No scriptural proof-text in God’s Word more clearly points to the first of the two phases of Jesus Christ’s second coming than does the following: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2).
We who hold to the pre-trib rapture viewpoint are
often accused of being deceivers. We are condemned by our detractors as
leading astray Christians alive now–if they live to see it-- who
will be required to endure the tribulation, thus to wash their robes
clean in preparation for inheriting God’s Kingdom. We are castigated for foisting
upon innocent, gullible believers a “secret rapture” that will somehow
lead these Christians to take the mark of the beast (Revelation 13:16-18).
I’m not precisely sure of their
“reasoning,” but I think they claim this because they are convinced that
the ones who fall for the rapture viewpoint won’t be able to recognize
Antichrist when he comes to power. We who teach the pre-trib rapture, so the
accusation goes, would have falsely led these people to
think the Church would not be here when Antichrist is on the world scene.
Almost all who are antagonistic to the pre-trib
rapture doctrine teach that the “elect” will have to endure part or all of
the seven-year tribulation era. Those who hold to a post-tribulation rapture,
or a no-rapture position, believe that Christ will come back at the end of the
tribulation, at Armageddon. They hold to the notion that that is His only
return in the second coming. There are other views of the second coming that
have Christ returning when the earth is perfected and made ready, but we
won’t go there in this essay.
Let us look at only the pre-trib rapture and the
post-trib rapture positions for the purpose of exploring what is meant by the
“thief in the night” references in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and 2 Peter 3:10.
These two viewpoints–the pre-trib, and the
post-trib--offer the greatest contrast to examine in consideration of the
second advent of Jesus Christ, within the overall belief that rapture will,
according to Bible prophecy, happen before Christ’s foot actually touches
down on Planet Earth.
The pre-trib view of rapture says that Christ’s
second coming is in two phases, separated by at least seven years. The
post-trib rapture view says that the rapture and Christ’s coming back to the
Mount of Olives will occur almost simultaneously–certainly with no more than a
matter of days separating the two events. The post-trib position says
there is no “secret” rapture. Christ’s coming again will be fully seen
in the heavens by all, including Christians who will be watching for Him to
break through the darkness of that hour.
We agree that the rapture of the Church (all
born-again believers in Jesus Christ for salvation since the Church Age began
at Pentecost will be anything but a “secret”. The world will instantly go
into cataclysmic chaos at the moment that stunning event takes place. The
imagination is hard-pressed to fathom the ramifications of what will happen
when millions suddenly vanish. Every child below the age of accountability
will be gone in that mind-boggling instant of time. All babies (including
those in the wombs of their mothers) will be instantly in the presence of
Christ in the clouds of glory. Every corpse of every dead
Christian will be raised to join with his or her soul to meet Christ in the
air in that atomos of time.
The rapture will be mystifying, and to some an
inexplicable phenomenon, but it will not be a secret. It will happen before
the eyes of a stupefied planet of left-behind earth-dwellers. This declaration
that Jesus will call His Church to be with Him seems audacious to many. But,
it didn’t seem so to the Apostle Paul. He was quite confident–even
adamant—in his prophecy concerning the “mystery” he had been given by
the Holy Spirit to instruct all believers down through the Age of Grace
(Church Age).
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
He explains what will take place next, in that
stupendous fraction of a second: “For this we say unto you by the word of
the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not prevent them which are asleep. 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” (1 Thessalonians
4:15-17).
Jesus himself told of this “mystery” Paul
refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:51. The Lord explains what happens after
believers –both the bodies of the dead and those who are living-- are caught
up in the air to be with Him: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in
God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).
So, the rapture will take place. Believers and
the bodies of those who died during the Church Age will be “caught up” in
one single moment of time. “ALL,” not “some,” will go instantly to be
with Jesus, who will then take them into heaven, where He has been preparing
their dwelling places since He ascended from the Mount
of Olives.
Again, the pre-trib position on this joyous event
is that it is imminent (could happen at any moment), and will happen before
the tribulation period begins. The post-trib position says that it happens at
the end of the most terrible time in human history, just as Jesus Christ is
returning from heaven at Armageddon.
The pre-trib view holds that it will occur at an
unknown time. It will be a stunning, sudden, and
unannounced-to-the-world-at-large break-in upon business as usual on Planet
Earth. The post-trib proclaims that it will occur following all of the horrors
of the judgments outlined in Revelation.
The pre-trib view says that the world at large
(left-behind earth-dwellers) won’t see it coming. The rapture will cause
all left on earth to wonder what has happened. The post-trib view says that
all eyes will behold Christ’s coming again to a hellish planet, and the
living and dead saints will then be gathered to Christ.
The defining thing to consider in thinking on the
two diametrically different views of the rapture and second coming is wrapped
up in the term “thief in the night”. The Apostle Peter again uses this
mysterious term, first used by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:2: “But the day
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter
3:10).
Peter is saying here that the day of the
Lord–that time when God and His Christ, His Son, takes over this fallen
planet—will begin like a thief in the night. It will be a sudden,
catastrophic break-in upon a world doing business as usual. (Read Luke
17:26-29 to understand how things will be going along as usual when Christ
comes back.)
This description hardly fits the post-trib view,
or any other view that says Christ will rapture His Church during a time of
unprecedented trouble (Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:21). This indicates that it
will be a total surprise, because a thief in the night doesn’t announce his
coming with great, cataclysmic fanfare. The break-in is swift, stealthy–a
totally unexpected event.
Peter foretells in these passages that the “day
of the Lord” will then run its course, until the remaking of the heavens and
the earth. The rapture will begin this “day of the Lord,” which will then
run at least 1,007 years.
This is the first phase of Christ’s second
coming. The rapture occurs like a “thief in the night”. The second advent,
when Jesus’ foot touches down on the Mount of Olives, is the second phase of
His second coming.
There are those who say with vehemence that it is
blasphemous to equate Christ’s coming again as being like the break-in of a
thief in the night. How dare we liken their Lord to a “thief”!
Really? Here’s what Jesus, the Creator of all
things, said about this matter:
“But know this, that if the goodman of the
house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and
would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready:
for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew
24:43-44).
Looks like a pretty good case for the Lord’s
sudden intervention into the nefarious affairs of this increasingly wicked
world, does it not? That thief-in-the-night moment could happen, literally, at
any moment. Certainly, signals of the tribulation are beginning to come to
pass.
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).