God’s Plan For the Rapture of His Church

Transcript

GRM 1117
1/12/2014
God's Plan for the Rapture of His Church
Selected Scriptures
Gil Rugh

We have been looking into what the Bible says about God's plans and purposes for the future. Not a detailed study of prophecy as sometimes we have done, we're looking at a couple of major sections dealing with biblical prophecy. We looked at God's plan for the nations, looking in passages like Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Revelation 17 where God laid out the empires of the world. Daniel wrote from his day, beginning with Babylon and moved us from Babylon on through the Roman Empire. John went back even before Babylon when he wrote Revelation, and went back to Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon and Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. Saw the unfolding of the empires of the world. Then we looked at God's plan and program for the nation Israel. There are the nations and there is the nation, there is Israel and there is everyone else. And so we looked at God's plan for the nation Israel. And it is focused in a plan and program of 70 seven-year periods, a total of 490 years.

Now one thing we note that is very important that we keep in mind; that all prophecy that has been fulfilled has been fulfilled in one way—literally. By literally I mean normally, as you would expect when you just read it. That does not mean there are not figures of speech used, clearly they are. In Daniel 2, the empires of the world were pictured as various parts of the image of a man with various metals, starting with gold and ending with iron. Just to pick up the last empire, the Roman Empire was pictured as composed of iron. Obviously the Roman Empire was not literally iron, it was an iron composed of people and rulers and so on. So the iron was a figure of speech. But it had a literal significance and meaning which we all understand. When you read that where it said this last empire will be made of iron, nobody expected that a worldly empire would literally be made of iron. It's an obvious figure of speech that we recognize and accept. And we use it today. We might say of someone, they have a backbone of iron. We don't mean that they are unique and their backbone is literally the metal iron. You don't even have to stop and explain it.

When we got to Daniel 7, the various empires of the world were pictured as different wild animals. And some of the characteristics of these animals would be characteristics of the kingdoms. Again to look at the Roman Empire, it was a unique, wild, ravenous beast that could crush and tear apart the other empires. Well that ravenous beast just can't picture anything you want to make it. There is something about it—it is the most powerful, terrible of all the empires. So these pictures.

I say that because as soon as you say, we interpret the Bible literally, they say, oh no, you don't. The Bible says Jesus said, I am the door. You don't believe He was a literal door. No, no one does. But when you read the morning paper, you read it literally. In other words by that there will be figures of speech that convey a literal idea. It's just part of communicating. You don't say, when you read the morning paper, don't take it literally. When we communicate, how do we do it? We assume that we can understand and people will use figures of speech of various kinds and communicate.

All prophecy in the Bible that has been fulfilled, has been fulfilled in one and only one way—literally. When Daniel said there would be four empires, there weren't seven, there weren't two. Four wasn't pictured just to indicate there would be few in number. They are counted out—there would be one, Babylon; followed by another, Medo-Persia; followed by another, followed by another. They are to be interpreted literally. All the way back in Genesis, God gave His promises to Abraham and his descendants and He said, do you know what Abraham? These are not all going to be fulfilled in your lifetime, in fact your descendants won't even be in the land because for 400 years they are going to be in Egypt. Well, He didn't mean 400 years; well, you have to understand 400 is the number 10 multiplied 40 times. So if you understand the significance of the number 10 multiplied by 40 you get . . . No, He meant 400 years.

I say this because somehow people recognize that. The Bible said that Christ would be born in Bethlehem. He just didn't mean some small town somewhere in the world, it meant literally the town of Bethlehem. And that's where He was born. We could go through dozens and dozens and dozens of examples, we're not going to. Be thankful. But we ought to have something established and fixed in our minds. All prophecy that has been fulfilled, has been fulfilled in only one way—literally. But somehow then people when they come to future prophecy say, now we shouldn't take this literally. He didn't mean that there was going to be a future seven-year period of literal trouble for Israel, He didn't mean there would be a literal earthly thousand-year kingdom. Why wouldn't He mean that?

I want to refer to a book, this book keeps coming up in the reading that I do (maybe I ought to change the kind of reading I do). I've referred to it on a number of occasions, in fact, I took an evening and reviewed it with you. This is called The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind written by a professor at Wheaton College, Mark Noll. The scandal of the evangelical mind is that the mind of evangelicals has been destroyed by the dispensational fundamentalists who insist on taking the Bible literally. And there are more examples than we can give. But here just one page, one statement. One of the consequences from the dogmatic kind of biblical literalism that has gained increasing strength among evangelicals from the late 1800s was reduced space for academic debates, intellectual experimentation, nuanced discrimination between shades of opinion. What really bothers him about taking the Bible literally, it reduces academic debate. The reason there is so much antagonism toward taking the Bible literally is you take it literally. What are we who have such great scholarly minds left to do? You average people can understand it, he is saying. I mean, that's a terrible state of affairs. You see the arrogance in the way he writes. And this is a man who claims to be evangelical, who is a professor in an evangelical school.

Dispensationalism, which is taking the Bible literally, is calculated to attract the uneasy and comparatively illiterate in biblical lore, but wholly unimpressive to one looking for genuine scholarship. If intellectual life involves a certain amount of self-awareness about alternative interpretations or a certain amount of tentativeness in exploring connection between evidence and conclusion, it was hard to find any encouragement for the intellectual life in this self-assured dogmatism of fundamentalism. What is out today is being dogmatic, to say this is right and this is wrong. You have to be open to various opinions. Scholars as they search things out, they can tell you it's not meant to be taken literally, don't take it literally.

The key to dispensationalism's popularity, and we take the Bible dispensationally here, it means we take it literally. That leads to certain conclusions, we'll talk more about that in a little while. The key to dispensationalism's popularity has been an ability to render the prophetic parts of the Bible understandable to ordinary people and applicable to ordinary circumstances. Now that's a negative? The key to the popularity of taking the Bible literally is it makes the Bible understandable. That's terrible. This is the attack? And I mean it's a vehement attack. And this has been one of the more popular books. The reason I'm back in reading it, I read theological journals and other books and they keep referring to it—wonderful, this explains what the problem is.

We can't take too much time on this; but you must share my frustration. I made the point when you don't take one part of the Bible literally, you won't take the other part. Here is part of his critique. Literal readings of Genesis 1-3 find their counterpart in literal readings of Revelation 20 with its description of the thousand-year reign of Christ. He's saying you take future prophecy literally, the book of Revelation, the next thing you'll be doing is taking the opening chapters of Genesis literally. He can't say enough bad about John Whitcomb and Henry Morris for their explaining literally the opening chapters of Genesis. And of course, scholars have made clear there could not have been a worldwide flood during the days of Noah, either.

But this is a man who claims to be an evangelical, claims to believe the truth about the Gospel. I can't tell whether he is saved or not, I'm not his judge. But it concerns me when you have a person who is accepted among evangelicals and evangelical because he makes claim to believe certain foundational facts, but then he disseminates teaching among evangelicals that undermines your confidence in the Bible. I would understand, because we are looking at some prophetic matters and we're going to move into the area that he finds has done some of the greatest damage—the teaching on a secret rapture, which we are going to talk about.

I have to read you one other thing. You're not going anywhere, please don't go. If evangelicals continue to be influenced by historicist dispensationalism, where we are taking the Bible literally in prophetic matters, there is little intellectual hope for the future. He is not premillennial, he is not dispensational, he does not believe we ought to take the Bible literally. And yet he wants to say, take the facts about Christ's redemption, but future prophecy is not to unfold God explaining to us what is going to happen in the future. It is to affect our emotions and feelings and help us appreciate the broader universe. Well, I can't make any sense out of that.

Why don't you put up the 70 weeks of Daniel chart, if you would. We looked at this last week. This is the background for where we are going to be. This 70 seven-year periods, 70 sevens, and we looked at the evidence. This is 70 periods of seven years for a total of 490 years. Now I want you to be clear, the opening verses of Daniel, we can't go back and redo everything we have done in our previous study. God tells Daniel, 70 seven-year periods, a total of 490 years, are determined for your people. Daniel is a Jew. These 490 years are for the Jewish people and your holy city. We all know what the holy city is, we even sing about it—it's Jerusalem. That's key. There are a total of 490 years determined for the nation Israel. After 69 of those seven-year periods, a total of 483 years, Messiah will be cut off. So Messiah will come but He will die after the 69th week. Not in the 70th, but after the 69th. That's the crucifixion of Christ. We are told in Daniel 9 that He would have nothing, there would be no kingdom, no fulfillment of kingdom prophecies at that point. So there is a break. There is yet a seven-year period in Israel's future for the completion of six things that are listed in the opening verses of Daniel 9 to be accomplished for the Jews and Jerusalem, after which the Jews will be in that thousand-year period. So you see the arrow coming down before the thousand years, after the 70th week, because by the end of those 490 years God's program for the nation Israel, the dealing with their sin and the bringing them into the kingdom as a redeemed people will be realized. I take it, it's literal. The first 483 years were literal. I mean, it was after 483 years, there work been done that shows it was after that, that Christ was crucified, shortly after the end of those 483 years.

There are yet seven years ahead; the Bible has much to say about that seven-year period. Revelation 6-19 are all about that seven-year period ahead in Israel's future. Much of Old Testament prophecy talked about it, Jesus talked about it in Matthew 24-25. But we have a period in between called the church age that begins following the ascension of Christ to heaven in Acts 1. In Acts 2 you have the beginning of the church that will continue down until just before the 70th week of Daniel begins. That period of time I have marked on the chart that you are looking at called the church age is not revealed anywhere in the Old Testament. That will be new revelation given in the New Testament, focused primarily in the epistles, writings of Paul and other of the apostles. That comes from taking the Bible literally. We're not creating something. We have to demonstrate why the church age is unique, what evidence there is that it is marked out. We're going to begin right where we are.

Let me just give a couple of passages on what we call the rapture. The rapture of the church is the removal of the church from earth following the church age but before the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel. The church began in Acts 2 with the coming of the Holy Spirit in a unique way and beginning the baptism of the Spirit. And the baptism of the Spirit places a person into the body of Christ which is the church, 1 Corinthians 12:13.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 4. We talk about the rapture and we use a word that if you go to your concordance, your English concordance you won't find. You say, if the rapture is biblical, shouldn't I be able to find it in my Bible. You should, but that doesn't mean you will find that particular word. Paul writes in “1 Thessalonians 4:13, I do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep.” The word asleep refers to the death of a believer. It is not soul sleep, but it is body sleep. When a person dies his body is there, it is not being used any longer. What has happened according to James 2:20, the body without the spirit is dead. The person, their spirit, has moved out of that body so the body is now not being used. Like our body when it is asleep, it is lying there basically, unless you toss and turn, unused.

At any rate, why should we as believers be comforted about this? Because when a fellow believer dies, they have moved out of their body to glory. So we shouldn't grieve as the rest who have no hope, no hope of ever seeing that loved one again. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, fellow believers, ______________. This we say to you by the word of the Lord that those who are alive will remain until the coming of the Lord. There will be some who will be alive when Jesus Christ comes at the point we are talking about in 1 Thessalonians 4; they will not precede or go before those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ, this is a special group of people now really comprising the church, believers in Christ who are part of the church from Acts 2 down to this event, will have their bodies raised from the dead. Then those who have been with Christ in glory in their spirit will move back into that resurrected body, glorified.

Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. You'll note here it is not talking about a coming to the earth at this point, it's a coming in the air and those believers who have been with Christ because their bodies have died will come back with Him and their bodies will be raised, caught up, and they will reinhabit those bodies in a glorified state. Then we who are alive on the face of the earth, if the rapture would occur today, in this event, we would be immediately bodily removed to meet the Lord in the air. If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you'll walk around and say, where did everybody go? Because it is only those who are believers in Christ that we meet the Lord in the air.

What I want you to pick up in verse 17 is a particular word. We who are alive and remain will be caught up, that's the word rapture. Not exactly rapture. The Greek word translated caught up is the word harpazo, we bring it over into English h a r p a z o, that's how we transliterate it over, harpazo. How do we get the word rapture out of harpazo? Well when the Bible was translated into Latin they used the Latin word that we get the word rapture from. Some people say, the word rapture is not in the Bible. No, it is not, but as the Bible was originally written, there were no English words in it, either. You understand the New Testament was written in Greek. So we're talking about translated words. So to say that the word rapture is not in the Bible is not true. In a sense it is true, the English word rapture is not in the Bible because it comes from a Latin word that was a later translation. The caught up is a translation of a Greek word, harpazo, that means to catch up, to carry away. It is used 14 times in the New Testament. I want to look at just three examples to give you the idea of the meaning.

Come to Acts 8:39, I want to just establish the fact of the rapture, that there is a rapture, a time when believers in Christ will be caught up, carried up to meet Christ in the air. Acts 8, the account is Philip the evangelist and he is brought in contact with a eunuch from Ethiopia. And this Ethiopian eunuch is riding along in his chariot and he is reading from the prophecy of Isaiah. And it just so happens that it is Isaiah 53 which prophesies the coming suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. And as he is reading this, verses 32-33 you have what he is reading, Philip had asked him, do you understand what you are reading? And verse 34, the Ethiopian eunuch says, can you help me? What's he talking about? So verse 35, Philip opened his mouth, from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. He showed how Christ was the fulfillment, and you'll note again, how was that prophecy fulfilled? Literally, not some hidden meaning. It's just as you would read it. He didn't know about Christ, he didn't understand because the Old Testament didn't clarify some of these things. But the prophecies are literal. So Philip could explain to him how Christ had to come and suffer and die so that the penalty for his sin could be paid, and you must believe in Him. And so the Ethiopian eunuch believes and Philip baptizes him in water, his identification with Christ.

Then note what happens. “Acts 8:39, And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away.” That word snatched is our word harpazo, translated caught up in 1 Thessalonians 4. He snatched Philip away. The Ethiopian eunuch no longer saw him, but Philip found himself at Azotus. In an instant of time, Philip is gone. He blinks his eye, the next thing he looks around and says, here I am at Azotus. He is snatched away, carried away by the power of God to a different place. He was raptured away, if we were to use the Latin background word.

Come over to 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the experience he had. “2 Corinthians 12:2, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, then he goes on to say, whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows.” Something happened to me so real, I don't know whether it just happened to be a vision and I was carried away to heaven, or if actually I bodily was carried away to heaven. But the point is the same. Such a man, the end of verse 2, was caught up. There is our word harpazo or the word we've come to use of these events—rapture. “Such a man [was raptured up to the third heaven,] was caught up to the third heaven.” Carried off to the third heaven. I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body I don't know, God knows. This man was, here it is again, harpazoed, caught up, raptured, carried away into Paradise. You see the idea of the word, it's just an instant of time. It wasn't well, over a period of days or weeks or whatever I ended up in the third . . . No, this is something, all of a sudden the next thing I know I'm in heaven. I don't know whether that happened to me bodily or in the Spirit, but I know I was carried there. That's our word harpazo, raptured.

One more reference, Revelation 12. We touched on this passage in a previous study in prophetic areas. The chapter opens up, “Revelation 12:1, And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” This is a picture of the nation Israel, it is not the virgin Mary as Roman Catholic theology would promote. It is the nation Israel out of which comes Christ, and the symbolism indicates that. Again, as you would go back to the Old Testament, the experience of Joseph and his dreams in the book of Genesis. She gives birth to a child and you have the issue of the dragon, Satan.

“Revelation 12:5, the woman Israel gives birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.” Again that symbolism. Does that mean He will have to actually have a rod made out of iron? No, we understand there is a literal truth to what is being pictured, the strength of His rule. Her child was, here is our word again, raptured, harpazoed to God and to His throne. We know when that happened—in Acts 1 with the ascension. Right as they watched, He is caught up into the clouds and into heaven.

So we talk about the word rapture does not appear in the Bible, don't be led astray by people who say, the word rapture doesn't even appear in the Bible. A number of words don't, the word trinity doesn't appear in the Bible but we still believe in the trinity because there is support. There are just words that catch it. But the Greek word harpazo gives the same meaning as was used in translating it into Latin and it just comes into English. So somebody says, the word rapture doesn't appear in the Bible. You can say, you are right, but you know none of the English words in our Bible appear in the original text? There is not one English word. We have words connect to English because they've been carried over into English perhaps, transliterated, but there is no English written but the Greek word. So you can say, you are right, so maybe I should say instead of believing in the rapture of the church I believe in the harpazo of the church. And that is the very word used. And the word harpazo if you go to a Greek dictionary means to carry away, to take away, to carry off, to snatch. And we've seen examples of it.

1 Thessalonians 4 I believe is talking about the rapture of the church, the church being caught up to meet Christ in the air. Come over to John 14 and I want to look at a few other passages that speak of the rapture of the church. John 14, we are in these chapters of John that cover that last evening that Christ had with His disciples before His betrayal in the Garden and His crucifixion. They've have had what we call the Last Supper. Now He is giving them teaching and instruction to prepare them for what is going to take place and what will follow in days and future events.

“John 14:1, Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you.” Where is the Father's house? Where does God the Father dwell? Well, He is omnipresent, He dwells everywhere. But He manifests His presence for His creation in what we call heaven, right? We just read about Paul who was caught up to heaven, to Paradise, to where the throne of God is. “John 14:1-3, In My Father's house are many dwelling places, if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” Now I'm going to My Father's house, heaven, to prepare a place for you to dwell. “John 14:3, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also.” Where was He going? He was going to His Father's house to prepare a place for them so they could live with Him at His Father's house. Now we ought to note here Jesus does not say, don't let your heart be troubled, I'm going to come back to earth to establish the kingdom on earth and you'll be in that kingdom. That's the anticipation of the Jews and the nation Israel. But there is something different here.

Now we take the Bible literally, this can't change all the promises given in the past regarding a future earthly kingdom or the promises yet future. The disciples don't understand the significance of what is going on here, because in Acts 1, remember, they asked Jesus, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They don't see anything changing as far as the promises that God gave for an earthly kingdom to the nation Israel. Jesus said, you don't need to know about those matters at this time because there is further revelation coming. It won't change the prior revelation but it will clarify giving additional revelation that was not made known before. So I think John 14 has to be talking about the rapture of the church because Christ doesn't say He is going to come to earth to establish the kingdom. He says, I'll come and get you, similar to what we had in 1 Thessalonians 4. They get caught up and meet Him in the air and then they are forever with the Lord.

Come over to 1 Corinthians 15. We'll pick up some important words here. Paul says in verse 50; now I say this, brethren, this is the great chapter on the resurrection of the body. And the resurrection of the body of believers involves the glorification of the body of a believer, suited for the glory of God's presence. “1 Corinthians 15:50, Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” Now right away you have to stop. And we'll see in a future study, we're not going to get to it today but maybe next time, people have to go into the kingdom in physical bodies. We have a problem here. He says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the perishable physical body can't inherit the imperishable kingdom. What do we do? We know people are born in the kingdom, people will believe and die in the kingdom. Well, we have to keep in mind this letter is addressed to the church, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and no one in the church age will go into the kingdom in a physical body.

In “1 Corinthians 15:51, Behold, I tell you a mystery.” There is a key word, you ought to circle it, underline it, highlight it, however you mark—mystery. We'll see the definition given by Paul himself in a later epistle in a moment. A mystery in the New Testament here is something that had not been revealed before. It's not something that is a puzzle to understand, it's something you could not know and understand unless God made it known. So when he says, I show you a mystery, I'm going to tell you something that was not revealed to prior generations. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. We're not all going to experience physical death, but we are all going to experience bodily transformation. Again, this is for the church because that's not true for the nation Israel as it will be alive at the Second Coming of Christ to earth. We'll see this, some are going to go into the kingdom in physical bodies, not glorified bodies.

This change will occur in a moment, the Greek word, we get the English word atom from it. It's an atom of time, the smallest particle of time, the twinkling of an eye. Blink your eye, faster than that. An idea like Philip experienced—comes up out of the water, the next thing we know he is standing in Azotus. It just happens that quickly. “1 Corinthians 15:52, 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.” Same order that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about. The dead will be raised imperishable and we who are alive at this event will be changed. So every believer part of this group, whether dead or alive when it happens, will undergo a bodily change to an imperishable body, a glorified body.

“1 Corinthians 15:53-54, For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWWALLOWED UP in victory.” And the victory that we have over death. Even if I experience physical death, death doesn't win because my body will only lie in that grave until Christ descends from heaven and calls for me with this physical body to meet Him in the air. I will already be there with Him in glory, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But that doesn't mean He is done with the body. And people say, some bodies have been burned to ashes, some bodies have been eaten by wild animals. Do you really think God can bring that body back? I don't know what kind of God you serve if that's what you think, I don't think it's beyond God's power. The God who created the universe, who created all things, He is sitting there and how am I going to get that body back together? What a mess I have on My hands. I don't know, and I have to multiply that by millions and maybe billions. How did I get Myself in . . .? I don't think it's a problem.

You'll note “1 Corinthians 15:58,Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” You know this truth about future events shapes the way we live. The problem with Mark Noll and others, and it becomes the dominant thinking among evangelicals, that having this focus on the future and a coming rapture distracts us from having our focus on the world. That's good, that's good. He sees it as bad. We could be devoting this energy, rather than thinking about the future that we think will happen if we take the Bible literally, to help change our world and make a difference and get recognized as having something intellectual to contribute to the world. That's not what we have to contribute, we have a message of salvation to contribute to the world. That's part of the problem, he says, we've changed the focus to redemption and that's bad. No, it's good.

Another passage, the last one we'll look at, speaking of the rapture—What is the focus of our attention? “Philippians 3:20-21, Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has to subject all things to Himself.” This God, who is so powerful that he will bring everything into subjection to Himself, is the God who has the power to transform this humble, decaying body into conformity with the body He had after His resurrection. It's amazing, the body of His glory, amazing. That's what we're looking forward to, that's where our citizenship is. We'll see as we progress in Hebrews 11 in future studies, we're strangers and pilgrims here. We're looking for something beyond, our citizenship is in heaven. _______________ the transformation of the body, this has to be the rapture event because again we see at the Second Coming to earth there are going to be people going into the kingdom, believers who go into the kingdom in their physical bodies. Our focus is when He is going to come and catch us to meet Him in the air.

Some differences between what we call the rapture and the Second Coming to earth. I picked out three things that are major contrast between the rapture which is the first phase of the Second Coming and then the coming to earth which is the second phase. So the Second Coming is one event but it has two parts, just like the coming of Christ to earth has two parts—the first coming to be born at Bethlehem, and the Second Coming to earth to judge His enemies and reign.

The characteristics of the rapture, Christ meets believers in the air, we're caught up to meet Him in the air. The bodies of all believers involved in this are glorified and that means they will not be marrying, they will not be having children. In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage. Jesus said, So the bodies of believers are glorified. And believers are taken to heaven to His Father's house, to the place that has been prepared specially for these believers. There are many dwelling places in His Father's house, but these believers, the church, have a place specially prepared by Christ for them.

The Second Coming to earth in contrast, Christ returns to the earth in great glory. Every eye will see Him, His feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives, some of these details. He destroys His enemies. The passages we read on the rapture that catches the church up to meet Christ in the air has to do with the glorifying of the bodies of these believers. But here we have the destruction of the enemies of Christ on earth and that will include the judgment of the sheep and the goats, where living unbelievers are destroyed. Here you have Armageddon, the blood up to the horses' bridles and so on. He is on earth destroying His enemies. And then following the judgments there, He takes believers into the kingdom, to inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the earth. They go into the kingdom in physical bodies in that focus.

So you see the contrast between the first phase of the Second Coming for the church and the coming to earth. I’m just going to give you some of the reasons. In my original plan, Marilyn asked me what I was going to be doing and I said I’m going to do the nations, then I’m going to do the nation Israel, then I’m going to take just one Sunday and we’re going to cover the rapture. We’re going to get the first point of seven, we’ll have to do this next week as well.

The first point, I just want to give you some reasons; there are more than seven. John Walvoord in his book on the rapture, the back of that book lists 50 reasons for the pretrib rapture. I believe in one of Mark Hitchcock's books on prophecy. He has listed those 50 reasons from Walvoord as well, you may want to . . . Not all of them would be of equal weight. But I picked out seven I think are important and demonstrate that there is a rapture before the 70th week of Daniel. #1 is the focus of the 70 weeks of Daniel. Put that 70 weeks of Daniel chart back up, just keep it before our attention. Remember, we're not going back to Daniel 9, 70 sevens, 70 seven-year periods are determined for your people, Daniel. No doubt who Daniel's people are, they are the Jews. And for your holy city, Jerusalem. And then six things that will be accomplished and we've already worked our way looking at those.

The church did not come into existence until after the 69th week, not in the 70th, but after 69 weeks, 483 years, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. That was His death. Then His ascension occurs in Acts 1 and in Acts 2 the church begins on the Day of Pentecost.

Come over to Romans 11. This is in line with what we are told in the epistles. In Romans 9-11 Paul talks about how Israel fits into God's plan of salvation. Since up until the establishing of the church, God's focus in salvation and working in the world have been in the nation Israel. Now He is focusing it in the church which is primarily Gentile. Where does that leave the nation Israel? So in Romans 9, Paul began by talking about his great burden for his people, the Jews, and the nation Israel and all the promises and covenants given to them. You come to Romans 10 he opens the same way, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is their salvation. Then you come to Romans 11, God hasn't rejected His people, Israel, the Jews, that' what he has been talking about, has He? May it never be. The King James has God forbid, magnoito, such a thing could never happen, that just is totally impossible. He says, I'm an Israelite, descendant of Abraham. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. He chose them, He can't go back on them. There is a remnant of Jews down to today, there still are some Jews saved, but the church is primarily Gentile. We'll come to this in a moment.

Come down to verse 25, I do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, of this, here is our word, mystery. This is something that did not get revelation in the Old Testament, this is new revelation. He is writing to a Gentile church, the church in Rome. So that you don't get arrogant and think, we're better than the Jews, a partial hardening has happened to Israel until; Partial until. A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. That period of time we have marked out as the church age on the chart, that tan period, that's the period of time of the fullness of the Gentiles. It's different than the times of the Gentiles which refer to a period from Babylonian captivity down until the return of Christ to earth when Jerusalem is under the domination of Gentile powers. But the fullness of the Gentiles is the time when God is focusing His work of salvation in the world on Gentile people.

I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but if I asked how many of you are Jewish, it would be few. What will happen after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in? All Israel will be saved, the deliverer will come from Zion and remove ungodliness from Jacob. So you see we have to complete God's program with the church when we're focusing on Gentiles. When that time is complete, He turns His attention back to Israel. We still have seven years that will culminate; then, with the return of the Messiah as we saw in Daniel 2 and in Daniel 7, Daniel 9 with the coming of the Messiah to establish kingdom.

So “Romans 11:28-29, From the standpoint of the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Paul says, understand this new information. We live in a time when God is focusing His plan of salvation on Gentiles. That time will come to an end. Gentiles, you are being blessed by Israel's disobedience because God has used that to put them under judgment. That's what he goes on to talk about.

“Romans 11:30-31, For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.” He's going to come back, He's going to show mercy to them. You have to recognize, take the Bible literally, distinction. Yes, God focused on Israel, they were His people even in their rebellion. But now in the judgment He has set them aside, but not discarded them. And He is focusing on the Gentiles.

Isn't it amazing how gracious God is that He should use the rebellion of Israel to give us a chance to experience His Salvation. We ought to be thrilled with the grace of God that we are included. But don't get arrogant, Paul says, don't get wise in your own estimation like there is something more special about you than the Jews. God is not done with the Jews. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Don't write Israel off. Your time in the limelight, church, is limited. The Gentiles as being the focal point of God's work of salvation will come to an end. These are days of opportunity for people to be saved and particularly for us Gentiles. We present the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike, but God's plan for the church is Gentile. And how grateful to God are we for that and the wonder and gift of His salvation.

We have to stop here, we have another passage to look at on the mystery and then we'll move to other reasons why the rapture will occur at the end of the church age and before the 70th week of Daniel. We're not looking for coming tribulation on the earth. People accuse us of being pessimistic. Well, as far as the future of the world, it is pessimistic until Christ comes on the earth. But my future is not, I'm looking for the return of Christ in the air to call for me so He can transform this body and take me to that place in heaven in the presence of His Father that has been prepared for me as part of His bride, the church. That's where my citizenship is, that's where I belong, that is my hope. That controls how I live; that controls how we live. We'll talk more about the church when we begin a study of 1 Timothy tonight, the importance of the church in the plan of God and for us to understand the church and function as the church of God in this day on this earth.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your Word. Lord, thank you for your Spirit who has come to dwell in us as you have drawn us to salvation in your Son. Thank you, Lord, that you have given us this Word to be understood by common people, ordinary people like we are. We look around, not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise. Lord, in your mercy and grace, you have chosen for your salvation ordinary people and the wisest and the richest, the mightiest, if they are to come to salvation must come the way the lowliest, poorest, most insignificant come. Come by recognizing their sinful condition, that they are lost and without hope in the world, their riches are nothing, their wisdom is nothing, their power is nothing. They must cast themselves on your mercy, believing in your Son, the One who loved us and died for us so that we might have life in Him, we might have hope in Him, we might have the anticipation of being brought into the glory of your presence. We praise you in His name, amen.