The PHILADELPHIAN PROMISE: The BLESSED HOPE of the RAPTURE of the CHURCH

When Paul the Apostle was called upon to defend himself before King Agrippa, answering the false accusations of the Jews who were set against him, he spoke of “…the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers…”

ACTS 26:6-8
6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God, unto our fathers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.  8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?

And can we even entertain the idea that the Creator of all life, both physical and spiritual, in raising the dead back to life again, as a thing impossible or unbelievable? Of course not! Consider these words from Job:

JOB 19:25-27
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

None of the miraculous events of the Bible are unbelievable if you firstly believe:

GENESIS 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

God called into existence the entirety of heaven and earth, both in its spiritual and physical dimensions from nothing (Heb. barah) and is entirely believable if you believe in the God of the impossible!

In the days of Noah rainfall was a thing unheard of; the land was irrigated by a heavy mist that rose up from the ground, spread out and saturated everything (GEN 2:6).

So, when Noah began building a 450’ long barge (GEN 6:14-16) in the middle of dry land, and warned of a time yet to come, when the skies would open up and shed cascades of water, as well as the fountains of the deep erupting like geysers, flooding the Earth (GEN 7:11), he was mocked for such a ridiculous idea. 

Yet the warning of coming Judgment still issued from the mouth of Noah, for 120 years’ worth of preaching* (2 PET 2:5; GEN 6:3)!

But before judgment fell upon the world, flooding the land from the lowest valleys to the highest mountain peaks (GEN 7:19), the LORD delivered Enoch from the Earth, taking him Home to be with Him (GEN 5:23-24)!

HEB 11:5
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

“Translated” and “translation” are from the Greek word metatithemai – “to put in another place, to change, to remove from one place to another place”. In effect, Enoch was raptured, taken to heaven without experiencing death (In a somewhat similar fashion, Elijah was also taken up into heaven without seeing death, but in his case, accompanied by angelic hosts, “a chariot of fire” and “a whirlwind” 2 KINGS 2:11).

We know that the church was not revealed in the Old Testament; that it was a mystery that was revealed to God’s holy apostles and prophets, and particularly to apostle Paul (EPHESIANS 3). So, there are no prophecies of any rapture of the church found in the Old Testament (maybe).

But we also understand that the LORD God is immutable, and unchanging (HEB 13:8) – that what He was capable of doing, and DID do in times past, He is well able to accomplish in our day (JER 32:27). And whereas He raptured Enoch and Elijah, also, in a sense, John the Apostle (REV 4:1), and the two witnesses (REV 11:12), He shall also raise up the entire body of Christ, both the living and the dead:

1 THESS 4:13-18
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 (precede) them which are asleep (whose bodies are dead, but their spirits are with the LORD).
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 (Greek:harpazo; Latin: rapiere – rapture, to snatch up quickly, suddenly, like a pick-pocket snatching a wallet) 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.

And what words of comfort and hope these are!!! To say that we “shall ever be with the LORD” means that we shall never, EVER be parted from HIM, ever again! THAT’S my idea of heaven right there!!

We see in the book of REVELATION, after the Seven Letters to the Seven Churches, in the following chapter (Ch. 4) John the Apostle, representative of the church, experiences of kind of translation (in a spiritual sense) from the Earth to Heaven:

REVELATION 4:1-2
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me (“trump of God”?); which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.  2 And immediately (“in the twinkling of an eye” as in 1 COR 15:52?) I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

And of course, we know of the witnesses that beheld Christ’s ascension into heaven, the place that He is going to descend from to retrieve His bride from this fallen world and take us to our Father’s House (ACTS 1:11):

JOHN 14:1-3
1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Could ISAIAH 26:20 be a hint of the rapture of the church, or a reference to the believing Jews in Jesus during the time of Jacob’s Trouble hiding from the anti-Christ in Petra/Bosrah – the seven year period of tribulation? – or perhaps both?).

But just as the world mocked Noah for the idea of water falling down from the heavens, the world mocks the church because we talk about the living and the dead in Christ disappearing from the Earth suddenly in a rapture, rising up and leaving this world for heaven. And this event could occur at any moment (I might not be able to finish this teaching)!

Yet even in science today, the idea of ‘quantum entanglement’ is becoming a reality; where they can transport an electron from one location to another without traveling across the distance between those two points has been made possible. Scientist in China were able to send a photon on the surface of the Earth to an orbiting satellite circling 300 miles above, without traveling the distance between the two! If man can accomplish that, how much more so is God able to transport His saints from Earth to Heaven!

How will God raise up those who have been dead for thousands of years when their bodies have decomposed into dust? Or what about a Christian missionary who was eaten by cannibals, and one of those cannibals was then eaten by a lion, who was killed in a ravaging fire that leveled an entire rain forest? How is God going to reassemble all those cells?

Well, the same God who knows all the stars in the universe by name and numbers them, can certainly keep track of all of the atoms of cells that made up our bodies and gather them back together, if He wanted to do it that way. However, He doesn’t even need to do that! God created Adam’s body out of what? The dust of the earth!

The LORD can create new bodies for us just as He created all of the world, both visible and invisible things: simply by His spoken Word! How big is our God? Is He Almighty or not?

JER 32:27

Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?

Let’s have a look at another portion of Scripture that deals in detail with this phenomenal event, 1 CORINTHIANS 15, and then we will look at the time frame in which the rapture will take place. We believe that the rapture precedes the time of the Seven Year Tribulation period (also known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (JER 30:7) as well as Daniel’s 70^th Week (DAN 9:24)), and for very specific reasons. . . 

1 COR 15:20-23
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man (the first Adam) came death, by man (the last Adam, Christ) came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

The LORD Jesus is the “first fruits” - that is, the first of the resurrected saints. Certainly, Christ raised people from the dead, most notably Lazarus, but these all died again. Christ, having been resurrected, dies no more:

ROMANS 6:9
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

So too we saints who “sleep” at the time of the LORD’s Return will be resurrected and never know death again. Those of us who remain and are yet alive: raptured into glory and like Enoch and Elijah, won’t ever experience death! We who will be resurrected/raptured represent the remaining harvest that will be brought to our heavenly Home along with Him Who is the First Fruit, Christ Jesus our LORD!

1 COR 15:35-38
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened [brought to life], except it [first] die: 37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may perhaps be wheat, or of some other grain: 38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

Simply put, what you plant in the ground is not the same thing that springs up out of the ground. It begins with a tiny seed, a life-containing shell that appears lifeless to the eye. But after being buried it rises up with a transformed and far, far different body. Likewise, the saints who are “asleep” in the LORD and whose bodies are buried; they will spring up with a transformed and far, far different body!

1 COR 15:42-44
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

To be raised in incorruption is a glorious and joyous truth! This means that we will never grow old, and weak, and be afflicted with sickness and disease, but that’s on the physical level. On a spiritual level this means that we shall forever be incapable of the corruption that is sin! We will never, ever be infested with the spiritual sickness known as sin!

Sown in dishonor and weakness – as mere jars of clay; but raised in glory and power – with bodies unequaled by anything we have ever seen or imagined, spiritual bodies (not spirits) equipped to dwell and function in the heavenly Kingdom of God! We have very little idea about what these new bodies will be capable of, but we see the LORD in His glorified body and what He could do (think about what He did while still in His natural body: He walked on water!).

Our present bodies have only five senses; who’s to say that our glorified bodies won’t have 50 senses with which to perceive and witness the glory of God, and with minds capable of understanding such glory! Our new bodies will probably be capable of flight – like the angels; we may be able to transport in the twinkling of an eye from the heavenly New Jerusalem to the New Earth and back again! The possibilities of these new glorified bodies are limitless – and fun to think about!

1 COR 15:49-50
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption (Read also PHIL 3:20-21: "vile bodies" Greek: tapeinosis -  depression humiliation, made low, low estate).

We will witness and experience the full, unfiltered potency of God’s grandeur and holiness and power and glory – if we were to glimpse for just a second that intensity of God’s presence and fullness of the knowledge of God (1 COR 13:12), it would destroy us, thus the warning that God gave to Moses (EXOD 33:20 “…for there shall no man see Me and live.”).

1 COR 15:51-54
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 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.

This word “changed” in the Greek is allasso, and it means “to change, to make other than what it is, to transform” and is the same word used in HEB 1:11-12 in regarding the transformation of all creation:

HEB 1:11-12
11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

ROMANS 13:11b
. . . for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
“…nearer…”? ACTS 16:31 says, “Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ and you shall be saved…” So what does “nearer” mean?

This salvation speaks of the completed work of salvation, which began when Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead in victory over sin, death and hell and all the power of the enemy, was received when all of us believed and received the Gospel, and were justified; that work continues now as we are sanctified day by day, dying to self and becoming more Christ-like, and will finally be completed when the LORD redeems our bodies of corruption:

ROMANS 8:23
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

1 COR 15:55-58
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 BUT thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

GOD’s PERFECT TIMING Of The RAPTURE Of The Church:

Why do we believe that the rapture of the church will be before the Great Tribulation, and not in the middle of it, or before the “wrath of God” is unleashed (pre-Wrath rapture) or a post tribulation rapture?

If one does a comparison between the prophecies of DANIEL, and what transpires in the book of REVELATION, a correlation comes into view – similarities of the events, identical in fact, particularly where world government and the one world leader are concerned, and how they affect Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple as well as the world.

The primary prophecy that deals with God’s own judgment upon Israel (for her rebellion against Him, as Daniel prays, confessing such sins of Israel in DAN 9:5-15) is found in:

DANIEL 9:24-25
24 Seventy (70) weeks (shabuwah: a week of years, or a 7 yr. period; 70x7=490 yrs.) are determined upon thy people [Israel] and upon thy holy city [Jerusalem], to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem* unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks (this first period of time is 49 years), and threescore and two weeks: (this second period of time, 20x3 plus 2 = 434 years, a total of 69 weeks or 483 years) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times*.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks (62, at the end of the second period of time) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (the final period of time, 7 years, and the completion of the “70 weeks”): and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

From this prophecy alone, we understand that the 483 years has to do with Daniel’s people Israel, as well as the holy city Jerusalem and the Messiah; how can the last period of time of 7 years not be about these same things, since they are all part of the same prophecy as given to Daniel?

When the Messiah was “cut off but not for Himself” that is, when Christ suffered the same kind of execution of someone who would have committed a capital crime (in the days of the Roman Empire, that was crucifixion), God’s dealings with Israel stopped temporarily, because they rejected their Messiah.

Before any of that happened, the LORD Jesus told His disciples not to go preach to the Gentiles but to the lost sheep of Israel (MATT 10:5-7), but then He began speaking about something called “the church” (MATT 16:18) and after the Resurrection, He told them to go to “all nations” (MATT 28:19) and to the “uttermost part of the Earth” (ACTS 1:8) – He instructed Peter specifically to preach the Gospel to a Gentile (ACTS 10). The age of the church began, and Israel was dispersed (70 AD) – and those 7 last years of the 70^th week prophecy were left unfinished.

That is what the book of REVELATION is about – once the church age is ended and the LORD has called out for Himself a people for His name – at the rapture of the church, God will once again turn to Israel and build again the tabernacle of David – Israel will go through that seven year period of judgment – because of their refusal of accepting their Messiah, and at the end of it, witness His return, and then they will accept Y’shua ha Meschiach!

ACTS 15:14-16
14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. 15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, 16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:

ROMANS 11:25-26
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

The seven years of tribulation that is judgment falling upon a Christ-rejecting world is preceded by God’s claiming His own and taking them out – the church; just as He took out Enoch before the Flood judgment and preserved Noah and Shem (the ancestor of Israel) through the Flood judgment; just as He removed Elijah before His judgment upon Ahab and Jezebel and the prophets of Ba’al (and preserved His seven thousand and His prophets through that time of tribulation). That time of wrath is upon those who reject Christ, not for those of us who receive and love and worship and honor Christ:

1 THESS 5:8-10
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

ROMANS 5:8-9
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Those who express a pre-wrath view, will say that these passages refer to the time during the wrath of the Lamb, at the sixth of seven seals (REV 6:16), however, the entire seven-year period is a judgment against the world for rejecting Christ, and judgment from God upon sin always brings His wrath, so the wrath of the Lamb begins when judgment starts – at the breaking of the first seal all the way to the Second Coming of Christ (2 THESS 1:8-9).

The LORD will keep His church (as represented by the church of Philadelphia) from the hour of temptation that will come upon all of the world, to test those who dwell upon the Earth (REV 3:10) – that time of tribulation; but will keep the faithful remnant of Israel who will come to know their Messiah through the time of tribulation:

ZECH 13:8-9
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

There are those who criticize the pre-tribulation view of the rapture, and those who believe in it as ‘escapists’ – that is, we are so eager to escape this terrible, terrible time, that we are willing to misinterpret and misunderstand the Scripture, just to support this view, and believe we shall avoid any unpleasantness.

Another point on this ‘pre-trib rapture’: the LORD tells us to be ready always because we don’t know when He will return for us, His church (MARK 13:32-33); yet if the rapture were to happen mid-trib, we would know that the LORD’s coming for His church would be three and a half years after the Beast confirms (“enforces”) the covenant and establishes the sacrificial offerings in the Temple (DAN 9:27) and if the rapture happens post-trib, then seven years once the Beast confirms the covenant”. We would know when the LORD comes back, but He tells us that we don’t know the time of His return, which means it could be any time!

While I believe we will escape the tribulation, that does not mean we shall escape persecution – those who live godly in Christ are promised persecution (2 TIM 3:12). Yet the LORD told us to pray to be accounted worthy to escape these things! However, consider the words of Jesus Himself:

LUKE 21:36
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

And how can any of us be accounted worthy? By believing on Christ Jesus and His Gospel – the ONLY means by which we may ever be found worthy, escape these things and stand before the LORD,clothed with His own righteousness and approved by our Holy God!