(Rough draft) The Return & Rapture: Separate Events That Occur On The Same Day

Matthew 24:36-42 (New International Version)

The Day and Hour Unknown

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, but only the Father.

37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;

39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.

41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

The topic in the above passage, Mt. 24:36-42, is the return of Christ. However, Jesus includes the rapture in His return in verses 40 and 41. "One will be taken, and the other left." This implies that the rapture happens in the air on the day Jesus returns, before He reaches the earth.

The Rapture Happens in the Air Before Jesus Completes His Return with Those He Has Raptured

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (New International Version)

Believers Who Have Died

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have died in Him.

15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who sleep in death.

16 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.

17 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.

18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The Rapture Happens Instantly on the Day Jesus Returns

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (New International Version)

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed—

52 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 who are alive and left until the return of the Lord will be changed.

The Speed of the Rapture

The speed of the first resurrection answers a great theological question. The rapture happens instantly, in the twinkling of an eye. The theological question is: How will God return with the church from heaven if they are on earth? The Return and the Rapture are one event—two separate events that happen on the same day. They don't happen at the same time; one is instant, and the other takes the rest of the day.

To answer this question, you have to understand that the rapture happens instantly on the day Jesus returns. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says that the dead will rise first, and we who are not dead and left until the coming of the Lord will be raptured with them into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 says that God will bring with Jesus those who have died in Him on the day He returns. How will God do this if they are dead in the earth? The rapture happens instantly on the day Jesus returns. To be dead physically is to be present with the Lord in spirit (2 Corinthians 5:8). The spirits of the dead in Christ are in heaven with the Lord. On the day Jesus returns, He calls their bodies up to the sky to unite instantly with their spirits, and then He returns with them to the earth. This is how the dead return with God when Jesus returns.

The Rapture Happens on the Day Jesus Returns

• First, Jesus begins His descent from heaven back to earth.

• Then, He performs the rapture in the air during His descent.

• Finally, He reaches to earth with those He has raptured.

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Matthew 24:29-31 (Authorized King James Version)

29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30 and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

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World without end. Amen.