The
Beneficiaries of the Redeemer’s Return
or The Scope
of the Rapture
Chapter 7
"The
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."
1 Thess. 3:13
We Come now to a phase of our
subject which has given rise to much controversy. Sad it is
that the "Blessed Hope" should have been an occasion for contention.
But, just as men have divided into different camps over every fundamental
doctrine of Scripture, so have sides been taken in regard to various points
which bear upon our Lord’s Return. Alas! "What is man?" Surely
"an enemy hath done this." One of the points upon which Bible
teachers and students are divided is that of the scope of the Rapture.
Some have taught that at our Lord’s descent into the air all of His saints will
be caught up to meet Him; while others insist that only a small part of the
Church will be removed from the earth at that time—that part which is obedient,
faithful, spiritual. Thus, translation to heaven at the second coming of Christ
is made a matter of merit and reward.
What saith the Scriptures? Do
they teach a partial or a total rapture of the Church which is Christ’s body?
Do they declare that all believers will be removed from earth at the time Lord
descends from His Father’s throne, or, that only a of them will? Clearly, they
cannot teach both, and surely matter of such moment is not left indeterminable.
We believe that a question of such importance is left an open one. Yet, we are
not unmindful of the fact that the advocates of each position referred to
above, appeal to the Word in support of their views. But just here we would
ask, Are the Scriptures pressed into service really relevant to the point at
issue, and will they actually bear the interpretation which is given them?
What saith the Scriptures? and
particularly, What is the explicit teaching of the Church Epistles? If we are
seeking to find the inspired answer to the question, Will the whole Church or
only a part of it, escape the judgments of the Great Tribulation? then, surely,
it is to the Church Epistles we must turn for information. We
are not here arguing that there are no Scriptures which treat of the first
stage of Christ’s second coming outside of the Church Epistles, for doubtless
there are—for example John 14:1-3—yet, we repeat, If the question before us
concerns the Church, then the testimony of the Church Epistles must decide the
dispute. If this much be granted—and personally we do not see why it should not—then
the range of our inquiry is narrowed down and the issue is
simplified. It is highly significant that almost all of the passages which are
in dispute (as to interpretation) between the advocates of the conflicting
schools are outside of the Church Epistles: in other words, the verses which
are made the occasion for controversy are found, for the most part, in the
Gospels, in Hebrews, or in the Apocalypse.
To one who is a beginner in
the study of Dispensational troth and is unacquainted with human writings upon
the second coming of Christ, the teaching of the Church Epistles on this
subject appears to be simple and harmonious Those passages which deal at
greatest length with the return of our Lord and the taking of His people to be with Himself, seem to set forth no limitations in regard to the
number of the saints which shall be translated. Such expressions as, "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."
(1 Thess. 4:16, 17); "They that are Christ’s at His coming" (1 Cor.
15:23); and "We shall all, be changed in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye" (1 Cor. 15:51); certainly appear to teach the rapture of the
entire Church, and, ought not we be very slow to accept any conflicting line of
teaching which would compel us to abandon the obvious meaning of these verses,
and instead, have to give them a strained interpretation so as to harmonize
them with something which is foreign to their plain signification? Yea, is it
not evident that any system of teaching which would compel
us to do this carries with it its own condemnation?
What then saith the Scriptures
and what is the testimony of the Church Epistles? The present writer believes
there can be only one answer to this question, namely, that
every member of Christ’s body will be raptured at the time our great Head comes
to conduct His blood-bought people to His Father’s House. We believe this, not
only because a number of Scriptures expressly affirm it, but also because some
of the great basic principles which underlie both the Gospel, and what is known
as "Church truth," demand this conclusion and repudiate the other
alternative. We would now humbly submit to the prayerful and
careful attention of our readers some of the grounds for our belief in a total
rather than in a partial rapture of the Church which in faithfulness to our
apprehension of God’s Truth on this subject, we must denominate the
partial-rapture theory.
1. Because GRACE is that which characterizes all God’s
dealings with His own during this dispensation and grace, necessarily.
eliminates all distinction of personal merits.
The advocates of the
partial-rapture theory declare that only those who are intelligently
and eagerly looking for the Lord will be caught up at His return. They affirm
that none save those who are walking worthily and who are faithful to the end
will be taken to be with the Lord when He descends into the air, and that only
such, will, subsequently, "reign" with Him during the millennial era.
They teach that all unspiritual believers will be left behind on earth to
suffer the judgments of the Great Tribulation. As a
consequence, not a few of the Lord’s people have been harassed and distressed,
fearful lest they should be among the number who are rejected by the Lord at
His coming. We are told that none but those who attain some high standard of
spirituality will be raptured, but when we ask for a precise definition of this
standard none can enlighten us; where we inquire, How faithful and
how worthy we must be in order to be among the select company who shall be
taken to the Father’s House, none can give us a satisfactory reply. Hence,
instead of the Return of our Lord being a blessed hope it becomes a source of
bewilderment and anxiety.
It appears
to the writer that there is one Scripture which simply and satisfactorily
disposes of every objection which can be brought against the affirmation that
the entire Body of Christ will be raptured at the appearing of our great Head.
We refer to 2 Thessalonians 2:16—"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and
God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting
consolation, and good hope through grace." Here we
learn that the "Hope" which has been given to God’s people in this
Age, like every other blessing we enjoy, is "a good hope through
grace," hence, all questions of worthiness, merit, desert, are forever
ruled out. Let us settle it once for all that the Dispensation in which we are
living is a unique one, that it is fundamentally different from all that have
preceded it and from that which is to follow it—the
Millennium. This is the Dispensation of Grace, and grace obliterates all
distinctions, grace eliminates all questions of merits; grace makes every
blessing a Divine and free gift. But, the human heart is essentially
legalistic. Man wishes to have a hand in his own salvation and desires to
contribute something to the price of his redemption. When, by grace, the Holy
Spirit has taught a soul that the Finished Work of Christ
is the sole ground of our justification before God, when he has learnt from the
Scripture of Truth that the Blood of the Cross cannot be plussed by anything
from the creature, then it is that the Enemy comes to that heart and seeks to
disturb its peace and rob it of the liberty wherewith it has been made free, by
insisting that faith in Christ merely puts us in a salvable condition, that believing the Gospel simply places us on an extended
probation, and that only if we obey God’s commands and walk worthily before Him
shall we be taken to Heaven at the close of our earthly pilgrimage. This is Law
mingled with Grace; thus is the precious Blood supplemented by human works.
Instead of realizing that good works flow from a heart that is filled with
gratitude to God and which are constrained by the love of
Christ, the believer is led so believe that good works must be performed by him
as a condition of his eternal salvation. But, even when the believer has been
delivered from this error, the legalistic tendency of the human heart still
seeks an outlet, and in our day it is manifested in reference to the Blessed
Hope of the believer. The saints are now taught that their Rapture and
Glorification are not "through grace" but will be
the result of personal effort and attainment. Thus does the leaven of legalism
work to the robbing of God of His glory and the believer of his peace.
Again we say, let us settle it
once for all that we are living in the Dispensation of Grace
(John 1:17; Eph. 3:2) and that every blessing we enjoy is a gift of Divine
clemency. We are justified by grace (Rom. 3:24). We are saved by grace (Eph.
2:8). The Holy Scriptures are refined "The Word of His Grace" (Acts
20:32). The Third Person of the Holy Trinity is denominated "The Spirit of
Grace" (Heb. 10:29). God is seated upon a Throne of Grace (Heb. 4:16).
And, the Good Hope which is given us is "through
grace" (2 Thess. 2:16). It is all of Grace from first to last. It is all
of Grace from beginning to end. It was grace that predestined us before the
world began (2 Tim. 1:9), and it will be grace that makes us like Christ at the
consummation of our salvation. Thank God for such a "Blessed Hope."
2. Because the Rapture is the CONSUMMATION OF OUR SALVATION
and therefore, being an integral and essential part of our salvation it cannot,
in anywise, be determined by our personal worthiness.
Our salvation will not be
complete until the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the New
Testament "salvation" is threefold in its scope—past, present, and
future; and it is threefold in its character—from the penalty of sin, from the
power of sin, and from the presence of sin. Every believer has been saved from
the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin is "death" (separation from God),
and we are delivered from it because, our Substitute died for us on the
Cross—"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body
on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24). But while ever), believer has been completely
and eternally saved from the penalty of sin—from the wrath to come—while it is
true that there is no sin ON us (all our iniquities were "laid" on
Christ—Isa. 53:6), yet, sin is still IN us. The evil nature remains even in the
one who has been born again. Yet, notwithstanding this, Christ also indwells
each of His own people and from Him may be drawn grace and
strength and thus, day by day, we are being saved from the power of sin. But we
shall yet be saved from the very presence of sin—"For our citizenship is
in heaven; item whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious
body, according to the working whereby He is able even to
subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. 3:20, 21). At our Lord’s return we
shall be completely emancipated from the dominion and pollution of sin. It was
this the apostle Paul had before him when he wrote—"And the very God of
peace sanctity you wholly—completely, i.e. in each part of our threefold
being—and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto (at) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1
Thess. 5:23).
We have thus shown that our
salvation will not be consummated until the Return of our blessed Savior, that
not until then shall we be completely "conformed" to the image of
God’s Son (Rom. 8:29). It is not until Christ’s second advent that the purpose of our predestination will be fully realized, for it
is not until then we shall be "glorified" (Rom. 8:30). If then
salvation is by grace and it Christ is our Savior—our Savior from the presence
of sin as well as from its penalty and power—then our own works (our obedience,
faithfulness, service etc.) are not the determining factor, nor even a
contributing factor. Salvation is not partly of grace and partly of works; if it were we should have ground for "boasting" and
Christ would be robbed of at least a part of His glory. Once we see that the
time of our Lord’s Return is the time when our salvation is consummated and
once we see that salvation is by grace, through faith, and not of works, then
it will be clear that it cannot, in anywise, be determined by our personal
worthiness.
3.
Because to make our Rapture dependent upon anything in us is to attack the
Finished Work of Christ.
We do not charge the advocates
of the partial-rapture theory with intentionally doing
this, nay we are fully satisfied that most if not all of them would shrink back
in horror from wittingly committing such a sin. Yet, we do say that this is the
logical and actual outcome of their teaching. A long drawn-out argument is not
needed to prove this after what we have said above under the first two heads.
If the Rapture is the consummation of the application of our salvation then
anything which makes that salvation, or any part thereof,
dependent upon anything in or from us, necessarily attacks the Finished Work of
Christ upon which alone our salvation rests.
As we have already said, the
Rapture is the time when Christ returns to conduct His blood-bought
people to the Father’s House (John 14:1-3). What then is it that gives title
and fitness for the Father’s House? Surely there can be only one answer to this
question. Surely none but those who are ignorant of the character and contents
of the Gospel of God would declare that our wretched works are needed to
supplement the Cross-Work of Christ. But, blessed be God, the point we are now
considering is not left to be determined by logical
deductions, but is the express subject of Divine revelation. In Colossians 1:12
we are exhorted to give thanks unto the Father "which hath made us meet to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." The
"inheritance of the saints in light" is not a matter of attainment as
certain teachers are today affirming, but is an occasion of thanksgiving to
God, because it is due solely to His grace. Observe
carefully the tense of the verb here: it is not we are "being made
meet," still less that we are making ourselves meet, but "which HATH
made us meet." Again we ask, What is it that gives us title to the
inheritance of the saints in light? And we reply, Nought but the precious blood
and infinite merits of our. great God and Savior Jesus Christ. What was it that
qualified the "Prodigal" for a place at the
Father’s table? Did he have to submit to a lengthy probation after he returned
home and before he was permitted to feast with the Father? No; the "best
robe"—which speaks of "the robe of righteousness" (Isa. 61:10)
which is the portion of every believer—was all that was needed. Was not the "Repentant
Thief" made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light the same hour
in which he believed? Unquestionably, for our Lord assured
him, "Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." If then the
"best robe" was all that the Prodigal needed to fit him for a place
at the Father’s table, and if repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ was sufficient to translate the Dying Thief to Paradise, is it not clear
that nothing further will, be demanded of those whom the Lord shall conduct to
the Father’s House at the time of His Return?
4.
Because the Rapture of a part of the Church truly, would leave the remainder of
it still upon the earth and that prevent the manifestation of the Man of sin.
The
picture that is presented in 2 Thessalonians 2 is an exceedingly solemn one.
There we learn that the mystery of iniquity which was at work even in the days
of the apostle Paul and which has been hindered from coming to complete
fruition will yet head up in the appearing of the Man of Sin, the Son of
Perdition. The coming of this Devil-Man will be "after the working of
Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with
all deveivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." Then it will
be that the Devil is allowed "free rein." Then it is that, through
the Antichrist, Satan will deceive the whole world. There will be many on earth
at that time who in former days had listened unmoved to the preaching of the
Gospel had treated with scorn or indifference its gracious offers. Hence
"because they loved not the truth, that they might be
saved God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie that
they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in
unrighteousness."
We have said above that 2
Thessalonians 2 pictures a time when the Devil will be allowed
"free rein." This will be the season when all his diabolical scheming
will attain its full development in the manifestation of the Son of Perdition.
Today it is otherwise. In this Dispensation, Satan is held in check, and his
plans are not permitted to fully materialize. Today it is impossible for the
Man of Sin to appear on the stage of this world as the above passage clearly
intimates. Says the apostle, "Remember ye not, that,
when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know that which
restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the
mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth
now until He be taken out of the way." (2 Thess. 2:5-7, R.V.).
The
"mystery of lawlessness" (in contrast to "the mystery of
godliness," i.e. "God manifest in the flesh"—1 Timothy 3:16)
will terminate in the Satanic parody of the Divine incarnation—the bringing
forth by Satan of the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition. This Man of Sin will be
revealed "in his own season." That "season" has not yet
arrived. The reference is to the Great Tribulation period. There are two entities which are now preventing the appearing of the
Antichrist. They are referred to in 2 Thessalonians 2 as "that which
restraineth" and there is "One that restraineth now until He be taken
out of the way." The former is the Church which is the body of Christ; the
latter is the Holy Spirit Himself. The Church which is indwelt and energized by
the Holy Spirit is now hindering and preventing the full development
of the Mystery of Lawlessness and the consequent appearing of the Lawless One.
Not until the whole of the Church and the Holy Spirit leave this earth
("until He be taken out of the way") can the Man of Sin appear.
Here then is a simple but
conclusive argument which all should be able to grasp. Passing
by the question of—How would it be possible for the Holy Spirit to be
"taken out of the way" while many of those whom He indwells are left
behind on the earth—we would point out the obvious fact that no part of the
Church can be left behind on earth at the Return of Christ into the air, or,
otherwise, there would still be a hindrance to the consummating of the Mystery
of Lawlessness. Christ declared that His disciples were
"the salt of the earth." They are God’s preservative. They are His
instrument of preventing everything on earth going to utter decay and
rottenness. But in the Tribulation period everything on earth will have gone to
utter corruption as is clear from the words of our Lord—"For wheresoever
the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matthew
24:28)—a prophetic utterance which will receive its
fulfillment at the very season of which we are now treating. We are told that
in the days which immediately preceded the Flood "All flesh had corrupted
his way upon the earth" (Gen. 6:12) and our Lord declared, "But as
the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be"
(Matthew 24:37) i.e.—His coming back to the earth: the conditions which He will
find prevailing here at that time.
We repeat, at the Rapture and
during the Tribulation period everything on earth will be morally and
spiritually rotten. Even God’s judgments at that time will have no other effect
than to cause earth’s-dwellers to "blaspheme God" (Rev. 16:11 etc.) Hence, is it not evident that the whole of the salt (except
that which has "lost its savor," i.e., formal professors) must have
first been removed: that the church and the Holy Spirit which now make
impossible this total corruption must first be "taken out of the
way"!
5. Because for the believer there is "no
judgment" and all upon earth during the Tribulation period are
unquestionably the subjects of God’s judgments.
One of the most blessed, most remarkable
and most far-reaching utterances which fell from our Lord’s lips while He
tabernacled among men is that recorded in John 5:24,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on
Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath
passed out of death into life." Nothing could be simpler than this. The
one who has received Christ as his or her Savior is for ever beyond the reach
of Divine "judgment." We quote this verse from the Gospels because
the same assurance is given to us in the Church Epistles.
There, also, we read, "There is therefore now no judgment to them which
are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).
In the above verses an
unequivocal assertion is made which requires no great learning to understand.
Every believer has been justified by God Himself, justified eternally,
justified "from all things" (Acts 13:39). The result of this decision
in the High Court of Heaven for those who have been pronounced righteous is
that there is for them "no judgment." Hence it ought to be clear that
no believing sinner who has been "accepted in the Beloved" can
possibly be left on earth during the Great Tribulation, for at that time God’s
sore "judgments will be on earth." That then will be
the time when God’s Judgments are let loose needs no arguing—the last book in
the Bible makes that abundantly clear. The "seven golden vials" in
which are stored up the concentrated and long suppressed "wrath of
God" (Rev. 15) will then be poured forth upon the world which crucified
the Lord of Glory. To teach then, that any of the members of Christ’s body will
be left behind on earth to suffer these judgments is to
repudiate the express testimony of our Lord to the contrary, is to undermine
the glorious doctrine of Justification, and is to make God’s children the
subjects of His "wrath" instead of the objects of His love and grace.
6.
Because nothing can separate believers from the Love of Christ.
To those that believe perhaps
the most precious and amazing truth in all God’s Word is Christ’s Love for His
own. Unlike human love, His love is lavished upon the unlovely and unworthy.
Unlike human love, His love knows no change. Unlike human love, nothing can
separate us from His love—"Who (or "what") shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us" (Rom. 8:85-37).
The time
when our Lord’s Love will be fully exhibited and publicly displayed (before all
Heaven’s inhabitants) is that time when He shall rise up from the Father’s
Throne where He is now seated. Then it will be that He shall descend from
heaven with a "shout." What will occasion this "shout"?
What is it that He is descending for? Is it that He may return to the earth and
take its government upon His shoulder? Is it that He may be
coronated the King of kings? Is it that He may vanquish His blatant enemies? Is
it that He may bind that old Serpent. the Devil? No; important as these may be,
there is something else which must take the precedence; there is something else
which lies much nearer to His blessed heart. He descends to receive to Himself
His blood-bought people. Why? Because He loves them. He
comes for that Church which He loved, and for which He gave Himself in order
"that He might present it (not a part of it) to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and
without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). Ah! this will be the time when "He
shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied," and think you He
would be "satisfied" by seeing an incomplete
Church? To teach then that a part of the Church will be left behind when our
Lord comes back again to receive His people: unto Himself is to declare that
something (unfaithfulness or unworthiness) will separate some of the saints
from their Redeemer’s Love and thus Romans 8:35 is repudiated. Moreover, it is
to deny the comforting declaration of John 13:1—"Having loved His own
which were, in the world, He loved them to the end."
—Therefore, we say, Because nothing shall or can separate any believer from the
Love. of Christ, not one shall be left behind when He returns to take unto
Himself His blood-washed people. As it was declared of Israel of old in
connection with their leaving Egypt (type of the world)—"There shall not
an hoof be left behind" (Ex. 10:26).
7.
Because the inevitable tendency of the partial-rapture theory is to get
believers occupied with themselves instead of with Christ.
We shall not now attempt to
argue at length what is a matter of common observation. One
of the favorite devices of the Enemy is to get the believer occupied with
something other than Christ who is "Our Hope." And, let us say it
with emphasis, Satan cares not what that "something" may be,
providing that it shuts out our blessed Lord. This is his favorite device for
the sinner. While ever the sinner is taken up with his own works of
righteousness, the Finished Work of Christ is excluded from
His vision. So it is with the believer. We are hidden to "Seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God"
(Col. 3:1). But to hinder him from doing this, Satan is ever seeking to get the
believer concerned with something else. With some it is "the mammon of
unrighteousness;" with others it is "the care of this world."
With some it is politics and civic affairs; with others it
is Temperance reform work and Social-uplift activities. With some it is an
intellectual study of doctrine or prophecy divorced from heart-occupation with
Christ; with others it is their own experiences and attainments.
The life-task of the believer—blessed
privilege—was defined by the Lord Himself in that word to
Martha, "But one thing is needful" (Luke 10:42)—i.e., to sit at His
feet and find our delight in Him. O that we might come to the place where we
can say actually and experimentally, "Thou O Christ art all I want, more
than all in Thee I find." But, as we have said, this is exactly what Satan
seeks to prevent, and one of his "wiles" for preventing it (so it
appears to the writer) is the partial-rapture theory which
today is unsettling so many of the Lord’s dear people. Teach that participation
in the Rapture is a reward for faithfulness, and at once, the eyes are turned
from Christ to self. Necessarily so; for immediately, I shall be occupied with
my faithfulness, my obedience, my diligence, my service, the effect of which
will be the drawing of invidious distinctions and the cultivating of an
I-am-holier-than-thou spirit. But teach that the Rapture is
"a good hope through grace" and I shall be occupied with my returning
Lord. The Holy Spirit is here to glorify Christ and not to magnify personal
attainments, and whether or not a line or system of teaching proceeds from Him
may be judged by its logical and actual tendency to glorify Christ by getting
His people occupied with their Lord.
8. Because
the partial-rapture theory introduces a situation that is full of Confusion.
The leading advocates of the
partial-rapture theory teach that all believers who fail to come up to the
standard necessary for participation in the Rapture will not only be left behind on earth to suffer the judgments of the Great
Tribulation but that such will have no part or place in the Millennial Kingdom,
and therefore that they wilt not be raised from the dead until after the
thousand years. Now apart from the fact that there is no Scripture which
teaches a resurrection of saints at the close of the Millennium, we affirm that
such a theory as the above involves confusion of the worst
kind. We are told that certain saints (many of them) because of their
unfaithfulness or failure to "look" for their returning Savior will
not be raptured at the time our Lord descends to the air, in fact will not be
"glorified" until the close of the thousand years. Unquestionably
there have been many saints all through this Dispensation who failed to measure
up to the standard fixed by partial-raptureists and yet,
dying hundreds of years ago, they have during all the intervening centuries
been "present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8). What absurdity is it then
which teaches that these saints who have been with the Lord all these
centuries, will nevertheless, be separated from Him during the Millennium!
Again.
During the Tribulation period there will be on earth a Jewish remnant who will
cry unto God in the language of the Imprecatory Psalms. These Jews, harassed by
the Antichrist and persecuted by his followers, will cry—"Consume them in
wrath, consume them that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in
Jacob unto the ends of the earth" (Ps. 59:13). They will exclaim: —"Keep
not Thou silence, O God: hold not Thy peace, and be not
still, O God. For, lo, Thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate Thee
have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people, and
consulted against Thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them
off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
For they have consulted together with one consent: they are
confederate against Thee. O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble
before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the
mountains on fire; so persecute them with Thy tempest, and make them afraid
with Thy storm. Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea let them be
put to shame and perish." (Ps. 83:1-5, 13-15,17). Now could such prayers
as these, ascend from the lips of the members of the body
of Christ who have been saved by grace! The above are inspired prayers which
the Jews will appropriate to themselves in the time of "Jacob’s
Trouble," but who can imagine Christians praying such prayers? We have
been instructed to be "kind one to another, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you" (Eph. 4:32). The saints of this Dispensation are told "Bless them which persecute you:
bless, and curse not" (Rom. 12:14). The requirement of the Church Epistles
is, "See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that
which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men" (1 Thess. 5:15). If
then a part of the Church were on earth during the Tribulation period we should
have the following strange anomoly—The Jews praying to God
to take vengeance upon their enemies and Christians praying to God to
"forgive" these same foes! Surely a theory which involves such
confusion as this cannot be according to the Scriptures.
The truth is that
partial-raptureists confound entrance into the Kingdom with position
of honor in it. All believers who belong to this Dispensation will partake of
the blessedness of the Millennial era and will reign with Christ throughout it,
but all will not be on the same level. Special positions of honor will be
allotted to those who have qualified themselves for such (Luke 19:17, etc.).
Special "prizes" await those who shall win these marks of
distinction. But this is quite another thing from entrance
into the Millennial Kingdom itself. Entrance into that Kingdom is solely a
matter of Divine grace, but an "abundant entrance" into it is
conditional upon our present fidelity to the Lord. New birth admits us into the
Kingdom of God (John 3:5), but diligent service, faithfulness unto death, and
loving the appearing of Christ are the several conditions for the
"crowns."
9.
Because the Church Epistles plainly teach that ALL believers will be raptured
at the time of our Lord’s Return.
In Romans 8:30 we read,
"Whom He justified, them He also glorified." Glorification
is co-extensive with justification. This is admitted by all: the point at issue
is—Will all be glorified at the same time? We answer, assuredly they will. Do we
not read "We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye" (1 Cor. 15:51,52)? "We shall all be changed" at the same
moment, for the passage continues "At the last trump: for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we (all living believers) shall be changed."
In 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23 we
read, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
But every man in his own order: Christ rite firstfruits: afterward they that
are Christ’s at His coming." Note particularly the words. "They that
are Christ’s at His coming." How simple! how
all-inclusive! how blessed! It is not "They that are faithful or
worthy." It is not "they that have attained some high standard of
moral excellence." It is not "they that have been unusually diligent
and successful in service." But "They that are Christ’s." That
is all. It is simply a question of belonging to Christ, being one of His is
people.
In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we are
told "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that
every one may receive the things done in his body, according, to that he hath
done, whether it be good or bad." That unfaithful believers are not
excluded from this appearing before the Bema of Christ is clear from 1 Corinthians
3—"Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the
day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall
try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (1
Cor. 3:13-15). There will be some in that day who will "suffer loss," nevertheless, they will be present at the Bema
with their fellow-believers and furthermore, they will he "saved."
How remarkable it is that these comprehensive assurances are found in the
Corinthian Epistles—addressed to a church whose moral condition was the worst
of all the churches addressed by the apostle Paul, as if to anticipate this
modern heresy of limiting the Rapture to spiritual believers!
In 1 Thessalonians 4:16 we
read, "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the arch-angel, and with the tromp 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." The dead "in
Christ." Here again it is simply a question of being "in
Christ." There is no third position: it is out of Christ, or in Christ. In
God’s sight every person that is now on the earth is either in Adam or in
Christ. All who were "in Christ" when they died shall be raised from
the dead at the time of His return. This is sure, and it is equally sure that
every believer who is alive on the earth at that blest day
shall be caught up together with all the resurrected saints to meet our Lord in
the air and be forever with Him.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:7,10 we
read, "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels when He shall come
to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that
believe." Observe once more the universality of such a promise, and note,
too, its simplicity and how it turns back to first principles. Our Lord is to
be admired in all them that believe. All is traced back to simple faith. It is
not at all a question of worthiness or attainments. The same simple heart trust
in Christ which delivered us from the wrath to come, shall
most certainly secure for every saint a participation in the Rapture and a
place in the Millennial Kingdom, for this last quoted passage carries us
forward to the Millennium itself.
10.
Because there is not a single Scripture in the Church Epistles which, rightly interpreted, teaches a partial rapture.
How could there be? Scripture
cannot contradict itself. If the Pauline Epistles explicitly teach and
expressly affirm that "all shall be changed in a moment," that
"they that are Christ’s at His coming shall be raised from the dead,"
that "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of
Christ" and that when our Lord returns to the earth to be glorified in His
saints He shall be "admired in all them that believe" then these same
Church Epistles can not teach that a part of the Church only shall be taken to
be with the Lord, that merely a favored selection from among His people shall
be conducted by Him to the Father’s House, and that the remainder shall be left behind on the earth to suffer the judgments of the Great
Tribulation or be left in their grave until the close of the Millennium. Even
though there should be certain passages which seem to teach or imply a partial
rapture we. know that it cannot be so, and that it is we who fail to expound
these passages in harmony with those which positively teach a total rapture of
the Church.
It is a fundamental principle
of Scriptural interpretation that whenever God’s Word speaks plainly and
emphatically on any subject that obscure passages which treat of the same theme
must be explained in accord with those passages, about which there is no
dubiety. For example, when we hear our Lord saying "My sheep shall never perish" etc. then we know that in such
passages as those of Hebrews 6 and 10, which treat of the irrecoverable doom of
apostates, the apostle must have had before him professors and not persons who
had been born again. In a like manner when we find a passage which appears to
bear upon the Rapture and which is in anywise ambiguous then we must not make
it teach that which would conflict with other passages
which deal with the Blessed Hope and which are plain and positive.
"That I may know Him, and
the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made
conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead" (Phil. 3:10,11). These words, "If
by any means I might attain unto the out-resurrection from among the dead"
(Greek) are understood by partial-raptureists to refer to a select resurrection
from among the dead at the time of our Lord’s Return, and hence, they conclude
that as the resurrection referred to is spoken of; as a matter of attainment,
then, only select company of believers will participate
therein. But let ask the question, Does the apostle here refer to a physical
resurrection? In the New Testament the reruns "death" and
"resurrection" have a fourfold scope, viz.:—physical death and
resurrection, spiritual death and resurrection, judicial death and resurrection,
and experimental death and resurrection. We need not submit proof texts for the
first, but we will do so with reference to the last three.
In John 5:24-26 we read,
"Verily, verily, I say unto the, He that heareth My word, and believeth on
Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation;
but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life
in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." Now the
words "death" and "life" in this passage can only refer to
spiritual death, spiritual life, and spiritual resurrection—"passed from
death unto life." By nature we are spiritually dead—"dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), but by the new birth we
pass from death unto life. Regeneration is therefore a spiritual resurrection.
Further. In Romans 6:2 we
read, "How shall we that died to sin (Greek), live any longer
therein?" and in Colossians 3:1—"If then ye be risen with Christ seek
those things which are above." These two verses refer
to the believer’s judicial death and resurrection. This side of the truth is
little known or understood, but we cannot now dwell upon it at any length. One
word sums it all up—identification. On the Cross there was a double
identification—all believers understand the first side of it, but few are clear
upon the second. In the reckoning of God and in the eye of the Law Christ was identified with us as lost sinners. He took our
place and bore our sins. He endured the full penalty of the broken law in our
stead. But further, (and it is deeply important that we should apprehend this)
in the reckoning of God and in the eye of the Law all believers were identified
with Christ. Hence, every believer can say "I was crucified (Greek) with
Christ" (Gal. 2:20). In the sight of God I died on the Cross
because Christ hung there as my substitute and what a substitute does or
suffers is imputed to the account of the one on whose behalf he is acting.
Hence, we repeat, in God’s sight, when Christ died I died, "died to
sin," died to the law, died to the world, died to everything that had to
do with my old standing in Adam.
But
further still. Death did not retain Christ. He rose again, and in the reckoning
of God I rose too, for all believers were identified (reckoned one with) with
Christ in His resurrection, so that it is written, "But God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins (spiritually, and therefore, judicially), hath quickened (made alive) us.
together with Christ" (Eph. 2:4,8). It is not our
individual spiritual quickening (the new birth) that is here in view, but our
judicial identification with Christ—"together with Christ." The next
verse goes raft, her still and informs us that, in the reckoning of God, all
believers were identified with Christ in His ascension—"And hath raised us
up together (Christ and His people), and made us sit together in the Heavenlies
(Greek) in Christ Jesus." Observe that this is
"in Christ Jesus" which refers to our position before God (compare
"in Christ Jesus" Romans 8:1) and is not at all, a question of
experience or attainment. We are now prepared to consider the fourth aspect of
"death" and "resurrection."
Every
believer in Christ has "died to sin," died judicially not
experimentally, died in the sight of God because he was "crucified with
Christ." Here then is where faith comes in. God says I am "dead to
sin" (Rom. 6:2), but "I don’t feel dead to sin: my experience shows
me otherwise," says one. Beloved, it is not a question of
"feelings" or "experience" but of believing the testimony
of God. Hear Him: "Reckon ye also yourselves to have
died indeed unto sin (Greek) and to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (Rom. 6:11). Here then is the experimental death and resurrection.
By faith I am to translate into my practical life what is true of me
judicially. Believing God’s Word which tells me I have died unto sin and that I
am alive unto God through (or rather "IN") Jesus Christ our Lord, I
am now to live in the realization and power o[that truth.
This is what the apostle had reference to when he said, "Mortify (put to
death) therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:5): the
"therefore" looking back to the previous verses where he had been
discussing the believer’s judicial death and resurrection. It was as though he
said, See to it that yore practical state corresponds with the standing which
you have before God "in Christ."
Returning now to Philippians
3. Here Paul is speaking "resurrection" but, as we have seen, the New
Testament treats of four different orders of resurrection, to which of them
then is the apostle here referring? Is he here speaking of physical resurrection, spiritual resurrection, judicial resurrection,
or perimental resurrection? The context must decide. A close reading of the
entire passage will make it evident that it is experimental resurrection which
the apostle had before him. The whole passage refers to his practical
experience and is a biographical amplification of Romans 6:11. Beginning at the
seventh verse he says—"But what things were gain to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things (how evident it is that the apostle is
here recounting a practical experience!, and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ, And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know Him (the Greek word
here is "ginosko" and means know intimately), and the power of His
resurrection" (vv. 3 to 10). The apostle yearned to live as one who had
been raised from the dead. He longed to walk in "newness of life." He
desired that .he should no longer "serve sin." "And the fellowship
of His sufferings, being made comformable unto His
death" The apostle longed to tread the same path his Lord had trod, to be
baptized with the baptism He had been baptized with, and to drink of the cup
which He drank (Mark 10:38, 39).
"If by any means I might
attain unto the out-resurrection frown among the dead" (Phil.
3:11), that is, if, by any means I might experience the full and blessed
effects of complying completely with the terms of Romans 6:11—reckon myself
indeed to have died unto sin and be alive unto God. The apostle longed to
apprehend or lay hold of that for which he had been apprehended, namely, to be
"conformed to the image of God’s Son." What he desired above every
thing else for himself, was that he might realize
practically in his daily life, that which was true of him judicially in regard
to his standing before God. But had the apostle fully achieved his ambition?
Had he arrived at the place where he was now beyond the reach of the lusts of
the "old man"? Did he never yield to temptation? Was he delivered
from the very presence of sin? Nay, verily. The language of the next verse is
very emphatic—"Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect" (v. 12). Here is proof positive that in the
previous verse the apostle was not writing about a future resurrection of the
body, for if participation in the first resurrection (or of an eclectic
resurrection at the return of Christ) is the reward for a life of exceptional
spirituality, the apostle here acknowledges that he himself did not measure up
to the required standard—and if he did not, who has? No,
this passage proves too much for the partial-raptureist, for in making the
resurrection of believers a matter of spiritual attainment he excludes the
Apostle Paul himself! It should be evident that the apostle is here referring
to an experimental resurrection, something which had to do with his practical
everyday life. Someone once said to an Irish brother, "Pat, you are, dead to sin: Your old man was crucified with
Christ." "Yes," was the reply "but, I’m frequently troubled
with my ghost." Says the apostle, "I count not myself to have
apprehended: but lifts one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
(his successes and his failures; his attainments and his sins), and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark (goal) for
the prize of the high calling (or "vocation") of
God in Christ" (vv. 13,14). A further word on this last verse.
Note the apostle speaks of:
"the prize of the high calling" which is quite distinct from the
"high-calling" itself. The "high-calling of God in Christ
Jesus" is the judicial position which is occupied by
every believer. It is to this the apostle referred when he said, "I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation (the "high-calling") wherewith ye are called" (Eph.
4:1), and for those who do "walk worthy" there is a
"prize." Did the apostle succeed in winning it? We certainly believe
so. 2 Timothy 4 is the SEQUEL to Philippians 3! Listen to
the beloved apostle as he has arrived at the close of his earthly
pilgrimage—"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is
at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness (the
"prize" he so earnestly revered), which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love His appearing"
(2 Tim. 4:6-8). May grace be
given both reader and writer to fight the good fight of faith, to finish our
course with joy, and to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered
unto the saints.