What Happens at the Rapture? 1 Corinthians 15 Explained

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Again, we're going to turn right back to pretty much where we've left off in prophecy, only we're going to jump ahead of prophecy a little bit in this half hour. We've had so many requests to teach the Rapture, and we've got a lot of people that have been waiting a long time, and I didn't feel that we should jump the gun and come in with a teaching of the Rapture until some of the other things had been laid out correctly. But anyway we're going to look at it in this program, so if those of you in the studio audience and those of you joining us on television, I trust you'll have your Bible and turn to I Corinthians chapter 15. While you're doing that again we like to remind everyone that all these programs all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 are available on videotape. If you're interested give us a call or drop us a note and we'll let you know what's available. Also the first 24 lessons were transcribed, and they are now available in print form. So anyway if you're interested in a videotape or in book 1 or book 2, drop us a line or give us a call and we'll be glad to get them out to you. Now then for those of you here in the studio, let's get right back to I Corinthians chapter 15. We're going to talk about what we call the Rapture, and I'm well aware of the fact that the word per se is not in our King James or in most of our English, although the word is in the German translation. As I pointed out a few weeks ago, the word used most generally by the early translators before 1611 was the departure, or that departing from one place to another, and we have coined the word rapture. Now you see I'm prone to make mistakes once in a while, and I made another one in the last program. I said southeast of Jerusalem, but I put southwest, so that's one of the benefits of having a break time. While everyone is out having coffee, I changed that from southwest to southeast, because we're going down toward Petra, which of course is east and south of Jerusalem. Well anyway, I Corinthians chapter 15 deals with resurrection, where Paul is using various allusions to it, allegories or whatever you want to say, and how all through nature we have this whole concept of resurrection from one state to another. And as he has been explaining all this concerning resurrection, he comes down to verse 51, and the casual reader again doesn't catch this. But he says, "...behold I show you a mystery, and indeed it has been a secret." How many times have I said over the last 8 or 10 programs now, that there is not a hint, not even the foggiest hint anywhere up through the Old Testament all through the Gospels into the Book of Acts, is there a single hint of a group of people who are going to be alive and be suddenly taken off the scene, which of course we call the rapture. And the reason is, it's a Church Age phenomenon, and only one writer in Scripture writes concerning the Church, and that's the Apostle Paul. And so it stands to reason that from this man's writing we get the teaching concerning the Church, which is the rapture. It is a Church Age doctrine. No one else was ever told to look for this, but the Church Age has been warned and advised to look for it ever since Paul's own experience as we saw a few weeks ago in Thessalonians. He had taught the Thessalonian believers that this thing was going to take place probably in their lifetime. But it's an event that you can't put a date on, and that's why I bristle when anyone tries to say, that on September such and such a day in such and such a year the Lord is coming for the Church. We don't know that. You can never set a date, but we are to expect it at any moment. The Word we use is imminent. He may come this afternoon before we leave the studio, He may come before we get home this afternoon, He may come tomorrow, He may come next week, it may be sometime down the road. We don't know. We can't even speculate, because this is something that is waiting for the last sinner to be saved and brought into the Body. The Body of Christ is complete, God takes it out, and then shortly thereafter the Antichrist is going to sign this treaty with Israel. Now we've had so many requests from our listening audience especially to teach the Rapture. I've had to hold them off, and now we'll try it for at least one program, and maybe we'll even have to go into another one at our next taping. But now Paul says, "...behold I show you, or I reveal to you, a secret. We shall not all sleep, or die a physical death, but we shall all, not just the most spiritual, not just the most devoted, but every believer is going to be changed. Why? In a twinkling of an eye." Now I think the Greek here implies down to the smallest part of time. In other words it won't be in a blink of an eye, it's going to be about in a thousandth of a blink of an eye. Just instantly we're going to be gone. And I think one of the ladies asked me last night, what are people going to think when they see our dead bodies and we're gone? Well no, they're not going to see our dead body, they're not going to see any trace of us, except that we've left behind our clothes and our material goods. But this body is going to suddenly change. Now maybe some theologian would rebel at my analogy, but I like to think of the metamorphosis of the butterfly. But like with every earthly illustration of a spiritual truth, you can't take it from start to finish. I mean nothing will, nor will this one. But in essence what does that beautiful butterfly look like before it's changed? Well it's an ugly old cocoon in which there's an ugly worm. And yet after it's gone through that metamorphosis, what comes out of that ugliness? That beautiful butterfly. Now let's put ourselves in that same situation. Here we are in this old ugly frame of dust, and I've had so many people say, "...Les, am I going to have a better looking body than what I've got now?" Well yeah, we're going to get a new body, it's going to be a glorious one. And here we are in this old frame of dust, it's prone to sin and corruption and all of its faults, but all of a sudden, in a split second, not over a matter of hours like a butterfly, but in a split, split second, those of us who know the Lord and are alive are suddenly going to be changed. On the way, before we hit the ceiling, we're going to have that new body. We're not going to leave this one behind, it's going to be changed. Now read on. Ephesians 2.1 In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump... Now you know the trumpet has always been used in Scripture to announce, even in Israel. They blew the trumpet for various reasons of gathering the people of Israel together. Now I know that the Church is not Israel, but nevertheless God is Sovereign, and He can use whatever He wants to use, and He's going to blow a trumpet, and we're going to hear it. Ephesians 2.1 "...and the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." Now watch the language here. The first to respond to that trumpet call will be the dead. Now turn back a page with me, or at least in my Bible to chapter 15, verse 23. All of the human race is not going to be resurrected at the same moment. There's going to be divisions. Here in chapter 15, verse 23, Paul says, "...but every man in his own order..." And the word order again in the Greek is a military term, a term of organization. So you might say, every man in his own company, or battalion, or division. It's a term of organization. So there are going to be several resurrections of the believers, not all at the same time, but rather close in proximity of course. But since Paul is writing to the Church, the only resurrection that he is dealing with here in verse 52-53 is the resurrection of the Body of Christ. This will not include the Old Testament believers, and naturally it can't include the tribulation because that hasn't even happened yet. So what we have here is the outcalling, or the resurrection of the Church Age Believer only. Now if we've got time, and I'll bet we won't have, but if we have time I'll show you how these resurrections are ordered throughout Scripture. So for now let's just deal with the Church Age Believer. Those of us who have come in by believing the Gospel, not by anything we've worked for, but by believing the Gospel. Then it says, "...the dead will be raised first, they'll be resurrected, they'll naturally have their new body, and then we who are alive and living shall be changed." Why? For the corruptible, this body that is prone to death has to put on incorruption, because we're going to live for eternity now. So we have to have a body fit for eternity, and that's what we'll get in that split instance from here to there. Then this mortal which is prone to die must put on immortality so that we can never die. So then when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, then we can rejoice that death is finally swallowed up in victory. We'll never again have to face the prospect of death. Now I'd like to go to I Thessalonians where Paul lays it out even more clearly than he I Thessalonians 4. He drops down to verse 13, and again he uses almost the same language that he used back there in I Corinthians 15, where he says, "...I would not have you to be ignorant." Now when I read something like that, what I do is stop and think for a minute. Why would Paul think that I or anyone else may be ignorant of these things? Well because we've never heard it before. Paul is the first one to reveal it, and so he says, I'm going to bring you out of your ignorance, and I'm going to reveal something to you. And he says, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, or who have died physical death. And every one of us have already experienced the loss of loved ones, parents, next of kin, friends. Now he says, "...concerning those who have died, that you as a believer now, sorrow not, even as others who have no hope." Now what is Paul recognizing? That when a pagan or a lost person who has no concept of what's out there, when they lose a loved one, what do they do? They fall apart. They scream. Have you ever heard the pagans at a funeral? Oh they weep and they wail. We've had missionaries years back especially when the dark areas of Africa were still basically uncivilized, and some of the uncivilized areas of even now, the South Pacific, Indonesia, and so forth. There are still uncivilized people back in there. Areas of the Amazon Valley are uncivilized. When they lose a loved one, they weep and they wail, and they carry on for days. Why? They know they'll never see that person again. They're gone. Now Paul says the believer doesn't have to do that. Now we can lose a loved one and suffer loss, and we can mourn. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think it's ridiculous when Christians try to put on a bold front, and just simply say, I'm a believer, I'm going to see my wife again, and I don't have to cry at her death. That's not right. We're going to mourn the loss of our loved ones, and that's absolutely correct. But we don't have to just fall apart and weep and wail days on end. Why? Because we know we're going to see them again. This is what Paul is referring to. That you sorrow not, even as those who have no hope, that they'll never see their loved one again. We will, assuming of course that our loved ones are also believers. Now then, here in verse 14 Paul makes it as simple as any place in Scripture how to be involved in this departure if we're alive, or to be resurrected from the dead if we do go through death. How can we know that we will not be left behind to go into these awful, terrible days of tribulation? How can we know that we'll be in that group that will depart? Well here it is in simple language, for if we repent and are baptized and have joined the Church. See it doesn't say that. Paul doesn't make that a requirement. But what is the requirement? If we believe, but not just anything. Remember a long time ago when I put it on the board that there's a big difference between believing in God and there's believing God. Now when you believe God, that's being a man or woman of faith. You're doing what God has said, you're resting on it. Now here is the perfect example. What has God said concerning the Gospel? That it is the power of God unto salvation. And here Paul puts it right in plain language, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again. Now turn back with me to I Corinthians 15 again, where you'll find in the clearest and the simplest language in your New Testament, the plan of salvation. That which will take a person to glory, whether it's by way of death in the resurrection, or by way of the rapture. And it's the only way, and I don't care whether we're Methodists or Catholics or Baptists or whatever. There's only one way to be assured of glory, and here it is. This isn't my idea, this isn't my interpretation, this is what the Book says in plain English. I Corinthians 15, verse 1, "...and I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, and which also I have received, and wherein you stand positionally." What does Ephesians tell us? Above all, stand. Well what are we to stand in? This Gospel. And again it's not a Methodist Gospel, it's not a Baptist Gospel, it's not a Catholic Gospel, it's not any other name that you can put on it, it's the Gospel. Ephesians 15, verse 2, "...by which also you are saved." Now a lot of people don't like that word, but it's a simple word that we use in the secular world, and it denotes a salvation. How many times haven't you heard of an individual being saved from financial ruin? Don't we use the term? Sure we do, and we use that very same term of salvation in the same way. That guy's death of his rich uncle was his salvation. Why? It saved him from financial ruin. Now it's the same way in the spiritual. Paul says this Gospel is what makes salvation possible, it's by this Gospel that we're saved, but we have to understand, and he says, keep in memory, know what you've believed. What he says, I've preached unto you, lest you believe in vain. Oh too many people don't know what they believe. They've got some concocted idea, and they can't put it into words, and they hope they'll make it. Listen, it's so plain. We are to believe the Gospel. Now here it is, verse 3. I delivered unto you first of all that which I received from the ascended, glorified Lord, after his death, after his burial, after his resurrection, after his ascension. Now God reveals to this apostle of the Gentiles, that's what he calls himself over and over, how that salvation is not in the Law, it's not in works, it's not in repentance and baptism, it's in what? Believing the Gospel. It's too simple for most people, and yet I've said over the years, this Gospel, this power of it is so complex I can't understand it, and I don't think any other human being can, but we take it by faith. Now read on, verse 4. I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins. And He didn't stay dead, but He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now that's the Gospel. Now let's come back to I Thessalonians chapter 4, where now then we've identified the vehicle for being in on this great event. It's by believing that Christ died, was buried, and rose again. Now that's just not a head ascent, that's just not a, well yeah I believe that He died, I believe that He rose again. No, that's not what Paul is talking about. Paul is talking about every individual coming to the place where they genuinely, totally, and completely can rest on the fact that when Christ died, I died. When He was buried, I was buried. When He rose from the dead, I was rose from deadness in sin, and the old Adamic estate, and He has imparted eternal life. Now that's the Gospel, and I mentioned it in one of my classes the other night. It's pictured so beautifully in Israel coming out of Egypt. What was Israel's lot? Slavery and bondage. But as a result of the blood of the Passover lamb, they escaped the death angel, but they didn't stay in Egypt. Where did they go? Through that Red Sea experience was a picture again of the burial and the death of Christ, and they come out on the other side, what kind of a people? They were redeemed. They didn't work for it, it was all the power of God, but it had to have the shed blood indicative of Christ's death. They had to go through a burial experience, the Red Sea, and they came through on the other side a redeemed people, a resurrection experience, and we go through that same process. Now let's move on quickly. Paul says in verse 15, "...for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not precede or go ahead of them who have died. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first in resurrection power. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, not on Mount Olives, but in the air." Now let's put this back on the board in just a plain diagram. Before the tribulation of Satan, I've got it up here, but let's put it down here where we can see a little more of our timeline. All the way since the building of the Body of Christ, saints have been dying and buried. They're in the grave wherever around the planet. But when the trumpet sounds, and Christ leaves heaven, and it says He's going to bring the souls of these who have died, and remember they've gone up to paradise now since Christ ascended, and they are in attendance in Christ's presence. We don't know their state or anything like that, but we know that they're waiting for the great resurrection day, and the souls of the departed Christ will bring with Him, and they will meet their resurrected body here with Christ in the air. Maybe I better back this up just a little bit so that we keep the analogy that as Christ returns into the air, all the dead in Christ will be resurrected, and they will be reunited with the soul that has been with Christ in glory, and then in that last split second, we who are alive and remain will be changed, and we will join that whole company, and we'll go back up into glory with Christ to be with Him when He returns. Now the way I've usually put it is that here Christ comes for the saints, and here He comes back with the saints. Now we've got one minute left, turn back quickly if you will, because you've noticed here that He comes to the air. Now go back to the Old Testament again, to Zechariah chapter 14. Now here is the language of the Second Coming. Paul says we meet the Lord in the air. The Old Testament prophecy says, and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and so on and so forth. You see the difference? For the Church He only comes to the air. At the Second Coming He comes to the Mount of Olives.