The Rapture: The Last Days According to Jesus with R.C. Sproul

Throughout this end-times lecture series we have been looking at those New Testament prophecies that in one sense or another perhaps were fulfilled within the time limits of the first century, particularly in and around this destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and those who believe that these prophecies from the Mount of Olives speech were fulfilled in the first century are generally described as preterists or adopting the theory called preterism, which means that these future prophecies were already fulfilled in the past , but we must also be careful to distinguish between two diverse and different forms of preterism, there is that group who call themselves full preterists and those who would call themselves partial preterists.

Now, what is the difference between total preterism and partial preterism, while total preterism, as the name suggests, believes that all future events are specific to what they are? The prophecies in the New Testament regarding the end times have already been typified in the first century, so they would include not only the destruction of the temple and the destruction of Jerusalem and the return of Jesus, but also the great resurrection, the

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and all other matters. which belong to future prophecy, partial preterism however differs from full preterism in this sense in that partial printers believe that although the return of Jesus in 70 AD.

It was a return of Christ in terms of a return in judgment upon Israel, it was not the parousia or the The final coming of Jesus at the end of his partial pressure switch says that Jesus came in 70 AD. At the end of the era of Anna, that is, the Jewish era, but not at the end of all history, which was the destruction of Jerusalem in the visit of God's wrath upon his people there was an important day of the Lord but not the final and consummated day of the Lord that is yet to occur in the future, but most significant is the difference in the understanding of the future resurrection of the saints and the

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and final judgments that are predicted in the New Testament now let's look first the difference regarding the resurrection when we turn to 1 Corinthians 15 where we have Paul's longest and most complex teaching regarding the resurrection of the bodies of the saints who will participate in the glorified body. of Christ in line with his resurrection Paul concludes that study in 1 Corinthians 15 with this teaching beginning in verse 50 now this I say brothers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does corruption inherit incorruption behold I tell you a mystery that not everyone sleeps but we will be transformed in a moment in the blink of an eye at the

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trumpet because the trumpet will sound and the dead will rise incorruptible and we will be transformed because this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on the immortality so that when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality then the saying that is written will be fulfilled death is devoured in victory Oh death where is your sting oh hell where is your victory the sting of Death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thank God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ now, before this section of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks of our resurrection with glorified bodies in the likeness of the resurrection. body with which Christ rose from the dead Now, up to this point in our discussions of future prophecy, the most central controlling factor in our consideration has been the time frame references that Jesus gives or the author of the book of Revelation given regarding the time in which we can expect the fulfillment of these prophecies we now understand that in the early church one of the first Christian Creeds that was formulated is that Creed called the Apostles' Creed and in the Apostles' Creed there is a phrase in the original Latin that says lee resurrects the onus cornice in which we affirm as Christians our faith in the resurrection of the body I say I believe in the resurrection of the body that profession of faith that comes from the early church was not simply a profession of faith in the resurrection and the body of Christ but rather in our resurrected bodies just as Christ is promised to be the firstfruits of those who will rise from the dead so we are told in the New Testament that in the resurrection we will have glorified bodies that we will not be disembodied spirits wandering through eternity in that state, but there will come a time when our souls will be reunited with our bodies, our bodies will be resurrected, and the new bodies we will enjoy will be corrupted and immortal, so to speak, and that has always been a great hope for us. . the Christian community that we look forward to that day where we will participate in the resurrection of the body now a complete preterists argue that this prophecy about the future has already been fulfilled which is a surprising and surprising conclusion well let's discuss or well let's first see why they argue for it of its past fulfillment and then we will see how they present that argument if you notice when I was reading first Corinthians 15 Paul says these things, behold, I tell you a mystery, we will not sleep but we will all be transformed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the

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trumpet, etc. and then he goes on and says we will be changed.

We now notice that in this text, unlike the Mount of Olives discourse, there are no specific and explicit references to a time frame. Paul does not say this. is going to happen before this generation passes nor does he say that these things must happen shortly or are near, so why would anyone find here a future prophecy that one would expect to happen in the near future? those who hold to total preterism take advantage of the use of the word we in this text three times in the passage I just read Paul uses this term we says that we will not all sleep but we will all be transformed and we will be transformed into this incorruptible situation now in other places with regarding the rapture Paul speaks in similar terms and this is linked to the rapture text where Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that those of us who are alive at his coming that indicates that the USA and we would include the Apostle Paul so that Paul seems to be saying that these things are going to happen while he is still alive and since he is including himself in the group that is designated by the word we or the word we now notice that this is not a statement by which Paul says that I will be I live explicitly and concretely, but rather it simply says in passing that those of us who are alive at that time and here in 1 Corinthians will be transformed, etc., it does not necessarily mean that the Apostle expected him to be alive when these prophecies were made.

Now advocates of full preterism argue that the we implies that Paul expected these things to happen during his lifetime, and I have to say at this point that preterists are not the only people who assume that Paul is indicating his own personal expectation of being included. among those who were still alive when these prophecies were fulfilled because this is a point that higher critics of the New Testament have also seized upon to argue that Paul certainly expected the final consummation of the kingdom in his life including the great resurrection and rapture and they argue on the same basis as preterists do from inferences drawn from the inclusive language the Apostle uses when he says we or those of us who are still alive, but those words again do not necessarily require us to assume that Paul was trying to communicate to his people that he personally would be alive but he was speaking to the Christian community not only to his contemporaries but to the entire body of Christ from that day forward and certainly Paul would be included in the resurrection. when it would happen, whether in the first century or the third millennium, who knows, it would still be included in the we because all believers will participate in the resurrection and all will participate in the rapture and when he said what and of course in the rapture when says those of us who are alive again does not require me to include that he is living on earth at that time now what I am saying again is that those inferences drawn from the preterist the whole The preterists are possible inferences from the text but they are not necessary inferences of the text and so we look at this in terms of how they see the fulfillment of these things in the first century to take the position that both the resurrection and the rapture took place. in the first century one has to spiritualize the texts in terms of the descriptive ideas and concepts that are used about this resurrection and if there is any place where it is a serious problem to start spiritualizing something it is when what you are spiritualizing is discussing something that is supposedly physical and corporal it is very difficult to spiritualize the bodily resurrection of the saints without at the same time denying the bodily resurrection of the saints because if it is only a spiritual resurrection then manifestly it is not a physical resurrection but defenders of total preterism such as Stuart Russell and Max King do precisely this: they say that the resurrection that Paul speaks of took place in the year 70 AD. but it was a spiritual resurrection of those who died, were resurrected spiritually and are now in heaven and are not to be understood in physical categories not without reason this position has been accused of being a form of Gnosticism because just as the Gnostics denied the full reality of the physical resurrection of Jesus and even his physical incarnation, this would seem to deny a real physical resurrection of the saints since for it to have taken place in the first century without anyone knowing and no one in the early church recording the resurrection of those who had died before them, this would force them to have this idea of ​​a spiritual resurrection.

The same kind of thing happens now. Regarding the treatment of the rapture that Paul describes in his correspondence to the Thessalonians in First Thessalonians in Chapter Four First Thessalonians we read the following account of the rapture that has gained so much attention in Christian eschatology that it justifies us reading the text in verse 13 we read these words in chapter 4 first to the Thessalonians but I do not want you, brothers, to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep, lest you grieve like the rest who have no hope because we believe that Jesus died and rose again so God will . bring with him those who sleep in Jesus, for this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep because the Lord himself will descend from heaven. with a cry with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and who remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to receive the Lord in the air and thus we will always be with the Lord , therefore, let us comfort one another with these words.

Now here the Apostle addresses a concern that was a vital concern of the early Christians. The early Christian community had the hope of the future resurrection and the return of Christ in clouds of glory. and yet, before these things occurred, many of the Christians of the early community died and so the obvious question that their relatives asked was: Does this mean that our relatives and friends who have passed away will miss these great eschatological events that have been? promised us and Paul is responding to the Christian community by saying that in fact not only those who have died will not miss the return of Christ at the end of time and the great resurrection but they will be participants in the front row seats in those who will be. the first in line because the Apostle says that the dead in Christ will rise first and will be taken up into the air and we who are alive at his coming will also be taken up to join the Lord or to meet the Lord as the Apostle Paul says in language the air as it descends with the sound of the trumpet and that kind of thing now the full preterist has to go back to talking about a secret rapture a rapture that was spiritual that was silent and that was invisible they argue that the rapture is always - It has already had place means that it happened, no one heard it, no one saw it, and no one was aware of it, so if it were simply spiritual, invisible, and silent, we wonder how we can do justice to the language of this text and others.

Well, again, Russell and others resort to the symbolism that is frequently used in prophetic prophecies that says that there is no need to make a literal interpretation of these things but to me it involves a serious twisting of the words of this text to speak of a secret that

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to the language of the Apostle it will be the worst kept secret in history and it will hardly be a silent event since all of heaven will be unleashed now, on the other hand, there is all kinds of debate about what will really happen at the rapture and again when the rapture will occur. rapture. will take place Those who hold to a completely future interpretation of New Testament eschatology, particularly in dispensational premillennialism, expect the rapture to take place beforethe tribulation and you will hear people talk about the pre-tribulation rapture.

The idea here is that there will be a great tribulation at the end of history, but before that tribulation the church will be caught up to meet Jesus and Jesus will return halfway back to the earth and bring his saints out of the earth to find it in the air. and then he will remain with the Saints of him on high either for the full seven years of the tribulation or however the scheme is worked out and then at the final moment he will return again for his final manifestation returning with the Saints that he had taken. of the world before the tribulation, so this scheme has two returns of Jesus at the end of time, one the secret return first only for his saints who have left the world and meet him. and then his final return after the tribulation and so on.

I think this fundamentally misinterprets the imagery the Apostle uses here regarding the rapture and its meaning. Paul does not say that Christians will be caught up in the air and then remain. in the air with Jesus, the image here is of meeting Christ as he returns in glory for Christians to participate in his victorious return to this world, not that he will go that far, reach the church and then stay there. return to heaven until a later time, but the purpose of the imagery here echoes and reflects something that was common in the contemporary world in which Paul wrote, namely, the pattern and practice of the triumphant return to Rome of Roman armies.

Whenever the Roman armies returned from a campaign before entering the city of Rome, they would camp outside the city about a mile outside the city and there would be all the soldiers plus all the captives they had brought home from the campaign and then Send a messenger to the Senate to announce his arrival. He remembers that they carried the banners of SPQR, the Senate and the people of Rome, and that would give the planners time to erect a triumphal arch and decorate the city as we would. In a parade of conquering heroes, Garland's would be sprayed with the sweet scent throughout the city to cover the smell of the slaves and their odor, etc., and then at a pre-arranged time a signal would be made by which trumpets would be sounded. sounded and that was the signal for the armies of Rome to march triumphantly towards the city, but before they began their march at the sound of the trumpet, all who were royal citizens of Rome were invited to leave the city to join the parade to Marching back through the triumphal arch with the victorious army so that they would participate in the victory and participate in the triumph and I think if you look throughout Paul's writings, he often borrows the Roman imagery of this and What I hear Paul say is that when Jesus comes he will return to this earth with his entire Church, the church will be caught up to meet him as he descends and they will continue to descend along with his entire entourage of believers, now when this happens depends what your views may be on the Millennium, etc., and we will look at those things in our next session.