Eschatology Today

Before Jesus Christ’s return to the earth, the Bible predicts a resurrection and a rapture. Why? And what are they? This is a perplexing question the Bible answers fully.

Scripture teaches that the first man, Adam, was created in God’s divine image. He was Elohim’s perfect creation, radiant in eternal life. So when death entered into the human experience through Adam’s transgression, God immediately set in motion a plan to counteract it. He would bring men back to what Adam originally was before the fall.

To fulfill His redemptive plan, God would first overlook fallen man’s sin ritualistically to re-establish relationship through a symbolic rite of animal sacrifice (Lev. 17:11). God’s pronounced death sentence for Adam’s disobedience was immediately overshadowed by His compassionate decision to die in his stead. Every Old Testament sacrifice typified the offering of Jesus’ life blood on the cross. Once Jesus Himself fulfilled God’s plan of “vicarious substitution” (Heb. 9:11,12), He would recreate man on the inside with His perfect, eternal life (2 Cor. 5:1,17).

But in the scope of God’s overall plan, born-again men have only been restored one-third of the way to what Adam originally was. Adam walked and talked with God personally (Gen. 2:19), with no need of a “go between” as the church requires today (1 Tim. 2:5). And that is where Christ’s church is heading again some day: “God Himself shall be among them and be their God” (Rev. 21:3).

In that day, mankind will be restored into the radiant presence of God as beings completely recreated in His perfect image.

But before this will happen, one more phase of God’s redemptive wisdom is scheduled—an immortal transformation into the kind of spirit-based body that Jesus displayed to the disciples following His resurrection from the dead. “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Lk. 24:39).

When this stage of salvation is finally fulfilled, the departed spirits of redeemed men and women will receive this new spiritual body, and those still alive at the time will be “changed” (allasso: to exchange one thing for another, to transform) and snatched heavenward to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17). Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:51-53)

Jesus was resurrected (Matt. 28:6) and raptured (Acts 1:9) to ensure their redemptive fulfillment in man.

22	For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
23	But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming,
24	then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25	For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
26	The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
	—1 Corinthians 15:22-26

When will it happen? You decide!

The following are expert exerpts from the traditional pre-mid-and post-tribulation Rapture views. In the next issue we will examine each on its own hermeneutical merits. Have fun. Get engaged!