PART #2: “WHY I BELIEVE THAT THE CHURCH WILL BE RAPTURED AT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST – THE DOCTRINE TEST
If we are earnest Christians, we will acknowledge that the Scriptures are authoritative in our lives. The Bible is the inspired Word of God. It reveals to us His heart, His mind, His will and ways, His truth, the Good News of His Son our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Scriptures provide the basis for our beliefs as Christians. For that reason, it is essential not only that we read and study the Scriptures devotedly, but, as the Apostle Paul instructed us, to “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). As the verse suggests, rightly handling God’s Word takes study, practice, training. There are important principles that we must grasp if we want to interpret the Bible accurately and articulate its truths effectively.
Some of the ways we DO NOT want to use the Bible include: proof-texting (taking a verse out of context and forcing it to prove our point); the ‘Magic 8-Ball’ approach (asking a question, then flipping the Bible open to any page and pointing a finger at a random verse; focusing on one passage that seems to support what we want it to say and then ignoring the other Scriptures that may contradict our preference.) No, we must be honest and genuine in our desire to know the truth of God’s Word. Also, we need to be willing take time to read and study it. The Bible is our authority, but how do we use it responsibly to determine what is solid biblical teaching and doctrine? Of course, the basics include learning the historical and literary contexts of the Bible books and passages in our study. (A good study Bible and commentaries can help with that.) Additionally, I have found a principle of interpreting the Bible that has proven very helpful to me in evaluating and discerning biblical teachings and doctrines. I call it ‘the DOCTRINE TEST’. It is this principle that I want to focus on now in preparation for understanding what the Bible teaches about the Rapture of the Church in relation to the Second Coming of Christ.
So, what is the Doctrine Test? It’s a way of evaluating biblical support for doctrines. It asks and seeks to answer three questions about the Scriptures we use as the bases of our doctrines: 1. Are they EXPLICIT? 2. Are they IMPLICIT? 3. Or, are they SPECULATIVE? 1. EXPLICIT passages would be those that state the doctrine explicitly, without a doubt; for example, Jesus died on a Cross for our sins, and Jesus rose again. No question about those. 2. IMPLICIT would be passages used that prove the doctrine’s truth but without such explicit wording; for example, the doctrine of Jesus being fully God and fully human, and the doctrine of the Trinity. Both these doctrines are amply supported by Scripture and have been used to define true Christian faith and to weed out heresies. 3. SPECULATIVE passages are unclear; they can be legitimately interpreted to mean more than one thing. An example of that would be, “Who is ‘the restrainer’ in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7?” A number of ideas have been offered to identify the restrainer; examples include governmental authority, the Holy Spirit, and the Archangel Michael (see Daniel 10:12-14). Since there are several plausible possibilities, we can’t really put any doctrinal weight on the passage to build or support a doctrine. Obviously, the only passages we can use to support doctrine would be those passages that teach that doctrine explicitly or implicitly. It is never appropriate to formulate a doctrine out of speculation only. Nor can we counter an explicit teaching by using one that is speculative.
As we apply the Doctrine Test to the passages of the Bible that relate to the Second Coming and the timing of the Rapture of the Church, we find that a lot of what we as Christians have believed about these things are based on inferences and speculations rather than on the explicit teaching of the Scriptures. Below are several passages of Scripture that I believe are EXPLICIT in their teaching that the Rapture takes place after the Tribulation period at the Second Coming of Christ. I will just share them now, and encourage you to read them in context; study them; apply the Doctrine Test on them, and see if you can answer the question: “Do these Scriptures explicitly teach us that the Church, believers in Jesus Christ, will gather to meet Jesus at His Second Coming, after the Tribulation?” In order to not make this post too long, I will stop here for now and ask you to do your homework. I will plan to make my case tomorrow as to why I believe these passages, and others I will present, EXPLICITLY support the view that the Rapture happens at the Second Coming. Here they are:
MATTHEW 24: 29-31 “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. 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. 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.I THESSALONIANS 4:16-17 (Compare with
Matthew 24:29-31) “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” 2
THESSALONIANS 1:5-10 “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering — since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-8 “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness (sin) is revealed, the son of destruction (perdition) who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.”
NEXT POST, PART 3 (expect to receive on Monday): I will elaborate on what I have written today, applying the Doctrine Test to the passages above as well as to other passages. I am sure that you have questions, but stay tuned, and hopefully your questions will be answered. If you have brief comments, suggestions, or questions you hope I will answer in these posts, feel free to message me. Lord bless you!