The Rapture
According to Daniel
We have seen that Daniel 7:13 describes the second coming, "I was watching in the night visions, “And with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him." And verse 14 continues, "To him was given ruling authority, honour, and sovereignty. All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving him. His authority is eternal and will not pass away. His kingdom will not be destroyed." After seeing this divine Son of Man coming upon the clouds, Daniel sees him being served or worshipped by a multitude of peoples, nations and language groups. But who are these people and how did they get there?
According to John in Revelation
Similarly, at the sixth seal in the Revelation 6:14-17, John describes the moment when the sky is split apart like a scroll being rolled up, and everyone on earth sees God seated on his throne in the clouds together with Jesus, just like what Daniel saw. And he says, "Then the kings of the earth, the very important people, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?"
After John's vision of the second coming, he first of all sees the sealing of the 144,000 who are descendants from the twelve tribes of Israel. And then, still as part of the sixth seal, he sees the same multitude that Daniel saw. Revelation 7:9-10 says, "After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. They were shouting out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”"
This time, according to Revelation 7:13, John is specifically asked, "These dressed in long white robes – who are they and where have they come from?” Revelation 7:14-17 answers these questions, "So I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat, because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
The Great Tribulation
So this is a multitude that has come out of the great tribulation. This is the time of great suffering that Jesus describes in Matthew 24:21, "For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen." The great tribulation begins with the fall of Jerusalem and the setting up of the abomination of desolation, when those in Judea have to flee to the mountains (Matthew 24:15-20). Its duration is three and a half years as prophesied in Daniel 7:25 which says of the Antichrist, "He will speak words against the Most High. He will harass the holy ones of the Most High continually. His intention will be to change times established by law. They will be delivered into his hand For a time, times, and half a time."
As we have seen, Revelation 13:5-10 describes this same time period, "The beast was given a mouth speaking proud words and blasphemies, and he was permitted to exercise ruling authority for forty-two months. So the beast opened his mouth to blaspheme against God – to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, that is, those who dwell in heaven. The beast was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. He was given ruling authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation, and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed. If anyone has an ear, he had better listen! If anyone is meant for captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, then by the sword he must be killed. This requires steadfast endurance and faith from the saints."
In other words, Christians must endure at least part of the great tribulation, but at some point they are rescued out of it.
Also during this same time period, the refugees who flee from Jerusalem will be taken care of by God in a wilderness location for 1,260 days (Zechariah 14:2-5, Revelation 12:6), after which various scriptures (e.g. Jeremiah 30:7-11, Micah 2:12-13, Isaiah 34:5-8), tell us that Jesus will rescue them also. Time, times and half a time, 42 months, and 1,260 days are three ways of describing the same time period, that of the great tribulation.
At the end of the great tribulation, Daniel 7:26-27 tells us, "But the court will convene, and his ruling authority will be removed – destroyed and abolished forever! Then the kingdom, authority, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be delivered to the people of the holy ones of the Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; all authorities will serve him and obey him." In other words, Antichrist will be defeated, his kingdoms will be handed over to God's people, and we will rule the world under the kingship of Jesus! This is our blessed inheritance!
According to Jesus
But how do these people from every nation, tribe and language get from the earth to the sky? Jesus answers this question in Matthew 24:30-31, where he says, "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." In other words, after his second coming, Jesus will send his angels, they will blow the trumpet, and then gather true believers (the elect) from all over the world.
According to Paul
The Apostle Paul also explains how they get from earth to the sky in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, "Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord." Paul says that we will be suddenly 'caught up' (Greek harpazo).
Why it is called 'The Rapture'
When the New Testament was translated into latin, the Greek word 'harpazo' was translated using the latin word 'rapturo', from which we get the English word 'rapture'. Hence this event is commonly described as 'the rapture'.
In 2 Corinthians 12:2, the Apostle Paul uses the same Greek word 'harpazo' to describe his own experience of being temporarily caught up to heaven, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven." Similarly in Acts 8:39, 'harpazo' is the word used to describe Philip's experience of being snatched up, "Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any more, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, found himself at Azotus…"
But both of these 'raptures' were temporary. When Paul describes the end-time rapture in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, he explains that it will be on a whole new level. Let me quote from verses 46-53, "However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. Like the one made of dust, so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly. And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the man of heaven. Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." When Paul describes Jesus as the man from heaven, he is alluding to Daniel 7:13, and pictures Jesus as the divine Son of Man who comes from heaven as the second Adam. He is saying that when Jesus comes as per Daniel 7:13, the dead will first be raised, and then together with them living believers will also be transformed to become like Jesus. Our physical bodies that are made in the likeness of the first Adam will be suddenly transformed to become like the resurrected body of Jesus, who is the second Adam.
Timing and Sequence
It is often assumed that the rapture comes at the beginning of the great tribulation, and that Christ's coming is at the end of it. But notice that Jesus (in Matthew 24:30-31), Paul (in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1), and John (at the sixth seal in Revelation 6:12-7:17) all place the rapture after Christ's visible second coming in glory, not before it! And if those who are raptured 'come out of the great tribulation' (Revelation 7:14), then the rapture must happen some time during the great tribulation. And since the second coming precedes the rapture, it must also happen some time during the great tribulation. It is at the beginning of the great tribulation, when Jerusalem falls, that Jesus splits the Mount of Olives, facilitating the escape of Jerusalem's refugees to a wilderness location for 1,260 days (Zechariah 14:4-5 and Revelation 12:6). Presumably, when Jesus stands upon the Mount of Olives, he will be visible to those in Jerusalem, but this coming may not be visible to all. According to Revelation 12:6, Jesus is then caught back up to heaven. Is this ascension visible to all and equal to the second coming? Zechariah 14:5 gives the impression that his visible coming with all the holy ones follows straight on from his splitting of the Mount of Olives and the flight of Jerusalem's refugees, for it says, "Then you will escape through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal. Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come with all his holy ones with him." But it is possible there is a gap between their flight and his visible coming with the holy ones.
Every rapture passage gives the impression that the rapture happens soon after the second coming. Between the second coming and the rapture we have the resurrection of the dead according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, and the sealing of the 144,000 according to Revelation 7:1-8. But these four events: the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, the sealing of the 144,000, and the rapture of living believers, all seem to happen in quick succession without much obvious delay. So if the great tribulation requires steadfast endurance and faith from the Saints (Revelation 13:10), it does suggest that the second coming also occurs some way into the great tribulation, and not at its beginning after Jesus splits the Mount of Olives. This is also the impression that Jesus gives us in Matthew 24:20-27, "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!' or ‘There he is!' do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Remember, I have told you ahead of time. So then, if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe him. For just like the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be." In other words, the elect will not have to endure the whole of the great tribulation. Instead, it will be cut short by Christ's coming and their rapture.
Left Behind
For the rest of the world, who are left behind, the great tribulation will continue. They will look up at the sky with dread and be able to see God seated on his throne, with Jesus at his right hand, but Antichrist will still be at large. Seeing Jesus upon the clouds, they will become aware that the day of God's wrath has come (Revelation 6:17). In terms of the Revelation timeline, the seals will have been completed by this point, but the trumpet and bowl judgments will still be to come. This is the reality that is prophesied in Psalm 110:1-2, "Here is the LORD's proclamation to my lord: “Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool!” The LORD extends your dominion from Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies!" Jesus will rule in the midst of his enemies because Antichrist will still be in power for a period of time after his coming.
We have seen that Daniel 7:13 describes the second coming, "I was watching in the night visions, “And with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him." And verse 14 continues, "To him was given ruling authority, honour, and sovereignty. All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving him. His authority is eternal and will not pass away. His kingdom will not be destroyed." After seeing this divine Son of Man coming upon the clouds, Daniel sees him being served or worshipped by a multitude of peoples, nations and language groups. But who are these people and how did they get there?
According to John in Revelation
Similarly, at the sixth seal in the Revelation 6:14-17, John describes the moment when the sky is split apart like a scroll being rolled up, and everyone on earth sees God seated on his throne in the clouds together with Jesus, just like what Daniel saw. And he says, "Then the kings of the earth, the very important people, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?"
After John's vision of the second coming, he first of all sees the sealing of the 144,000 who are descendants from the twelve tribes of Israel. And then, still as part of the sixth seal, he sees the same multitude that Daniel saw. Revelation 7:9-10 says, "After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. They were shouting out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”"
This time, according to Revelation 7:13, John is specifically asked, "These dressed in long white robes – who are they and where have they come from?” Revelation 7:14-17 answers these questions, "So I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat, because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
The Great Tribulation
So this is a multitude that has come out of the great tribulation. This is the time of great suffering that Jesus describes in Matthew 24:21, "For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen." The great tribulation begins with the fall of Jerusalem and the setting up of the abomination of desolation, when those in Judea have to flee to the mountains (Matthew 24:15-20). Its duration is three and a half years as prophesied in Daniel 7:25 which says of the Antichrist, "He will speak words against the Most High. He will harass the holy ones of the Most High continually. His intention will be to change times established by law. They will be delivered into his hand For a time, times, and half a time."
As we have seen, Revelation 13:5-10 describes this same time period, "The beast was given a mouth speaking proud words and blasphemies, and he was permitted to exercise ruling authority for forty-two months. So the beast opened his mouth to blaspheme against God – to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, that is, those who dwell in heaven. The beast was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. He was given ruling authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation, and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed. If anyone has an ear, he had better listen! If anyone is meant for captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, then by the sword he must be killed. This requires steadfast endurance and faith from the saints."
In other words, Christians must endure at least part of the great tribulation, but at some point they are rescued out of it.
Also during this same time period, the refugees who flee from Jerusalem will be taken care of by God in a wilderness location for 1,260 days (Zechariah 14:2-5, Revelation 12:6), after which various scriptures (e.g. Jeremiah 30:7-11, Micah 2:12-13, Isaiah 34:5-8), tell us that Jesus will rescue them also. Time, times and half a time, 42 months, and 1,260 days are three ways of describing the same time period, that of the great tribulation.
At the end of the great tribulation, Daniel 7:26-27 tells us, "But the court will convene, and his ruling authority will be removed – destroyed and abolished forever! Then the kingdom, authority, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be delivered to the people of the holy ones of the Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; all authorities will serve him and obey him." In other words, Antichrist will be defeated, his kingdoms will be handed over to God's people, and we will rule the world under the kingship of Jesus! This is our blessed inheritance!
According to Jesus
But how do these people from every nation, tribe and language get from the earth to the sky? Jesus answers this question in Matthew 24:30-31, where he says, "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." In other words, after his second coming, Jesus will send his angels, they will blow the trumpet, and then gather true believers (the elect) from all over the world.
According to Paul
The Apostle Paul also explains how they get from earth to the sky in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, "Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord." Paul says that we will be suddenly 'caught up' (Greek harpazo).
Why it is called 'The Rapture'
When the New Testament was translated into latin, the Greek word 'harpazo' was translated using the latin word 'rapturo', from which we get the English word 'rapture'. Hence this event is commonly described as 'the rapture'.
In 2 Corinthians 12:2, the Apostle Paul uses the same Greek word 'harpazo' to describe his own experience of being temporarily caught up to heaven, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven." Similarly in Acts 8:39, 'harpazo' is the word used to describe Philip's experience of being snatched up, "Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any more, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, found himself at Azotus…"
But both of these 'raptures' were temporary. When Paul describes the end-time rapture in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, he explains that it will be on a whole new level. Let me quote from verses 46-53, "However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. Like the one made of dust, so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly. And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the man of heaven. Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." When Paul describes Jesus as the man from heaven, he is alluding to Daniel 7:13, and pictures Jesus as the divine Son of Man who comes from heaven as the second Adam. He is saying that when Jesus comes as per Daniel 7:13, the dead will first be raised, and then together with them living believers will also be transformed to become like Jesus. Our physical bodies that are made in the likeness of the first Adam will be suddenly transformed to become like the resurrected body of Jesus, who is the second Adam.
Timing and Sequence
It is often assumed that the rapture comes at the beginning of the great tribulation, and that Christ's coming is at the end of it. But notice that Jesus (in Matthew 24:30-31), Paul (in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1), and John (at the sixth seal in Revelation 6:12-7:17) all place the rapture after Christ's visible second coming in glory, not before it! And if those who are raptured 'come out of the great tribulation' (Revelation 7:14), then the rapture must happen some time during the great tribulation. And since the second coming precedes the rapture, it must also happen some time during the great tribulation. It is at the beginning of the great tribulation, when Jerusalem falls, that Jesus splits the Mount of Olives, facilitating the escape of Jerusalem's refugees to a wilderness location for 1,260 days (Zechariah 14:4-5 and Revelation 12:6). Presumably, when Jesus stands upon the Mount of Olives, he will be visible to those in Jerusalem, but this coming may not be visible to all. According to Revelation 12:6, Jesus is then caught back up to heaven. Is this ascension visible to all and equal to the second coming? Zechariah 14:5 gives the impression that his visible coming with all the holy ones follows straight on from his splitting of the Mount of Olives and the flight of Jerusalem's refugees, for it says, "Then you will escape through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal. Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come with all his holy ones with him." But it is possible there is a gap between their flight and his visible coming with the holy ones.
Every rapture passage gives the impression that the rapture happens soon after the second coming. Between the second coming and the rapture we have the resurrection of the dead according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, and the sealing of the 144,000 according to Revelation 7:1-8. But these four events: the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, the sealing of the 144,000, and the rapture of living believers, all seem to happen in quick succession without much obvious delay. So if the great tribulation requires steadfast endurance and faith from the Saints (Revelation 13:10), it does suggest that the second coming also occurs some way into the great tribulation, and not at its beginning after Jesus splits the Mount of Olives. This is also the impression that Jesus gives us in Matthew 24:20-27, "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!' or ‘There he is!' do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Remember, I have told you ahead of time. So then, if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe him. For just like the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be." In other words, the elect will not have to endure the whole of the great tribulation. Instead, it will be cut short by Christ's coming and their rapture.
Left Behind
For the rest of the world, who are left behind, the great tribulation will continue. They will look up at the sky with dread and be able to see God seated on his throne, with Jesus at his right hand, but Antichrist will still be at large. Seeing Jesus upon the clouds, they will become aware that the day of God's wrath has come (Revelation 6:17). In terms of the Revelation timeline, the seals will have been completed by this point, but the trumpet and bowl judgments will still be to come. This is the reality that is prophesied in Psalm 110:1-2, "Here is the LORD's proclamation to my lord: “Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool!” The LORD extends your dominion from Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies!" Jesus will rule in the midst of his enemies because Antichrist will still be in power for a period of time after his coming.
