In reply to:
This verse is evidence that believers will see "signs" that the end of time is approaching. We won't know the exact time, but will see evidence that the time is near.

Well if the Church does not know the time (and we don't) and the church is raptured, anyone who has been left behind and read the Left Behind series [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/puke.gif" alt="puke" title="puke[/img] will begin their time clocks setting them for 7 years, so then they KNOW the time? [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/idea.gif" alt="idea" title="idea[/img]

Again Woodrow says,

When Jesus ascended into heaven and his disciples stood watching, two angels said: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come IN LIKE MANNER as ye have SEEN him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). According to this verse, the same Jesus that those disciples knew and loved will return “in like manner” as they saw him go into heaven. They did not see him go into heaven in two separate ascensions; and so it is definitely implied that his return will not be in two separate comings.

“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” — at his FIRST coming — “and unto them that look for him shall he appear the SECOND time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28). Here we read of the SECOND coming of Christ. Those who hold that Christ will return for his church, and then return again seven years later, are actually teaching a doctrine not only of the SECOND coming of Christ, but a THIRD coming as well. However, the idea of a THIRD coming of Christ is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. Such terminology is completely foreign to the scriptures!

Some explain that they believe in one Second Coming of Christ, but that it will be in “two stages.” However, this does not solve the problem. If the rapture is a separate “stage” from the coming of Christ in power and glory, how could each “stage” be the SECOND coming? If they are separate and distinct events, each could not be the second coming, for the coming that would follow the second, would be the third!

Some teach there will be two second comings. But the scriptures speak of the Lord’s second “coming” (singular), never of the second “comingS” (plural). Besides, the term “two second comings” is in itself contradictory.

In attempting to explain this difficulty which the dispensational interpretation must face, we have actually heard it argued that the “rapture” is not the COMING of the Lord! One writer puts it this way: “Strictly speaking the rapture is NOT THE SECOND COMING AT ALL. The second coming is the visible, local, bodily appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven as he returns to this earth . . . in power and great glory.”1

Another says: “The thrilling event which will both mark the end of the day of Grace and open the door for the Great Tribulation is the rapture . . . Specifically speaking, THIS IS NOT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. Rather this is the rapture, or the catching up, of the true church.”2

Another emphatically states that the rapture is NOT the Second Coming and that “the scriptures referring to the rapture could not refer to the second coming.” 3

According to these dispensational writers, the rapture will take place first, and the COMING of Christ will take place seven years later. But attempting to make the rapture a separate and earlier event from the coming of Christ is a teaching that is contrary to the united testimony of the Bible!

For example, Jesus said: “Be ye therefore also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man COMETH” (Mt. 24:44). Why would Jesus warn about being ready for the COMING of the Son of man, if really what we are to be ready for is a secret rapture to take place seven years before his coming?

The same point can be seen in Revelation 16:15: “Behold, I COME as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth.” Why would such a warning be given about his COMING, if seven years before his COMING believers would already be taken to heaven?

Or notice Hebrews 10:36, 37: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall COME will COME, and will not tarry.” Believers are thus exhorted to be patient until the coming of Christ. But why point them to the coming of Christ if their real hope was something to occur seven years earlier?

“Be patient then, brethren, unto the COMING of the Lord” (James 5:7). Again, why exhort the brethren to be patient unto the COMING of the Lord, if a secret rapture before his coming was when they would be gathered unto him?

Jesus said: “Occupy till I COME” (Lk. 19:13). But how could the church occupy until he COMES, if the church will be taken away seven years before his coming?

Paul speaks of Christians as “waiting for the COMING of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:7). If Paul believed Christians would be caught up to heaven in a secret rapture seven years before the Lord’s COMING, why didn’t he speak of Christians as waiting for that? Why would he tell them to wait for something that would take place seven years after they had already been raptured? Obviously, to Paul, the coming of the Lord and the rapture were considered as one and the same event.

Paul prayed that the Christians at Thessalonica would be “preserved blameless unto the COMING of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). Again, the event for which they were watching was the “coming” of Christ. Why pray for them to be preserved blameless unto the “coming” of Christ, if the “rapture” is an event that will take place seven years before the Lord’s coming?

And finally, Jesus said: “I will COME again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:3). Plainly, it is when Jesus COMES that he receives his people unto himself. It does not say he receives them and then seven years later he comes. The receiving is not seven years before his coming.


Reformed and Always Reforming,