by Dr. Lehman Strauss
TIME OF THE RAPTURE
W hile the B ible clearly tells us of the Rapture of the Church, Revelation 11 deals with another rap ture. This will occur during the Trib ulation, after the Church has been caught up to heaven to be with Christ. This specific “catching away” in the last book of the Bible consists of God’s two witnesses. They testify for three and a half years after which time they are killed and their bodies remain in the streets for three and a half days. Then they are miraculously restored to life by God. In verse 12 we discover, “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up higher. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and enemies beheld them.” It may well be that these two are none other than Enoch and Elijah. We are not dogmatic on the point, however, both were prophets of judgment. Since neither died, it could be that God permits them to die and then to be raised and raptured a second time. The fact remains, however, that we have here the divinely in spired prophecy of a future rapture. To spiritualize the passages in the Bible telling of the Rapture makes Scriptural language of no signifi cance and the verses must be dis missed as meaning nothing at all. The coming again of Christ will be as He went, personally, bodily, liter ally, and visibly. So He will come, and so we will go up to be with Him. Thinking of the Rapture of the Church, the entire Church is in view. It is not a partial rapture. All believers in this present Church Age will be resurrected and translated at Christ’s coming in the air. There are those who teach that the body of Christ will be divided into two or more groups. They say that those to be caught up first will be the zeal ous Christians who were working, waiting, and watching for the Lord
to return. The partial rapturists seize upon a number of Scriptures in support of this view. We will ex amine several so that you may be come acquainted with the general idea. Matthew 24:36-51 is one sec tion and should be read carefully in its entirety. It is essentially an ex hortation to preparedness and readi ness. The key word is “watch.” But this passage does not refer to the Church at all. It speaks of Israel during the Tribulation. The return of Christ here is His second coming to the earth at the end of the Tribu lation. When Christ comes to this earth the second time, those who re main will enter into the blessing of the Millennium. In II Timothy 4:8 we read , “Henceforth there is laid up a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his ap pearing.” The partial rapturists see this v e rse as showing that the “catching away” is the reward of
Biolagraduate Eddie Wagner, well-known evan gelist, was a recent guest on the radio broad cast. Rev. Wagner is available for specialmeet ings and now makes his home in Southern California. He may be contacted through the Alumni office.
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