The Unscriptural Doctrine of the Rapture

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. (Revelation 19:11)

The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. (Revelation 19:14)

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. (Revelation 19:19)

The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it? (Joel 2:11)

For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. (Luke 17:24)

The five verses above tell us about the appearing of Christ and His armies in the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. There will not be a secret "rapture, in addition to the one coming of the Son of Man.

There is no scriptural basis for a special secret coming of Christ to bring His saints to Heaven to escape Antichrist and the Great Tribulation. We ought to know better than this!

The catching up of the saints, set forth in the Book of First Thessalonians, describes the army of saints, now in incorruptible bodies, rising to meet the Commander in Chief at the staging area in the air. There they will be mounted on white stallions.

Together with the army of angels they will descend with Christ to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.

This is the next appearing of the Lord Jesus to the world, the return of the Son of Man.

The teaching of an unscriptural secret "rapture" to Heaven of God's people, whether before or after the one coming of the Son of Man, is fanciful, unscriptural, and destructive of the spiritual maturing of the members of the Body of Christ. It is a myth, and should be abandoned by every Christian who is waiting for the coming of the Lord.

"With a shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God."

Does that sound like a secret rapture to you?

We can understand the desire of Christians to be removed from the mess the world is in, but that is not an excuse to depart from the Scriptures and preach fables.

Since the fourth chapter of the Book of First Thessalonians is an important passage concerning the doctrine of the "rapture," let's see what it says.

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