In our last editorial we introduced the subject of apocalyptic writings. We learned that the word "apocalyptic" means "revelation" or "unveiling" and is derived from the New Testament book of that name. We also learned that among the characteristic features of apoc­alyptic writings are that its authors tend to be mystics who rely on visions and dreams for their prognostica­tions of the future and that they are preoccupied with end-time scenarios. They are generally pessimistic, expecting nothing from any human efforts to improve the world, looking instead for a cataclysmic divine intervention to usher in the kingdom of God. Apocalyptic writings flourished between 200 B.C. and A.D. 100, which was a period of great distress for the Jews. History shows that this type of writing re-appears whenever times of upheaval occur and the end of the world is thought to be near. Since many people today are convinced that we have entered the last phase of world history, it should not surprise us that apocalyptic writing and preaching is very popular again. One hears a lot of talk today about the "any time coming of Christ" and the so-called "rapture" of the saints.

We agree, of course, that the return of Christ is a Biblical truth. Every Lord's Day we confess in the words of the Apostles Creed that our Lord will come back from heaven to judge the living and the dead. After this final judgement, He will take His people with Him to glory while the wicked will be assigned to hell. The clear implication of this article of faith is that we should look for one Second Coming of Christ at the end of this present age.

There are, however, many Christians, especially in North America, who believe that our Lord will come back twice, the first time for His people and the second time with His saints. According to this two-stage theory of Christ's Return, the first coming is called the rapture, and the second one is referred to as the revelation. The rapture may take place at any moment and will be a secret event as far as the world is concerned. Only true believers in Christ will be removed from the world in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Those who will be left behind — the unsaved — will go through a seven-year period during which time they will get a second chance to repent.

During the first half of this period, it is held, many will be converted by the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. At the beginning of this seven-year period Antichrist will make a covenant with the Jews in which he will allow them to offer sacrifices in a rebuilt temple at Jerusalem. After three and a half years he will break his covenant and place an idol (the abomination of desolation) in the holy of holies of the temple. The Jews will refuse to bow and a great persecution will result: "the time of Jacob's trouble."

Finally, at the close of this tribulation period, Christ will return in power and glory. Antichrist will be defeated and the Millennium set up. There will be two resurrections, one of the saved, at the beginning of the Millennium, and a second, of the wicked, at the end of the thousand years. During this time Christ will reign physically and visibly on earth.

The following quotations from dispensational writers are representative of this widely held view: "Quickly and invisibly, unperceivable by the world, the Lord will come as a thief in the night and catch away His waiting saints." "His appearance in the clouds will be veiled to the human eye and no one will see Him. He will slip in to get His jewels and slip out as under cover of darkness." "It will be a secret rapture-quiet, noiseless, sudden as the step of a thief in the night. The world will know only that multitudes at once have gone."

These and similar statements are made over and over again by many radio and TV preachers who never seem to get tired of expounding this strange doctrine of the rapture. Yet this popular teaching is a relatively new doctrine. It was not taught by the early church, nor by the Reformers or Puritans; in fact, by no one until around the 1830's.

It all started with a man named Edward Irving. Born in Scotland in 1792, Irving became one of the most eloquent preachers of his time, regularly preaching to a congregation in London of over 1,000 people. In 1832 Irving was barred from his pulpit because he held views about the nature of Christ which were deemed heretical by his denomination, the Church of Scotland. It was in his church in March 1830 that a Miss Margaret McDonald had a vision in which she prophesied about the Second Coming of Christ. She first spoke of a visible, open and glorious appearance of the Saviour. But as the vision continued she began to speak of another coming of Christ, namely a special, secret coming in which the Lord came to take up or rapture those of His saints who were truly ready and were looking for His return. Those who were left would go through the tribulation period. Irving accepted Miss McDonald's vision as genuine and he began to preach the secret rapture as Biblical truth. A few years later, the Plymouth Brethren adopted the rapture idea and the man who really popularized the new teaching was John Nelson Darby, one of the ablest leaders of the Brethren movement.

Darby is often referred to as the father of modern dispensationalism. It was he who introduced the secret rapture teaching into the U.S.A. and Canada in the 1860's and 70's. Due to his influence, the rapture doctrine spread rapidly, making inroads among Presbyterians, Baptists and many other denominations in North America. The most famous name in this connection is Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, author of the very popular Scofield Bible with notes in which the teachings of Dispensationalism, including the Rapture, are clearly set forth.

The most amazing thing about this secret rapture notion is that despite its questionable origin in the 1830's, otherwise intelligent preachers are still promoting it as though it has always been part of God's revelation in Scripture.

The main passage cited in support of the rapture doctrine is 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. There Paul writes to the Thessalonian Christians: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

To anyone who reads this with unprejudiced eyes, this verse points to anything but a quiet, secret event. Whether we take the "shout," the "voice," and the "trump" in a literal sense or as having a figurative meaning, either way this passage does not convey the idea of a secret and quiet event which only true believers will notice. In fact, it has appropriately been called "the noisiest verse in the Bible." (Hendriksen).

We are told here that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. In addition, there will be shouts of praise and rejoicing from a multitude of saints as they are caught up to meet the Lord! Where is any secrecy here? Surely, this is not to be understood as a hidden and quiet event? Yet, in spite of every indication to the contrary, this verse is constantly being quoted as the proof text for a secret, hidden and quiet coming of our Lord.

But what about the claim that at this rapture Christ will come for His Church, only to return seven years later with His Church? This too is sup­posedly taught by this passage. For one thing, the expression "coming for the saints" is never used in the Bible. This should caution us already. It is an expression coined by those who hold to the secret rapture doctrine and which is then read into the text. When such people read about believers being "caught up," they will immediately conclude that they will be caught up to heaven. But this is not what the passage says. It simply states that believers will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. This verse simply explains where believers will meet the Lord. The place of meeting will be just above the earth, in the clouds, in the air or atmosphere.

There is nothing here to suggest that Christ will then turn around and take the church to heaven, at least not right at that moment. Notice what it says: the believers will rise to meet the Lord. The Greek word for "meet" here is a word that was used in connection with the coming of a king to visit a city. As he approached, the citizens would go out to meet him and then escort him on the last part of his journey into the city. Paul probably had this custom in mind when he wrote these words. As the Lord descends from heaven, believers will rise to meet Him in the air, in order to come with him as He continues His descent to earth.

When the apostle speaks of believers here, he is referring to two categories of Christians. There are first of all the believers in Christ who will still be alive when the Lord comes. But there are also the dead in Christ or those who have fallen asleep in Jesus before His return. The Thessalonians were concerned about the latter. What will happen to them when Christ comes, they had asked Paul? This shows how ignorant they were. But it also showed their love. They were new Christians and did not fully understand the implications of the doctrine of Christ's Second Coming. They thought that when Christ would come back, their departed loved ones would be deprived of the joy of going forth to meet the Lord. Paul therefore assures them that those who would still be alive at the time of Christ's appearance would have no advantage over those who had preceded them in death. The living saints will simply have to wait until their departed brothers and sisters have been raised from their graves. Together the two groups — sur­vivors and resurrected saints — will go forth to meet the Lord.

At Christ's coming the bodies of the dead in Christ will be raised and joined to their souls which the Lord will bring with Him from heaven. The rest will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, as Paul puts it. So all who in this life, that is in the dispensation of grace, have come to faith in Christ will be with Him and spend eternity in His presence.

Those who believe in the rapture, however, have quite a different interpretation of the phrase "and the dead in Christ shall rise first." They put all the emphasis on the words "in Christ." They read it this way: "And the dead in Christ shall rise first; then the dead not in Christ shall rise."

By reading it this way they find support for their notion that there will be two bodily resurrections, separated by a thousand years; first the resurrection of believers, and then, after the millennium, the resurrection of unbelievers.

But nowhere in this entire passage does Paul say: "the dead not in Christ shall rise." In fact, he is not even thinking of the resurrection of the wicked here. His purpose is not to draw a contrast between "those in Christ" and "those not in Christ." He is only thinking of believers those who are in Christ. The apostle is simply drawing a contrast between "the dead" in Christ and the "still living" in Christ. This passage is not about believers and unbelievers, but about two categories of believers.

But what about sinners who die unsaved and those who will still be alive at Christ's coming? They shall be judged together with the saints, but they will be assigned a place at Christ's left hand, whereas believers will be placed at His right hand.

That the unregenerate will not get a second chance is clear from 2 Thessalonians 2:8, where Paul says that when Christ comes again "He will take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired by all who believe in that day."

The idea that there will still be an opportunity for repentance is absolutely ruled out. Swift destruction will be the lot of the wicked. Matthew 25 tells us that Christ, at His return, will separate the sheep from the goats. He will open the gates of eternal joy for His saints and send all others into outer darkness. In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins those who are ready will go in with the Bridegroom to celebrate the marriage feast, and then immediately the door is shut.

The apostle Paul is thinking of this marriage feast when he says that the entire body of the redeemed will meet the Lord in the air to be forever with Him. Although we reject the notion of a secret rapture, we do not deny that there will be a rapture in the sense of believers being taken up to be with Christ. We affirm this wonderful truth and derive much comfort from it, as Paul also encourages us to do. Therefore, he says, comfort one another with these words.

It is important, however, that we know exactly what this comfort consists of. Again, those who believe in the secret rapture think that Christ will take up His saints to heaven for seven years and then return to fetch those who have been converted during that period, mainly through the preaching of the gospel by the Jews. We reject that interpretation.

When Christ comes to take His people home, it is so they may be with Him forever. This, it would seem, is the main thrust of this passage. The entire body of Christ, or the elect, will go forth to meet the Lord in the air in order to accompany Him to the marriage supper of the Lamb. This feast will be celebrated, not in heaven as it exists now, but in the new heaven and the new earth of which Peter speaks in his second epistle, chapter 2:13.

What a day that will be for God's people! O the joy to see Him face to face who now is visible only to the eye of faith!

Their joy shall then unbounded be
Who see God's face eternally,
Their heart's desire receiving.Psalter 420:2

Like the wise virgins, believers in Christ will go in with the Bridegroom into the marriage feast. That feast will last, not one or two weeks, nor seven years, nor even a thousand years, but throughout all eternity!

When the bride ascends to meet the Lord, she will rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But not only the saints, God Himself also will be glad. As we read in Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

In beautiful symbolism John, the seer on Patmos, describes the scene this way, "And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah; for the Lord our God, the Omnipotent, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." (Rev. 19:7).

We have seen that the doctrine of a secret rapture is false and misleading. Not only does it hold out the empty promise of escaping the great tribulation which appeals to the flesh, but even more dangerous is the fact that it takes away the urgency to seek the Lord now, while he may be found and to call upon him while he is still near.

While we reject these false and misleading teachings, let us ask ourselves, are we ready for Christ's coming? Do we have oil in our vessels like the wise virgins? It is not enough to carry the lamp of profession, no matter how sound that profession may be. The question is, will we lift up our heads with joy when the Lord comes? What if He should come this week? Would we be eager to meet Him and say: This is our God; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation?

Whatever was wrong with the Thessalonians, Paul could testify of them that they were waiting for the Son of God from heaven. Actually, this longing for Christ's return was characteristic of the entire New Testament Church. Is it characteristic of us today? Only if it is, to a degree at least, are we allowed to appropriate what Paul writes in closing to the Thessalonians: "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."