Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Matthew 24:29-31 ESV
For the past few weeks, I’ve been preaching on the second coming of Jesus, and the end of the world as we know it now. There is mystery here, things that are unknown, but there is also much revealed. Enough is revealed to get us excited, filled with hope, and to encourage one another with this hope when things around us look grim. This has been the forward-looking hope of the church since Jesus ascended to heaven almost 2000 years ago. It should still be our hope now!
There are a small number of summary eschatological (end times) positions agreed upon by Bible believing Christians. These positions attempt to account for all the Bible verses that speak to the second coming of Jesus, the final tribulation, the millennial period, the resurrection of the saints, and the final judgement. The ordering of these events depends upon interpretation. I hold to the historic premillennial eschatological view. The order of events in this interpretation are as follows:
- The church age which we now live in.
- A period of great tribulation.
- The second coming of Jesus in power and glory.
- The raising of the dead (glorified body and soul unification for eternity).
- The “catching up” (rapture) of those who are still alive on the earth when Jesus returns.
- Descending of Jesus and His saints to earth for the millennial period.
- The raising of unbelievers unto final judgment.
- The final eternal state of the believing unto eternal life/heaven, and the unbelieving unto eternal death/hell.
I believe this order best accounts for what we see in the Bible without overly pressing any one scripture into a system that forces interpretation that does not fit biblical context or wording. It’s called “historic” because this has been the majority opinion of the church since the early church fathers. The view is pre-millennial because Jesus is understood to return before the millennial period to usher in the radical change of world ordering. The millennial period (Revelation 20:1-6) is the most mysterious and least understood of the end time periods. Other views cast the millennial period as now (Postmillennial – Jesus will return after the millennial period), and amillennial (there is no millennial period).
For a full examination of each position and its strengths and weaknesses, I recommend reading Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, chapters 54 and 55. This book is available in our church library. Following are a few high points as to why I am convinced of the historic premillennial view:
1. I am not convinced that the Bible teaches that Jesus will return a second then a third time before the millennial period. I don’t see how interpreters can honestly state they are not teaching two returns of Jesus when teaching a pre-tribulation taking up of the saints.
2. Those who hold to a pre-tribulational rapture conflate and reorganize the plain teaching of 1 Thessalonians 4. The pre-tribulational view states that all Christians will be taken off the earth in a silent mysterious vanishing before the great tribulation, followed by a later glorious second coming of Jesus after the years of tribulation. They base this pre-tribulational argument on a small number of verses taken out of context. Usually, much emphasis is placed on 1 Thessalonians 5:9 stating that Christians will not endure “wrath,” arguing that God will not cause His people to go through great hardship. This view is completely inconsistent with Bible history and church history where Christians are constantly called to live through very difficult times of ungodliness, walking by faith in Jesus and the hope of eternal life. Repeatedly we are told that Christians will live through the final tribulation (Matthew 24, Revelation 7:14, 2 Timothy 3:1-5). We are told repeatedly and plainly that the second coming of Jesus will be like the time of Noah (Matthew 24:37, Luke 17:26-32, 2 Peter 3:4-7). Noah lived through the radical increase of wickedness on the world until he and his family were the only righteous left in all the world. God then, in a single day, delivered the righteous and destroyed the wicked. Noah was not sparred the sorrow of living in a wicked world but was delivered from it. So it will be with us.
3. The pre-tribulational rapture interpretation was developed in America around the time of the civil war. It grew in popularity through the Scofield study Bible, endless prophecy conferences (R.L. Darby), and the “Left Behind” fictional book/movie series. I find it highly suspect that 1,800+ years of Christians were so wrong on a major Bible doctrine. The Scofield study Bible is also strongly dispensational. Dispensationalism is a systematic interpretation of the Bible that breaks the Bible into ridged “dispensations” (periods of time). It also continues a strong differentiation between Jew and Gentile in the church age, resisting the idea of one unified church encompassing Jew and Gentile. Many dispensationalists believe that Gentile believers must be removed from the earth before the tribulation to make way for the final “dispensation” of many Jews coming to salvation. Scripture does teach that there will be a final ingathering of many Jews that believe in Jesus, but that teaching is clearly in the midst of people from every nation, tribe, and tongue (read Revelation 7 in its entirety).
4. The millennial period (Revelation 20:1-6) is a future and mysterious period. We know that God reveals His purposes and plans progressively. It should not surprise us that God has glorious future plans, and plans that we cannot yet understand. This is the walk of faith. However, it seems counter to any sensible reading of Revelation 20 that we are living in that period now (the church age).
I hope this brings more focus to this subject without draining the joy and life out of it!
The hope of the second coming of Jesus is to be a major source of hope for us, not endless bickering. The lack of full clarity on these issues should inspire our study and careful thinking, as should all Scripture. However, where the Bible is silent, we should be silent. We should never allow interpretational structures (systems) created by theologians to dictate interpretation that does not fit the plain context of the Bible.
Let us keep our eyes on Jesus. He is coming with the clouds in glory and power!
– Pastor Vic