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Summary
Jesus is walking through Jerusalem from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane with his
disciples early Friday morning as He says, “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish [thlipsis: tribulation], for joy that a human being has been born into the world… Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own [idios], and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation [thlipsis]. But be of good cheer, be courageous, I have conquered the world” (John 16:20-21, 32-33).
Then, He did NOT say, “I hope you can conquer the world, too.” Or, “I have conquered the world except those parts that don’t freely choose to be conquered.” Or, “I hope to conquer the world.” Or even, “I will conquer the world” BUT “I have conquered the world.” In The Revelation, John refers to Jesus as “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8 NKJV).
“I have conquered the world… It’s like when a woman gives birth… sorrow turns into joy, and tribulation becomes rapture.” Tribulation… then rapture, because Jesus has conquered the world.
So, how weird is it that so many of us seem to think that if we conquer (choose correctly), we will be raptured and avoid tribulation, as if the prize for being a great Christian is that you won’t look like Jesus because you never had to pick up your cross and follow?
Except for a few debatable references in ancient history, no one even knew what “a pretribulation rapture” was until 1827 when an Englishman named John Nelson Darby formulated the idea, which was later popularized in America through The Scofield Reference Bible.
The Pretribulation Rapture is this modern idea that before “a seven-year tribulation” that leads to “the Millenium” (a greatly debated idea), people who agree to “the plan of salvation” will get raptured to heaven and avoid tribulation. And this “plan of salvation” is this other debatable and fairly modern idea — the idea that God spent his wrath on Jesus so that he wouldn’t have to inflict his wrath on us. So, if you have this knowledge that God the Son saves you from God the Father as a “penal substitute,” and you agree with this plan by saying “the sinners prayer,” then you will avoid suffering as Jesus suffered. And you will get to return to earth with Jesus and help Him lead a civil government based in the nation state of Israel.
This is the basis of all the Left Behind books and movies.
I once prayed with the sweetest young woman who had unwittingly befriended a demonic spirit that told her that when Jesus came back, He would leave her behind.” Of course, that lie filled her with despair, and her life began to unravel until she brought the deception out into the light; we prayed together; and God the Father gave her a vision of Jesus. Jesus had her sit on His lap as they swung on a swing, and He told her, “I would rather be left behind than leave one little girl behind.”
Movies like “A Thief in the Night” may be good for getting frightened teenagers to raise their hand at the end of the movie and agree to “The Plan of Salvation.” But they may be even better at getting those teenagers to distrust Jesus. We’re not saved by “knowledge of good and evil” even if we call that knowledge “The Plan of Salvation.” We’re saved by a Savior, whom we trust, for He is the Good and He gives us Life — His own Life, the Life — and so, we know because we’ve been known. He does come as “a thief in the night,” but He’s not a thief in the night; He’s our Bridegroom, and so we keep our lamps burning. Salvation is “loving His appearing,” for you know that He is the Good and so, don’t run from Him when you see His face shining like the sun.
“We rejoice in our tribulation [thlipsis],” writes Paul. “This slight momentary tribulation [thlipsis] (beatings, imprisonments, floggings) prepares us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Just as sorrow creates a space for joy and, actually, becomes joy, tribulation creates a capacity for glory and is transformed into rapture. The word “rapture” doesn’t show up in most English Bibles. I could only find it in two translations — once in each, and both in the Song of Solomon. The English word “rapture” can refer to the experience of being taken out of yourself in a moment of ecstatic communion with God, or another person, or it can refer to this strange idea that certain Christians will be taken out of a group of people that are about to suffer… a lot.
In 1 Thessalonians 4 (The classic rapture proof text), Paul uses the Greek word “harpazo,” usually translated “caught up,” but translated as “rapiemur” in the Latin Vulgate.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, Paul is writing to baby Christians who are worried about loved ones who have died before the return of Jesus. He writes, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [literally: “the dead, in Christ, will stand up first”] Then we who are alive, who are left [“the left behind”], will be caught up [harpazo: “rapiemur”] together with them [literally: “at the same time”] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.” NOT “Freak each other out,” BUT “Encourage each other.”
The Thessalonians are obviously asking, “How can Heaven be Heaven if my loved ones aren’t in Heaven — Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends?” I think Paul is answering as clearly as possible (Remember he’s the one that tells us twice, ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive.’)… He’s answering, “Although we may all die at different times in the world, we are all caught up into Heaven in the same moment, for Heaven isn’t Heaven if anyone is left behind.” Of course, this can only be true if spacetime is not the same in “Heaven” as it is “here.”
Paul was raptured [harpazo]. He describes it in 2 Corinthians 12, except that he can’t describe it, for there are no words — human words, that is. John was also caught up on the Island of Patmos. Jesus appeared with a face shining like the sun. John dropped as though dead, until Jesus touched him and dictated seven letters (weird huh?). Then a door opened in Heaven, and Jesus said, “Come up here and I’ll show you what must become with these.”
In Revelation chapter 10, just as the seventh angel is about to blow the seventh trumpet (The last trumpet when “the dead are raised imperishable”), John sees “a mighty angel,” who is described just as Jesus is described, who does just what Paul predicted in 1 Thessalonians 4. He stands on land and sea and literally swears (look it up): “Chronos [chronological time] will be no more, but in the days of the 7th trumpet call, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.” According to Paul, the “mystery of God” is “faith, godliness, Christ, Christ in us, the hope of glory” (all different ways of saying the same thing).
Having published a commentary on The Revelation and having preached it twice, I’ve often used Edwin Abbott’s fictional story of “Flatland” to help explain its contents. Flatland is a two-dimensional world in which Flatlanders can only perceive two-dimensional objects, — like squares and circles — until one of the Flatlanders is “raptured,” caught up into the third dimension where he encounters three-dimensional objects — like cubes and spheres. When he returns to Flatland, he can’t find the words to describe his revelation, for what’s obviously true in three dimensions seems to be impossible in two… just as “already, not yet,” “three in one, one in three,” “The Father in me, I in you and you in me,” seems impossible to us here in three and a half dimensions.
If I we reduce Flatland to “Lineland,” we can picture people stuck in chronological time, where one moment must follow another moment in a string of cause and effect. Imagine a timeline on a poster board. And then imagine that I’m Jesus (just pretend). If I spoke into Lineland with the voice of a trumpet saying, “Behold, I come,” and then slammed the posterboard into me, I would’ve come to Lineland at an infinite number of moments in Lineland, but in only one moment for me. And if the people of Lineland were then raptured out of Lineland in me, they might each be “caught up” in different moments and yet arrive in one moment in me.
Many years ago, I was raptured, and I saw that Jesus was everywhere and everywhen loving me. My sorrow became joy, and my tribulation had prepared me for the rapture… but in this world I forget. In contemplative prayer, I remember. I suppose that we experience something like rapture every time we read a great book. While you’re reading, you’re stuck in chronological time; you have to read one page after another, but when you get to the end, you know the Plot — and if the plot is good, you want to go back and enjoy every page. The Lord who descends and says, “Chronos will be no more,” is the plot to every story that’s any story. And when you trust Him, He changes your experience of every moment in your story. Walking by faith through grace in the author and His plot is always rapture.
In Revelation 12:5, John sees Jesus get raptured. He sees a woman crying out in “anguish (Tribulation) to deliver.” The woman is us. She gives birth to the “Son of Man.” The dragon attempts to devour him, and he is “caught up (harpazo) to the throne.”
And that’s right where we are at the end of John 16 as Jesus walks to the garden early Friday morning. He will soon lift His head on the tree and deliver up His Spirit — the Spirit that falls on the church at Pentecost, filling us with faith. “This is the victory that conquers the world,” writes John, “our faith” (1 John 5:4). Faith, hope, and love in you is Christ in you.
The Revelation ends with a Party descending to earth, “Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth worshipping the one on the throne.” She is a bride, a body, and the living temple of the Lord. His story is your story, and your story is His story. You are the greatest story ever told, and so am I. We will lose ourselves and find ourselves living in each other’s stories, and it will all be Jesus’ story, the Gospel. It will be rapture.
Tribulation in this world doesn’t mean something is wrong, but that we are at the edge of everything that’s right. Satan will tell you to run and hide in the dark, for you’ve been left behind. Look to Jesus and He will tell you, “Everything is going according to plan; your tribulation will turn into rapture; and none will be left behind.” He’s the One that doesn’t leave the one behind. First Thessalonians 4: “Encourage one another with these words.” And that’s all I’m trying to do, for Heaven isn’t Heaven without you.