The Rapture Question Answered, Part 3

Note: To access my prior discussion of The Rapture Question Answered, Parts 1 and 2, simply click to open the Category at the right for Bible Prophecy.

The Rapture Question Answered Part 3

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

After citing 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, John Little in his “Prophecy Clock—The Rapture” in his well-done “Shock Letter” of April 28, 2014, John Little states:

The Antichrist MUST come before the Rapture. There is no other way that you can interpret this verse. None.

Mr. Little is correct when he describes the situation that occasioned Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians:

Paul reached out to the church in Thessalonica because they were thrown into turmoil over the idea of the Rapture. It appears that someone was telling them that they had missed it.

I believe that Mr. Little is mistaken when he asserts “The Antichrist MUST come before the Rapture.” I have already shown by careful exegesis of the first two verses (2 Th 2:1, 2) that the notion that Antichrist must come before the Rapture is the very error that Paul wrote to correct. Paul appeals to the instruction he had already given to the Thessalonians in his first letter as well as what he taught them when he was present with them as the basis for his corrective teaching given in 2 Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 2:1.

Note that whenever the Rapture is mentioned in the Bible, it is always mentioned before the mention of the Day of the Lord or the Great Tribulation. That is true in this very chapter, and confirms the order of events that Paul teaches consistently: First the Rapture, then the events which precede or accompany the Day of the Lord and the Great Tribulation.

Mr. Little correctly appeals to 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, remarking “See also: 1 Corinthians 15:51-53.”

Each of these passages, I believe, mention the Rapture. Carefully studied, they present the order I have suggested: First the Rapture, then later comes The Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is mentioned, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, obviously after the Rapture mentioned in chapter 4.

But John raises the interesting question:

This raises an important question:
How many resurrections are there?
Just two and only two – the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust. (John 5:29, Revelation 20, etc.) And, they are a thousand years apart.

On this basis Mr. Little asserts:

So, the Antichrist and the resurrection of ‘the just’ must happen before the Rapture. And no, there is no other way to interpret these verses. None.

There are indeed two resurrections: The resurrection of the just is accompanied by the Rapture; the resurrection of the unjust takes place after the 1000 year Millennium and is not accompanied by a rapture.

Mr. Little asserts:

So, the Antichrist and the resurrection of ‘the just’ must happen before the Rapture. And no, there is no other way to interpret these verses. None.

The Scriptures teach that the resurrection of the just and the Rapture take place at the same time.

Paul’s refutation of the heresy he was correcting was based upon the fact that the Antichrist must come after the Rapture but shortly before the Day of the Lord. Since the Antichrist had not yet appeared when Paul wrote (and has not appeared even yet in our day), the Thessalonians could not be in the Day of the Lord as the false teachers proclaimed, nor would they or we ever be, because believers alive before the great Apostasy or falling away, before the onset of the Day of the Lord and the coming of the Antichrist, are removed from this earthly scene by means of the Rapture.

Now there will be individuals after the Rapture who come to believe on Christ. They will be in the Day of the Lord and will suffer great tribulation unless they are hid by the Lord on this earth during that terrible time. Those believers will not be part of the Church, the body of Christ, as now constituted, but most certainly will be greatly honored and reign with Christ when He sets up His kingdom.

Mr. Little states:

Jesus spoke about the Rapture in Matthew 24:27-28 and then hammers the point home:

Here are those verses:

Mat 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

I believe these verses have nothing at all to do with the Rapture that Paul spoke of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. In fact, I would suggest that there is nothing to be found anywhere in Matthew 24 that pertains to the Rapture of the Church.

Here is the point that Mr. Little believes hammers the point home:

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. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. – Matthew 24:29-31
(See also Mark 13:24-27)

This is Jesus, our Lord and Savior telling us that the Rapture MUST HAPPEN AFTER THE TRIBULATION!

Please, did you get that?

In answer, I believe the gathering of his elect from the four winds has nothing to do with the Rapture. It does have to do with the regathering of Israel the final time, a complete regathering, in harmony with well known prophecies in the Old Testament, prophecies the Jewish audience hearing Jesus speak this message were familiar with and understood. A careful study of the cross references for this passage will demonstrate with finality that this is so. But this post is already too long to take up this topic now. Perhaps I will make it the subject of The Rapture Question Answered, Part 4.

Mr. John Little has much more to present on this subject. I have only presented what in my word file of his letter occupies the first two of twenty-eight pages. Now his letter is not that long, I suspect, but extra line spaces got entered when I saved a copy of his letter to my file. So there is more to come, and it should be interesting and most instructive.

For those who wish to access my studies in response to Mr. Little’s letter about the Rapture which I have titled on my website here “The Rapture Question Answered, Part 1,” and “The Rapture Question Answered, Part 2,” simply access them by clicking on the Category to the right on Bible Prophecy where they appear together despite other intervening posts on the main page.