypse.

The main message of this parable? Be ready. You may have associated with Christians your entire life. You may know all the right answers. But you must still remain prepared. Don’t be like the foolish maidens.

Notice how the parable expands our understanding of the earlier phrase “one is taken, and one is left” (Matt. 24:40–41). This parable substantiates our claim that Jesus meant “left
out
of the eternal Kingdom.” He never meant “left
behind
at the secret rapture,” as rapturists claim. Jesus is talking about the taking of Christians into eternal bliss. Two men will be working together. One will be taken, and the other left out of the marriage feast (Matt. 24:40). Two women will be together. One will be taken into the marriage feast of the Lamb, and the other left out (Matt. 24:41).

The third parable concerns three servants, each entrusted with a sum of money: one received five talents, another received two, and the third received one. The master left and did not return for “a long time” (Matt. 25:19). When the master returned, he rewarded the servants based on how they had managed the talents he had given them. The obvious message is that our talents—our material goods as well as our abilities—are God-given, and He expects us to use them for Him.

In addition, this third story states explicitly something at which the second story merely hinted. In the second story, the bridegroom came much later than the five foolish maidens expected. In this story, Jesus specifically tells us that the Master did not return for “a long time.”

Jesus was absolutely right; we have been waiting for His coming for a long time. It has been two millennia since the Master left His Church on earth to work for His Kingdom. We might easily wait for two or three more.

This parable is another blow to modernists who assert that Jesus led His Apostles into an unrealistic view of how soon the second coming would occur. In fact, neither Jesus nor His Apostles are guilty of this mistaken belief. Jesus taught that it would be a “long time,” and His followers believed Him.

These three parables are completed by Matthew 25:30. Jesus ends His discourse by giving His disciples a few more details concerning the second question.

First, we learn that at the second coming, the Son of Man will complete the work He set out to accomplish here on earth. How do we know this? Jesus tells us, “When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne” (25:31). Sitting signifies the consummation of the Son of man’s work. All the battles are won at that point. All enemies have been subdued. All that remains is the final judgment. Need I say it again? There is no mention of a seven-year tribulation or a thousand-year kingdom
after
this coming.

“Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:32). Because Jesus mentions the gathering of “all the nations,” some rapturists have tried to read into this passage a judgment different from the final judgment each of us will individually experience at the close of history. Some rapturists foresee two or even three judgments.

But look carefully at the judgment being described. Although we are gathered as nations, we are sorted into the “sheep” side or the “goat” side on the basis of our individual actions: “He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats at the left” (Matt. 25:33).

Those who have exhibited the greatest gift, charity, are rewarded for all eternity: “Then the King will say … ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you … for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me” (Matt. 25:34–36). These are the actions of individuals, not of nations, that are being rewarded. Our response to the needs of others will be credited to our eternal account, as though we had helped Jesus Himself: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).

Those who have not shown charity to the needy will experience the results of their rejection of God’s commandments: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink” (Matt. 25:41–42). Suddenly, the use of our talents for the Master in the earlier parable becomes apparently important. We must use our talents for the sake of the least of His—and our—brethren. Our eternal destiny depends on it.

Surely, by the end of the Olivet Discourse Jesus has given His disciples much more information than they had expected when they asked two short questions! They were wondering about when the Temple would be destroyed, and perhaps they assumed that the final judgment would occur at the same time. But as we have determined, by the time the Olivet Discourse was recorded for us in all of the synoptic Gospels, the distinction between the two events was well understood.

Jesus told the Apostles that within their generation, eight signs would point to the destruction of the Temple. He then detailed five amplifications. These all occurred. The signs warned of His judgment upon the Sanhedrin—the “Son of man” coming in judgment that Daniel foresaw six centuries earlier. The judgment occurred within a generation, as Jesus had predicted.

The reliability of Jesus’ first answer gives us confidence in His second answer, which is still unfulfilled. Of course, the events surrounding 70 A.D. can act as a prophecy pointing to the second advent, but the two events should not be confused (GR3).

Christ’s second coming will be sudden. It will be public and unmistakable. Christians will be irresistibly attracted to their Lord immediately. We cannot determine its precise timing, so we should live each day in anticipation, yet prepare for the long haul. Christians will be living and working alongside non-Christians when it occurs. Every person will receive his just reward in the end based on the charity he has shown. History itself will end because Jesus will sit on His throne, judge humanity individually, and take His faithful into eternal bliss with Him. Some will be taken into the Kingdom, and some will be left out.