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This statement is the report of the committee to study the rapture of the Church. The report was adopted by the Assemblies of God General Presbytery, August 14, 1979.
Under the section “The Blessed Hope” in the Statement of Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies of God, is the following statement:
“The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the imminent and blessed hope of the Church (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17; Romans 8:23; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 15:51,52).”
Jesus taught that He will return to earth. He was careful to warn His disciples to be constantly prepared for this (Matthew 24:42-51; 25:1-13; Mark 13:37; Luke 12:37).
They understood that the present age will end with His coming (Matthew 24:3). The assurance of His return was one of the truths with which He comforted His followers before His death (John 14:2, 3).
At the time of Christ’s ascension two angels came to the group of watching disciples to repeat the promise that He will return. They declared it would be in the same manner as He went away (Acts 1:11). This clearly means His second coming will be literal, physical, and visible.
The New Testament Epistles refer often to the Second Coming, and the theme of imminence runs through all the passages of Scripture dealing with this subject. Though there would be a period of time between the first and second comings (Luke 19:11), the whole body of teaching concerning the return of the Lord emphasizes that it will happen suddenly without warning; that believers should be in a state of continual readiness(Philippians 4:5; Hebrews 10:37; James 5:8, 9; Revelation 22:10).
Believers in the early days of the Church lived in this state of expectancy (1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10). Paul’s “we” in 1 Corinthians 15:51 and 1Thessalonians 4:17 shows that he maintained the hope he would be alive when Jesus comes back.
A comparison of passages of Scripture relating to the Second Coming shows that some speak of a visible event seen by all mankind and involving the judgment of sinners.Others describe a coming known only to believers and resulting in their deliverance from earth.
The latter is referred to among evangelicals as the Rapture. This word is not in the English Bible, but has been used so widely that one of the definitions of “rapture” in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary Unabridged is: “Christ’s raising up of His true church and its members to a realm above the earth where the whole company will enjoy celestial bliss with its Lord.” The word raptured could well be used to translate the expression “caught up” of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Jesus said His coming will result in one individual being taken from a location while another is left. This indicates a sudden removal of believers from the earth with unbelievers left to face tribulation (Matthew 24:36-42).
Jesus spoke of His return as a time when the nations of the earth shall mourn as they see Him (Matthew 24:30). The apostle Paul spoke of the Lord’s return as a time of judgment and wrath upon the wicked (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he considered a different aspect of the Second Coming. This brief passage is the most direct and clear teaching on the Rapture in the New Testament. It speaks only of believers, living and dead. Nothing is said about the wicked seeing Christ at this time. Paul described Jesus as coming in the air, but nothing is said about His feet touching the earth, as we are told elsewhere they will at His return (Zechariah 14:4). It is the moment when 1 John 3:2 will be fulfilled, and we shall be like Him.
The same Greek word used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 for “caught up” is used in Acts 8:39 to describe Philip’s being “caught away” after baptizing the Ethiopian. The latter verse states that the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away—identifying the source of the power that will remove believers from earth at the Rapture.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Paul called the Rapture “our gathering together unto him.” The Greek word for “gathering” is the same as the one used for “assembling” in Hebrews 10:25, referring to the assembling of Christians for worship. It is a picture of the saints congregating around Christ at His coming for them.
The supernatural removal of godly individuals from earth is not unknown in Scripture. The outstanding event in the life of Enoch was his miraculous disappearance from earth after years of walking with God (Genesis 5:21-24). The author of Hebrews called this experience a translation, bypassing death (Hebrews 11:5).
Although some aspects of Elijah’s translation differed from Enoch’s, it also involved the sudden removal of a believer from the world without experiencing death (2 Kings 2:1-13).
First Corinthians 15:51-54 deals with the same event as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Here also Paul spoke of the changes that will take place in both living and dead believers at the Rapture. He called this a mystery (1 Corinthians 15:51), a truth previously unrevealed but made known to him by the Holy Spirit.
In Philippians 3:21 Paul connected the Lord’s coming to the time when “our vile body” will be changed—another reference to the Rapture.
Passages which pertain to the Rapture describe the coming of the Lord for His people. Passages which refer to the revelation of Christ describe the coming of the Lord with His saints. Colossians 3:4 speaks of believers appearing with Christ at His coming.Jude 14 also foresees the Lord’s return with His people to execute the judgment referred to in many other passages relating to His public appearing.
Since Scripture does not contradict itself, it seems reasonable to conclude that the passages describing Christ’s coming for the saints and with the saints indicate two phases of His coming. We believe it is scripturally correct to assume that the intervening period between the two is the time when the world will experience the Great Tribulation,involving the reign of Antichrist and the outpouring of God’s wrath on the wicked (Daniel 12:1, 2, 10-13; Matthew 24:15-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12).
Although God’s people may endure severe trials before the Lord comes, the Church will be raptured before the period called the Great Tribulation.
In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul indicated certain things must take place before the Day of the Lord (of which the Great Tribulation is a part) can begin. An individual called the man of sin (Antichrist) will appear. The mystery of iniquity has been at work since Paul’s time but is being restrained by the power of the Spirit working through the true Church. Only when the Church is removed from earth by the Rapture can this man come forward publicly.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, following the passage on the Rapture in chapter 4, Paul taught about the Day of the Lord. He warned of the destruction it will bring to the wicked(vv. 2, 3). He was quick to assure Christians that those who abide in Christ will not be overtaken by it (v. 4).
Still speaking of the Day of the Lord Paul wrote: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 9). It seems clear that he meant the deliverance of believers from the judgments of the Day of the Lord, including the Great Tribulation.
Christians are told repeatedly in the New Testament to be watchful for the Lord’s appearing. Never are they taught to watch for the Great Tribulation or the appearance of Antichrist. To expect that such things must happen before the Rapture destroys the teaching of imminence with which the New Testament is replete.
Believers are told to wait “for his Son from heaven,” not the Great Tribulation (1 Thessalonians 1:10). When the signs of the end of the age are evident, they are to look up and lift up their heads in expectation of their redemption, not the Great Tribulation (Luke 21:28).
The signs of the Lord’s coming will be fulfilled before His public appearing, but they do not have to be fulfilled before the Rapture. Any teaching that certain events must transpire before the Rapture is out of harmony with the doctrine of imminence.
It is consistent with God’s dealings with His people in the Old Testament to believe that the Church will be removed from the world before the Great Tribulation. God did not send the Flood until Noah and his family were safe in the ark. He did not destroy Sodom until Lot was taken out.
The weight of Scripture supports a pre-Tribulation Rapture. Wherever teaching about the Second Coming occurs in the New Testament, imminence is underscored. To interpose other events before the Rapture does violence to such teaching.
While Christians are looking forward to the coming of the Lord, it is well to remind themselves of Paul’s words to Titus: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14).
Download: The Rapture of the Church
Allan Boyd
There is no Rapture!
Steve Phifer
1 Thess 4:13-18
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
KJV
Allan Boyd
Steve Phifer this is the Second Coming
Varnel Watson
Allan Boyd not really The Greek plainly reveals a prior to the paurosia event Paul is invoking an eschatological – apocalyptic scenario where 98% of the scenario is left to be filled in by the reader. Not sure what can be assumed about the Thessalonian’s familiarity with Second Temple Apocalyptic literature but that isn’t the problem. Paul invokes the scenario as if they were familiar with it. In the apocalyptic literature divine commands are often delivered by a subordinate agent, for example the opening of the seals in the Apocalypse where The Lamb opens the seals but a command is given by one of the living beings: http://probible.net/1-thessalonians-416/
Steve Phifer
Allan Boyd This continuous discussion among A/G folks about the details of the Return of the Lord serves no good purpose for us but it shakes one of our 4 Cardinal Doctrines. As Classical Pentecostals we must hold on to the Blessed Hope of the Lord’s return. If the exact details of the Eschaton were important, we would have them in the Bible. We do not. So, what is the main thing we must believe and do? We must believe in the soon return of Jesus and we live every day with this conviction. The debate has caused so of us to reject not only the Rapture of the Church but the whole prospect of the Rule of Christ over the earth. The whole thing has become a metaphor for the church age. If so this is one sorry Reign of Christ! Are preachers shying away from preaching the 2nd Coming? This must not happen. We need all four of our Cardinal Doctrines to be who are supposed to be in this world: 1) Jesus is Savior. 2) Jesus is Healer. 3) Jesus is Baptizer, and 4) Jesus is Soon-Coming King. As Classical Pentecostals, our job is to believe and proclaim the whole biblical truth. We need not solve what looks like contradictions.
Varnel Watson
there is no rapture of what? Allan Boyd
Allan Boyd
Troy Day of the Church
Varnel Watson
Allan Boyd of which church – people from the Laodecea church will be greatly surprised when the rapture happens
Allan Boyd
Troy Day of no Church
Varnel Watson
Allan Boyd Thanks for the mention What is your point exactly? Did you reed the Greek exegetical discussion provided?
Allan Boyd
Troy Day Jesus comes back one more time.
Varnel Watson
Allan Boyd this is no argument against the pre-Trib rapture of the Church In your version, does the Church ever go to Heaven? Seems not
Allan Boyd
Troy Day I am not talking about the Pre-Trib rapture. I am saying that 1st of all there is no Trib.
Varnel Watson
Allan Boyd How does the Church go to heaven then?
Varnel Watson
RichardAnna Boyce if its true water down yonder spins opposite maybe all Aussies will be raptured head down?
Varnel Watson
Is there a final moment in history when instead of fighting the Antichrist, instead of taking up arms against the penultimate Hitler or the final ISIS or whatever form death’s last great tyranny takes, the church visibly rejects the means and powers of this world, the privilege of self-defense, our idolatry of weapons, and decides instead to beat all our swords and spears into farming tools, chooses to trust the humility and weakness of God in Jesus Christ to vindicate us—not our armaments, our anger, our right to stand up for ourselves—in order to make manifest an already-accomplished defeat of darkness on Golgotha?
What if the end comes only after an unprecedented and great slaughter of Christians, after a worldwide crucifixion of the body of Christ, in which after great sacrifice in imitation of her Lord she dies and rises from the ashes of her demise by the Spirit, and God is finally all in all because the cruciform pattern of love that governs the universe and holds all things together and gives all living things breath has been confirmed in a peculiar crucified and resurrected people with Christ as her head?
In the end Jesus tells us we will win not by defending our life, nor by trying to hold on to our privilege, but by giving up our life so that the world might live.
Joe Absher
Give up your guns then .
Deacon Joseph Bell
https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-rapture
Varnel Watson
catholic DONT count – very little about true rapture on this post-mil heresy article by Augustine
Jim Price
It has been 41 years now since this doctrine was approved by the AoG, When I was 16 ( and still thought as a child ) I dropped out of school and started going from door to door warning people about the coming of the Lord. I did this based upon messages by Evangelist Johnson in the CoG. This seems foolish now. Now that we know that Pluto is 1.4 billion miles away and the temperature up there is minus 400 degrees below zero and that a satellite has been traveling for 9.5 years at 36,000 miles per hour and is still not there; surely we must do some rethinking. Even the wise brethren of the AoG didn’t know this 41 years ago.The amillennial view interprets Revelation 20 symbolically and sees the millennium not as an earthly golden age in which the world will be totally Christianize, but as the present period of Christ’s rule in heaven and on the earth through his Church. This was the view of the Protestant Reformers and is still the most common view among traditional Protestants.
Varnel Watson
thats all? – our Aog has believed it since 1914
Jim Price
Troy Day Yes, but it seems they changed a few words in 1979.
Varnel Watson
Jim Price AG did? like what
Varnel Watson
Luther didnt believe in revelation