QUESTION:
In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 [1], after describing the rapture (4:13-17) Paul refers to this event as the "day of the Lord." Acts 2:20-21, 2 [2] Thessalonians 2:1-3 [3] and 2 Peter 3:10 [4] also show that the rapture and the day of the Lord are the same event. Matthew 24:15 [5] and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 [6] appear to indicate that believers will still be here at the mid-point of the trib when Antichrist is revealed. Lastly, Matthew 24:29 [7] and Acts 2:20-21 [8] talk about the sun, moon, and stars at the time of the day of the Lord, and Revelation 6:12-13 [9] uses the same language to describe the opening of the sixth seal. Then in Revelation 7:9 [10] immediately following the opening of the sixth seal it makes reference to a great multitude in Heaven that no one could count. This leads me to believe that the rapture (day of the Lord) takes place after the abomination and at the opening of the sixth seal. Am I wrong?
RESPONSE:
I don't find your conclusions in the verses you cite. First of all, an event (the Rapture) is not a day (the day of the Lord). The Rapture, coming when not expected (Mt 24:44; Mk 13:32-37 [11]; Lk 12:40 [12]) and "as a thief" (Rv 3:3, 16:15), marks the beginning of the day of the Lord, which also comes "as a thief in the night" (1 Thes 5:2 [13]). But the Rapture doesn't occur simultaneously with the destruction of the old universe and creation of the new, which also happens in "the day of the Lord" (2 Pt 3:10 [14]). Far too much occurs during that day (the Rapture, millennial reign, destruction of old and creation of new universe, etc.) for it to be a 24-hour period.
Acts 2:20,21 [15] refers to a particular "great and notable" part of the "day of the Lord...," before which, not during which, "the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood" (2:20). A "falling away [apostasy]" must precede the day of the Lord (2 Thes 2:1-3 [16]); and 2 Peter 3:10 [17] states that the old universe will be destroyed during the day of the Lord. None of these verses indicates that the Rapture and day of the Lord "are the same event."
Matthew 24:15-22 [18] does not refer to Christians but to Jews, specifically those "which be in Judea" (Mt 24:16). Second Thessalonians 2:3 [19] refers to the falling away that comes first [i.e., before the Antichrist is revealed in the day of the Lord]. This verse makes it clear that the falling away comes before the day of the Lord, and the revealing of the Antichrist in that day. The Rapture must occur, removing the church, and only "then shall that Wicked [i.e., Antichrist] be revealed...whose coming is after the working of Satan..." (2 Thes 2:8,9 [20]). The next few verses refer to those who will be deceived by Antichrist "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion...that they all might be damned..." (2:10-12). There is no hint that true Christians are even on earth. They all have been taken in the Rapture and Paul is referring to a world of unbelievers who have been left behind.
Matthew 24:29 [21] (vv. 27-31) refers not to the Rapture when believers are caught up to meet Christ in the air, but to the Second Coming when His feet touch the Mount of Olives and angels gather back to Jerusalem from all over the world "his elect" [i.e., the 1/3 of the Jews who have survived the great tribulation and are left alive when Christ returns to take the throne of His father David-Ezk 39:28 and Zec 13:9 [22]]. This occurs at the end of the Great Tribulation and has nothing to do with the Rapture. By the way, when His feet touch the Mount of Olives, Christ brings "all the saints" (Zec 14:5 [23]) from heaven with Him-so the Rapture must have already occurred to take them up there. Of course this must be the case, because the Judgment Seat of Christ must have occurred in order for the bride to be "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white" to dress her for the wedding in heaven" (Rv 19:7,8). Only after these two events in heaven can the Second Coming take place (19:11-21).
Revelation 7:9 [24] refers to the same group we saw under the altar at 6:9-11. They have not been Raptured to heaven but are the souls of those martyred under Antichrist asking when they will be avenged. They are told that will not occur until the other martyrs have been killed. Then they will be resurrected together at the Second Coming (6:11; 20:4,5).
QUESTION:
Regarding your article on replacement theology and Israel in the Q&A of June 2007, since our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all His disciples kept the Jewish festivals ("With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer" - Luke 22:15 [25]); Paul commands "keep the feast" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8 [26]); he hurried to Jerusalem to celebrate another Jewish holiday (Acts 20:16 [27]); he told the Colossians that the Jewish festivals were a shadow of the Messiah, good reason to celebrate them (Colossians 2:16-17 [28]); the Jewish festivals are "statutes forever" (Leviticus 23:14 [29]); and at the last supper Christ declared that He would someday drink the Passover Cup anew with His followers in His Father's Kingdom (Matthew 26:29 [30]; Mark 14:25 [31]); and since neither God nor Jesus makes any distinction between Christian Jews or Gentiles regarding these festivals, could you please explain your statement: "...for a Gentile to keep those [Jewish] feasts today would be a fraud."
You state that Jewish feasts "are specifically for Jews to keep...," but I fail to find any Scripture that so states or even so implies. Do you mean that Jesus's statement at the Last Supper about drinking the cup anew with His followers in His Father's kingdom only applied to Jewish followers...? I still don't see where observing the Jewish holidays and feasts is prohibited in the Scriptures. Are you saying that it's ok for Jewish Christians to celebrate Jewish festivals, but not for Gentile Christians to do so? Please explain.
RESPONSE:
You read your own ideas into Matthew 26:29 [32] and Mark 14:25 [33]. Jesus did not say "Passover Cup" but "fruit of the vine" as also in Luke 22:18 [34]. Most of your misunderstanding comes from failing to recognize that the Last Supper was not the Jewish Passover but a new remembrance of Himself that Christ inaugurated for the church: it was not in memory of deliverance from Egypt but the deliverance "the Lamb of God" (Jn 1:29 [35]) who is "Christ our passover" (1 Cor 5:7 [36]) would effect on the Cross, the lamb foretold in Exodus 12:6 [37] that the "whole assembly of the congregation of Israel [would] kill...in the evening." That is why He called it "this passover" (Lk 22:15 [38])-to distinguish the Old Testament picture from the New Testament reality.
When Paul said "let us keep the feast," he was not referring to the Jewish Passover but to "this passover" involving "Christ our passover" in remembrance of Himself that Christ initiated at the Last Supper, which was not the Jewish Passover. That idea is a grave misunderstanding. We've been over this before in previous TBCs, but here it is again.
John 13:1 [39] says the Last Supper was "before the feast of the Passover." Had it been the Passover, no one would have thought that Judas went out to buy anything (13:29), for all stores would have been closed on the "high Sabbath" that began the seven-day feast with the Passover supper. Furthermore, the Last Supper couldn't have been the Jewish Passover because the next morning the rabbis hadn't yet eaten the Passover (Jn 18:28 [40]), and later, that "morning after," it was still "the preparation of the passover" (19:14).
There was no Passover lamb at the Last Supper because the lambs were not slain until the following afternoon-when Christ was dying on the Cross, as it had to be in fulfillment of Scripture. Christ's "this do in remembrance of me" (Lk 22:19 [41]; 1 Cor 11:25 [42]) was not a command for Christians to keep the Jewish Passover with a new meaning. Read Exodus 12 [43] again. There is no way the Passover could be given a new meaning for Christians (Jews and Gentiles) while retaining its primary meaning for Jews-and why should it? Never was it said that the wine drunk at the Passover was a symbol of blood, either of the Passover lamb's or of Christ's. Christ inaugurated something entirely new, unrelated (except symbolically) to Israel's deliverance from Egypt.
The gospel has nothing to do with keeping Jewish feasts. Though symbolic of much that pertains to the gospel, the feasts are part of the law of Moses, not to be observed by Christians (Acts 15:24-29 [44]). They provide pictures of Christ and the gospel but are primarily and eternally related to Israel, the Promised Land, and the coming Messianic kingdom-not to the church. Gentile believers on Christ have no reason to, as Paul put it, go back "to the weak and beggarly elements" (Gal 4:9 [45]) of the law.
The Passover was always a remembrance specifically for Jewish persons of the fact that God miraculously delivered their ancestors from Egypt. Those who keep it today (only Jews do, not Arabs or "Palestinians") prove to the world their descent from those God delivered from Egypt and led into the Promised Land. That land belongs to Jews, not to those who fraudulently claim to be descended from the original "Palestinians" and accuse Jews of occupying their land. It would destroy the proof and change the meaning for Gentiles to keep the Jewish Passover, which does not pertain to them at all!
QUESTION:
In the July 2007 Q&A, you stated: "Revelation 21 [46] reveals the ‘new heaven and new earth' after the final judgment of the wicked (Revelation 20:10-15 [47]).... Jews or Gentiles who believed on Christ, but not until they saw Him at the Second Coming, are not in the church but will dwell on earth eternally: in their natural bodies during the Millennium and in new bodies on the new earth with access to the new Jerusalem but not as its residents (Revelation 21:24 [48]). Jews saved at the Second Coming will eternally dwell in the promised land of Israel on the new earth (Genesis 17:8 [49]; 1 Chronicles 16:14-18 [50]; Ezekiel 32:21-28 [51]; 39:27-29; Zechariah 12:10 [52]). Jews or Gentiles who believed on Christ before His visible appearing (‘blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed' - John 20:29 [53]) are the bride, the church. They inhabit the new Jerusalem, are always with Christ, and have full access through Him to the throne of God in heaven."
Did you state in another article many years ago that believers during the new heaven and earth who are not part of the church will be able to have babies to fill the earth in obedience to Christ's command to replenish the earth? This will either stop when earth is full or populations will be removed to other planets. I don't find any reference of such a thing in the Bible. Further, why won't believers, though not part of the church, have full access to the throne of God and what does full access mean? I thought access would be unlimited and that the throne of the Trinity would be among men, not in the current heaven any more.
RESPONSE:
No, I never stated that anyone would bear children in the new heaven and new earth. Believers have new bodies like angels and "neither marry, nor are given in marriage"(Mt 22:30; Mk 12:25 [54]; Lk 20:35 [55]). Nor will humans inhabit other planets, in spite of Billy Graham's hoping to preach the gospel on other planets during the Millennium.
Revelation 21:24-27 [56] tells us of the new Jerusalem in eternity: "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it...kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it...." These clearly come in and out of it as visitors, not as residents. The glory of God is manifested there, but the only mention of the throne of "God and of the Lamb" locates it in heaven, from whence the new Jerusalem descends to earth (Rv 21:2,5,10; 22:1,3).