Prophecy Chart Series: The Rapture

Resource

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Part 2

Tim Moore: Well, Nathan, you and I today, even before we get into the discussion of the Rapture, are dressed in such a manner as we kind of came as we are because we don’t know when the Rapture’s going to occur. It could be while we’re taking a shower or asleep at home in our beds. But whenever the Lord calls, we’re going to go with Him in a twinkling of an eye.

Nathan Jones: That’s why some of you might be looking at this chart and saying, “You’ve got the Rapture here, but you’ve got the Second Coming down here. Isn’t the Rapture and Second Coming the same event?” Well, we believe that the Bible teaches that you could say the Rapture is the first phase of a two-phase return of Jesus Christ. Or, you could just say, hey, this is the Second Coming.

The reason being is that the Lord doesn’t return to the Earth in the Rapture, rather we are, who are saved, go up to Him, meet Him in the clouds, as Tim read in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, and then go up to Heaven. So that’s why we have the Rapture separating two parts. It might be all of the Lord’s Second Coming, but it’s two phases.

And I love that, particularly in Zechariah 14:5 where it says, “And the Lord my God will come and all the saints with you.” Now, the saints can’t come with the Lord if they’re already on the Earth waiting for the Lord. They would’ve had to have been raptured up ahead of time to be with the Lord and then come back with Him. So in the passages that talk about Jesus’ Second Coming, the Rapture’s often tied into that because it’s the return of Christ.

But there is at least a seven-year gap here because you’ve got the Tribulation and possibly a little time between the Rapture and the Antichrist signing the peace accord.

Tim Moore: And over and over again, Jesus has made allusion to this promise in terms of the timing. But in Luke 21:36, the Lord said, “Keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape these things which are about to take place and to stand before the Son of God.” Folks, if we are to stay alert at all times, that means that the Rapture could occur at any moment.

And He doubles down on that actual warning in Revelation 3:10. He says, “Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I will also keep you from that hour of testing, the hour which is about to come upon the whole earth to test those who dwell on the earth.” He calls it an hour of trial, but really it’s a period is what He’s describing when the entire Earth receives the outpouring of God’s wrath. So it’s very straightforward to understand, after this Church Age, the Rapture will happen in the blink of an eye.

We’ve given just a couple of Scripture references, but there’s much more we want to dig into. So let’s move over to our other teaching area, Nathan, and continue with this discussion regarding John’s Rapture and type in Revelation 4.

Part 3

Nathan Jones: Well, Tim and I are back, and we’re going to dive into the Rapture. And you’ll notice on our chart, just underneath Rapture, we have Revelation 4 and 5. And you’re probably like, “Tim, Nathan, Revelation 4 and 5, what does that have to do with the Rapture?” Well, let me read you just the first few verses of Revelation chapter four, and I think you’ll see it.

It says, “After these things, I, John, looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said, ‘Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things.'” Verse two, “Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold a throne was standing in heaven and one sitting on the throne.”

So this is the Apostle John being called by Jesus Christ up to Heaven to witness what he’s going to see, the Throne Room of God.

Tim Moore: What happens immediately is that John is in the spirit and he is in the presence of the Lord. Now, he’s obviously already been interacting with Jesus Christ, manifest in His glorified body, which is why in Revelation chapter one, when John saw Jesus in all His glory as this old man on the island of Patmos, he was overtaken by awe. And he says he fell at His feet like a dead man. And Jesus picks him up and says, “Do not fear.”

Unlike Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six who has a similar experience, here’s this Old Testament saint, righteous in his own regard, compared to all the people of his age, and yet when he stands before the Lord, as he is brought into the Throne Room, his response is, “Woe is me. I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.” And then a burning coal has to be touched to his lips to make him worthy to even be there without feeling the sense of woe.

But John doesn’t feel any of that because on the other side of the cross, there’s no condemnation on John. And so he is just able to be in Heaven in awe of God Almighty.

Nathan Jones: And that’s important to establish when we later we get into the Bema Seat of Christ, the very fact that those who are showing up in Heaven are redeemed, saved people whose sins have been wiped clean. Their guilt is gone. The slate is wiped clean. They can stand before the Father wholly and pure. That’s very important because it’s very different from the scene that’s going on the Earth after the Rapture.

Tim Moore: Well, this brings us to an important point that we need to discuss because we made mention last week and again this week that even our Prophecy Chart contains segments that we’re talking about as events. But when it comes to the Rapture, that is an event that is virtually instantaneous. So even from Revelation chapter four, John is translated immediately into the spirit.

So, Nathan, where is it that we get this idea that the Rapture will take place instantaneously and the ramifications will be glorious, but that event itself will be over in the blink of an eye?

Nathan Jones: Paul shared that with the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:52-57. He says, “Behold,” let’s go back to 51, “I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Now, the sting of death sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Tim Moore: Amen.

Nathan Jones: What a beautiful picture of the Rapture of the Church. Now again, as we said in the beginning of this program, the word rapture is just, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, caught up. So here we see again in a mystery, we will be changed, we will be transformed. And what will we be transformed into?

Tim Moore: Well, we’ve been given our glorified bodies at that point, as we can imagine that Jesus Christ in His glorified body was able to translate from one place to the other instantaneously. He was able to walk through walls. Most of us celebrate the fact that He still ate. So He ate fish and enjoyed fellowship with His disciples. So a lot of people will say, “I’ll be able to eat all I want and yet I’ll be 29 years old and good-looking for a change and won’t gain any weight.”

The point is that we will have glorified bodies. But look, we’re going to have more than that. We’re going to have glorified minds. Nathan, right now, our minds so often are warped and twisted, misguided by what has been poured into us over the years. Obviously, our own culture is trying to deceive us, but we’ll have glorified minds and indeed even glorified hearts.

I love the way Joni Eareckson Tada puts it, and she was on our show a few years ago, and I asked her a question that other interviewers had asked her. I asked Joni, what do you look forward to most with your glorified body?

Now, of course, anybody that is familiar with Joni knows that she broke her neck as a teenager and she has suffered as a quadriplegic all the years since. As a matter of fact, at this point in her life, she suffers excruciating pain constantly. She can hardly sleep. She is still the most joy-filled person Nathan and I have ever interacted with. What Joni testified to is that she longs to have a glorified heart.

Nathan Jones: Amen. Well, this is where we get to what happens to the glorified saints. Okay, the dead in Christ, just in a split nanosecond, are resurrected just before we who are alive. We both go up to that call of Jesus Christ. There’s an archangel calling us up. There’s a sound of a trumpet.
Again, just briefly, when we say last trumpet, it’s not talking about the seventh Trumpet Judgment. This is a prophecy that was given well before John was given the seven Trumpet Judgements. So it’s what it means is the last trumpet of the Church Age some believe maybe the Feast of Trumpets. We don’t know.

But if you go to say Romans 14:8-12, it says, “If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end, Christ died, and rose again, and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue confess to God. So that each of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Tim, that reminds me of the parable where the Lord spoke of this man who is an owner, and he gave different talents to different of his workers. And one multiplied it to 10, and the other five, and the other, he just buried it. He never used it. And so they were held to account.

When we go up to Heaven, we will face the Bema Seat Judgment, if you look at on our chart, and the Bema Seat Judgment is that judgment. The first thing we do when we get to Heaven, I wish it was the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. That’s a little later. It would seem that it’s time, like report card time or reward time. Time to get the rewards for the works not that we per se did, but what the Holy Spirit did through us when we were willing.

Tim Moore: There has already been judgment poured out for our sin. It was poured out on Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. So He has already endured the judgment for our sins. So now comes the judgment of our righteous works. Obviously, He gets the credit even for our good works, but were we conduits of His blessing to this Earth? Were we rightful ambassadors of Christ in our mortal lives?

Nathan Jones: You get the crown of righteousness. There’s the crown of life. There are crowns of martyrs. There are crowns for those who are missions oriented. And what the Lord does is there’s a series of different rewards that He offers us in Heaven as a part of the judgment. Now, again, not a judgment for salvation, but a judgment for works, your motivations, why you did them, when you did them. It’s just important that the stuff that you did for yourself, well, the Lord says it’s going to burn away like chaff, so the important stuff will remain.

Tim Moore: Some people think, well, that would be pretty mundane if I was to try to serve the Lord out of a desire to receive a reward. But folks, it’s not us that made up this plan of God. It is God Himself who revealed it to us. So if we go to Matthew 16:27, Jesus promised the Son of Man is going to come in His glory, within the glory of His Father with His angels and will then repay every man according to his deeds. That’s not just every man who is condemned or damned to hell. That’s every person.

He also says in Romans chapter two, as the apostle Paul is writing, beginning in verse four, “Do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubborn and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself.” Here, again, a warning for those who have rejected him. But He again says in verse six that the Lord will render to each person according to his deeds, to those who, by perseverance in doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life.

So if we are rightfully motivated to serve the Lord as an act of our love and worship of Him, then again allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us, those works will be a reflection of His righteousness, His glory. And so we will be rewarded in essence for what we allowed Him to do through us.

Just as the elders in Revelation chapter four are seen by John casting their crowns before the throne as an act of worship, I believe all the saints will be given the opportunity to gather round. It’s time to cast our crowns, and we’ll do that as an act of worship because really they belong to Christ anyway.

Tim Moore: Erwin Lutzer is a good friend of this ministry and in a sermon that he presented he said, if you ever go to an area that’s been burned, for instance out in California when all the fires broke out, you could go through neighborhoods, and the entire house is gone. He said that’s a picture of what it will be like when all the things that sometimes we think matter in this life are burned away. What will be lasting and true will be those works that the Lord enabled us to perform on His behalf.

Erwin Lutzer Sermon Clip

Erwin Lutzer: But today I want to speak to you as believers because there is another judgment called the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ. The Bible says there are tears in Heaven. Now, God is going to wipe away all tears as all of us know, but why tears in Heaven?

Well, there are some people who say the reason is because there are going to be people there who are going to be very disappointed and very in anguish because their friends aren’t there. I can imagine a mother weeping because her son has not come into Heaven and won’t be there. Possibly that’s the answer.

But I would like to suggest, and I can’t prove it, that the real reason is tears of regret for the way in which we lived, despite the wonderful opportunities that God has given to us. And so that’s what we’re going to speak about today. We’re going to speak about the Judgment Seat of Christ. It is indeed the day of reckoning. Very sobering actually.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else was building upon it. Let each one take care of how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, or precious metals, precious stones, or it could be wood, hay, and straw.

Each one’s work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it is to be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, Though he himself will be saved by fire.

The imagery is this that as Christians, our works are going to be tried before God and we’re going to see whether or not we have gold, silver, and precious stones, or whether or not we’ve been building and living for wood, hay, and stubble.

Part 4

Tim Moore: You know, Nathan, we focus so far on the positive things that await the Church Age saints, those who put their trust in Christ, but the Rapture also marks a clear changing of what’s due to happen here on the Earth. So let’s talk about a little bit of what awaits those who have rejected Christ or simply have chosen not to decide prior to the Rapture.

Nathan Jones: Okay, on our timeline, the Church was raptured up to Heaven and is going through the Bema Seat. And while that’s happening, back down on the Earth, the Lord is going to bring chaos to the planet. Imagine millions of people there, and then they’re not.

And so a very popular prophetic perspectives video that we did a while back was one minute after the Rapture. What will people think in the first minute? And I think the first thing we will likely see is people in shock. Now, we won’t because we’ll be up in Heaven, but the world will be in shock. How do you explain away millions of people all over the planet?

Tim Moore: I don’t know how in the world CNN and the other news media will describe it, but I’m sure they’ll come up with some hair-brained scheme and people by and large will accept that deception.

Nathan Jones: What’s interesting is the new agers have, for a long time, been waiting for this Lord Maitreya, this antichrist type character. And they’re looking forward to the Rapture because they want the Christians off the planet, because we’re holding humanity back from evolving into the godhood that they wish. So I would say, after the initial shock of the first minute, the second minute will be widespread celebration.

Tim Moore: Absolutely

Nathan Jones: Oh, those Christians are finally out of here. We will now have the political power to do what we want and whatever we want, God is gone. At least initially, there will be partying throughout the world before the ramifications kick in. And I think when you’re going to see stock market collapses, and the world is building towards that now. There’s going to be riots in the streets, murders and rapes everywhere, and the world will erupt into chaos. And whenever the world’s in chaos, what has to rise to put an end to the chaos? And that’s usually a dictator.

Tim Moore: It usually is a dictator. I always think maybe they’ll say it’s a vast right-wing conspiracy. But regardless, to use the words of Ahab, when he saw Elijah coming toward Mount Carmel for the contest with the prophets of Baal, Ahab said, “Oh, is it you, you troubler of Israel?” Folks, I believe that the world left behind will by and large be very glad to see us “troublers” out of the way.

Right now, there are Christians in government. There are Christians in the military. We know there are Christians in media, in academia, in retail and commercial, in the business world. There are even Christians in most churches, as I like to say. There may be wars that are sparked because let’s say enemies of the United States seize an opportunity to gain an upper hand.

Regardless, in this chaos, the world will clamor for someone to right the world, to set order back up, and to restore the economy, and one man will step forward. And we know that is the Antichrist.

Nathan Jones: I think your point about wars is very important because, folks, if you look at our timeline here, you’ll notice the Gog and Magog war is missing. There’s a many timing arguments for when it falls, but I believe, like you said, it’ll fall after the Rapture but just before at the onset of the Tribulation, because, like you said, the Russia and Islamic coalition comes against Israel without any fear of the West.

And so something has had to happen to take that out. They’re not fearing the UN. They’re not fearing China. They feel free to do whatever. So there’s going to be the small window, like you said, of absolute chaos where everybody feels they can do whatever.

And this is when God steps in, He supernaturally destroys those armies, and the whole world will know there’s a God. So leading on into the Tribulation, everybody going into the Tribulation will know there’s a God. No more atheists.

Tim Moore: No more atheists. I actually think that much like we saw in World War II during the Holocaust, there will be people left behind who hate the Lord God and rejoice over the removal of Christians and those individuals who finally come to their senses and realize, “Oh my goodness, I’ve been left behind and I want to embrace Christ,” they will be hunted down and killed by their fellow citizens and eventually by the Antichrist, because he will seize upon the Christians as maybe the impetus behind all of the disaster that’s befalling the world.

And so not only from his evil motivations, but to satisfy the anti-Christian sentiment of the world, Christians will be hunted down.

Nathan Jones: And that’s why, folks, the Rapture represents such a dramatic and terminal event. The followers of Christ must be on mission while there’s still time. One of the characteristics of a good and faithful servant is to heed the commission we were given by our master. The Great Commission is to share the Gospel while there is time, so that as many as possible will be led to flee from the wrath to come and into the loving arms of our Savior.

Tim Moore: A few years ago, a dear friend of Lamb & Lion Ministries created a Rapture pamphlet that has been distributed to hundreds of thousands of people. We were so impressed by James Pannafino’s idea that we borrowed and copied it with his blessing. I recently sat down with James to discuss the urgency of our task, given the imminence of the Rapture.

James Pannafino Interview

Tim Moore: Let’s turn to this question, James. Anyone who has followed our ministries knows that both of us believe the Rapture could occur at any moment. And so what Scriptural evidence do you use to point people to the fact that His coming is imminent?

James Pannafino: As far as the Rapture, there are the classic passages I think a lot of people are familiar with. First Thessalonians 4:13-18. This is where we get the word. We’ll know what happened. The world won’t know what happened. I don’t believe that, but I think we’ll definitely experience meeting Christ as it says in that passage in the air and forever we shall be with the Lord. And as you mentioned earlier, that is Titus 2:13. Our Blessed Hope.
To relinquish that or to deny that from the Church, in my opinion, is not only wrong, it’s seriously wrong to not give people the hope we have in the Rapture. 1 Corinthians 15 sort of magnifies that. It says in the it’s a mystery, something that’s been revealed, mysterion, so that’s something that was not known, but it became known through the words of the Scripture.

John 14, Jesus I think clearly said He’s coming back and He’s going take His own to be with Him. Now that’s not the Second Coming. We come back with Him at the end of Revelation. We can read about that in Revelation 19:14. But if He comes and He takes us, well, that is exactly what Paul was talking about in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. So I think there’s good, solid reasons to believe that the Rapture is biblical, but the negation of it or the denial of it is a whole other issue. If you want to talk about that, we can.

Part 5

Tim Moore: Folks, there is actually one other tragic group of people, and those are the ones whose hearts have already been hardened and sealed. The reality is we don’t know who those are. We don’t know who’s going to be left behind. God does. And that’s why we urge everyone who we encounter, everyone who is watching this program to choose this day, whom you will serve.

Our urging is that you would serve the Lord God, and then you will be included in that great throng of believers who’s taken out of the world before the Lord pours out His wrath upon the world.

Closing

Tim Moore: Well, we certainly hope that our presentation today has been a blessing to you, and that you’ve been able to get a copy of our new Prophecy Chart resource and have found it to be helpful in your understanding of the End Times. We cannot overemphasize the urgency of our message that we presented today though. You do not want to be left behind at the Rapture.

Nathan Jones: The glories that await those who trust in Christ are beyond our ability to describe, but the horrors that await those who’ve rejected Jesus Christ are also beyond words. Following the Rapture, the chaos alone will threaten the lives of everyone on the Earth and then will grow exponentially worse as the wrath of God begins to fall.

Tim Moore: In fact, that is why God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to the world, so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish and not be subject to such a horrific fate. But belief unto salvation requires more the mere intellectual ascent or acknowledgement of Christ. The demons recognized Him for who He was and feared Him, but they did not trust in Him or embrace Him as Lord.

Nathan Jones: While there’s still time, we pray that your heart will be softened. Cry out to Jesus Christ right now. Confess your sin and sinfulness and trust that He can and will save you from your sin and from the wrath to come. Then commit to honoring and serving Him as Lord of your life until He comes or until He calls you home.

Tim Moore: You are not promised another day of life on this Earth, so choose right now whom you will serve. As for Nathan and I, and all those who are in the Church Age following Christ, we will serve the Lord, the Almighty God, Jesus Christ. Every day until He calls us home, we will shout, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus! Godspeed!

End of Program