Fallaciousness in the
Doctrine of the Rapture
by Steve Santini
The timing of the scriptural event presently termed as the “rapture” is misplaced. It does not occur as a pre-tribulation, a mid tribulation, or a post tribulation event. It is a post paradise event.
Regarding a secret “rapture” associated with the tribulation prior to the advent of Christ,
Dr. Ernst Martin, an accomplished and recognized scriptural researcher and church historian states, “It may come as a surprise to many Christians, but the doctrine of the Rapture is not mentioned in any Christian writings, of which we have knowledge, until after the year 1830 A.D. Whether the early writers were Greek or Latin, Armenian or Coptic, Syrian or Ethiopian, English or German, orthodox or heretic, no one mentioned a syllable about it.” William Irving and John Darby of the Plymouth Brethren in Great Britain first popularized the tribulation-associated rapture in the mid 1800’s. Both based their doctrine on a handful of scriptures and the vague prophesy of Margaret MacDonald.
Nor is the “rapture” or gathering together a limited event that includes only the church. It includes all “men” who have ever drawn breath on this earth.
Generally, many Christians believe in a pre tribulation rapture based on some verses that state that the church is to be saved from the wrath. The wrath and the tribulation are two different things by definitions from Strong’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible. Tribulation is an outer pressure that may or may not produce wrath. Wrath is the internal or mental pressure produced by tribulation. Yes, the properly faithful church will not suffer the wrath of tribulation because they will understand the purifying purposes of tribulation and know of imminent return of Jesus Christ and their resurrection into paradise on this earth.
The two sections of scripture that are said to support an exclusive rapture in conjunction with the “tribulation” are found in the epistles of I Thessalonians, chapter four and I Corinthians, chapter fifteen. I Thessalonians, chapter four reads:
12: That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
13: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18: Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
The authors of this letter are Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, identified in the letter as the apostles of Christ. It is written to those in Thessalonica who were faithful to the message of these apostles. And it is written about the relationship between these apostles and these followers. It is contains advice from these apostles about the relationship of these followers with those outside this church who did not believe. These apostles of Christ are identified in the scope of the letter generally by the pronoun “we”. The followers of these apostles or the church are identified by the plural pronoun “you” and those on the outside who do not believe are identified by the pronoun “them”
This first letter, like the second one sent to Thessalonica, are follow up letters. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy had spent months living, working and teaching among those that were believing in Thessalonica. In these two letters, these apostles of Christ are reiterating salient and applicable points from their thorough teachings while in Thessalonica in order to encourage and comfort the church during their absence when those of that church were experiencing opposition from those on the outside of the church.
With this in mind, in light of this article as summary comments, two points pertaining to the timing of the rapture and those to be included in the rapture will be made. (For a more extensive study of I Thess. 4:12-18 see: http://oocities.com/kibotos2002/appointed.html) First, from this section of I Thessalonians, the doctrine of the rapture promotes a “gathering in the air” for the church immediately after the dead in Christ are raised. This promotion is based on the following two verses.
16: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
However, those that began to promote this doctrine as a new find in the early 19th century overlooked the meanings of Greek words and Greek grammatical structures of this verse within the preceding copies of Greek language scriptures. The group from which the doctrine sprung relied more heavily on prophesies of the time rather than on textual interpretations of scriptural prophecies from the large body of more original older texts.
The word “then” that begins verse seventeen and connects it with verse sixteen in I Thessalonians, chapter four, is the Greek word epeita which means “then after a period of time”. It is not the Greek word tote, which means “then at that time”. Epeita’s root, eita, is used twice in the gospel of Mark in chapter four verse twenty-eight.
For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then(eita) the ear, after(eita) that the full ear of corn.
In natural growth there is a period of time between each the blade and the ear, and the ear and the full ear. When the ear first appears in early July there is a relatively short period of time in which the ear is pollinated. After pollination it matures over more time into a full ear of corn.
The word epeita from the root eita is also translated as “afterward” rather than “then” in some places in scripture. It is used in I Corinthians 15: 46 when Paul was writing of Adam as natural and Christ as spiritual.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward(epeita) that which is spiritual.
There was quite a long time between Adam and Jesus Christ.
So, because the usage of this then (epeita) at the beginning of verse seventeen, there is a period of time between the dead in Christ rising and the meeting of the Lord in the air which could be quite long.
(It is in this time that eternal life and eternal destruction exist. In every instance scripturally in the Greek texts the word “eternal” and “everlasting” when followed by the words “life” or “destruction” is the Greek word “aion” meaning “age long”. In the Greek language of the time there were a number of words meaning infinite or endless yet the original writers of the scriptures with their knowledge of the truth did not use any of these word to define the life that would exist for the previously faithful in the future earthly paradise. Nor did they use these words for endless or infinite to describe the destruction that awaits the unjust.)
Secondly, the phrase “together with them in the clouds” from verse seventeen combines the apostles of Christ, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy with their followers by the context and with the usage of the word “together”(ama). It then combines these two immediately previous groups consisting of the apostles of Christ and their followers with “them”. The “them” are those on the outside who at the time they were persecuting the Thessalonians did not believe.
17
Then (epieta) we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together (ama) with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
The same grammatical usage is in I
Thessalonians 5:10
Who
died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together(ama) with(sun) him.
The Greek word ama translated “together” in this verse, in like manner grammatically
to verse 4:17, unites the preceding of “those awake” and “those asleep” and
then unites these who are “together”, by the use of the subsequent preposition
“with”, to “him”.
How then could the “them” who did not believe outside the church in the environs of Thessalonica attain unto the same “rapture” as those who did believe? The answer is lies in the events that occur in the time period show by the “then” connecting verses sixteen concerning the rising of “the dead in Christ first” and verse seventeen concerning the “caught up together with them” of I Thessalonians, chapter four.
In this time period of the “then”, first, there will be a short transition from the current time period known as man’s day, or the times of the nations, that has extended from just beyond the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles scripturally. This transition will lead into the final age a thousand years of paradise upon earth. In this transition all men will die. The first to be resurrected will be those that have been faithful to the revealing of Jesus Christ and the message of the apostles of Christ or, in other words, the dead in Christ. The saints, or those of Christ, and those in Christ, resurrected first, will form a joint priesthood to administer paradise and teach of Jesus Christ. After the raising of the dead in Christ, the just and the unjust will be resurrected during this transition into paradise. The just are the ones of Israel who followed from their hearts the fundamentals of the Mosaic Law when it was in force for Israel and those who have, without or with knowledge, by their conscience, faithfully followed the essence of the commandments of Moses. Although the just will live lives of hundreds of years as a result of the life giving conditions in paradise, they will still be subject to natural death or mortality. (Isaiah 65:20) The unjust will be separated and retained under the corrective pressure of perdition during the thousand years of paradise. By the end of paradise all of former unbelief will have believed and “every” knee will have bowed to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is then that “all” will have been or are made alive in Christ, each “in his own order” as I Corinthians fifteen reads:
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order….
(Some have used linguistically unsubstantiated and confusing methods to qualify the word “all” and “every” in order to explain a diluted doctrine that is not inclusive of the living God who is the savior of all men. (I Tim. 4:10, 2:4) Unfortunately some others have believed them without a thorough investigation of the ground upon which they seem to stand.)
The event that ends this time period covered by the “then” (epieta), which begins after the raising the dead in Christ by the Lord himself and ends with all being caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air where no solid matter appears to freely exist, begins in I Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verse fifty-one.
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Because the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ to raise the dead in Christ with “a” trump and because the proponents of a tribulation associated rapture have ignored the duration of the “then” beginning the next verse in I Thessalonians, they have said that the “rapture” takes place before paradise begins. Here in I Corinthians, the trump is identified as “the last” trump rather than the “a” trump in I Thessalonians, as the Greek texts read, indicating that by that time, at the end of paradise, there had been previous trumps including the “a” trump of God that announced the descent of the Lord to raise the dead in Christ at the beginning of paradise.
At this time ending paradise on earth, the corruptible are the unjust retained in perdition while the mortal are the just who, in paradise, have had bodies still subject to the sleep of natural death.
(Some may question mortal bodies existing in paradise due to verse fifty of the section in I Corinthians.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
For the purposes of this study “inherit” is the operative word in the sentence. The inheritance of the kingdom is unto the saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus not the just and certainly not the unjust. The just, though, after their resurrection with and in contrast to the unjust, do enter into the kingdom in mortal bodies to be with those of spiritual bodies who are the inheritors. In this verse consideration must also be given to the first word as rendered in the Greek texts. It is the adversative Greek conjunction de that carries a subtle antithesis from what precedes. From the context that which precedes is the spiritual types of bodies that the faithful in Christ Jesus will obtain at the first resurrection in the transition unto the kingdom of God on earth. The following verse, after this contrast in verse fifty, which begins with “Behold, I show you a mystery”, continues this subtly antithetical theme to the spiritual bodies obtained first by the faithful in Christ Jesus. If the continuation in verse fifty-one, after verse fifty, were to refer back to those of spiritual consistency who do inherit the kingdom, then specific Greek words introducing the sentence of verse fifty-one would indicate so. Between verse fifty-one and verse fifty in the English, as with the Greek texts, there should be no new paragraph formed. The following verses, after verse forty nine, as indicated by the introductory Greek word de beginning verse fifty, refer to the mortal just and the corruptible unjust who have not “inherited” the kingdom of God on earth; not the church which has previously inherited the kingdom in their age enduring spiritual life)
In the order of the just in mortal bodies and the unjust as corruptible, at the end of paradise, rather than at the beginning of paradise like the dead in Christ, the just and unjust are transformed into that which is spiritual. As I Corinthians, chapter fifteen states, it is at this point that death is entirely destroyed.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? I Cor.15:54,55 (The word “then” in this section is the Greek word tote meaning “then immediately”.)
It is also at this time at the end of paradise on earth in the “Day of God” as prophesied by Peter that all the material elements of earth are to be dissolved in a fervent heat. It is at this time that every knee shall have bowed to the Lord Jesus Christ and become subject to him. It is at this time that the Lord delivers all up to the Father as all are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and to be forever with him. This is how those who did not believe at that time in Thessalonica will be included in the “rapture” at the end of paradise. As it was a comfort to know this for the Thessalonian church at that time, it is a comfort now for all who believe to know that loved ones and friends who never believed in their lifetimes and those alive who do not yet believe will one day be with them and the Lord in the many mansions of the Father’s house in the infinite beyond. What a wonderful mystery within the scope of the great mystery!
The gathering in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air I Thess, 4:17 II Peter 3:12ff Dark Sun Red Moon Acts 2:16-21 Joel Saints appear Jude 14,15 Day of the Lord II Peter 3:10 All works on the earth
burned then the resurrections
|
Man’s Day (Times of the Nations) |
The Transition The Acceptable Year Isaiah 61:1-3 Luke 4:18,19 The Book of Hebrews |
Paradise Kingdom of heaven on earth (age long life for
the faithful) (rejuvenated mortal life for
the just) the time of the epieta |
The Father’s House (every knee bowed to the
Lord) Philippians 2:9-11 (the power of death
destroyed) I Corin. 15:54 All men saved |
|
|
|
Perdition Thanatos(the sentence of death) Age long destruction and corruption
for the unjust Luke 16:19-26 |
|
The Appointed Times for the Salvation of All Men
Copyright, Steve Santini, 2005