Copyright © 2022 Michael A. Brown
‘In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’ (John 14:2-3)
When Jesus spoke the well-known words
above to his disciples on the evening of the Last Supper, they would have
immediately recognised and understood what he was referring to. Jesus used the analogy of the Jewish wedding
traditions of their day to draw a parallel with his own future return for the
bride of Christ. There would have been no doubt in
their minds that he was referring to this Jewish tradition.
Jesus used this analogy to describe his
own return as the heavenly Bridegroom for his bride, the believing church, in
the event that we know as ‘the rapture’ (1 Thess. 4:16-17). Since he returned to heaven, Jesus has
remained there preparing a place for us, but he will very soon return to
receive us to himself, as he promised. This
is an event which is distinct from his Second Advent at the end of the
tribulation period.
In
traditional Jewish culture, the two fathers would first agree to the
marriage. The groom would then tell his
bride-to-be that he would prepare a place for them in his father’s house, adding
an apartment to it to use as their own home after they were married. Meanwhile, in her parent’s home, the bride
would prepare her wedding garments and get herself ready, and the groom would
return for his bride when he had finished his own preparations.
In
Jewish culture in those days, it was the groom’s father who made the final
decision as to when the new apartment was ready. He would then tell his son that it was ready,
and that the time had finally come when he could go and get his bride.
The son
would then get his best man and a group of close friends, and these would walk
through the streets shouting, “Behold, the bridegroom comes!” They would blow a shofar to announce that
they were coming. When they arrived at
the bride’s house, they would wait outside and she would come out to meet
them. Then they would all return to the
groom’s house, where the wedding ceremony took place. Their marriage was then consummated
physically. After this, the wedding
party then ensued for seven days.[1]
Table 9.1 below highlights this parallel:
|
The Jewish wedding tradition |
The heavenly Bridegroom and his bride |
|
The groom
leaves his father’s home and goes to his prospective bride’s home. The groom
establishes a marriage covenant by paying a tribute or purchase price for his
prospective bride. The groom
promises to return, leaving the bride at her father’s house, and going back
to his own father’s house himself.
They remain separated for a period of time, normally about a year. During the
year of separation, the groom would stay at his father’s house to build
living accommodation for him and his bride. The groom, on
an unannounced night, at the end of the year of separation, would come and
take his bride. This would happen only
after the living quarters were finished, and after his father had given
approval and told him he could go and get his bride. When the
bridegroom came, he and his male escorts would wait outside the bride’s house
until she was ready. They would shout “Behold, the bridegroom is coming!”,
and a shofar would be blown. Then the
bride would come out to join her bridegroom. The couple
would return by torchlight procession to the groom’s father’s house. Upon returning to the groom’s father’s house, the wedding ceremony
took place, and the new couple remained hidden in the bridal chamber for
seven days in what was known as ‘the seven days of the bridal chamber.’ At the end of the seventh day, the groom would come out of hiding with
his bride, so that everyone could see his bride. |
Jesus left
heaven to come to earth. Jesus establishes the new covenant through his blood, redeeming us to himself. Jesus promised to return, left believers on earth, and went to his Father’s house (John 14:2-3). At the end of the separation, Jesus will come from his Father’s house at an unannounced time (Mark 13:32). He will come at his Father’s command (1 Thess. 4:16). Jesus will
return with his bride to his Father’s house to begin living in the many rooms
prepared for us there. When Jesus and his bride return to the Father’s house, they will ‘go into hiding’ for seven years, during the time that the tribulation takes place on earth. At the end of the seven years, Jesus will come out of hiding. He will return to earth in his Second Advent, in order to rule and reign. His bride will come with him in full public display for all to see. |
Table 9.1
The parallel between the traditional Jewish wedding and the rapture of the
bride of Christ
The rapture: the heavenly
Bridegroom comes for his bride
Reading:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
The apostle Paul called the rapture ‘a
mystery,’ i.e. it is something that was not taught clearly in the Old Testament
writings, but was revealed to the apostles in the New Testament. His teaching on the rapture of the bride of
Christ is found in the passages in 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 and 1 Corinthians
15:51-52, as below:
‘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.’ (1
Thess. 4:16-17)
‘Listen I tell you a mystery: We will not all
sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.’ (1 Cor. 15:51-52)
Although we call this event ‘the rapture,’
there are actually two things which happen in it. Firstly, the dead in Christ are resurrected
and then, after this and secondly, those believers who are living at that time
will be transformed and caught up together with those who have been
resurrected, and they will all meet up with the Lord in the air. So in this book, I refer to this event simply
as ‘the rapture’ or, more technically, as the ‘resurrection-rapture event.’
In the first of these two passages, we can
see the parallel with the Jewish wedding traditions as it is outlined in the
table above. When the time comes for
Jesus to descend from heaven and receive his bride, his Father will give him a
clear and loud command to do so, because the Father knows that the time has
come. The Greek word keleuma which is used here in verse 16 referred to
‘an order,’ ‘a command’ or ‘a stimulating cry’ such as that which is given to
rouse and urge horses on in a chariot race, or ‘a loud call which is given to
people’ such as that given to soldiers by a commander.
Verse 16
also tells us that Jesus will be accompanied by one of heaven’s archangels,
much as the young Jewish bridegroom was accompanied by his best man and a group
of close friends. It is this archangel
who will cry out, “Here is the Bridegroom!
Come out to meet him!” (Matt. 25:6), and presumably he will also give
the loud shofar trumpet blast to announce the coming of the heavenly
Bridegroom.
The Lord
will not come down to earth, but will wait in the air, in the same way that the
young Jewish bridegroom would not enter the bride’s house, but would wait for
her outside. The dead in Christ will
then be raised, and believers who are alive will be transformed and caught up,
and they will all meet and gather together with Christ in the air. The Greek verb harpazein which is used here literally means ‘to be
snatched away,’ or ‘to claim something eagerly for oneself.’ Its translation in the Vulgate Latin version
of the Bible uses the verb rapio from
which we get our word ‘rapture.’ The gathered bride of Christ will then return
with him to heaven, his Father’s house, and the wedding supper of the Lamb will
be celebrated there later on (cf. Rev. 19:6-9).
Paul elaborates a little further on this
in the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, where he speaks of the transformation
of the physical bodies of believers into their spiritual bodies as they are
caught up into the air to meet the Lord.
He says that this transformation will happen ‘in a flash’ or ‘in the
twinkling of an eye.’ The Greek words
used here are atomos, meaning a
period of time that is so small it cannot be divided, and rhipe ophthalmou, referring to the time taken for light to
flash on or across the pupil of a person’s eye.
So, expressed proverbially, this transformation of our bodies is going
to happen so fast that, if you blinked your eyes, you’d miss it!
The rapture: prophetic fulfilment of the Feast of Trumpets
From the
passage in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 we can also discern the connection between
this resurrection-rapture event and the Hebrew Feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah
(cf. Lev. 23:23-25). The Feast of
Trumpets was the first of the three Autumn feasts which Jews were commanded to
celebrate, and, just as the three Spring feasts found their Messianic
fulfilment in the life and work of Christ, this feast also has Messianic
prophetic significance. Today it is
often referred to as Rosh Hashanah and it marks the beginning of the Jewish civil
New Year. It was held on the first day
of the seventh month (Tishri), and its purpose was to call the Jews to a period
of prayer, confession, repentance and putting things right in their life, in
preparation for the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) which would take place on the
tenth day of that same month. These ten
days of prayer and repentance, beginning on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom
Kippur, are called the Days of Awe.
Each day during this period, the shofar
(trumpet) is blown to awaken the people, and to warn them to repent and return
to God since God’s judgement of sin on Yom Kippur is coming soon. The final shofar blast on Rosh Hashanah was
known as ‘the last trump’ (i.e. the last blast of the shofar). It is this ‘last trumpet’ blast which Paul is
referring to in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.
It should not be confused with ‘the trumpet call of God’ mentioned in 1
Thessalonians 4:16, as this refers to the shofar blast in the Jewish wedding
analogy, as we have seen above.
After the rapture of the bride of Christ,
this world will enter into a time of God’s call to repentance and the pouring
out of his wrath on earth because of human sin, a period of time which is often
referred to as ‘the tribulation.’ During
the time of the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of wrath in the book of
Revelation, there are references to repentance, or rather to the lack of it
(see Rev. 9:20-21; 16:9-10). This time
of worldwide tribulation is then followed by the Second Advent of Christ.
Furthermore, the Feast of Trumpets is also
known as the Wedding of the Messiah. In
the analogy of a traditional Jewish wedding, the marriage takes place over a
period of time known as the ‘bridal week.’
During this bridal week, the groom and bride consummate their relations
in the bridal room which was built in the father’s home. At the end of this week, the marriage supper
is held. This bridal week represents the
time when the bride of Christ is in heaven after the rapture, while on earth it
will be a time of tribulation.
In Matthew 24:36, we can see another
connection between the rapture and the Feast of Trumpets:
‘No one knows
about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only
the Father.’ (Matt. 24:36)
This
verse does not refer to the Second Advent of Christ, but to the event of the
rapture. The Feast of Trumpets was known
as the feast about which ‘we do not know the day or the hour.’ This was because this feast day could only be
announced by the priests to have arrived when two reliable witnesses had both
seen the new crescent moon rising.
The new moon is very
difficult to see on the first day, because
it can be seen only around the time of sunset, and it is very close to the sun
which is travelling north. So, looking
for a very slim and
faint crescent moon, which is very close to the sun, is a difficult thing to do. If the crescent moon was not seen on that day, then it was automatically announced the next day. It is for this reason that Yom Teruah is celebrated for two days, with
the two being thought of as one long day. This
is the only one of the biblical feasts that the Jews do not know the exact day
on which to keep it. They know the season in which it is to be kept,
of course, but not the day or the hour (cf. Matt. 24:32-36). Therefore, they have to be alert and to watch
out for it.
Furthermore, as we saw earlier in this
chapter, the reference to the day of the rapture in Matthew 24:36 is to a day
known only by the Father. Even the Lord
Jesus, the Son of God, does not know when it will be. He is waiting for his Father to tell him when
the right time has come to go and get his bride!
So
the Feast of Trumpets finds its prophetic messianic fulfilment in the event of
the rapture. It foreshadows the
return of the heavenly Bridegroom for his bride. Because of this, some people believe that the
rapture, when it does actually take place, will happen on the Feast of
Trumpets, although we do not know in which year or on which of its two days
that will be, of course. This implies
that it will be fulfilled on the exact day of its biblical counterpart, in just
the same way that Jesus died on the cross exactly on the day of Passover, in just
the same way that he was raised from the dead exactly on the day of the Feast
of Firstfruits, and in just the same way that the Church came into being
exactly on the day of the Feast of Weeks (the day of Pentecost). However, because Rosh Hashanah is celebrated
as a two-day feast, this would still mean that we do not know the day or the
hour when the rapture would happen, just as it says in Matthew 24:36.
The
rapture happens before ‘the day of the Lord’
Reading:
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
The rapture happens before ‘the day of the
Lord,’ i.e. before the period of tribulation on earth, and this is clear from
the apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
The whole of the passage in 1
Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:11 forms one natural section in this epistle. It is important that we remember that when
Paul wrote this epistle, he did not insert chapter and verse numbers. These were added into the text at a much later
stage. So Paul’s teaching about the ‘day
of the Lord,’ the time of tribulation and God’s wrath on earth, follows on
naturally from his teaching about the rapture.
It is given to us quite clearly in the context of the rapture.
Evidently then, the purpose of the rapture
is for the Lord to take his bride away before the time of wrath begins. Paul states explicitly that, because we are
God’s children and we do not live in darkness, that day will not surprise us
like a thief (5:4, cf. Matt. 24:42-44), and he also states that, as the bride
of Christ, we are not destined for wrath, but to obtain salvation through
Christ (5:9). Indeed, Jesus will come
for us in order to rescue us away from the coming wrath (1:10). So it is clearly the case that the sudden
event of the rapture will save us away from the onset of ‘the day of the Lord,’
and then, after this period of tribulation on earth has finished, we will
return with the Lord at his Second Advent (4:14).
Furthermore, we are told that the rapture
will happen suddenly and unexpectedly in a time of relative ‘peace and safety’
on earth. After the rapture, the world
will then be plunged suddenly into the time of destruction of the tribulation
(5:3). ‘Peace and safety’ on earth will
not be characteristic of the time of tribulation, rather it will be a time when
people’s hearts will fail them for fear of what is coming upon the earth (Luke
21:25-26). So the rapture cannot happen
at the end of the time of tribulation, or even sometime after it starts,
it must happen before this time.[2]
Why is our heavenly Bridegroom staying away so long?
We
saw in chapter 8 that the early church expected Jesus to return for his bride
in their own lifetime, and this expectation has been the hope of every
generation of believers since then. It
is a long time now that Jesus has been away, but the hope of his promise
remains fresh for every generation of believers:
‘The bridegroom was a long time
in coming…’
(Matt. 25:5)
There
are at least three reasons why the Lord is staying away so long:
·
God
the Father is working for the fullness of the Gentile harvest to come in. He is not willing that any should perish,
neither us, nor our children nor our grandchildren. He wants everyone to come to repentance and
salvation (Rom. 11:25, 2 Peter 3:9). So
he continues to wait patiently through people’s lifetimes, while one generation
gives way to another, for people to repent and to turn to him in faith through
Christ.
·
The
Lord is preparing a place for his bride (John 14:2-3). He is still waiting
for his Father’s command to come and get his bride.
·
He
is waiting for his bride to prepare for his coming and to get herself ready
(Matt. 24:44, cf. Rev. 19:7). He does
not want her to go through the end-times day of his wrath.
When will the rapture occur in relation to the
period of tribulation?
There are traditionally three major
viewpoints as to when the rapture will occur in relation to the tribulation
period. These are known as the
pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation and post-tribulation viewpoints. So, although everyone accepts that it will
happen on a day and at a time which is unknown to us (cf. Matt. 24:36), some
believe that the rapture will happen before the day of the Lord; some believe
that it will happen in the middle of this period, and others that it will
happen at the end.
The post-tribulation viewpoint holds that
the rapture will occur at the end of the tribulation, i.e. at the time of the
Second Advent of Christ. So this
viewpoint conflates John 14:2-3 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which are about the
rapture, with the passages in Matthew 24:29-31 and Revelation 19:11-16 which
are about the Second Advent. People who
believe this, think that the gathering referred to in Matthew 24:31 is the same
as the rapture we have described in this chapter. Hence, in this scenario, all believers would
go through the time of tribulation, and would then be raptured at the end of
it. So they would be snatched up into
the air to meet Christ as he descends from heaven at his Second Advent, only to
then immediately come back down to the earth with him. It is the conflation of the passages
mentioned above which leads to this confused and wrong belief.
In this viewpoint, there is no analogy of
the rapture with the Jewish wedding traditions as I have described in this
chapter, and the deeply loved bride of Christ effectively becomes an object of
God’s wrath along with everyone else on earth during the tribulation. This would be something fearful to have to
look forward to, and it would no doubt fill us with anxiety, worry and stress,
rather than looking forward with anticipation and joy to the rapture happening
before the tribulation, as I have described.
Furthermore, Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:22
clearly imply that, by the end of the tribulation period, there won’t be all
that many people left alive on planet earth (relative to the world’s total
population today). Most of them will
have died or been killed during the tribulation from one cause or another, and
so the earth will be largely de-populated during this time. Therefore, if the rapture were to happen at
the end of the tribulation, then there simply wouldn’t be many believers left
alive who could be raptured. But this,
of course, defeats the very objective of the rapture. God’s purpose in the rapture is to take
believers away from the wrath of God in the tribulation, so that they do not go
through it (1 Thess. 1:10). So the
rapture cannot therefore be post-tribulation.
Additionally, although we do not know when
the rapture will occur, yet we do know exactly when the Second Advent will
occur. It occurs immediately after the
time of tribulation on earth, and it is preceded by signs in the sun, moon and
stars, as described by Jesus himself in Matthew 24:29-30. So, anyone who was alive on earth in those
days and who knew the Scriptures well, would be able to tell exactly when the
Second Advent (and therefore the rapture) was going to occur. S/he would simply have to wait for the end of
the time of tribulation and to see the signs in the sun, moon and stars,
because it is then that it will occur.
So this event does not happen suddenly like a thief coming in the night,
and this viewpoint therefore falls clearly into contradiction with Matthew
24:36 which says that we cannot know the day or the hour.
Regarding the mid-tribulation viewpoint, there
are two distinct halves in the tribulation period, each lasting 3½ years. So again, if we were alive at that time and
knew the Scriptures well, we would know exactly when the first half of the
tribulation would draw to a close. We
would simply have to count down the number of days since it began (cf. Rev.
11:3), and then the rapture will occur.
A similar argument also holds for the second half of the tribulation and
for the post-tribulation viewpoint. It
simply means that the rapture, when it came, would not break into our life
suddenly and unexpectedly, which is the picture of it given to us in the Scriptures.
This viewpoint also conflates the last of
the seven trumpets in the book of Revelation (which will happen at the
mid-point of the tribulation period, cf. Rev. 11:15) with the last trumpet of 1
Corinthians 15:52. This latter trumpet
blast was the prophetic fulfilment of ‘the last trump’ of the Feast of
Trumpets, as we have seen, and this is certainly prophetic of the rapture. However, the seventh trumpet of Revelation
11:15 is simply the last of seven trumpet blasts which will be sounded in
heaven, but not heard on earth. So they
are not the same thing.
There is another viewpoint of when the
rapture will occur in relation to the tribulation period. This is called the pre-wrath viewpoint, and
basically it says that the rapture will happen about three-quarters of the way
through the seven-year period of the tribulation, just prior to the pouring out
of the bowls of God’s wrath (cf. Rev. ch.16).
However, as with the post-tribulation viewpoint, this means that the
bride of Christ will have to experience at least part of the reign of
Antichrist, and that the rapture cannot happen until after Antichrist has risen
up. So then, according to this
viewpoint, the first thing we need to look out for is Antichrist, rather than
the return of the Bridegroom. Again,
this contradicts Matthew 24:36 which says that we cannot know the day or the
hour: we cannot say that it must be after Antichrist arises. There are no signs which the Bible says must
happen before the rapture takes place.
It will happen suddenly and unexpectedly, and it is something that we
need to be ready for.
For these reasons, I believe that the
rapture will come before the day of the Lord, the time of tribulation on
earth, i.e. it will be a pre-tribulation rapture. This viewpoint is consistent both with the
Scriptures and with the Jewish wedding analogy which is used by both the Lord
Jesus and the apostle Paul as its parallel.
No-one knows the day or hour when the rapture will take place, and there
are no signs which the Bible says must precede it. It is the next great event in the life of
the global church, and it will happen suddenly and unexpectedly in a time of
relative ‘peace and safety,’ before the period of tribulation. As the bride of Christ, it is this event that
we are encouraged by the apostle Paul to look forward to with anticipation,
inward peace and joy, rather than being fearful and anxious of going through
the tribulation (1 Thess. 4:18, 5:11).
After we have been raptured, we will return to earth with Jesus at his
Second Advent at the end of the tribulation (1 Thess. 4:14).
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