Johannah,
In reply to:
The Rapture is not the Second Coming. There is only one Second Coming.

The Church will be raptured. But it will be the time that God says, not man. It will not be before the Great Tribulation, it will be immediately after. The Last day of the world is when Jesus will return.

Matthew 24:29-30

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with Power and great glory."

Nowhere does the Word of God say the rapture is before the Tribulation. On the contrary, it illustrates immediately after. I didn't say it, God's Word said that the Chosen were raised here immediately after the tribulation of those days. And it's with the sound of the Trumpet, not in secret. Christ will appear on the clouds and send his angels to gather his chosen from the four winds. Written clearly there in Matthew 24:29-31. This is the rapture, and is exactly what's spoken of again in,

I Thessalonians 4:16

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a Shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 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."

Compare scripture with scripture, Matthew with 1st Thessalonians, and the picture is clear when and how the Rapture occurs. And again note, it is with a shout and sounding trumpet, not secret! To think that the Lord will take the Church out first (before tribulation) is to ignore both content and context of matthew 24. Scripture is in agreement only with "a last day" rapture.

Another telling passage is the parable of the tares. All parables are given by inspiration of God for our learning, and there is a valuable lesson in this one concerning how we will be left in this world.

The Parable (Matthew 13) is that there are wheat and tares sown in a field. The wheat is the believers and the tares are the unbelievers. The field is the world and the harvest is at the end of the world. That's how God (not I) interprets the parable. So it was said, "Shall we take the tares out of the world so they won't hurt the wheat". God said No! He wanted the tares and the wheat to remain "together" in the field until the end of the world (Which He said is the harvest), and then the separation would occur. Note carefully, God didn't say, I want to take the tares out so they won't hurt the wheat, nor the wheat out of the world because He doesn't want the tares to hurt them, He says leave them both there until the end of the world when the separation would occur. Clearly, without ambiguity, we see in this that both believer and unbeliever will remain in the world "together" until the end of the world. Then the tares will be burned in the Furnace, and the wheat gathered into God's barn. This parable teaches us that the separation is at the end of the world, and not before.


Wes


When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. - Isaac Watts