In the countdown to October 21 (tomorrow), the date set by Harold Camping for the time of the Rapture of the Church, many well known evangelical preachers – particularly those whose teaching is broadcast via radio – have preempted their regular series to rebut and clarify this issue for their congregations and listening audiences.
Why rebut and clarify? Recall that Harold Camping first predicted the end of the world as we know it and the rapture of the Church for this past May 21. When that date came and went with no fulfillment Camping went into brief seclusion and came up with a new date five months later, Friday, October 21, 2011.
Although one would expect some aspersions to be cast like “deluded nut case” or “false prophet,” the tone of Mr. Camping’s critics has been graciously subdued – at least that which I’ve heard. The radio preachers I have heard have begun their rebuttal with a fresh exposition of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) where Jesus answers the questions of the disciples, “What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age.”
Most also are taking this approach, it seems, to get to Jesus’ very unambiguous and categorical statement that “No man knows the day or the hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matt.24:36; Mark 13:32). The subtext being: “So who are you Mr. Camping to think that this doesn’t apply to you?”
As much as I would agree with the critics that Mr. Camping is at best supremely arrogant and at worst deluded, I have to say that the evangelicals responding to him are equally off base and wrong. What Jesus was referring to when He said “No one knows…[except] the Father” was not the time of the rapture of the Church but His second coming in power and glory (see the disciples’ questions in Matt.24:3).
On the contrary, the Bible is equally unambiguous and explicit as to when the rapture of the Church will occur! Let me say that again and in other words. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms when living believers will be caught up in the so-called rapture event. Again – God wants Christians to know when the Rapture will be and He has plainly revealed it in the scriptures. Furthermore, it is not a matter of calculating numbers, rolling dice, or gazing into the stars (things I imagine Harold Camping doing). Rather it’s spelled out for us by the apostle Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians.
Before we go there I have to say it is ironic that the radio personalities responding to Mr. Camping’s setting a date for the rapture universally neglect to go to the one passage in the Bible that speaks of the rapture. Actually, it’s not so much ironic as it is telling. Telling because if they read the passage I’m about to go to it would refute their very own “timing of the rapture.” To read what I mean read this post.
But going to the one passage in the whole Bible that speaks of the rapture – 1Thessalonians 4:15-17 “According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them…”
Verse 17 tells us the event in view is the rapture – living believers being “caught up”. Verse 16 tells us this happens a mere moment after all the dead believers have been raised. Lastly, v.15 tells us precisely when this happens – at “the coming of the Lord.” The rapture of living believers, along with the resurrection of the dead in Christ, happens at the second coming of the Lord Jesus in power and glory – not before, not after. Of all the things in the Bible that are revealed plainly, this is certainly one of them.
