The Scriptures foretell two very distinct public comings or appearances of Jesus from heaven to earth, following His ascension into heaven. These two appearances have distinct purposes and mutually exclusive characteristics, which exclude every possibility of merging both comings into one.
The first of these two appearances is at the rapture, where Jesus descend from heaven for His faithful saints or bride (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) for the marriage of the Lamb, which takes place in heaven, not on the earth or in the sky (Revelation 19:1-10). The second of these two appearances takes place after the marriage of the Lamb with His bride, when Jesus returns from heaven with His saints to the earth, defeats the anti-Christ and his army, and sets up His thousand-year reign on the earth (Revelation 19:10-20:6). Moreover, the Scriptures refer to the rapture as the second coming, although the second coming has been commonly preached as being different from the rapture. Let’s look at these in detail from the Scriptures.
In Matthew 24, while Jesus taught on the signs that will precede His coming, He said the following: “…there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will…. But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky (Greek: ouranos – also means the vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it) to the other” (Matthew 24:21, 29–31).
From this text, Jesus plainly said that His coming will be after the great tribulation. Which of His comings was he referring to here? We will address this shortly. Also, here in Matthew 24, Jesus specifically said that at His coming, His sign will appear in the sky, and He will come on the clouds of the sky (Matthew 24:29–31)—not with His saints or with horses. And after He appears, His elect or saints, who will be on the earth (Matthew 24:1–28) will be gathered together in the sky where He will appear. He also added that there will be angels and a great trumpet involved when His saints are being gathered together in the sky when He appears.
In the popular passage about the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the rapture, we find Paul actually repeating these very words of Jesus, which Jesus said will happen after the great tribulation: “For 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 [raptured] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). Here, Paul also, in talking about believers being caught up or raptured in the clouds, after the trumpet has been sounded at Jesus’ appearing in the sky (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17) simply repeated what Jesus had already said will happen after the great tribulation when He appears in the clouds of the sky and send forth His angels with a great trumpet to gather His saints in the sky. Paul also added that Jesus’ appearing will results in the resurrection of the dead in Christ.
So, in Matthew 24:21-31 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1-13, we find Jesus and Paul stating the unique characteristics or signs that will mark Jesus’ initial return to the earth following His death and resurrection and ascension into heaven. As shown, this return of Jesus is associated with the resurrection of the righteous and the rapture of the church, and Jesus Himself said that all these will happen after the great tribulation.
In Revelation 19, however, the Scriptures reveal another return of Jesus, with distinctly different characteristics compared to Jesus’ coming at the rapture (Matthew 25:29-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Before we look at this other return, it’s important we address this question: When the rapture happens and the saints meet Jesus in the air, do they make a U-turn to the earth or go up to heaven with Jesus? We shall look at this in the next study.
Dr. K. Omari
March 1, 2023
A Very Important Message
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Therefore, If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, I invite you to put your faith in Him. Pray the prayer below to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour: “I come to you God in Jesus’ name and surrender my life unto you. I repent of my sins and I ask You to forgive me all my sins. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I believe with my heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead. I thank you God for saving me, in Jesus name, Amen”. If you sincerely prayed this prayer, believe and be assured that you are saved, for the Bible says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13, Romans 10:9-10, Acts 16:31). Find a Bible believing church to attend so that you can be discipled to grow in the ways of God. You can also email me ([email protected]) and I will be happy to grow together with you in Christ.