BE CAUGHT UP BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE SIGNS ANNOUNCED BY THE LORD IN MATTHEW 24.?
MY DEAR BROTHER,
I KNOW very well that I am about to enter upon a subject as to which there is diversity of views among the Christians who, nevertheless, expect the coming of Jesus to seek His Church before the introduction of the millennium. However, my aim is not controversy, properly so called; for since my convictions were formed, I do not know that anything has been published in our language [French] for or against an affirmative solution of the question placed at the head of this letter. What I have at heart, and that for our common edification, is to set forth without any reserve or condition the scriptural foundation of these convictions, without neglecting, however, to answer certain objections which have been made to me in private conversation, or which I have made to myself. If people will call that controversy, be it so; but I undertake it in love, and I hope that the brethren who cannot yet see as I do will kindly read, bear with me, and sot me right if they find that I go astray.
I ought first of all to declare that, for my part, I cannot give the name of idle to the proposed question, for great is the difference of our position before God, according to the manner in which it is resolved. Could there be found identity in the spiritual affections of two brethren, of whom one sees the return of Christ only in the distance, through a crowd of previous and yet unfulfilled signs, and the other looks for Jesus every day, persuaded that it is the rapture of the Church to meet the Lord in the air which is to precede all these signs? I wish to judge no one; but the nature of things and my own experience do not permit use to allow this identity. However strong or enlightened the faith may be, it cannot put aside signs to which the Lord desires that attention should be paid; nor can it consequently, before they arrive, regard the deliverance as very close at hand. The virgins were aroused by the cry, The Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him. It is said that the Lord can hasten the accomplishment of the signs, and that is true. But God cannot change His word, nor accomplish in one day that which He had declared will fill up a week or a half-week of years. And were we at the beginning of this half-week—did we see the abominations of the desolator Placed in the sanctuary—we should still have forty-two months to wait for the coming of Jesus, and forty-two very long months, since it will be the time of the persecution of the saints of the Lord under antichrist. But I will not anticipate that which is to follow. I do not believe then that an expectation of the coming of Jesus after antecedent signs affects our hearts in the same way as an always present expectation; and it is this which shows me the importance of the subject which I am attempting to handle.
Without further preamble, I would tell you that for some years I am firmly convinced that the Church will be caught up before the fulfillment of the prophecy contained in Matt. 24., and that conscientiously I can only see in a contrary persuasion an error or a mistake more or less grave respecting the mind of God; let this be said without questioning the good faith and the sincerity of those who thus wander from the truth. And if for a sufficiently long period I have myself shared this error, a somewhat attentive examination of the Scriptures has soon recovered me from it.
That the proposed question presents difficulties, I do not deny. Such there are, not only in the study of prophecy in general, but moreover in that of the generality of doctrines. Doubtless several have been lightened, but others have not been, and never will be, removed out of the road; hence those divergences in the views of brethren equally upright, equally well disposed to divine truth. The word of God is not a treatise upon the exact sciences; but it is the expression of the mind of a Being, boundless, infinite and incomprehensible in His knowledge and wisdom, in comparison of whom all the inhabitants of the earth are weighed as nothing, who confounds the wisdom of the wise and the understanding of the intelligent. Shall we find out the depth of God by searching it? Shall we know perfectly the Omnipotent? I doubt not, and there is my consolation, that, as regards Hint, this Word is perfectly accordant with itself, and that all the things which it contains form but one divinely harmonious whole, which will be in heaven the joy and admiration of our souls. But here below we know only in part; and when, though enlightened by grace, our feeble intelligence seeks to penetrate into the divine revelation, we have very frequently much trouble, and often we cannot succeed, in making a crowd of details mutually co-ordinate, even while we have seized the large outlines which include them, and when the general mind of God is no longer a mystery to us. But are we less assured that we have laid hold of this mind? Undoubtedly not. They are difficulties, we say; and they do not arrest us in our path, although they may slacken our pace. Here is a fact clearly revealed, and there is another in the same case; but where is their connection? Supposing we do not discover it now, what are we to do? Nothing more simple: admit them both, waiting till our divine Teacher is pleased to show us how they agree together. Such is that which I call humility and wisdom; whilst one can only see pride and folly in altering (as is done, alas! by many theologians) the bearing of one fact or of one doctrine in order to put it in equilibrium with another. And I will add, that God ever blesses this walk herein; that it is seldom that he who on divine authority has admitted two things irreconcilable in appearance, has not later (if you will allow the expression to pass) the word of the enigma, and then a sort of shame at the previous stupidity of his mind in discovering the harmony of two revealed facts.
I have allowed myself this digression, because of the utility which it seems to me to have for the brethren who read prophecy, and because it is otherwise bound up with my subject. We find ourselves in presence of two revelations, the one given to the apostles in Matt. 24.; the other given by Paul, 2 Thess. 2: 1 and seq. In the first, Jesus declares that He will come in clouds with power and great glory, after several events destined to render the disciples attentive; and several have concluded from thence that the Church is to pass through those events, and to suffer the great distress or the tribulation of antichrist. In the second revelation Paul expresses himself, on the contrary, in such a manner as not to leave the Thessalonians the least room for expecting the signs or for fearing the tribulation; and the most ingenious spirit would search in vain to make this revelation accord with that of the Savior to the disciples, at least at first sight. Well, I now bless God for it, I see those two prophecies perfectly in harmony, without being obliged to alter one jot or tittle of them, and without forcing the meaning of a single expression. It is as true for me that the Church will be caught up before the signs as it is that, after the signs, men will see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. I have no more trouble to reconcile those two facts than to distinguish between the titles of Son of God and Son of man, or between the destinies of the Jews and of the Church.
One must be singularly enslaved by the old theology, and I would even say led of one's own spirit in the study of the Bible, not to make those distinctions; and, God be thanked, we know that He who at the beginning created the heavens and the earth, chose to Himself two peoples, one heavenly and the other earthly, with whom His Christ sustains, or will sustain, different relationships. But what surprises me is, that, while knowing how to distinguish the relations of the Christ of God with the Church from those which He has with the people of Israel, people confound them, in point of fact, by identifying the coming of the Son of man with the rapture of the Church, and by regarding Matt. 24. as a warning given to this latter of its position at the consummation of the age, that is to say, at the epoch of the deliverance of Israel.. That the will of God to have a people associated with the heavenly glory, actual and future, of His Beloved, and destined to display the immense riches of His grace, as well as His infinitely varied wisdom; that this will, I say, was a mystery hidden in all ages, revealed first by the mission of the Holy Spirit, afterward in a direct manner to Paul, who may be with a just title called the apostle of the mystery (Ephes. 1.-3.), is what is no more a thing doubtful for us; thanks for it be given to Him who, according to His good pleasure, has given us the knowledge of this adorable mystery. To refuse admitting this foundation principle, if thus I may name it, is to be condemned to a Christianity more or less carnal and Jewish. But then, is it in the gospels where Jesus speaks in some sort from the earth (Heb. 12:2525See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: (Hebrews 12:25)) and not from the heavens, that the Church should seek the direct revelation of the glory which concerns it? Certainly not. I hasten, nevertheless, to make a sort of exception in favor of the gospel of John, because Jesus speaks there as come down from heaven, and in the consciousness of being [determined] the Son of God by His future resurrection. But in this gospel itself, of which chapters 13. to 17. in particular are a treasure for the Church, we are conducted no farther, for that which concerns the future, than to the simple promise of the return of Jesus in order to take us to be with Himself. Jesus does not speak there of the rapture of the Church (although the promise supposes the thing), because He Himself was neither risen nor caught up. And it is a very remarkable thing that, in the same discourse in which He is so explicit upon the blessed operations of the Comforter, and upon the certainty of His return from heaven, He should say nothing of the blessed hope, or of the rapture of the Church.
And if in the gospel of John, a gospel destined to withdraw the disciples from Judaism and to free them from the yoke of the schoolmaster, the Savior confines Himself to the promise of entering into the mansions of the Father (and that in opposition to the expectations of an earthly glory, the only ones which the apostle could have), what then will become of the prophecy in Matt. 24., where the prophet, like unto Moses, and near the end of His career, prophesies just as Moses had done, near to his own? Have people any plausible foundation for supposing that the intention of Jesus in this chapter is to instruct the disciples in the destinies of the heavenly people—a people of whom the disciples have as yet no idea—a people who were not to be manifested and gathered till after the rejection of Jesus by the earthly people? Can it be explained in a manner ever so little satisfactory why the disciples, inquiring of things which regard the future, of the temple and of the nation, Jesus responded to their questions by a detailed prophecy upon the destinies of the Church, a people very distinct from the Jews, and called to a quite different vocation, as well as to a quite different glory? To make such questions is to answer them in the negative. The least attention to the prophecy of Matt 24., and above all that which is written in the fifteenth verse, can leave us no doubt whatever as to the intention of the Lord. He converses with the faithful remnant of a nation which was soon going to crucify their King and their God; and to the question of these "poor of the flock" (Zech. 11.) He makes a suited answer, in which He groups facts already announced by the prophets, intermingling them with certain others which were not yet revealed, and which are only facts of detail. The abominations of the desolator, the flight of the disciples, the great tribulation, were not new events, as one may be assured by comparing Dan. 9:27, 12:1; Jer. 30:6, 76Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:6‑7); Ezek. 5:9, 7:16; and Zech. 14:55And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:5), with Matt. 24:15, 16, 2115When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: (Matthew 24:15‑16)
21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21). And as to the coming of the Son of man for the deliverance of the people, I will not cite, because there would be too much to cite. Thus the Lord in this prophecy does nothing but recall, collecting them together, and adding to them His own revelations—facts relative to the Jewish nation, and to none other. To apply them to the Church is to abuse the word of God, as men abuse it in applying to the Church the promises made to the Jews. For further details, I refer the reader to the eighth number of the Témoignage, in which a hand abler and better directed than mine has analyzed the prophecy of which I have just been speaking. I have heard several brethren object that the Lord therein speaks of the elect; but the Old Testament gives the same title to the Jews in various passages. We may, for example, cite Isa. 65:8, 98Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. 9And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. (Isaiah 65:8‑9), which is parallel with Matt. 24:2222And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:22). Thus, in this last chapter, it is not a question about the Church.
I have in myself a full persuasion that the rapture of the Church is one of these mysteries of which he is the steward whom the Holy Spirit now calls to the ministry of the Word. (1 Cor. 4:11Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. (1 Corinthians 4:1).)
Perhaps this was one of those visions and of those revelations with which Paul was honored when he was himself caught up (whether in the body or in spirit, we know not—God knoweth) even to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2, 32I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) (2 Corinthians 12:2‑3)), or which he received in other circumstances. My persuasion rests upon the striking analogy which exists between two passages. The first is 1 Thess. 4:13-1713But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then 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. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑17), where Paul, speaking to the brethren of the rapture of the Church, after having spoken to them of the resurrection, which was not a mystery, warns them that what he is going to tell them is a word of the Lord. What word? Is any portion of it written? Had Jesus pronounced it before? By no means. It is a revelation which Paul received, like many others, for the joy and consolation of the Church; a new revelation, shut up in the bosom of God and communicated by the Holy Spirit, or by a manifestation of Jesus, to the apostle of the mystery of God. Of it, then, it is not a question before this period; it is a secret discovered to Paul, and to none before him. Accordingly we should not search for it in the gospels. The second passage, which confirms that which I have just said, is this: " Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," &c. (1 Cor. 15:51, 5251Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In 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. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑52).) The parallelism is too striking to be denied; and it must be concluded thence, that the rapture of the Church was a mystery until Paul.
These are only, I am aware, indirect proofs in favor of the principle which I defend, though they have a certain degree of force. But the two facts which appear to me to have been sufficiently proved, namely, that in Matt. 24. it is only a question of Jews, and that the rapture of the Church is a mystery revealed to Paul, have already an important bearing, and serve to open the road for solving definitely the question that engages us. I will add thereto, but without delaying too much, because it is pretty well known, the great principle laid down in John 7:39, 16:12-15; 1 Cor. 2:9-129But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9‑12), which, reduced to its simplest expression, amounts to this—that the glory of the Church could not be disclosed and published save by the Holy Ghost, sent by the second Adam, entered Himself into glory. Before this period God, it would seem, could not speak of introducing men into heaven, any more than cause the gospel to be preached to the nations before the resurrection of Christ. We may undoubtedly discover, whether in the law and the prophets, or in the gospels, types or indications of the glory of the Church and of its privileges; but nothing more, because the Holy Spirit was not come down from heaven in order to bear witness to the glory of Christ.
I come now to the direct proofs which the word of God furnishes us of the rapture of the Church before the fulfillment of all the prophecy of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. I say all designedly, because I do not think that God occupies Himself with the Jews, as a people, before the Church is withdrawn from the earth. Those proofs are not numerous, it is true, since they reduce themselves to two. But had I only one, it ought to suffice for him who sees in the Word a truth of God. They are contained, first, in the prophecy of Paul, in the first and second epistles to the Thessalonians; secondly, in that of John, in the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of the Revelation.
Let us begin with this latter, because that, of the two (I speak here with respect to the opinion of some brethren, and not to my own), it is that which at first sight presents the least clearness, because of the symbolical character of all the apocalyptic visions. It is not a new idea which I utter, in pointing out the beautiful parallelism which exists between the second, third, fourth, and fifth seals (Rev. 6.), and verses 6-14 of Matt. 24.; also I will confine myself merely and simply to recall it. Only I would remark, in passing, the analogy which there is between the cry of the souls under the altar and the prayers of the persecuted Jewish remnant, which one finds in the Psalms—prayers which, if they are according to the spirit of the earth and of a people of the earth who may call for justice, are not according to the Spirit of adoption, which is a Spirit of grace, praying for those who trample upon us. John does not speak of false Christs nor of false prophets, because the opening of the seals presents the events as preparatory judgments, and not as signs of the appearing of the Son of man, though they do not cease to be signs also. The same parallelism will be found between Rev. 6. and Luke 21., of which verses 10-19 correspond to Matt. 24:6-146And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:6‑14) and verses 25, 26, to the sixth seal. Now, since the apocalyptic vision of chapters 4. and 5. is a preparation for the opening of the seals, it is very evident if John sees the Church play a part in this imposing scene which passes in heaven, where the apostle is presented as caught up, it must be rigorously concluded from it that the Church will be raptured before the fulfillment of the prophecy of the sixth chapter, which is in substance identical with that of Matt. 24:4-164And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: (Matthew 24:4‑16), and that it will be in the everlasting rest, when God will act to judge the earth. But does John see the Church around the throne? That is the question: and for myself I do not hesitate to resolve it in the affirmative, when I hear the song of the elders, and when I see them clothed as priests, offering prayers, sitting upon thrones, and wearing crowns of gold upon their heads. Who could there be in heaven, excepting the Church, to sing: " Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.... and hath made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign over the earth"?
It will be said that it is a vision. Agreed: but a vision of very substantial facts and of personages who are not fictitious, although they may be presented in a symbolical form. The Lamb, the elders, the living creatures, and the angels, are not themselves symbols, though here they appear under features which are not theirs in reality, but which the vision gives them in order to put us poor creatures, partakers as yet of flesh and blood, in relation with invisible things, and to cause us from afar to be present at the grand scenes which shall usher in the redemption, or rather the deliverance, of the earth. God desires that His children on earth should know what is to happen after these things; as in the second and third chapters he had shown them the different phases presented by the Church, or by that which bears its name on earth, until it is spited out of the mouth of the Lord, and the faithful remnant goes to sup with Him. Then he to whom, as to a type of this remnant, Jesus showed the things which are, is taken up to heaven to behold the things to come. Such is the historic part of the vision. It is evident that the Church is no more on earth; I speak of the faithful. And in effect John finds them again in heaven, under the form of twenty-four elders (a number corresponding to the twenty-four classes of priests and singers established by David for the service of the temple, 1 Chron. 24. and 25.); they have the costume and all the emblems of royalty and of priesthood, and they proclaim their redemption by the blood of the Lamb. There is then precisely the Church, the glorified Church, the entire Church, stationed round the throne, which the Holy Spirit presents to us in vision. Oh, if our heart could be absorbed in the contemplation of the marvelous glory which is reserved for us! Oh, if we could realize somewhat upon earth the worship which we here see paid to God and the Lamb, and anticipate the time when we shall be actors in the scene which we now contemplate only in vision and in symbol! What life in our thanksgivings and our praises! What joy in proclaiming the death of the Lord together What a powerful confession of the rights of Christ to reign over the earth and to possess all things as Lord! For such is what the elders do. In the fourth chapter they cast their crowns at the foot of the throne (the symbol of the sovereign power of God), owning thereby that if they are kings, their authority is but derivative and a fruit of sovereign grace; and they sing the natural rights of Jesus, as Creator, to possess all things. Up to this, save their royal and priestly garments, nothing shows in the elders the character of the Church, properly so called. But in the fifth chapter we hear them sing a new song: “Thou art worthy to take the book.... for thou wart slain, and hunt redeemed us to God by thy blood." Now in heaven there can be none but the Church in these circumstances.
And then remark on what occasion the elders sing this song. It is when it is a question of determining the rights of the Lamb that was slain; to take the book and to open the seals thereof. The book is a sealed roll, like the contract of sale between Jeremiah and Hanameel. (Jer. 32.) It is an act which gives to him who can open it the right of taking possession. That which Jesus has as Creator on the earth, He had remitted to man from the beginning, in creating him (Gen. 1:2626And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26)); but Satan took it away from him, and became master of the earth and of man. By dying, Jesus has already rendered him powerless, and has robbed him of the children in order to bring thorn to glory. (Heb. 2:10-1510For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. 14Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:10‑15).) But the children once in glory, it is needful, with the view that order should be established, that man should be again put in possession of the earth; for the primitive purpose of God could not be frustrated. Now it is the fifth chapter of the Revelation which shows us the preparations for that work. Here the true Boaz, who is affianced to the Church (the marriage is only in chap. 19.), declares that the field, or the world, in which He has found His Betrothed, is going to be taken away from its actual possessor. Who will take it away? Who will be strong enough to drive Satan from here below, and to abolish his unrighteous power? None but He who purchased the Bride and the field, or the world. And it is this which the Church itself, the redeemed Church, proclaims with loud voice. It could not do so if God had not entirely redeemed it; that is to say, if the body were not entirely glorified in the resurrection, which is the day of adoption, namely, the redemption of the body. (Ephes. 4:44There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; (Ephesians 4:4); Rom. 8:2323And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23).) And all this admirably coincides with what follows. Christ having finished with the Church, and having placed it in the mansions of the Father, is occupied with the judgments, which are to put successively all things under His feet. And the opening of the seals is the beginning of these judgments, which, as we have seen, correspond with Matt. 24:4-144And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:4‑14). Thus I think with justice that the Church will have been caught up, or perfected, before the fulfillment of this prophecy, so much the more as the rights of Christ to bind Satan can be owned and proclaimed only when this redemption shall be fully accomplished. And this is even more confirmed to my mind by the typical rapture of Enoch before the deluge, which is itself a type of the judgments of the Son of man upon the corrupted earth. But I would not delay upon this point any more than upon Revelation, chap. 12., which also might furnish me with another source of light; because that would draw me too far away, and these besides are not direct proofs of the principle which I am sustaining.
I was for a time stopped by the end of chap. 7. But in examining it a little closely, I could not see the Church in this innumerable multitude, composed of all nations and kindreds, and people and tongue; and here, in few words, are my reasons: —1. Because they are only before, or in presence of, the throne; while the elders are around and even in the throne, and nearer God than the angels themselves. (Chap. 5:11.) 2. Their song does not make mention of redemption. 3. They were very distinct from the elders. 4. They have no mark of royalty or of priesthood. 5. They are simply arranged like the Jews of chap. 6:11., in white robes. 6. They have branches in their hands, like the people who celebrate the feast of tabernacles. 7. They come out of the great tribulation, through which the Church has the promise not to pass. (Chap. 3:10.) Briefly, I can see there but Gentiles escaped from the last judgments, and associated with the millennial glory of the Jews. This passage appears to me to be parallel with Isaiah 2:2-42And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:2‑4), and Zech. 13-16, to which may be added Isaiah 60:5, 6, 66:23, and many other passages in the Psalms. As the benevolence of God toward the Gentiles and His will to save them have been revealed by the death and resurrection of Jesus (Luke 24:46, 4746And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46‑47)), as the glory of the Church was only manifested by the glorification of Jesus (John 7:38, 3938He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:38‑39)), so the rights of the Lamb to redeem the field of the Bride will not be really asserted and proved save when the latter is arrived in the heavenly glory. Then, Satan being driven from heaven, Jesus will begin to make good His rights of Lord of the creation. These are analogies sufficiently striking.
Here is my first source of conviction, as regards the certainty of the glorification or the resurrection of the Church before the signs of the advent promised in Matt. 24. I pass to the second, which I have said is to be found in the two epistles to the Thessalonians. These had "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:9-109For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9‑10)); and their faith, like that of the Romans, was spread abroad for the power which it had in them, a power which sounded out in Macedonia and Achaia. Thus the Thessalonians, as faithful believers, waited for the coming of Jesus; it is that which we also ought to do like them (Phil. 3: 20, 21; Rom. 8:2323And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)), and I have no need to insist thereon. Moreover they expected to be delivered from the wrath to come by Jesus. Now the wrath to come is not that which is called the second death (Rev. 20: 12-14); but these words refer invariably to the judgments which await the world before the millennium. (See Rev. 6:16, 17; 11:18; 14:10; 16:1916And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:16‑17)
18And 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. (Revelation 11:18)
10The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: (Revelation 14:10)
19And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. (Revelation 16:19).) In Matt. 3:77But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matthew 3:7) and Luke 3:77Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Luke 3:7) this expression can only be applied to the temporal judgments upon the Jewish nation, judgments of which 1 Thess. 2:1616Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. (1 Thessalonians 2:16) speaks, and which will be literally accomplished in the future upon the nations and the unbelieving Jews. I do not at all deny that the wrath of God is manifested in the second death; but what I affirm is, that nowhere does the eternal judgment bear the name of the wrath to come. I read further (1 Thess. 5:99For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Thessalonians 5:9)) that God has not appointed us to wrath, that is, to suffer the judgment which the day of the Lord (the arrival of which is here contemplated by the apostle) will bring upon the unbelieving and ungodly. Thus it is very evident that the faithful will be sheltered from those judgments, and in general from every manifestation, or from every consequence of the wrath of God. They will not participate in the future wrath of God upon the world and the Jews. (Luke 21:2323But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. (Luke 21:23).) Now how escape it entirely if they are still on earth? As regards myself, I could not answer any thing scriptural to this question, which moreover I do not propose as an argument. I would only keep to establishing the fact that no manifestation of the wrath of God can reach the children of light, and that, as the Thessalonians believed, they are delivered from it by Jesus. Further, the Thessalonians expected from heaven the Son of God (and not the Son of man, Matt. 24), the Son of Him in whom they were, namely, in God the Father. They viewed Jesus in their expectation as their Elder-Brother, and not as the Sovereign of the world or the King of Israel. They viewed Him in the promise of John 14:2, 32In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2‑3), and not in His character of Jewish Messiah. I believe this distinction important; but I do not insist upon it. In all circumstances they were to expect neither death nor signs, but Jesus. And if they did not hope to be caught up from one day to another, I know not, in truth, how one could call that a waiting for Christ; and above all, I cannot at all understand the language of Paul in chap. 4:13-18 of this epistle; for it supposes necessarily that the brethren of Thessalonica did not expect to die, but to be taken by the Lord. If anyone would but study this close of the chapter, he will be convinced of it. Verses 13, 14: There was sorrow at Thessalonica by reason of those among the brethren who were dead. Paul calms it by the hope that, when the Son will come, the power of God which was shown in the resurrection of Jesus will act for bringing with Christ all the brethren that sleep in Jesus. Verse 15: For by the revelation of the Lord, Paul could tell his brethren, yet living and left behind, that he and they (we who survive, literally; or better still, who remain over) will not be caught up before the others, or would not depart the first, according to what, as it has been observed, the apostle says also in 1 Cor. 15:51, 5251Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In 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. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑52). Verse 16: For Jesus will descend from heaven with a cry (without doubt the cry at midnight), with the archangel voice (compare John 5:28, 2928Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28‑29)), and with the trumpet of God (the trumpets served to assemble the people, Numbers 10:1-51And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. 3And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 4And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee. 5When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. (Numbers 10:1‑5)); and the faithful who are in their graves shall hear His voice and come forth. Verse 17: Then we who are alive will be caught up, gathered all together with the Lord. Verse 18: Lastly, Paul exhorts the brethren to draw from within their consolation, and we ought also to find ours there. The coming of Jesus was in the mind of God a distant event; perhaps it is so still. But the will of God was eighteen hundred years ago, as to-day, that the faithful should day by day expect it, and Paul does not reason on any other principle. He supposes that the living ones left on earth may not die before the Lord descends, and it is from that very thing he draws his comfort. The Thessalonians, persuaded that Jesus would not delay, were afflicted at seeing their brethren die, not at all knowing that the resurrection and the rapture of the Church were one and the same thing; and Paul consoles them by informing them of it. There was in that a great consolation, of which all those are destitute who believe that they are to die before Jesus comes to seek His disciples. I am convinced then that all this passage is unintelligible if one does not start from the principle that the Thessalonians awaited day by day from heaven Jesus the Son of God, in order to shelter them from the judgments which will fall upon the world because of its wickedness.
In chapter 5. Paul speaks of these judgments, to which he will yet again recur in the first chapter of the second epistle. But he would not enter into many details upon this subject and at this time, because the faithful had nothing to fear from all that to themselves, being children of light and appointed not unto wrath, but to the possession of salvation. Some have been pleased to confound the day of the Lord with the coming of the Lord, resting upon 2 Peter 3:11This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: (2 Peter 3:1) and following verses; but we are going to see in a moment that the Holy Spirit employs the word arrival or coming in a general manner, and that this expression ought not to be limited to a single sense, or referred to only one event.
I pass to the second epistle. In the first chapter the apostle, knowing the Thessalonians to be persecuted, presents to them the arrival of Jesus revealed for the judgment of the world and the manifestation of the glory of the Church with Him; for there only will it be publicly seen what the children of God are, and the world will quake with terror at having hated and spurned them. I do not dwell on this, because in it the question is not of the rapture of the Church. The following chapter, on the contrary, is of great importance, and definitely solves the question which I am treating. The Thessalonians were or were not in danger of being "troubled and shaken in their mind," either by some spirit who had spoken, or by some other revelation or interpretation, or finally by some supposed letter of the apostle himself, announcing "that the day of Christ was there." Without going further, it is evident, first, that Paul did not believe that the day of Christ was yet there or quite close; secondly, that no more had the Thessalonians so believed; and thirdly, that they were shaken in their mind and troubled by hearing announced the proximity of this day, which without contradiction is the same as that of the Lord. (1 Thess. 5:22For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2).) To confound this last with the rapture of the Church then would be an error; for so far ought the views of this rapture be from troubling the brethren of Thessalonica, nothing on the contrary ought to be more proper to rejoice them, since it was precisely the object of their dearest hope. But it is very evident that, far from confounding those two events, Paul does exactly the opposite: "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering unto Him, we beseech you, brethren, that ye be not soon shaken in mind." In what mind? In that of expecting from the heavens the Savior, that we all, dead and living, caught up before Him, should be ever with Him. "Nor be troubled," he adds. Troubled by what? By the idea of having to pass through judgments, the outpouring of wrath which is to precede the day of Christ, and of not being taken away from the earth before. For it is precisely this which they were seeking, or they had sought, to make them believe, in order to disturb their faith and turn aside their looks from on high. Now Paul beseeches them not to listen to these spirits or to these reports, and not to receive as coming from him a letter which announced that the day of the Lord was actually come.
That, I think, is clear enough. The apostle would not that his brethren should be left troubled by the signs which are to prepare the day of the coming of Jesus, nor terrified by the idea of being earthly witnesses of the blows with which He will smite the earth before establishing His kingdom there. But Paul does more than that; he formally declares that the day of Christ is even yet distant, and that to announce anything else is a seduction; because, as he had told while yet present with them, the day of Christ could not be there before the manifestation of the man of sin, who is the mystery of iniquity, in opposition to the great mystery of godliness, God manifested in flesh. But this manifestation of antichrist was stayed by an obstacle which the Thessalonians knew, and which would be taken out of the way. I decide nothing as to this obstacle to the grand project of Satan: I believe, or rather I strongly suspect, that it is the presence of the Church on earth, a presence which holds in check the prince of this world.
But however this may be, the day of Christ will not be there before antichrist is revealed; that is evident Now we see the revelation of this monster of ungodliness in Matt. 24:1515When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (Matthew 24:15), where it is placed in the number of the signs which shall precede the advent of the Son of man, or that which Paul calls in this chapter "the appearing of the corning of the Lord," in order to distinguish it from our gathering unto Him, which is also called the coming of our Lord, in the first verse. Thus it results from this chapter that the Church ought not to expect signs of its rapture. If such is not the doctrine of Paul, I entirely give up understanding him. Nay, I do not fear saying that if the apostle had had the design of hindering the Thessalonians from expecting the Lord too soon, he is in contradiction with his first epistle, in which he draws from the proximity of this advent so much comfort for the living believers who mourn the death of their brethren.
These comforts were not given for the Thessalonians only; they regard us also. But in what will they avail us if, instead of seeing our dying brother hear being brought back to us in a resurrection, which perhaps may follow his death only a few moments or days after, we are obliged to pass through a crowd of events before resting our mind upon the return of Christ and our gathering unto Him? Is this the intention of the apostle in that which he says upon this subject? I am fully convinced of the reverse, and it is one of the motives which have enraged me to communicate to the brethren that which God has taught me by His word on a subject of grave enough importance practically. I regret having done it in so dry a manner; the subject in itself did not demand it; but in an exposition of principles it is hardly possible to avoid it. I will not close without remarking that the intention of God, it seems to me, has been to show us the rapture of the Church, and to fix its place in the prophetic history at the twelfth chapter of the Revelation, which presents to us the body of Christ introduced into heaven, whence Satan is cast out and descends to the earth, in order to complete there the mystery of iniquity to which the Church, not yet glorified, was an hindrance, as we have seen.
To sum up: I distinguish between the coming or the descent of Christ for the Church, and His appearing in glory for the deliverance of Israel. In the first there is no manifestation of Christ to the world, and the meeting of the saints with Him has place in the air, and not on the earth.
I think that the Church is not at all called to consider the signs of the appearing of the Son of man, save so far as God has revealed them to it, and because of many practical principles which may be drawn from them.
I believe that the normal position of the Christian is to be waiting from day to day to be caught up, and to consider as a seduction every doctrine which would tend, in one manner or another, to make him set his death (although it is possible that he may die) or signs between the present moment and the arrival of his elder Brother.
Solemn position! May God give us all the joy of it, and make its feel its sanctifying power in detaching us from the world and visible things. Amen! I am, &c., L. B.