Friday, November 11, 2011
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
A NOISY RAPTURE
One of the events millennialists claim will happen before the mythical 1000 year rule of Christ on earth is a secret rapture. They falsely believe that the believers will be quietly whisked away ("raptured") seven years before the millennium. When I was ten years old I remember seeing a scene from the movie "The Late Great Planet Earth," in which an airplane pilot suddenly disappears from the cockpit of his plane, while his copilot remains. The pilot was raptured, that is, taken up to heaven. The rapture, according to millennial ideas, will then be followed by seven years of tribulation. After that comes the supposed 1000 year rule of Christ on earth.
Millennialists base their idea of a rapture, for the most part, on the words of today's passage from 1 Thessalonians. While the passage does speak of believers taken up to meet the Lord in the air, there's nothing secret about it. The passage describes a very noisy event, complete with a loud command, the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God.
What day can this be other than the Judgment Day? On that day the dead in Christ (the believers who died before Christ's Second Coming) will be raised and taken to heaven. The believers who are still alive when Jesus returns will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. All this will be accompanied by a great deal of noise. The command, the voice, and the trumpet will unmistakably announce that the Lord Jesus has arrived to judge the living and the dead.
The passage is so very clear and all so comforting. Because we believe that Christ died and rose again we look forward to His return, when we will be taken to our heavenly home to live with Him forever. What a joy to know that we will always be with the Lord.
Thank you Jesus for taking away my sins and conquering death for me.
Thank you for Your Word and Sacrament which sustains my faith until the day of Your triumphant and noisy return.
Even so, come Lord Jesus! AMEN!
