Christians Squander Energy
Doing Newspaper Exegesis
Looking For Signs Of The Rapture

Christians today are looking everywhere for signs of the rapture. Every new catastrophic development in world affairs inspires a spate of new books and speculation about new signs of the rapture.

Differences in Interpretation of prophecy have never been tests of Christian fellowship, but they do have a profound effect on the way the church views its mission. The Three general interpretive models have been proposed by the church to account for the Biblical prophetic data:

amillennialism,
premillennialism and
postmillennialism.

These views are incompatible and have a profound effect on the perceived mission of the church in the world. They deal with the nature and extent of the rule of Christ.

Is His rule limited to a spiritual victory within the heart of man or does it extend to the entire created domain? The answer to this question has a profound influence on what the church in any given generation will accomplish for her Lord.

Amillennialism generally denies that the prophetic Scripture is to find temporal fulfillment in history. For example the 1000-year reign of Revelation 20 is taken symbolically to mean either the complete binding of Satan resulting from the death of Christ or to the spiritual victory of the church in the present age and unto eternity. The practical outworking of this eschatology is a church separated from the affairs of this world.

Dispensational Premillennialism was popularized by John Nelson Darby and C.I. Scofield in the 19th Century. Premillenialism teaches that apostasy from the truth will accelerate during the Church age and will culminate in a seven year Great Tribulation period.

At the end of the Great Tribulation Christ will return to establish His Kingdom for 1,000 years. There will be one final rebellion at the end of the millenialium just prior to the final judgment. Pre-mills spend a lot of energy looking for signs of the rapture.

None of the interpretative approaches is "air tight." There are some things in the Bible that are hard to explain under the Premillennial system. For example, it teaches that animal sacrifices will one day be re-instituted in a rebuilt temple during the millennium. But this teaching seems to contradict the book of Hebrews’ declaration that Christ has completely done away with the system of animal sacrifices once for all in the sacrifice of His own body (Heb. 9:12-14).

Another example is the strict division that Premillennialism makes between Israel and the Church during the church age. But if this is true it is very difficult to explain Jeremiah's prophecy that God will one day "make a new covenant with the house of Israel" in which he will write His law upon their hearts (Jer. 31:31). Hebrews 8 applies this new covenant to the church. The Apostle Paul elaborates at Ephesians 2:14 where he declares that God has "made both groups (Jew & Gentile) into one..."

In addition, Premillennialism delays the Kingdom of Christ until after the Second Coming, although many New Testament passages indicate that Jesus established His Kingdom at His first coming. For example, when Jesus began His ministry he called on the people to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand "(Mt. 4:17).

Premillennialists also have a hard time explaining how there can be any signs of the rapture before the second coming of Christ if that coming is immanent. In other words, the second coming cannot be immanent if there are still signs of the rapture yet to be fulfilled.

Although it claims to be based on a literal interpretation, Premillennialism relies on numerous imaginative interpretations of prophetic symbols. It is better to allow the Bible to interpret itself.

For example, one popular “prophecy expert” declares the scorpions of Revelation to be “Cobra gunships”, rather than searching the Old Testament for Biblical clues to the meaning of this symbolism. Others speculate that the mark on the forehead is a social security number or an embedded computer chip or bar code. Sadly, as with Amillennialism the practical outworking of this eschatology tends to separate the Church from the affairs of this world. These are examples of signs of the rapture over which premillennialists clamor.

The historic optimism of the church is today known as post-millennialism. This position holds that the gospel will gradually prevail in history and the kingship of Christ over the nations (Ps 2:8) will be realized via the rule of the saints on earth. Thus will be fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham to make him a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

The 1000 years of Revelation 20 are interpreted in light of other Scripture to mean a long period of time during which the power of Satan has been broken on the cross and the Kingdom of God achieves gradual victory. This occurs slowly but surely in accordance with the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven (Mt. 12).

Thus, postmillennialists are not looking for signs of the rapture. Rather, they are looking with optimism for the working out of the kingdom of Christ on earth prior to the second coming. This is accomplished by the Spirit of God working through His people and His church.

The key prophetic passages in the New Testament are found in the book of Revelation and the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew. One view holds that Revelation depicts primarily the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and Matthew 24 describes the events leading up to that destruction. Following are some of the key questions and Biblical answers provided by these and other passages that lend credence to the post-millennial approach:

The Biblical evidence suggests that most of the prophetic events described in these two key passages were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This is known as the Preterist view, which falls within the broader category of Post-millennialism. Many books have been written over the years to support this assertion, including several mentioned in our Bibliography.

According to the Biblical typology of Ezekiel 16, God found Israel as an abandoned infant, rescued her, raised her, and entered into a covenant with her that is symbolized by the marriage covenant. Although Israel repeatedly played the harlot, God repeatedly restored and forgave her -- until she rejected the Savior. “He came unto His own and His own received Him not” (Jn. 1:12).

Because of that, Jesus told the Jewish leaders at Matthew 21:43, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” By this He indicated that God was divorcing national Israel and taking a new bride, the church. The “withering of the fig tree” – the judgment of the harlot wife – was accomplished in the catastrophic judgment of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

During His final week of ministry Jesus retired with His disciples to the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley opposite the temple. As the disciples admired the beautiful architecture and masonry of the temple, Jesus proceeded to burst their bubble with the words “there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The first question out of their mouths was “when shall these things be?”. He then proceeded to answer their question in what has come to be known as the Olivet Discourse. Verses 4 through 35 of Matthew 24 answer the disciple’s first question by describing a series of events that will occur prior to the destruction of the temple. All of these are documented in the New Testament, especially the Book of Acts, and include:

Famines and pestilence: Acts 11:28
The appearance of false Christs: Acts 8:9,10; 13:6; 20:29
The gospel preached to the whole world: Rom. 1:8; Col. 1:6
Delivering of the disciples to be afflicted and killed: Book of Acts

Jesus continued His Olivet Discourse by describing the siege itself as including the following features:

The abomination of the Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem: Lk. 21:20; Mt. 24:15
A Great Tribulation occurring in the middle,not the end of history: Mt. 24:21
Christians fleeing to the hills: Mt. 24:16

None of these are signs of the rapture to be fulfilled in the future, but rather signs of the destruction of Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago. Christians today spend far too much time looking for signs of the rapture instead of working to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ. There are only a handful of Biblical mysteries that deserve our attention.