•“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him” (2 Corinthians 11:2).
•“You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete” (John 3:28-29). John the Baptist is speaking here about the Messiah, explaining that he is not Him; but rather, he’s the bride belonging to the bridegroom, the Messiah, or Jesus.
•“‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32).
•“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son” (Matthew 22:2).
•“The wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear” (Revelation 19:7-8).
THE SEIZING OF THOSE “IN CHRIST” OR THE SECOND COMING?
The words above in Revelation 19:7-8 refer to the bride in heaven, who is ready to return with Christ to Earth at His second coming. Many confuse the seizing or catching up of those in Christ and assume it is the same event as the second coming, but there are significant differences between the two.
First Thessalonians 4:15-18 refers to the seizing, catching up, or snatching away of those who are in Christ:
According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
Revelation 19:11-16 refers to the second coming of Christ:
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:11-16).
As we carefully compare these two passages, we notice significant differences:
The Seizing of Believers 1 Thessalonians 4
The Second Coming Revelation 19
Jesus steps into the air, not on Earth
Jesus returns to Earth
Comes as Deliverer
Returns as Warrior
Comes for His bride
Returns with His bride
Comes in love for His bride
Returns in wrath and judgment
Comes as a Bridegroom
Returns as King of kings and Lord of lords
Let’s look closely at some more distinctions between the seizing/snatching away of believers and the second coming:
TWO SEPARATE PHASES
Soon we’ll read more verses dealing with both the seizing or snatching away of those in Christ and the second coming, but based on what we have read so far, this is a good place to expand on the fact that there are two separate phases to Christ’s return (or two separate events):
1. Christ coming for His bride when He seizes her/snatches her away (harpazo), and
2. Christ returning to Earth with His bride at the second coming
Many people fear Christ’s return because they haven’t been taught He will come in two phases. Instead, they think of Christ coming solely for judgment. When I was a little girl, I remember our pastor and visiting pastors saying things like, “Jesus is coming again,” or “Christ will return.” But as I mentioned in the Where in the Word? Introduction, I’ve heard very few similar statements since that time. As I talk with friends around the country, I know I’m not alone, and I don’t think this is a recent trend. In 1917, William E. Blackstone wrote, “An elderly Methodist clergyman in Florida said that he had heard only five sermons on the Lord’s coming, and he preached them all himself.”1 That was more than 100 years ago! It’s not unusual for Christians to be in the dark about end-time events.
Look up at Revelation 19 again. The “armies of heaven” following Jesus out of heaven in verse 14 are identified as the bride in verses 7-8, who has been given “fine linen, bright and clean” to wear. (Angels are also part of this great army—see Matthew 25:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7.) The bride will return with Christ, at His second coming, when He returns in judgment and wrath against sin and rebellion, at the end of the tribulation (Daniel 9:24-27). Revelation 19:8 clarifies what the bride’s clothes represent: “Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.”
Other Scripture writers also prophesied about these holy people. In 1 Thessalonians 3:13, Paul says, “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”
Noah’s great-grandfather Enoch also prophesied about them: “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones’” (Jude 1:4). Zechariah wrote, “Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him” (Zechariah 14:5).
Now contrast what Revelation 19 says about Jesus on a white horse, followed by His holy ones out of heaven, with the passages that describe the snatching away of believers.
Regarding this snatching away/seizing up of believers, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54 that it happens in an instant, a flash, “in the twinkling of an eye” (verse 52). The bride of Christ will be snatched away so quickly that no eye will detect what happens.
However, the second coming of Christ will be seen by everyone, people will mourn because they have not believed in Him, and angels and holy ones will be with Him:
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen (Revelation 1:7).
Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).
This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels…(2 Thessalonians 1:7—see also Jude 4 and Zechariah 14:5).
Note that the people of Earth will mourn upon seeing Jesus at His second coming. This is in direct opposition to Paul’s description of Christ’s coming as our “blessed hope,” as stated in Titus 2:13: “… while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Why do the peoples of the earth mourn when they see Jesus coming in the clouds? When they see Christ arriving, they will know that everything that the 144,000, the two witnesses, their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, neighbors, or even the proclaiming angel of Revelation 14:6 tried to tell them about Him was indeed true, and that time has run out. Jesus’s visible return will cause grief and mourning like the world has never known. For them, there will be nothing blessed about that appearance.
The early church, however, never spoke of mourning the return of Jesus. These Christians knew that things were looking up and we
re anticipating the return of their blessed hope in the air, who would snatch them away before the wrath of God fell on the earth.
TWO GATHERINGS
Matthew 24:30-31, which describes Christ’s second coming, says,
Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
At the second coming, the angels will gather the elect, those who have believed and followed Jesus during the seven-year tribulation, and Christ Himself will separate these believers from the unbelievers in what is commonly known as “the sheep and goats judgment.”
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”… Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”…Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46).
Note the distinction here: At the snatching away/seizing up of believers, it is Christ who gathers His followers to Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1). But at His second coming, it’s the angels who will do the gathering (Matthew 24:31), and it’s Jesus who will do the separating, sending believers into His kingdom and unbelievers to eternal punishment (Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46).
TWO MEETING PLACES
When Jesus eagerly snatches away those who are in Him, believers will meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). At the second coming, those who have believed and followed Christ through the seven-year tribulation, will be gathered to Him on the ground as He stands on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:2-9).
TWO REMOVALS
At the snatching away, Christ will remove His followers from the earth. At the second coming, angels will remove unbelievers from the earth.
There will be a clear dividing of believers from unbelievers, as evidenced by the verses that describe God’s judgment. In Matthew 13:24-29, 36-43, it is the angels at the end of the age who throw the weeds (the wicked) into the blazing furnace, separating them from the wheat (believers).
In Matthew 24:37-41 and Luke 17:34-37, we read more about the dividing of people, distinguished now between those “taken” and those “left.” Matthew 24:37-38 tells of the days of Noah and the flood, comparing those days to the return of Jesus. Matthew 24:40-41 says “one will be taken and the other left.” The one taken is the believer, just like Noah and his family were taken into the safety of the ark. But concerning the unbeliever, the one who is “left,” the Greek word translated “left” means “to send away, of a husband divorcing his wife.” When the door of the ark closed, there were those who were left—the unbelievers, who met their end. At the second coming, angels will gather the believers, but those who are left, the unbelievers, will be sent away to their judgment and end.
TWO TIMES
When Jesus snatches away those who are in Him (His bride), He will do so prior to God’s wrath being poured out on the earth. In Revelation 3:10, Jesus says to the church at Philadelphia, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.”
Jesus is promising the Christians there that because of their faithfulness, they will be kept “from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world.” Since that prophecy was declared, there has never been a trial that has come upon the entire globe. There have been many wars, but those have never truly encompassed all people everywhere. In Revelation 3:10, Jesus is precise in His language. This deliverance is not only from the trial itself, but from the very period of time during which the trial takes place—“the hour of trial.” John Walvoord wrote, “If the expression had been simply ‘deliverance from trial,’ conceivably it could have meant only partial deliverance.”2
But that’s not what Jesus said. He promised that the church would be kept from “the” hour of trial, using the definite article the to set this apart from a general trial. Every major event has a starting time: when polls open for election, professional sporting events, church services, concerts, theater performances, movie show times, conferences, etc. Everyone knows the hour when a specific event will begin. Jesus promises that the church will be kept from the very hour, from the beginning of the “trial that is going to come on the whole world.” Notice that He does not say He will keep the church “through” the hour of trial, but that He will keep the church “from” it.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:10, Paul says that Jesus “delivers us from the wrath to come” (NKJV). He will deliver us from it, not through it. Again, Paul uses the definite article the to set this wrath apart from the general wrath we experience in life. He’s speaking specifically of the coming wrath of God.
So, there will be two times that Jesus will leave heaven. First, at the snatching away/seizing up of those in Christ, He will step into the air and call up His bride to be with Him “in the clouds” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), prior to the pouring out of God’s wrath. At the second coming, Jesus will leave heaven with His bride and come back to Earth at the end of the tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 19:11-14).
As we look up in anticipation for Christ to call His bride up to the clouds, consider these words from William E. Blackstone, whose book Jesus Is Coming was first published in 1878.
The High Priest went into the Holy of Holies alone, and the whole congregation waited in expectation outside until he had made the offering and came out to bless them (Leviticus 16; Numbers 6:23-26; Luke 1:10). So has our High Priest entered once for all into the true holy place, and the church should look for Him in fervent expectation until He appears the second time not to bear sin, but to bring salvation. She must watch, dressed for service and with lamps burning, like men waiting for their Lord (Luke 12:35, 36). Yet we have the blessed assurance that every passing day brings our salvation nearer than when we first believed.3
WHERE IN THE WORD?
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN BEFORE THE SNATCHING AWAY OF BELIEVERS AND THE SECOND COMING?
What needs to happen before the seizing/catching up/snatching away of believers? In a word, nothing. This seizing of those who are in Christ is imminent, meaning that it could take place at any moment; there are no signs that precede it. According to Charles C. Ryrie, an imminent event is one that is “impending, hanging over one’s head, ready to take place.”1 Concerning an imminent event, Renald Showers says, “It’s literally hanging over your head, every moment of every day, and therefore, it will fall upon you at any time.”2 We need to understand that in this case, imminent doesn’t mean “soon,” but rather, that it’s inevitable—it will happen.
While there are no signs before the snatching away event, there are years’ worth of signs to be fulfilled before the second coming occurs.
Here are a few of the signs that will occur before the second coming of Christ:
•A confederation of ten nations will form and be led by the Antichrist (Daniel 7:7, 20, 24)
•The rise in power of the Antichrist (numerous scriptures describe him, including Daniel 8:23-24; 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 8)
•The Antichrist will confirm a covenant with Israel (Daniel 9:27)
•The rebuilding of the Jewish temple (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 11:1)
•The emergence of the False Prophet (Revelation 13:11-12)
•The abomination of desolation set up inside the temple (Daniel 9:2
7; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:4)
•The ministry of the two witnesses (Revelation 11:1-13)
•The gospel preached to the entire world (Matthew 24:14)
•The campaign of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16)
•Signs of the end as stated in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Although we can’t put a date on Christ’s return, we can say that we’re closer today than we were yesterday. If anyone says he knows when Jesus is returning, he’s a false teacher and can’t be trusted (there have been more than a few false date-setters through the years). Not even Jesus or the angels know that day, only God the Father (Matthew 24:36). While we are unable to determine the date of Christ’s return, still, we are told to discern the signs of the times:
•In 1 Chronicles 12:32, we learn from the sons of Issachar that “all these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take” (NLT).
•In Luke 12, Jesus chastises the religious leaders, saying, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?” (Luke 12:54-56).
•In Matthew 16:3, Jesus says, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”
A sign always directs us to something, indicating what is ahead. Just as road signs get closer together as we approach our exit, so do the signs of the times get closer and closer together as we get nearer to our exit from Earth. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, 1 Timothy 4:1-2, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, and 2 Peter 3:3 mention characteristics (or signs) of the last days. If you haven’t read these passages, I encourage you to read them so you can, as Jesus said, “interpret the signs of the times.” Jesus gives us a heads-up regarding the signs as well.
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