On the Second Coming of Christ: 2a and 2b—or not 2b!

(As promised…)

Excluding Revelation, there are three main passages that detail the coming of the Lord.  I list them below:

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. ¹⁵ For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

⁵⁰ Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² 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 will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:50-55

²⁴ For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ Behold, I have told you in advance. ²⁶ So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. ²⁷ For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. ²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
²⁹ “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. ³¹ And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. Matthew 24:24-31

It seems as though all three of these passages are describing the same event.  Further, Revelation clearly states that the martyrs of the Tribulation will receive their new bodies after the Tribulation during the first resurrection.  If this is a separate event from the events described above in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians, then there are three resurrections: church, tribulation martyrs, and the dead.  Revelation clearly speaks of only two resurrections: living (elect) and the dead (lost).

So if all four passages (Matthew, 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, and Revelation) are speaking about the same event and if Matthew and Revelation peg this event as following the Tribulation, then the “rapture” must really just be the resurrection of the elect. But, if the rapture occurs before the end of the Tribulation, Christ must come back twice.  Nowhere does scripture state that there is a third coming of Christ (or a third resurrection).  Most Pre-tribbers and Mid-tribbers simply break these returns of Christ into part 2a and part 2b.  Part 2a is to be Christ’s spiritual return; part 2b His physical return.

But this simply does not seem to square with scripture.  I’ve read commentaries that try to break these up into parts 2a and 2b.  They do violence to the text in order to make the text fit a preconceived notion (that the church must exit stage right in order to restart Daniel’s clock). A section from my text book from New Testament II covering 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians does this by stating that 1 Thessalonians is “The Day of Christ” and 2 Thessalonians is “The Day of the Lord.”  Both passages, however,  list these events as “The Day of the Lord”.

In fact, circumstances of both of these events seem to be eerily similar.  I contend that they are similar because there is only one event.  Read (or skim through) this.  Now take a timeout.  Remember how the evolutionists claim that we must constantly remind ourselves that life on earth isn’t designed even though it gives every appearance of being designed? Doesn’t the blog that I linked sound the same way?  In essence it is saying, even though the two events sound a whole lot alike, we have to keep making the distinction.  The blog even lists the impacts if they are the same:

1) If the rapture and the second coming are the same event, believers will have to go through the tribulation.

2) If the rapture and the second coming are the same event, the return of Christ is not imminent—there are many things which must occur before He can return.

3) In describing the tribulation period, Revelation chapters 6–19 nowhere mentions the church. During the tribulation—also called “the time of trouble for Jacob” –God will again turn His primary attention to Israel (Romans 11:17-31). (Source: gotQuestions?org)

Well I, for one, am not troubled by any of these impacts from a doctrinal standpoint.  Of course, the thought of being in the Tribulation is itself troubling, but that doesn’t make that thought false.    I will deal with each of the three objections in future blogs.

For a more thorough review of these and other passages, I recommend this commentary!