When Will the Rapture Happen?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Revelation 20, Revelation 19, Revelation 21, Revelation 22, 1 Corinthians 3, Joel 2, Acts 2, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, Luke 21:28, Revelation 1:19, Revelation 2, Revelation 3, Revelation 4, Genesis 2, Genesis 1

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--when-will-the-rapture-happen
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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the word rapture is not in the king james version of the bible it's from a latin word meaning to be caught up and certainly the concept of being caught up is in the bible i'd like to read from first thessalonians chapter 4 beginning in verse 15 through verse 17 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 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 so here we here clearly have the term caught up so if we prefer we can say the catching away of the saints but we use the rapture the word rapture is a shorthand way of saying the catching away of the saints so is the catching away of the saints a biblical concept absolutely you see it right here in the scripture i'd like to also read another passage in first corinthians chapter 15 verse 51-52 behold i show you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptable and we shall be changed so both of these passages tell us the lord is going to come and those who are dead in christ will rise those who are alive will not die but will be transformed from mortal to immortal and will be joined so that the living and dead of the saved of all the ages will arise together to meet the lord in the air that's the catching wave of the saints that's very biblical and we should teach it now the references to that you quoted of it being a later invention this mainly has to deal with the timing so if you read throughout church history in the early centuries most people believe that in the pre-millennial return of the lord in other words the millennium is when jesus christ establishes his kingdom on earth for a thousand years revelation chapter 20.

and most people in the early centuries at least believe the lord would come back to earth before that to establish his kingdom that's in revelation 19. so if you take revelations basically chronological you see the lord returned to earth in chapter 19. you see him setting up his kingdom on earth in chapter 20 and then you see the last judgment in chapter 21 and 22 you see the eternal state heaven for the righteous and the lake of fire for the unrighteous so most people had that concept but then exactly when would the saints be caught up to meet the lord if he's coming back to earth or just are they going to be caught up to me in the air and then immediately reverse and come back down or is there a separation of time and so there evolved three different views the pre-tribulation rapture the mid-tribulation rapture and the post-tribulation rapture and the these all refer to a time of tribulational earth great suffering the tribulation you see this in revelation chapter 5 through chapter 18 where it seems first of all an evil ruler will gain control over much of the earth called the beast we often call him from other scriptures the antichrist and so it seems that that god is gonna let humans do what they always wanted to do okay you can be in control of the world you can implement your policies you can do whatever you want instead of it leading to great peace and prosperity it leads to great judgment and then at some point god will begin to send divine judgment on people and so that's this time of tribulation great tribulation so the thought one thought would be okay the church has to go through all that and then the lord comes back in chapter 19 and the people rise to the air and meet him and immediately come back but then there's a thought well the lord will let the saints go through the wrath of humans as the antichrist is sitting with his kingdom but in the middle when god support starts to provide his judgment he will take his church out that's the mid-tribulation rapture and then the pre- tribulation is before all this judgment on earth before the antichrist is able to take full control then god is going to rapture his church and so then they will have usually the idea seven years during the great tribulation on earth the saints will be in heaven they'll have the marriage supper of the lamb they'll receive the rewards that are alluded to in first corinthians three and then when this time for the tribulation to end they will return with the lord and so under this scenario what we think of as the coming the lord has two phases the first part people go up in the rapture the saved and the second part jesus comes with his saints back to earth and that's the actual coming to earth but the whole period is a seven year period where the lord comes in the air to get his saints and then he comes back to earth to establish his kingdom so that becomes an exegetical question by that i mean it's just a matter of what does the bible say now if you read the synoptic gospels which talk about this time matthew mark and luke it basically focuses on the time of tribulation and luke especially emphasizes the initial persecution before the destruction of the temple in ad70 but that prefigures the greater tribulation in the end of time if you just read matthew mark and luke you there's not a clear statement of the rapture and so many people just say well post-tribulationism but if you read the writings of paul you have some indication some pretty strong indication that the rapture will take place first now historically at the beginning of the pentecostal movement the modern pentecostal of the 20th century the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture was a strong motivator for the pentecostal movement because people are feeling the lord is coming soon they begin praying seeking wanting to get ready and that's part of the reason why there was a great outpouring of the holy spirit and then after the outpouring of the spirit they thought well this is this is going to be in the last days joel 2 quoted by peter in acts 2 in the last day says god i will pour out my spirit upon all flesh there'll be a former rain and a ladder rain so people begin to think well these are the last days the lord is coming soon and so there's an idea the rapture could take place at any time the early pentecostals and this is interesting both trinitarian and oneness even though they came out of christian groups that said you're saved at repentance and the trinitarians maintained that but even the trinitarians said but if you want to go in the rapture you must be filled with the holy ghost and so a big impetus of the early pentecostal movement was the coming of the lord and receiving the holy ghost to go up in the rapture so historically most pentecostals have believed in a pre-tribulation rapture today the united pentecostal church international allows diversity of those three views of the rapture we are pre-millennial the lord is coming back to set up his kingdom but it's in your personal choice to decide what you think the scripture says as far as the timing of the rapture i would say historically and even today probably a strong majority of our minister would would believe in a pre-tribulation rapture so why is that is that justifiable well if you look at it there are several passages that indicate this the very book of first thessalonians that gives us a clear statement of the rapture in chapter four in first thessalonians 5 9 it says the lord has not appointed us to wrath so the indication is he will take us out before this time of wrath the seven years of tribulation and then in second thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7 through 8 apparently when the thessalonian believers got first thessalonians some of them were panicking and some even begin to say well the lord already came so paul wrote the second letter saying no he hasn't come yet uh there before he comes this man of sin which again we often call the antichrist has to be revealed he's going to deceive people so you don't have to worry that you're in the millennial kingdom that jesus christ is ruling on earth somewhere and you don't know it because before that's going to happen this man of sin has to be revealed and before he is revealed there's a restraining force that has to be taken away and so ii thessalonians 2 7 through 8 says basically i'm going to paraphrase in modern english he who is now restraining the antichrist will keep restaining him until he is taken out of the way and then that man of sin will be revealed and then after that the lord will come in judgment well who is the restraining force it doesn't say but you can make a very strong case based on the whole discussion of thessalonians that it's the church or maybe since it uses the term he the holy spirit in the church that when all the spirit-filled believers are taken out of earth then although god's spirit is soul everywhere his active presence in the church is no longer in the world then the antichrist will have free reign there will be no spirit-filled believers to block him or to pray against him or to evangelize and so he'll have free reign and so that is another strong reason then if you go to luke which although i said the gospels aren't very clear in identifying a specific rapture luke 21 28 is another good indication it talks about all the evils that are coming in the end time and it says when all these things begin to come to pass look up for your redemption draweth nigh so that's an indication even in the synoptics that the church is not going to have to go through all the tribulation that's the main focus of those prophetic statements but the church will escape and maybe the reason why the synoptic gospel spends so much time that was before the day of pentecost jesus was answering the question of his disciples who were jewish and they were thinking in terms of the jewish nation and the re-establishment of the jewish kingdom which will be in the millennium and so jesus gave most of the information related to the tribulation and his coming to earth and establishing the kingdom because it wasn't yet time to really talk they didn't really understand how the church would intervene and the holy spirit would come and so forth whereas by the writings of the epistles you do have the it's already pentecostals taking place the holy spirit is poured out the church is coming to the forefront and then finally if you look at the book of revelation if you take it as basically chronological then you would indicate a rapture coming before the tribulation so chapter one reveals jesus christ and then he and then he says in revelation 1 19 he says to john write the things which you've seen which with his encounter with jesus the things which are and the things which shall be so if you take that as an outline of revelation it indicates there's a chronology first the revelation of jesus in chapter one chapters two and three jesus dictated letters to seven churches of asia minor they were actual churches at that time i think most people would say they were picked because in some way they are representative of typical churches or some think they're ages of church history but at least they're relevant churches for for all of us so chapters two and three then we'll be focusing on the present church age and then right after that chapter 4 john says i was caught up in the spirit i was caught up into heaven and in heaven he saw 24 elders around the phone worshiping god thanking god that they're redeemed from every nation and i think the 24 probably signifies that the 12 tribes of israel would represent old testament saints 12 apostles will represent new testament saints so i think maybe the 24 is a symbolic wave include the saints of all the ages if that's so then in chapter four you have the saints of all the ages worshiping god in heaven then in chapter five you have the introduction of this evil ruler the antichrist and five through 19 you have the time of tribulation in 19 jesus coming back to earth as i've already stated in chapter 20 the millennial kingdom so if you take that as chronological the saints are all in heaven worshiping god and having the marriage supper of the lamb while there's the tribulation on earth and of course there still are going to be some people saved during the tribulation but from that chronology it would appear that the teaching of the timing of the pre-tribulation rapture is correct now i would simply end by saying you look at all the passages that i've told you about as well as others the signs of the time indicate the lord is coming near how near we can't say even in the first century paul expected the lord can come in his day at the beginning of the pentecostal movement the early pentecostals expect the lord to come in their day it hasn't happened yet but were they wrong to think that not really because i think god wants people of every age to expect his coming but looking at it objectively we've never faced a time in human history like this where satan is attacking the very foundation of god's original creation so look at it he's attacked the family he's attacked the institution of marriage going that's genesis 2.

now he's attacking the very identity of humans as being exclusively male or female that's going back to genesis 1. so the devil is attacking the very fundamentals of god's original creative plan and humans are talking about cloning they're talking about genetic modification they're talking about playing god as never before and with abortion on one end and euthanasia on the other it seems that more and more people are intruding into areas that should belong only to god when people started opposing god's will in genesis the tower of babel they tried to build a tower to heaven to evade god's plan and god's judgment god brought down judgment so how long will god wait before he brings judgment i don't see how it can be very long so i don't know if it's this year next year or in my lifetime but i do believe the lord is coming soon and whatever we believe about the rapture i think we need to be ready for the coming of the lord