When Will the Rapture Be? - Steve Gregg | When Shall These Things Be? (Eschatology) Pt 6

thenarrowpath.com | Doctrine of the Rapture (from Lecture#6)
a) Rapture characteristics.
i) When living saints are caught up to meet the Lord and be changed.
ii) Seen as an escape from the worldwide future Great Tribulation (for Futurists)
iii) Seen as an escape from death.
iv) Very emotional issue, much more than Millennialism
v) Does the Bible teach these as separate events? Is there a time-line related to prophecy as
dispensationalists believe?
(1) Amillenialism (historical belief) teaches a complex, multi-faceted, single-event.
(2) Coming of the Lord is the only time reference that seems to be indicated in bible.
b) 3 views within dispensationalism:
i) Pre-trib (classic dispensationlalism)- Rapture starts the 7 year clock, the last week in Daniel
(1) Saints meet Jesus halfway (in the clouds) and remain there for duration of tribulation.
(2) Saints return with Jesus in triumph at 2nd coming
ii) Post-trib - Rapture occurs just before 2nd coming.
(1) Time of testing for saints during tribulation
(2) God distinguishes between believer and non-believer and supernaturally protects
believers from the judgements.
iii) Mid-trib (least popular) - Rapture starts at 3 ½ year mark (just before Great Tribulation)
(1) God has not appointed us to Wrath
(2) Last half of tribulation is when God is pouring out His wrath
iv) New view: Pre-wrath Rapture (3/4 of trib). By Marv Rosenthal.
(1) Later than mid, earlier than Post.
(2) Just before bowl judgements are poured out (last 21 months of trib)
v) Each view holds that there will be a future 7-year tribulation
vi) All but post-trib separate rapture of church and 2nd coming
(1) 2nd coming in 2 stages
(a) 1st stage is Jesus coming half-way to get the church (rapture)
(b) 2nd stage is Jesus coming with saints back to judge the earth (revelation)
c) Distinctives of dispensationalist view
i) Two-stages
(1) Rapture
(a) For the saints
(b) Church is spared going through tribulation and taken to heaven to receive her
rewards and take part in the marriage supper.
(2) Revelation
(a) With the saints to judge the earth.
(3) Where did this two-stage idea come from?
(a) 1st hint was from Immannuel Lekunza (Jesuit priest) in 1812 (18 yrs before Darby’s
ideas)
(i) wrote about a 45day event preceding the 2nd coming where Christ comes for His
saints.
(ii) Got from Daniel 12 (only verse in bible)
Dan 12:11-13
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation
is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12 Blessed is he who
waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
NKJV
1. 1335 - 1290 = 45days. Distance between rapture and revelation is
speculated by this.
2. Nowhere in scripture is this verse explained. We can only speculate.
(b) Edward Irving from England (1827) translated this from Spanish to English.
(i) Changed the 45 days to 3 ½ years.
Disclaimer: These notes were not created nor are they endorsed by Steve Gregg or The Narrow Path. Any errors or misquotes are
strictly the responsibility of the transcriber. - 37 -
(ii) This corresponds with mid-trib view.
(c) John Nelson Darby (1830) adopted this into his dispensational view.
(i) Extended period to 7 years. (1st to suggest a 7 year trib).
(ii) Corresponds with pre-trib view.
(d) Irving and Darby were influenced by prophetic utterance of Scottish girl Margaret
McDonald in charismatic meeting some years earlier.
(i) Implied secret coming in her prophecy.
(ii)
ii) Two resurrections
(1) 1st resurrection is of the righteous at the rapture
(2) 2nd is of the wicked at the end of the Millennium (1007 years later)
iii) Those in tribulation who become believers, are not part of the church.
(1) Church is a parenthetical entity
(2) God paused His dealings with Israel only temporarily in order to deal with the church.
His dealings with Israel will take place after the rapture.
(a) Church and Israel are forever distinct entities in this view.
(b) Church is considered God’s eternal heavenly people, Israel is considered God’s
eternal earthly people.
(c) 144,000 are a literal number of Jews that are basically like a bunch of “Billy
Grahams” (according to Hal Lindsay) that will have more evangelical success in that
period that all the church had for thousands of years.
(3) Even a Gentile that gets converted will not be part of the church, but more like a
proselyte to Israel….for eternity.
d) Only 2 scriptures that actually speak of rapture
i) 1 Thess 4:13-18
1 Thess 4:13-18
13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow
as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with
Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and
remain u