Rapture review

Rapture Review—Events That Occur Together at the End¹
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Dr. Paul Manuel—2000

Christians who hold to a pre-tribulation rapture of the saints distinguish passages that actually refer to the same event, as denoted by common features. The following list of five passages links such features as the savior's return, the saints' rapture, the saints' resurrection, the (final) trumpet announcement, and the culmination of the Great Tribulation, indicating that they will all happen around the same time and not as widely spaced events.

• The Savior's return and the Saints' rapture will occur with trumpet announcement "after the tribulation." (Matt 24:29-31)

Matt 24:29a ...immediately after the tribulation of those days.... 30c ...they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

•  The Saints' resurrection will occur with (the last) trumpet announcement. (1 Cor 15:52)

1 Cor 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

• The Savior's return and the Saints' resurrection will occur with trumpet announcement. (1 Thess 4:16-17)

1 Thess 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of [the] archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

• The Savior's return and the Saints' rapture will occur after the tribulation. (2 Thess 2:1, 3, 8)

2 Thess 2:1 ...with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him.... .3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.... 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.

• The Savior's reign will begin with (the last) trumpet announcement. (Rev 11:15)

Rev 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become [the kingdom] of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever."

If, as these passages indicate, gentile believers remain on earth during that period, why do they receive no mention? The likely reason is that they are not the focus of Satan's attention, and they are little mentioned during the Millennium because their relationship to Israel becomes even closer once the nation recognizes its messiah and assumes the leading role in world affairs. The relationship becomes so close, in fact, that eschatological passages may subsume gentile believers in the mention of "Israel."²

What to remember: The major New Testament texts describing Jesus' return to reign and our rapture to resurrection point not to separate events, before and after the tribulation, but to a single event after the tribulation. In other words, passages that speak about the saints' rapture place that event after the tribulation, at the last trumpet, when the Savior returns to resurrect the righteous and to begin his earthly reign.

Bibliography

Manuel, Paul http://paulwmanuel.blogspot.com

2013, A Reader's Digest Approach to Theology.

Endnotes

¹This study is Eschatology Excursus 3 in Manuel 2013 A Reader's Digest Approach to Theology.
²This outcome is the opposite of supersessionism, where the Church (gentile believers) displaces the nation (Israel) in God's plan. This is subordinationism, where the nation embraces (subsumes) the Church in God's plan.