Gary M. Fisher
Rapture – Critical Considerations
A great feature about Bible prophecy is it has a built-in element of hope. It is the only reliable source for good news about the future. With this in mind, it seems a good time to review the great, positive future we have in the Lord.
In addressing the need for hope, one of the greatest hope-building promises the Lord ever gave during His ministry is the one in which He said that He would come and take us to the Father’s House where He is preparing a place for us (John 14:6). The disciples were confused by this teaching. They were familiar with Jewish theology that stated that the Messiah would come and establish a government on earth (Zechariah 14, Isaiah 65, Micah 4, etc.). Jesus’ words recorded in John 14:6 however, was declaring something new. In this teaching, His followers were to go with Him to the Father’s house in Heaven. The government they expected would come later.
This departure from traditional teaching is one of the first teachings in the New Testament on the Rapture of the Church. One of the greatest illuminations for this doctrine is revealed in the ancient Jewish wedding custom. It goes like this: The boy wanting to marry the girl, goes to sit down with her father. The young man negotiates with the father about her value and his ability to provide. Once agreement is reached, the young man travels back to his father’s house to prepare a place to receive the new bride until they get a place of their own. When the addition to the father’s house is ready, the bridegroom, along with a male escort (his best man), goes to retrieve the bride. The bride and groom return to his father’s house and go to a wedding chamber for seven days of privacy and solitude. When the seven days of solitude are over, the groom brings his bride out and introduces her to all the invited guests. A great wedding feast is held at that point.
In keeping with this tradition, the Lord has been to the house of the Bride (the world). He has negotiated a price and paid with His own blood. He has resurrected and returned to His Father’s House (Heaven) to prepare a place for us, the Church. According to I Thessalonians 4:16-17, He will be accompanied by a male escort to retrieve the bride and they go to the Father’s House.
Corresponding to the seven days in the wedding chamber, we will be at the Father’s House seven years while the seven-year time of trouble (Revelation 6-19) transpires on earth. This is probably the time in Heaven that the Judgment Seat of Christ takes place (II Corinthians 5:10) followed by the wedding feast of Matthew 25:10. Then we will return with Jesus to earth to crown Him King of Kings and He will begin His rule and reign on earth (Revelation 20).
Those who believe these teachings usually hold to Biblical, conservative ideas such as opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, normalization of homosexuality, and less support for Israel, to name a few. Those holding these views are finding themselves more and more out-of-step with the world and being considered a hindrance to the direction in which it is headed.
There is good news. We may not be a hindrance much longer.
Why? Because at any moment, the “Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord”.
Believers will be transported from this troubled world into the glory of the presence of the Lord! No man knows the day or hour this event could occur but, with the world presently in such a mess, it is refreshing and promising to know that it could be today. Today would be a good day to go to the Father’s House!1010