Replies

also gives us the mystery (something not told before) of the Rapture... in that not all will die but that the dead in Christ will be raised up along with [sic] those in Christ who are living, at that time that He comes in the clouds for His own... :-)

The mystery referred to here is the instantaneous change of our physical nature upon the return of the Lord whether or not we have died, not the scheduling and ETA's of various raptures and resurrections.

Note that the mystery isn't the resurrection since those Paul was writing to already knew about that.

It wasn't about the return of Jesus in the clouds because the angels told those watching him leave, "Why are you standing around gawking? He'll return in the same way you saw him leave."

It wasn't that Jesus would come back again and receive the believers to himself because he had already said that.

It wasn't about the timing of the resurrection relative to those still living because Paul had already dealt with that earlier when he was counseling these people who had been scammed by the first century's version of the Left Behind movement.

It wasn't about the unambiguous appearance of the Lord himself in the sky with sights and sounds, which the 1st century Left Behind group seemed to have forgotten about when telling others that the resurrection had already happened, since Jesus had already talked about the angels being sent out upon his return at the sound of the trumpet to pick up his own around the world.

The mystery was not even that those living would be taken together with the risen dead to meet the Lord in the air since it was a given, through Jesus's parable of the harvest, that the elect would not be dead when he returned but left behind after the evil were taken away by the angels and then subsequently gathered to Jesus.

The mystery was that all believers who had not died by the time of the Lord's return would be changed instantaneously into imperishable and immortal bodies along with all those who have "slept in Christ."

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."

This is how he reassured the scammed ones: When Jesus comes and resurrects the dead in Christ, you're going to know it because you'll be instantly changed from mortal to immortal bodies. There won't be any mistake about it. Are you changed now? Okay, then, the resurrection has not occurred, but it will and you'll be a part of it whether you are dead or alive. "Therefore, my dear brothers. Stand firm. Let nothing move you."

As you can see from this particular passage up above ...

Contrasts Between Comings

The Rapture is characterized in the New Testament as a "translation or resurrection coming" (1 Cor. 15:51-52; 1 Thess. 4:15-17) in which the Lord comes for His church, taking her to His Father's house (John 14:3). On the other hand, Christ's Second Advent with His saints (the Church = Rev. 19) descends from heaven and arrives on earth to stay and set up His Messianic Kingdom (Zech. 14:4-5; Matt. 24:27-31). The differences between these two events are harmonized naturally by the pre-trib position, while other views are not able to comfortably account for such differences.

Paul speaks of the Rapture as a "mystery" (1 Cor. 15:51-54), that is, a truth not revealed until it was disclosed by the apostles (Col. 1:26). Thus the Rapture is said to be a newly revealed mystery, making it a separate event. The Second Coming, on the other hand, was predicted in the Old Testament (Dan. 12:1-3; Zech. 12:10; 14:4).

The New Testament teaches about the Rapture of the church and yet also speaks of the Second Coming of Christ. These two events are different in a number of ways. Note the following contrasts between the translation at the Rapture and Christ's Second Coming to establish the kingdom.

    Rapture/Translation                   2nd Coming/Estabish Kingdom

 1. Translation of all believers             1. No translation at all

 2. Translated saints go to heaven           2. Translated saints return to earth

 3. Earth not judged                         3. Earth judged & righteousness established

 4. Imminent, any-moment, signless           4. Follows definite predicted signs including tribulation

 5. Not in the Old Testament                 5. Predicted often in Old Testament

 6. Believers only                           6. Affects all men

 7. Before the day of wrath                  7. Concluding the day of wrath

 8. No reference to Satan                    8. Satan bound

 9. Christ comes for His own                 9. Christ comes with His own

10. He comes in the air                     10. He comes to the earth

11. He claims His bride                     11. He comes with His bride

12. Only His own see Him                    12. Every eye shall see Him

13. Tribulation begins                      13. Millennial Kingdom begins

Dr. John Walvoord concludes that these "contrasts should make it evident that the translation of the church is an event quite different in character and time from the return of the Lord to establish His kingdom, and confirms the conclusion that the translation takes place before the tribulation."⁵

Both events mention clouds symbolizing a heavenly role in both, but other differences demonstrate that these are two distinct events. At the Rapture, the Lord comes for His saints (1 Thes. 4:16); at the Second Coming the Lord comes with His saints (1 Thes. 3:13). At the Rapture, the Lord comes only for believers, but His return to the earth will impact all people. The Rapture is a translation/resurrection event; the Second Coming is not. At the Rapture, the Lord takes believers from earth to heaven "to the Father's house" (John 14:3); at the Second Coming believers return from heaven to the earth (Matt. 24:30).

The best harmonization of these two different events supports a pretribulational Rapture (which is signless and could happen at any moment), while the many events taking place during the Tribulation are best understood as signs leading up to the Second Coming.

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."

Even more to the point, the mystery was not only that we who are living at the Lord's return will have our living bodies changed instantaneously into incorruptible bodies but that the dead would also. This is something new in the Biblical teaching of resurrection: not only will the dead be raised to new life, they won't be resurrected into bodies subject to death again. As is pointed out in The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright, in the ancient world of the Middle East as well as Rome and Greece, there was no concept of the resurrection of an individual into a corporeal life. There were tales of some sort of shadowy afterlife, but there was nothing like the resurrection finally taught by the Jews and the Christians. And Paul expands on that here. The dead will be raised to corporeal life, but it won't simply be more time in this same old world. And we who are living will be changed into a still-living corporeal existence, but one that is no longer for this same old world. We will have bodies that will not wear out (incorruptible) and that will not die (immortal). This is considerably different from "can these bones live again?"