SESSION 8: The Rapture, Second Coming and Final Judgment

--- Hello, and welcome to the eighth and final session of our series, Knowing What You Believe. I sincerely hope you've been enjoying this series, and this final session, as you can see, is going to be about the rapture, the second coming, and the final judgment. You know, when we talk about the rapture and the second coming, I think there are a fair amount of Christians who really don't fully understand the difference between those two events. We're going to do our best to untangle that particular question and help you come away with a better understanding of what things are going to be happening during the last days as it relates to the coming of our Lord Jesus. Let's get into the rapture. In the rapture, the Lord doesn't actually return to the earth. He simply returns for his bride. This is called also the catching away of the church, and it is written about by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians. Let me show you. From 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, it says,

There are several things from this passage that I want to point out. The first of which is that we get our word, rapture, from some words in this passage. The English words, caught up, that you see there in that passage, are from the Greek word harpazo. Now if you were to translate the New Testament into Latin, the word would be rapturo. And that is where we get our word, rapture—to be caught up. The next thing we learn is that those who are alive on the earth, who are believers, will not be caught up before those who had previously passed away in Christ. This is where Paul says, we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. And that simply means that the dead in Christ will rise first. Now remember, that doesn't mean that the dead in Christ were simply waiting in their grave for the rapture to take place. You know, the Bible tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When people die in Christ, they immediately go into the presence of the Lord. There's no sleeping or slumber. There's no unconscious state that people are in awaiting the resurrection. They're with the Lord. At the resurrection, their bodies—we're talking about the bodies of those who have died in Christ—are raised, and their spirit and soul, which has been with the Lord, is joined with that new resurrection body. Next we're told, the Lord will descend from heaven. So this is a coming of the Lord, since he is descending from heaven, but it's not a full coming of the Lord, because again, he doesn't actually come to earth. We meet the Lord in the air. Next we're told that there will be heavenly sounds associated with the rapture. Paul writes, a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And then Paul repeats the phrase, the dead in Christ will rise first. Once again, referring to the raising of their bodies. Next, believers who are then alive on the earth at the time of the rapture, will be caught up. As Paul says, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them. And then Paul gives us the location of our meeting with the Lord, when he says, caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And finally, Paul says, and so we will always be with the Lord. This is the apostle Paul's way of saying that after the rapture, there will no longer be any separation between Jesus, the bridegroom, and his bride. They will forever be together. In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul gives us additional information about the transformation that will take place in the bodies of those who are still alive on the earth when the rapture takes place. The passage goes like this,

This is really a wonderful passage, where the apostle Paul is describing the immediate transformation that takes place in the bodies of those who are still alive on the earth when the rapture takes place. I mean, it's one thing to have your resurrection body raised, but can you imagine being on the earth and still alive when the trumpet sounds and Jesus returns for his bride? For those people, they will not experience physical death. Paul simply says, we will not all sleep. Now, the word sleep there is a euphemism that the apostle Paul uses for Christian death. It's not literally saying that we're going to sleep in the earth or sleep in our graves. He's using that term to describe how the human body looks after the spirit and the soul have departed. In other words, at death, it appears like the person is sleeping. And yet he says, we shall not all die, but we will all be changed. He says, it won't take long. It's just a moment, the twinkling of an eye. And then he says, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we, again, who are still alive on the earth, will be changed. The final thing that we learn about the rapture is that it's going to be sudden and unexpected. This is what Jesus told us. Let me show you this. From Matthew chapter 24,

Now you might be looking at this passage and saying, now, wait a minute. How do we know that what Jesus is talking about here refers to the rapture? He could be talking about the second coming. Remember something. The second coming of Jesus, when he comes to the earth, which we'll talk about in just a moment, comes at the very end of the Great Tribulation. And you need to remember what's been going on during the Great Tribulation. The last three and a half years have seen the outpouring of God's wrath upon the earth. Many of the people on the earth have perished. And much of the earth has been scorched and is no longer livable. I sincerely doubt that by that time, people will be carrying on as normal. Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. No, at the end of the Tribulation, it's going to be a terrible time. People hanging on by a thread. And it will not be life as normal. But it will be life as normal when the rapture takes place, because that happens prior to the Great Tribulation. Let's move on now and talk about the second coming. The Bible tells us about a time of war that is going to take place toward the very end of the Great Tribulation period. The Bible refers to that war as the War of Armageddon. And we read about this in many places, frankly, throughout the Bible, but none more clearly shown than in the book of Zechariah from the Old Testament. Let me show you. Zechariah 12,

Now, this is one of the ways we know that this sort of persecution of the Jews, this battle against the Jews has not taken place yet, because it says here very clearly that all the nations of the earth will gather against it. That hasn't happened yet. Let's keep reading. From Zechariah 14,

Now, this prophecy from Zechariah 14 is even clearer. It tells us that all the nations will come against Israel, and they will appear very much to be winning. In fact, Zechariah says that all the spoil that has been taken from Israel will literally be divided up by their enemies right in their midst as they're watching. And then something incredible is going to happen. It says at the end of that prophecy, then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations. We keep reading in the book of Zechariah, and we see this,

These are amazing prophecies from the Old Testament talking about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And one of the things we see about the Second Coming is that it is primarily at first for the nation of Israel. Now the coming of Jesus, this Second Coming, was also seen by John in the revelation that was given to him by the Lord. Let me show you.

So John was shown the Second Coming when Jesus comes to make war, and he specifically says in this prophecy that he will strike down the nations. These are the nations that have assembled against Israel, the nations that Zechariah talks about, who have come to literally wipe Jerusalem off the map. Now, how will Israel respond when Jesus first returns? This is very interesting. We go back to Zechariah to learn that at first it will be a time of great mourning. Let me show you. From Zechariah 12,

You might be wondering, why is Israel going to mourn when Jesus returns? Aren't they going to be happy about his return? Aren't they going to be thrilled that their Savior has arrived to save them from these assembled nations who have come to destroy them? Well, that's the point. They're going to realize that their Savior, the one who has come, came a first time, and they didn't recognize him, even though he came to his own people. And because of that, they will mourn. But from that time of mourning, there will come a time of salvation. They will realize that he is the Savior, the one who died on the cross to forgive their sins. Look at this passage. From Zechariah 13,

In other words, there will be a collective turning of Israel to the Lord at that time. They will receive him as their eternal Savior, the one who died to bear their sins. You know, the apostle Paul talks about this same time of Israel coming to the Lord. It's in the book of Romans. Let me show you. Romans 11,

Paul is quoting a couple of passages there from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, which speaks of this collective, national turning to the Lord when Jesus returns at His Second Coming. Finally, this special day of the Lord's return will be a day of victory for Israel, as the Lord enables Israel to fight against their enemies and also fights on their behalf. Let me show you. From Zechariah 12,

So you can see that the Lord Himself will not only empower Israel against the nations gathered against them, but He Himself will fight against them and destroy them. Now, after this battle, the Battle of Armageddon, the Bible tells us that Satan will be bound for a period of 1,000 years. This is recorded in the book of Revelation. It goes like this. From chapter 20,

Thus begins the period that we call the Millennial Kingdom. It's also referred to as the Messianic Kingdom, a period of 1,000 years upon the earth when Jesus will rule the earth and bring peace and unprecedented prosperity. There are other Old Testament passages that speak of this millennial season when there is incredible changes that will take place on the earth. Let me show you. From Isaiah chapter 11,

You can see from the passages that we've been looking at here that the second coming of Jesus is largely about rescuing Israel and bringing judgment upon the nations of the world that come to destroy Israel. Now, there will be some people, even during the tribulation, who will be friends of Israel. We'll talk about that just a little bit later when we talk about the final judgments. But the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth will be in Israel for Israel. Let's move on to the final judgment. You know, when you read through the New Testament, you learn that there are actually several different judgments that are going to be taking place. In fact, when you see the word judgment seat in your English Bible, that is a single Greek word that is pronounced bema and a bema seat or a judgment seat was a raised platform where judgments took place and either judgments of condemnation were meted out or judgments of reward also took place. Most Christians know of the bema seat judgment as the time when God will give rewards to the people of God. As believers, we know that we will not be judged for our sin. And the reason we know that is because Jesus took our judgment on the cross and there is no judgment remaining for believers as it relates to sin. That's why the apostle Paul wrote this from 1 Thessalonians 5,

And in Romans chapter eight, he wrote,

Paul is literally saying in this passage, who is left to condemn? There's no one left to condemn us because the one who comes to judge is the one who died for us. So the judgment awaiting believers is a judgment of rewards, but will everyone receive a reward? Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case. The apostle Paul writes about this in his letter to the Corinthians. Let me show you.

Now, the context of this passage in 1 Corinthians 3 is about men who are working in another man's field in the kingdom of God. But I believe what the apostle Paul is giving us here is a principle that will apply to all believers as it relates to the works that we do during our time on the earth. It's either going to be left behind after the fire of God tests it, or it's going to be burned up. And you'll notice that he says, the person who finds their works are all burned up will in fact suffer loss. What is that loss? Well, it's not a loss of salvation. Paul makes that clear. He says in the passage, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. And the reason he will be saved, even though he has no works to be rewarded is because our salvation is not based on works. It is based on faith. The righteous shall live by faith. Although there are other judgments talked about in the Bible, we want to talk about the final judgment. And for that, we go back to the book of Revelation. From chapter 20,

We learn from this passage that this final judgment, the white throne judgment, and what comes from it is called the second death. It's important to remember that believers in Jesus will not stand in this judgment. And the reason is because believers are part of the bride of Christ. And as such, we are among those who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. He took our judgment. And now we will not stand to be judged for our sin because Jesus was already judged on our behalf. Well, that's it. That wraps up the series of knowing what you believe. I really hope that this has been a blessing to you. If you'd like more studies through the entire Bible, just go to our website, lifebibleministry.com. We hope to see you soon. God bless. ---