Major1 said:
The Bible sees the Rapture (Jn. 14:1-4; I Cor. 15:51-58; 1 Thes. 4:13-18)
and the Second Coming (Zech. 14:1-21; Matt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27; Lk. 21:25-27; Rev. 19) as separate events, because when the verses are compared they describe two very different scenarios:
As shown in my post, Matt 24 harmonizes quiet nicely with 1 Thess 4. Different facts emphasized do not necessarily prove a different event.
The superscription on the cross is described differently in the different gospels yet there was only one cross.
1. Rapture — believers meet Christ in the air
Second Coming — Christ returns to the Mount of Olives to meet the believers on earth
What passage in Zechariah 14 says Christ meets believers on the earth?
Do not those same saints that sleep in Jesus , 1 Thess 4:14 come with Him ? 1 Thess 3:12 and Zechariah 14:5
2. Rapture — Mount of Olives is unchanged
Second Coming — Mount of Olives is divided, forming a valley east of Jerusalem
Mount of Olives is not mentioned in resurrection passages.
3. Rapture — living believers obtain glorified bodies
Second Coming — living believers remain in same bodies
What “second coming” passage even addresses bodies ?
4. Rapture — believers go to heaven
What resurrection passage says believers go to heaven?
Second Coming — glorified believers come from heaven, earthly believers stay on earth
What passage mentions those that come with Him are glorified? In fact 1 Thessalonians 4:14 says the opposite.
1 Thess. 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
This is just before they are united with their glorified (resurrected) bodies.
5. Rapture — world left unjudged and living in sin
What passage says after the resurrection the world is unjudged and living in sin?
Second Coming — world is judged and righteousness is established
2 Thess 2:1 & 2 Thess 2:8 has our gathering and the destruction of “that wicked” both at His coming.
6. Rapture — depicts deliverance of the Church from wrath
What passage says the church is removed to avoid the wrath of God? God can and has all through scripture protected many from His judgements while the wicked were left to endure them.
Second Coming — depicts deliverance of believers who endured wrath
Would that be the wrath of satan not the wrath of God? Verses please?
7. Rapture — no signs precede it
2 Thess. 2:1-3 a falling away first and the man of sin revealed before our gathering.
Matt 24:31 has many signs preceding the gathering.
Second Coming — many signs precede it
8. Rapture — revealed only in New Testament
Daniel 12:2 is the resurrection.
Job 19:25-26 Job stated in his resurrected body he would see his redeemer when He (Christ) shall stand upon the earth.
Second Coming — revealed in both Old and New Testaments
9. Rapture — deals with only the saved
Only if one separates coming of the Lord passages into two events.
Second Coming — deals with both the saved and unsaved
10. Rapture — Satan remains free
What resurrection passage says satan remains free?
Second Coming — Satan is bound and thrown into the Abyss
Since the Rapture and Second Coming clearly are different events that do not occur at the same time, this would rule out a Post-Tribulation Rapture scenario.
They are only “clearly” different events if one focuses only on the differences in passages as you have done and ignores the things that harmonize.
I pointed some of those things out in my original post. You are the 3rd person to respond to the post and the 3rd person to ignore the facts presented.
If we focus only on the differences then it could be argued that 1 Thess 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 are different events. How many on the pre-trib side of this debate want to do that?
All coming of the Lord passages will harmonize if allowed to. Some focus on resurrection, some focus on judgement following the resurrection, some add details that others leave out but none of them are contradictory!
No two coming of the Lord passages are identical, shall we have 3 or 4 or 5 comings of the Lord because of this fact? No there is only one coming in our future.
Our God is a big God and can accomplish all that needs to be done in one trip.
Not so!
Matthew 24 and 25 are written to and affect the Jews and have nothing to do with 1 or 2 Thess. as there was NO CHURCH in existence when Matthew was written.
1.
Rapture is not Jesus touching the ground. We meet Him in the Clouds and return to heaven for 7 years.
In Zech. 14, Jesus actually and physically touches the ground at His 2nd Coming.
2.
Zecheriah 14:4...........is the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ.
"On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the
Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
3.
Bodies will be changed at the Rapture so as to be able to enter heaven.
1 Corth. 15:51-52. "We will
be CHANGED in the twinkling of an eye"
I can not believe that you do not know about that verse.
4.
1 Thess. 4:14....."For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so, them also which have died in Jesus,
WILL GOD BRING WITH HIM".
Again, I can not believe you have not read that verse. WILL BRING WITH HIM.
5.
Matthew 24:5-7 ......
For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
6.
Rom. 5:9...............
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
1 Thess. 1:10...........
Wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 Thess. 5:9-10..........
For God has not destined us to wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we live together with Him.
7.
Correct.
Incorrect as Matthew 24 is NOT directed at the Church at all so it would not apply in your theology with the church being gathered.
8.
Incorrect about Daniel 12:2. That is NOT the Rapture.
The resurrection of the JUST is immediately AFTER the Great Tribulation of 7 years.
The resurrection of Daniel 12:2 is the Old. Test. saints who died belonging to the remmant and they will be raised to everlasting life at the end of the Tribulation.
The CHUCH was Raptured 7 years earlier because the Church was IN CHIST and as I said....."GOD WIL BRING THOSE WHO DIED IN CHRSIT WITH HIM".
The reason these saints are raised at the END of Tribulation is because the time for them enter the Kingdom will be at hand as Christ comes to set up His Kingdom.
9.
CORRECT! You got that one RIGHT. The Lord Jesus comes at the Rapture for the church and then 7 years later physically just as the Scriptures say to establich His kingdom.
10.
There are NO Scriptures that say Satan is bound so why would you even ask the question my friend. That is one of the factors of identification between the Rapture and the 2nd Coming. Satan remains free to temp and deceive after the Rapture but is bound for 1000 years at the 2nd Coming of Christ.
Rev. 20:1-3......
"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is
the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while."
With all due respect, it seems to me that you should know about all those Scriptures.
Then it may be that a lot of people just do not want to argue with you as you have only shown that no matter what is said or shown to you, you have the ability to rationalize it to fit what you believe.
So then.......believe it!!!!!
Now I have asked you this before and I do not remember an answer but IF there is only ONE resurrection then why does Rev. 20:4-5 say........................
"...I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the Word of God. They had not worshiped the Beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands.
THEY CAME TO LIFE AND REIGNED WITH CHRIST A THOUSAND YEARS.
The rest of the dead did not come to life UNTIL THE THOUSAND YEARS WERE ENDED THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
WHY THE WORD FIRST if there is only one??????