“Looking for that ‘blessed hope,’ and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, (so) that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit. 2:13-14).

The long lost core truth of ‘justification by faith’ was recovered through the reformers of the 15th-16th centuries. Thus we enjoy salvation “by grace through faith” in Christ alone as it was revealed by the ascended Lord to Paul for “the Gentiles” (Col 1:25-27). It is expressed as part of Paul’s “knowledge of ‘the Mystery” (Eph. 3:1-5) concerning the “gospel of the grace of God” in effect during this ‘age of grace’ in which we live today. Many millions upon millions of lost souls have since then been saved “by grace through faith” trusting in the Savior alone (Eph. 2:8-9).

Then, again a rich harvest of blessing was reaped for “the Church which is His body” in the years just before and after the 19th century began, when the great truth of the Lord’s coming to “catch away” His own (by the ‘rapture’ of “His body”) was recovered by men of God like JN Darby and CI Scofield. Now the expectancy of His appearing once more became “that blessed hope” restored to multitudes of believers.

Yet, today there are some who erroneously teach by misusing such passages as Matthew 24:6-9 and 29-30 to prove that the Church will go through the tribulation judgments. Others have adopted a ‘mid-tribulation’ view, holding that the Church will go through only the first half of the tribulation period; still others say the church only be taken before the 6th seal, before the fearful outpouring of God’s ‘wrath’ in the “great tribulation.” Still others hold the so-called ‘partial rapture’ view on the basis of our Lord’s exhortation to His disciples in Luke 21:36. According to this view only those “counted worthy” will be caught up at the rapture, as if we could and must ‘earn’ the blessing of the rapture on the basis of our good works.

Of course the proponents of these erroneous theories don’t realize all their supposed Biblical support is drawn from ‘the gospels’ and book of Revelation that are written to and concerning Israel. They ignore Jesus saying “I am come only unto to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 15:24). He then sent “These twelve” Apostles to “go not into the way of the Gentiles… go rather unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5-6). Jesus of Nazareth’s ministry and teaching was not to or for the Gentiles, but rather for Israel, which Paul calls “the circumcision” (Rom 15:8).

Though not part of “the covenants of promise” to Israel (cf. Eph. 2:11-12), we Gentiles don’t need to be faint of heart because today we have the words of “Paul, THE Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13). From Paul we learn of our unique relationship with the Lord through Paul’s thirteen epistles to “the church, which is His body (the body of Christ)” (Eph. 1:22b-23a). It’s only Paul who addresses the “catching away,” which in Latin is ‘rapio,’ in English is ‘rapture’.

These erroneous ideas of the rapture are due to the misinterpretation of Scripture by not “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Tim 2:15) as Paul instructs us to. Recognizing and adhering to that standard of discriminating study we will clearly see that God has two expression of Christ to ultimately co-reign with Him over the earth and the entire universe; 1.) the believers of Israel will make up the Nation Israel at His 2nd coming to inherit and reign on earth forever the earth (cf. Rev 5:10, 20:6) and also, 2.) “the church, which is His body,” whose citizenship and eternal home and reigning is to be “in heaven” (cf. Philip 3:19-20, 2Tim 2:12, 2Cor 5:1). Nowhere in Scripture do we find reference to Israel having heaven as its home or final destination, but rather “the earth.”  If one does “rightly divide the word of truth,” then they will see that all the so-called proof texts to the rapture supposedly seen in the four “Gospels” are actually referring to the 2nd coming of the Lord to earth to save Israel and set up His Millennial kingdom on earth, exactly as promised to “Israel.” All confusion is thereby settled.

Due to the error as discussed here, the glorious prospect that Paul, by inspiration, holds out to the members of Christ’s body as “that blessed hope,” is again being lost to growing numbers of sincere believers, simply because they fail to recognized it as a distinctly Pauline revelation. Paul says the members “the body of Christ” won’t see “the wrath of God” (cf. 1Thes. 1:10, 5:9).

It is a significant fact that in the very first epistle (chronologically written) by Paul, he already refers to a hope for the members of “the Body of Christ.” He says the hope of a coming of Christ precedes His return to earth to reign with Israel. In 1Thessalonians 1:9-10 Paul recalls:

“…how ye (Gentiles) turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, AND TO WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN….”

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 Paul explains:

“…We which are alive and remain…shall be CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH THEM (those were then asleep in Christ) IN THE CLOUDS, TO ‘MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR’; and so shall we EVER be (there) with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Those who remain blind to these important facts such passages must find Matthew 24 as contradiction in Paul’s 1 Thessalonians 4. Any attempt to harmonize the Gospel records as to Christ’s return with Paul’s special revelation as to Christ coming for His own Gentile church, must end in bewildering confusion.

But we who do recognize the distinctive character of Paul’s apostleship and revelation have no such problem. To us “that blessed hope” glows, and surely should glow brighter as the days grow darker. The darkness of the time fills all our media day after day.

This chart weighs Jesus’ “catching away” of “the body of Christ” by rapture to “meet Him in the air”… versus Jesus’ 2nd coming to convert and save Israel, and set up His millennial reign.