The rapture theory is only about 200 years old. The word was not even
invented when the bible was written. The 1st century Christian's did not
think they were going to float up into the sky to meet Jesus. It was John
Nelson Darby (1800-1882) that created the idea to fit his belief system.
His rapture doctrine grew at the end of the 1800s. In the1900s, DL Moody, Billy
Sunday, and the Scofield Reference Bible all adapted to his rapture doctrine.
Do you know why people quickly adopted this new idea? Because Jesus and Paul
talk about being "taken" during a future judgment. In Luke 17:34-35 it
sounds like people are taken away and others left, but what does it really
mean?
We will study what "taken" and "left" behind means when the Bible describes a
coming judgment. I believe Mr. Darby misunderstood the meaning of "taken"
and "left" behind.
Let's read Luke 17:21-37
In the OT we find the context of Luke 17 in what's called "the day of the
Lord". (verse 22 "the days of the Son of Man." ) The Day of the Lord
is when One nation overtakes another nation in Judgment. God is destroying a
nation that has acted wickedly.
Isaiah 19:1; Ezekiel 30:3-4 - Destruction of Egypt, Judgment fulfilled in 480
BC
Isaiah 13:1,6-9 - Destruction of Babylon, Judgment fulfilled in 539 BC
Zephaniah 1:4,7,14-15 -Destruction of Jerusalem, Judgment fulfilled in 586 BC
Amos 5:18-20 - Destruction of Israel, Judgment fulfilled in 722 BC
Matthew 21:43, 22:7, 24 - Destruction of Jerusalem, Judgment fulfilled in 70 AD.
In Luke 17:21-37 Jesus compares the coming destruction to both the flood in
Noah's day (Luke 17:26-27) and Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot's day (Luke 17:28-29).
The wicked people didn't expect the flood and were taken away. Same with
Sodom and Gomorrah the wicked were taken away. Jesus is saying the same
thing in Luke 17:34, "One will be taken and the other will be left" It
means the one that is wicked or unfaithful will die and the righteous one the
faithful one will be left and live on.
Every time when God came in judgment the wicked were taken and while some of the
martyrs died physically they would later live. The meaning is people will
remain on earth and be called holy (Isaiah 4:2-3)
Those who are left and remain are the holy remnant. The rest who are taken away are unfaithful people whom God is judging. Isaiah 3:1-3 predicts their removal during God's coming judgment (see also Isaiah 39:6-7).
In Jeremiah 6:11 Everyone who is "taken" is experiencing God's judgment. You definitely wanted to be left on earth.
In Zephaniah 3:11-13 - God will remove the wicked and leave a remnant of righteous people in Jerusalem after its judgment.
In Zechariah 13:8 Those who are left behind get to live while the rest die.
God never intended to take people off the earth until they died physically. Jesus even prayed about it. (John 17:15)
IT'S THE UNFAITHFUL OR REBELLIOUS PEOPLE THAT WILL BE TAKEN AND THE RIGHTEOUS
WILL BE LEFT BEHIND.
The OT teaches us that God is punishing those who are "taken" and rescuing
the people "left" behind.
IF YOU WANT TO BE RAPTURED MAKE SURE YOU KNOW IT'S MEANING. THOSE THAT
ARE "TAKEN" ARE THE WICKED, THEY DIE.
So, which Judgment was Jesus predicting?
If we compare Luke 17 to Matthew 24 we can see Jesus' prediction was the
destruction of Jerusalem.
Matthew 24:37-41 - Luke 17:34-35 - The events will be like Noah's flood.
Luke 17:37; Matthew 24:28 - where death is vultures will be there
Luke 17:24; Matthew 24:27 One will never see the Son it will be like lightning
flashing across the sky, proving it will not be physical. nobody can figure out
exactly where it originated.
Luke 17:22-23; Matthew 24:23-26 avoid people who claim to know where the Messiah
is. This shows it would be a spiritual coming.
Jesus describes deadly events that will happen
around Jerusalem but never claims that He will physically appear on earth.
He commands his followers to get far away from Jerusalem Matthew 24:16 - let
those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
If you assume the "coming of the son" is some type of physical return to earth rather than the plain meaning of the phrase all throughout the OT, you will misunderstand what Jesus meant.
Jesus is not talking about returning to snatch people off of earth. He's talking about another coming in judgment to the unfaithful Israelites who rejected him, just like Isaiah and Jeremiah etc did in the OT. To correctly interpret his words He is coming again to judge. If people don't want to be "taken," or killed, during that deadly event, they needed to get out of Judea before slaughter begins. And that happened just like Jesus said it would in His generation. (Matthew 24:34) That coming took place in 70AD. 40 years after (Luke 17:25).
So, the judgment was during the generation of Jesus' disciples
after Jesus was gone but before all of them pass away.
Just like God used Babylon to punish his unfaithful people in Jeremiah's day, he
used Rome during the generation of Jesus' disciples. Jesus did not physically
appear during the Roman invasion just like God did not physically appear during
the "day of the Lord" that Jeremiah predicted over 600 years earlier.
For those of you who were not aware of the Old Testament prophetic language that
Jesus used in Luke 17 and Matthew 24, you can now see that the judgment Jesus
predicted isn't what you first think. Jesus' original Jewish audience would have
recognized the prophetic language. They would have wanted to be "left" behind
after God's judgment rather than "taken" during it.
Left Behind Was A Good Thing
In Matthew 13:41-42, Jesus promised that the Son of
Man would remove the unrighteous people from his kingdom. He describes
the spiritual removing of the unrighteous and leaving behind the
righteous. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the
Father" (Matthew 13:43). The faithful would be left behind as citizens of a new
kingdom that excepted the new king Jesus, enthroned in heaven. Just as
Jesus spoke of the kingdom coming in Luke 17:20-21 before his prophecy of
judgment, "The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be
observed, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the
kingdom of God is in you." It is among God's faithful people who remain.
It's time to correct the mistaken rapture of God's people
in some futuristic doomsday scenario. No one is getting snatched off the earth
in some end of the world scenario. Jesus' prediction of judgment in the first century
was the same kind of
judgment that OT prophets predicted before him. And it had the same purpose.
Eliminate the unfaithful so that those who remain could become the kind of
people God wanted in His Kingdom. His plan was to leave behind a
faithful remnant that would represent his values for all to see.
Just to clear things up for those that think 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 are a Rapture, it's not it refers to the Resurrection.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:17 At the resurrection,
those that were left alive were caught up in the AIR (spiritual), just as we
were when we first accepted Christ. Now we will be with the Lord forever. Those
that were physically dead (in their grave) went to heaven. Those alive were
caught into the kingdom into Christ. Those that died physically went to heaven
those alive went into the Kingdom, the body of Christ. When we die, we no longer
sleep we go directly to Heaven.
If the resurrection was an earthly event, Then that would contradict Colossians
1:18 The body is raised spiritually.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 are interpreted to refer to
the Resurrection, not a rapture. For two thousand years most Christians
understood that these verses referred to the resurrection of the dead.
The rapture theory has grown in popularity so quickly that many Christians
assume it to be true.
But wait! What about the church isn't it Raptured up to Heaven? No. the church comes down out of Heaven it's the New Jerusalem.
Rev 21:1-3 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, (covenant, people, city) for the first heaven (covenant) and the first earth (people, city) had passed away, (unbelieving Jews, old covenant, literal city of Jerusalem passed) and there was no longer any sea. (The sea represents people in the bible and this sea is referring to the Jews who died in 70 AD) I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (The new Jerusalem city represents the church they came out of the old covenant heaven ), prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband (The New Jerusalem city which was the church was the bride who was marrying her husband Jesus Christ). And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."