Why Is the Rapture Only Found in Paul's Letters?

Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, good to see everybody in, and I guess this is our fourth half hour today, so I know we're not going to finish everything I wanted to finish, but we'll pick it up again next month. But anyway, for those of you joining us in television, we're just an informal Bible study. I suppose we have people from umpteen different denominations even here in the studio, and you know I made a comment when I was down in Florida in our last newsletter, it mentions that we're being in a Methodist church one time, a Baptist church in another, and a Lutheran church in another, and then we get in other various times, and I made the comment that I am not ecumenical. Now an ecumenicalist will compromise whatever he has to compromise in order to get along with the whole, and I will not do that. I am uncompromising, but any time that they give me an open door and the freedom to teach, I'll go anywhere. And you know the Lord always confirms everything. After we got back from Florida, someone had sent me a book written by the old Bible teacher William R. Newell, and in one of the appendixes he had some quotes from great Bible teachers of the past, and it just thrilled my heart. One of them was Dwight L. Moody, and Dwight L. Moody said, "...there is not a drop of secularism in my veins, and if I thought there were, I'd drain it all out before night." Well that helped, and then the next one was by old John N. Darby, the great Bible teacher of England back in the 1800's, and John N. Darby said, "...I will go wherever they let me preach the Word without any opposition." And then the third one that he quoted was Dr. A. C. Gaveline, many of you know his books, and Gaveline said almost word for word what I told the folks in Florida. He said, "...any place there is an open door that I can proclaim the Word without any argument, I'll go." Well now that's just the way I am. I will go anywhere where they'll let me teach the Word without compromise, and without watering it down, because the world out there is hungry. We know they are, and there's a hunger that hopefully we're doing our little part in satisfying. So much for that, we want to get right back into the book, I Thessalonians chapter 4, and we're going to start in verse 13, one of my favorite subjects, the rapture of the church. Now that's going to make a lot of people flinch, I know it does, but bless their hearts I have learned of all the letters and books that I read that oppose the rapture, the number one reason they cannot see the rapture as I see it, is they do not recognize Paul's apostleship. They will mix everything else, and they may use a few things out of Paul, but for the most part they reject Paul's letters as authoritative and as his apostleship, and consequently they cannot agree to the rapture. Well that's understandable, but if you don't realize that the Body of Christ is a Pauline revelation, and that the beginning of it came with Paul, then the end of it has to come with Paul. So Paul alone teaches this momentous thing that we look for at any time, and that is the silent out-calling of the Body of Christ. Now I always remember that I now use, starting the last year or two, two time lines, whereas I used to use one, and I put them on the board ahead of time to save a little time, and what I've learned now to use is that on this bottom line I'm using what I refer to as the Old Testament program. This is the Old Testament program, and all of prophecy, all of prophecy, all through the Old Testament, through Christ's earthly ministry, Peter in the early Acts when he quotes from Joel chapter 3, all the Old Testament prophecies have this for a time line, and that is that beginning with Abraham there is that constant promise of a coming Redeemer, Messiah, a tribulation, Christ coming back and yet setting up His Kingdom. This is prophecy, and it's laid out so clearly in all the Old Testament prophets. I always like to use Psalms chapter 2, which is the perfect outline of this program, where they rejected the Christ, now it doesn't speak of crucifixion, but it speaks of their rejecting Him. And then would come the wrath and vexation of God, the tribulation, and then the next verse says, "...yet have I set my King on the holy hill of Zion." In between you've got Psalms 110 verse 1, which fills in the part that's lacking, and that is where the Lord said unto my Lord, "...come sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." Well what was that? That was a depiction of His Ascension, and that one day He would return. Well that was all prophecy, all the way through the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the early Acts, and then of course the book of Revelation fills in the details. This time line is prophecy. Christ rejection, the seven years of tribulation, the second coming, and then the Kingdom. Now of course wherever I teach, the first thing I ask people is, what does the Old Testament program lack? What's missing? Well the church age. They had no concept that there would be 1900 and some years where God would go to the Gentile world without Israel. And so my top line now then, I open up the time line by doing this. We put in this great parenthesis, the age of grace, and it's the age of calling out the Body of Christ, which is the church. And then, since all of this still has to happen, you cannot throw it out. It's in Scripture that there is a seven year period of tribulation coming. There is the return of Christ to yet be the King, and to set up His Kingdom. So you can't throw it away, but God opened up the time line. And so in order for that to be fulfilled, yes He has to take the believing church out of the way. He has to resurrect the church age believers so that we can all be reunited to go on up into glory, and face the Lord at the bema seat for reward. So that has to include those who have died in Christ, and then since we've opened this time line, we can't throw it away. We have merely pushed it out into the future. So the next event on God's time table after the church is gone, is the seven years of tribulation, and then the second coming, and then the King and His Kingdom. And so this just clarifies all the controversy so far as I am concerned, because this parenthetical period of time was something that only Paul had a revelation of, and that's why he calls it then the revelation of the mysteries. These things that were kept secret in the mind of God, and I always like to use Deuteronomy 29. You've heard it on this program over and over. The secret things that belong unto the Lord are gone, but those things that are revealed belong unto us. Well it's still true for us today that God has seen fit to keep this church age phenomenon, and that's what it really is. It is just something out of this world. He has kept it secret, and even the Lord Jesus Himself in His earthly ministry was so careful, He was meticulous in not giving a hint of a day coming when God would reach into the Gentile world with Israel out of the land, no temple, no priesthood, no place of blessing, and scattered amongst the Gentile world. Then out of that scenario He would call out one by one, not hundreds by hundreds, but one by one He is calling out the Body of Christ by grace, through faith, plus nothing. Here is one of the portions, there are three in Paul's letters that deal with the rapture. This is one, and if we have time in this half hour we'll go look at the other one. We won't have time for the third one, we'll pick that up in our next program. But now in I Thessalonians chapter 4, and watch for the difference. Here in the Second Coming, all of the prophetic statements concerning Christ's Second Coming it is attendant with humongous cataclysmic events falling on the earth. War, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, outer space phenomena, stars falling out of their orbit, and the great hundred pound hail, and the great battle of Armageddon. That is all part of the Second Coming. It is never mentioned in Paul's letters as part of the rapture, and that's why the Lord could come this afternoon before we leave, He could come tomorrow night, next year, we don't know when. But it is not accompanied with great prophetic disasters, it's just that silent disappearance. We're going to be gone, and like I said in the earlier program, when we're gone nobody but our immediate families and next door neighbors will miss us. The world will go right on. I think it's quite a phenomenon, like one old boy told me one time, not from my denomination, from another one, and he said, you know Les, they're going to have church next Sunday morning as usual. That's quite a statement isn't it? I didn't say it, he did, and he wasn't even from my denomination, but I imagine it'd be true of any denomination, that after we're gone they'll have church next Sunday as usual. But whatever, here we have it, verse 13. He said, "...I would not have you to be ignorant." And oh, isn't that the case today? Most people are so ignorant of this. You know every place we go, people tell us they don't hear this from the pulpits anymore. Pastors have almost become afraid to let people know that the end is near. They don't want to upset the status quo I guess. But Paul writes, "...we're not to be ignorant concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope." Now you know what he's saying here, that for the unbelieving family who have no knowledge of salvation, if they lose the mother and she was lost, and they will probably never be saved, they'll never see each other again. The unsaved person will never see their loved ones again. Hell is not going to be a country club, or a place of reunion. It's going to be total isolation, and so they're not going to see their loved ones again. But we as believers, we will, the minute we get to the clouds of the air, we're already going to be aware of those who have departed earlier. So we don't have to sorrow as those who have no hope. Now verse 14, here are the qualifications for being in the rapture. This is simple, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then what is that? The Gospel. I Corinthians 15, verses 1-4. So if we believe the Gospel then, even so those who have died in Jesus, now it's implied that they too were believers, then will God bring with Him. Now here we have God and Jesus used in the same verse, and they're one and the same. So the departed soul and spirit of the believer is in the presence of the Lord in glory. They're not walking in bodies I do not believe, they are in a place of bliss, they're in a paradise, much like Abraham and Lazarus in Luke 15. They're in a place of bliss and comfort in the Lord's presence, but they're not walking the streets of gold bodily. What are they waiting for? Resurrection day, because they too are going to be given a new resurrected body. So the soul and spirit of all the believers now who have died during this age of grace, I think that this resurrection is only for the New Testament believers. The Old Testament believers will be resurrected I think over here. But every believer that has died during this last 1900 years, their soul and spirit is up in glory, waiting for this great resurrection day. Now read on. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, we shall not precede or go ahead of those who are asleep, or who have died. In other words, the Lord is going to use a split second of time to bring these dead corpses, whatever you want to call them, the bones, the ashes, the dust, whatever may be left. He's going to give Himself a split second of time to bring them out of the grave first, so that they can be reunited with that soul and spirit that Christ is bringing back from up here in glory, and here in the air. And this is the term that Paul uses, that He will only come as far as the air, and these bodies of the saints who have died, will be reunited with their soul and spirit that's been waiting in glory. Then in the next instant, in the blink of an eye is the term that Paul uses, then we who are alive, and remain, shall be caught up. I know it doesn't say raptured, but that's a term that most Bible scholars have applied to the two words caught up. Now I read something the other day that I'd never known before, and that is that in the Latin Vulgate, the Latin word is rapturi, which from where we get the word rapture, we get rapture. So those of us who are alive and remain when the Lord should come, will be caught up together with them. Those who have died and have now received their new resurrected body, reunited with body and soul and spirit in the air, then we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Not on the Mount of Olives where He's going to come at the Second Coming, but we meet Him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now the other companion portion of Scripture is I Corinthians chapter 15, and you use them in parallel. Here's where study comes in, you parallel these things, and just compare what one portion neglects to cover, and what the other one does. I Corinthians chapter 15, and we start at verse 51. And of course this is the great resurrection chapter, wherein Paul says, "...if Christ be not raised from the dead, then we of all men are most miserable." Because the whole basis of the Christian faith is resurrection. As I put it on the program a while back, I don't know of another religion on the planet that teaches this concept. Now the Oriental religions speak of reincarnation, but they never speak of resurrection. Only Christianity. This is a unique phenomenon for us as believers in Christ. So Paul was the first proof of a real resurrection. Verse 51, look what he says, "...behold, I show you a mystery, a secret." And who has been keeping it secret? God has! He hasn't seen fit to reveal this before, because the Old Testament didn't have to know it. They weren't going to be apprised of it, or aware of it, because they wouldn't be in it. And so Peter, James and John and the rest of them were not aware of it, because they were still tied intrinsically to Israel. But now since God is turning to a whole new group of people, the Gentiles, now He sees fit to open up His timeline, and reveal this which has been kept secret for 2,000 years. So this is why Paul is constantly using the word, the mysteries. This part of the mystery is that we shall not all sleep or die physically. Now nowhere else in Scripture, except the account of Enoch and Elijah, is there anyone transformed from this life to glory without death. But there is one group of people who will experience it, and that's our blessed hope, as Paul calls it in Titus chapter 2. The blessed hope, the appearing, not the Second Coming, but the appearing of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who will only come to the air. At the Second Coming He comes to the earth, He comes to the Mount of Olives, and those are the two stark differences. And to me it's as plain as day, for others maybe not. So Paul says, I show you a mystery, I'm revealing a secret. We shall not all die physically, but we can't go to glory in this old body, so what has to happen? We have to be changed, and always remember when God said He could put a camel through the eye of a needle, and they looked at Him in total unbelief, what was His next statement? With God, nothing is impossible. Now I know that when we look at this whole concept of the Rapture, and that in less than maybe a couple seconds of time, every believer who has died is going to be resurrected, given a new body, joining the Lord in the air. Every believer from whatever corner of the earth he may be dwelling is suddenly going to be changed. I know, I am logical enough to know that in the eyes of a secular world that is impossible. But God says it's not impossible, consequently I believe it. It's going to happen, and the world will never know what happened. So now read on. We can't go to glory in this body if we're alive when that happens, so He's going to have to change this body in a moment. Now if I understand the Greek correctly, this moment is the smallest divisible period of time. It is less than the blink of an eye. So Paul uses that term, in the twinkling of an eye, instantly at the last trump. Now here again I have to confront those who say, Oh this is the trumpet in Revelation. No those are seven trumpets, and they're angels trumpets. This is one trumpet, and it's God's trumpet. That's the difference. And so God's trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, in other words with a new resurrected body, to be reunited with the soul and spirit. And then Paul says again, and we who are alive and remain will be changed, between here and the ceiling, no doubt. Because we're not going to stop at the ceiling. And there again the world can scoff and scorn in unbelief, let them. I don't expect them to believe it, they can't believe it. But we're not like the world. We can believe it. I know with God nothing is impossible, and He can change several million people from this body of flesh to a resurrected body in the blink of an eye. Then verse 53. Ephesians 4. Here is the reason for this corruptible body of flesh that's prone to death must be put on in corruption. It has to be made fit for heaven and eternity, and this mortal which is prone to die must put on immortality, so that we will never die. I've got a few minutes left, I guess I will take time for the third portion, and now you'll flip all the way back to II Thessalonians chapter 2. Now I hope you realize these are all from Paul's epistles. I can't take you back to Isaiah and teach the Rapture. I can't take you into the four Gospels and teach the Rapture. I can't take you into the Book of Revelation and teach the Rapture, it's not in there. It's only in Paul, because only Paul has been designated the apostle of the church age over and over, and he defends it over and over. And so like I've said in my newsletter and in other areas, that the man who instituted the Body of Christ, as he calls himself in I Corinthians chapter 3, I am the Master Builder, I have laid the foundation. And so if he's the one who laid the foundation, he's also the one who is going to reveal the removal of it, he has to. And so now in II Thessalonians chapter 2, and we might as well start with verse 1. Now we beseech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him. Now at the Second Coming, He's not going to draw people up to Him, He's going to come to the planet. He's going to stand on the Mount of Olives. The angel told the twelve or the eleven as He ascended, this same Jesus in like manner shall come again, and He's going to come to the Mount of Olives. But Paul doesn't teach the Mount of Olives, Paul doesn't teach Armageddon or cataclysmic events. So he says, "...that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled, either by spirit, nor by word, nor by a letter as from us, or a forgery. For the day of the Lord is at hand." Now some of you say, Oh my Bible says the Day of Christ, but everyone has now agreed that that was a misprint, that should have been the Day of the Lord, which is the beginning of the Tribulation, the Day of Judgment. Now in verse 3, he clarifies it. Let no man deceive you by any means, that day, the Day of the Lord, the Tribulation, can not come, except there come a departure first." And the word apostasia has been translated departure six or seven times in the New Testament, so it is really a more valid translation than a falling away, although that is apropos as well. He says you do not want to be deceived, that day the day of the Lord shall not come, except there come a departure first. What's the departure? The Body of Christ. And the tribulation cannot start until we're out of the way, because again I've stressed it over and over, this prophetic program was written primarily to the nation of Israel. All of the prophecies concerning Christ's coming was to the nation of Israel. The seven years of the horrors of the tribulation are directed first and foremost to the nation of Israel. The Second Coming is to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. He's going to set up His throne on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. When you get up to Paul he speaks of none of that. He speaks of our position not in Jerusalem, but in the what? In the heavenlies. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Tinta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.