When Is The Rapture 1 of 5

Timing Of The Rapture – 1 of 5

WHEN IS THE RAPTURE? By Harold Camping A Study of Seven Scriptural Paths Focusing on the timing of the Rapture

Scripture texts are from the King James Version of the Bible

CONTENTS Introduction………………………………… The Last Trumpet and The Rapture………………. ___ RAP1.TXT Sodom’s Destruction and The Rapture……………. / / The Noachin Flood and The Rapture………………/ The Resurrection of the Dead and The Rapture…………. RAP2.TXT The Tribulation and The Rapture…………………….. RAP3.TXT The Man of Sin and The Rapture……………………… RAP4.TXT A Thief in the Night and The Rapture…………… _____ RAP5.TXT Conclusion…………………………………../ INTRODUCTION

As never before in history there is an increasing preoccupation with the subject of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The return of Israel to their land, the tremendous multiplication of knowledge, the brilliant success of such a Godless ideology as Communism, the potential for massive worldwide destruction by nuclear war, and the rapid increase in communication technology (permitting the Gospel to penetrate everywhere in the world) are some of the phenomena which cause serious people to wonder if the end of time has come very close.

Naturally, then, those who have placed their trust in the Bible as the only reliable source of information concerning the future will look to the Bible for information concerning the end-time events. One of these events which gives great comfort to the child of God is the Rapture of the believers. By the word “Rapture” we have in mind that moment in history when the believers in Christ who have not experienced physical death will be changed into their glorified bodies. At that time they will be caught up in the air to be with Christ, even as I Thessalonians 4:17 declares:

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.

A puzzling situation has developed, however, concerning the timing of the Rapture. Some hold that it will be 1007 years before the end of the world. Others believe the Bible teaches that it will be 1003.5 years before the end, while still others suggest 1000 years. Then there are those who teach that this grand event will occur right at the end of time.

One logically wonders, therefore, if the Biblical teaching concerning the timing of the Rapture is obscure, if the language of the Bible is extremely difficult to understand, and of course he would surely wish that he could understand the Bible clearly on this question. For then one could know more specifically how the believers will relate to the final tribulation period of which the Bible speaks. Moreover, a clear understanding of the timing of the Rapture would greatly help in understanding many other details relating to the end of time.

Wonderfully, the Bible has much to say about the Rapture, It is not an event which is rarely alluded to in the Bible. And the timing of the Rapture in relationship to Judgment Day and the end of time is extrememly well documented in the Scriptures. We need not have any doubt whatsoever concerning its place in the sequence of events which relate to Christ’s return.

In this study we will examine seven different sets of Scriptures dealing with the Rapture. As we go through these Scriptures, we will find seven independent paths which lead us to the same inescapable conclusion: The Rapture of the believers will occur at the end of time. It will take place at the same time that our Lord comes in Judgment to judge the world. It will come right at the time that the world is beginning to collapse as God is preparing to destroy the world by fire.

May we be grateful to our Lord for the abundance of Biblical information He has provided on this important event.

Let us look together now at the first of these seven paths.

THE LAST TRUMPET AND THE RAPTURE

In I Corinthians 15:51-53 we read:

Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

In these verses God is discussing the fact that not everyone will die. (To fall asleep is Biblical language signifying death.) There will be those who will instantaneously receive their resurrected bodies without first falling asleep. This language is clearly concerned with the Rapture, for verse 53 speaks about the believers receiving their immortal bodies.

But then God tells us when this event will occure. Note the language which declares “at the sound of the last trump.” This is a time clue. God is effectively saying that when the last trumpet sounds the Rapture will occur.

If we follow the Biblical principle that the Bible interprets the Bible, we must now search the Bible to find language relating to the sound of the last trumpet. If such references can be found, perhaps they will tell us when the last trumpet will sound.

In Revelation 11:15-18 we read:

And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in Heaven saying, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.” And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God saying, “We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”

In this passage God gives us an outline of the events that will accompany the sounding of the seventh or last trumpet. At that time the follwing becomes a reality.”

The time has come for the dead to be judged.
The time for the rewarding of the saints has come.
The time for destroying the destroyers has come.

In other words, the sounding of the seventh trumpet is signalling that Judgment Day has come. It signals that the time has come for the believers to receive their reward. It is the time that the forces of evil are to be cast into Hell. Therefore, the sounding of the last trumpet must be at the end of time. For it is at the end of time that Judgment Day occurs, and Satan is thrown into the lake of fire.

Returning now to I Corinthians 15:51-53 we will recall that it effectively declares that the Rapture of believers is to occur at the sound of the last trumpet. Since we have seen from Revelation 11 that at the sound of the seventh trumpet Judgment Day occurs, we can therefore know that the Rapture is a simultaneous event with Judgment Day.

Continued in RAP2.TXT

SODOM’S DESTRUCTION AND THE RAPTURE

From I Corinthians 15:51-53 we have seen that the Rapture is to occur at the time Christ returns to judge the world. Let us now look at a second path that helps us to see the timing of the Rapture. In Luke 17:28-37 we read:

Likewise also, as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day he which shall be upon the house top and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you, in that night there shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left. And they answered and said unto Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is thither will the eagles be gathered together.

In this passage God is using the destruction of Sodom as a figure or type of the judgment of the last day. We will see that the saving of Lot and his family is a figure of the Rapture which will occur simultaneously with Judgment Day.

Looking at the destruction of Sodom, we can see that God sent angels to rescue the family of Lot (Genesis 19). On the heels of this rescue operation God rains down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and the other wicked cities, utterly destroying them.

God declares in Luke 17:30, “so it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” Thus Christ links the destruction of Sodom to Judgment Day.

But God also links the rescue of Lot and his family to the Rapture. Note that God declares in verse 34:

I tell you, in that night there shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.

The parallelism that exists between the destruction of Sodom and the end of the world is clearly evident. Sodom, a wicked city ripe for judgment, is populated by two kinds of people: there are the wicked who are to be destroyed, and there is the church represented by Lot and his family. It is a tiny little remnant in this wicked city.

So today the world exists as a world populated by those who are altogether rebellious against God. Amongst the vast populations of the world there exists the church. It consists of only a tiny percentage of the world’s population.

Then Judgment Day comes for Sodom. The cup of their iniquity is full. God will utterly destroy them for their sins. But just ahead of that judgment God rescues Lot. So close in time is rescue to the poured out judgment of God that Lot’s wife is destroyed in the judgment. So it will also be at the end of time. When the nations have become ripe for judgment, God will send His angels to rescue the believers. Two will be in one bed; one is taken, the other is left. The one that is taken is caught up in the air to be with Christ even as I Thessalonians 4:17 teaches. The one that is left is left to stand for judgment even as the wicked of Sodom were left for judgment.

Thus Christ is teaching that the Rapture comes as a simultaneous event with Judgment Day itself. There is complete agreement between the account of Jesus concerning the destruction of Sodom and the I Corinthians 15 account which speaks of the Rapture coming at the sound of the last trumpet.

THE NOACHIN FLOOD AND THE RAPTURE

A third path of the Bible continues to give us vast assurance that the Rapture will be a simultaneous event with Judgment Day. This is found in the language Jesus utters as He compares the Flood with its events to Judgment Day with its events. In Matthew 24:37-41 we read:

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

In this passage God sets up parallel language relating the flood that destroyed the world of Noah’s day to the event of Jesus’ return. This parallelism, indicating that the destruction of the world in the Noachin Flood was a type or figure of Judgment Day, is also set forth in II Peter 3:3-7, where we read:

Knowing this first, that there whall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lust, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished; But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

When we look at the Flood account of Genesis 7, we see that seven days before the Flood God gave Noah notice that the Flood would come in seven days. Therefore, Noah and his family were to go into the ark.

Genesis 7:1 — And the Lord said unto Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”

Genesis 7:4 — For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

That the Flood did indeed come seven days after notice was given, as we read in verse 4, can be learned from the language of Genesis 7:10:

And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of of the flood were upon the earth.

The Bible then records the precise date of the Flood, together with the information that Noah actually entered the ark the selfsame day that the Flood came. We read this in Genesis 7:11-13:

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah and Shem and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark.

Thus Christ teaches that the peoples of Noah’s day continued eating and drinking until the day that Noah entered the ark and the Flood swept them away. Luke 17:27 reads:

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood cam and destroyed them all.

Certainly we can see the parallelisms that exist between the Flood and Judgment Day. Noah and his family lived in a world cursed by sin. So at Judgment Day the believers exist as a tiny remnant in a world cursed by sin. When the floods were to begin, Noah and his family entered into the ark, a haven of safety for them. So, too, at Judgment Day the believers are raptured while the unsaved are judged and removed into Hell. “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left.” Matthew 24:40. The one taken is like Noah. Even as Noah went into the safety of the ark, so the believer is caught up to the safety of Christ. The one left is left for judgment, even as the people outside the ark were left for judgment.

Once again, therefore, we see clearly that the Rapture is simultaneous with Judgment Day.

When Christ rose from the grave, he showed the resurrection to be a fact by many proofs (Acts 1:3). Likewise the Bible’s teaching concerning the timetable of the Rapture is set forth in many places in the Bible. Thus we shall now look at a fourth path in the Bible where this truth is taught.

Continued in RAP2.TXT