No. 19. >> Here is one more related question: Will there be a rapture when Jesus comes? I Thessalonians 4:17 seems to indicate that there will be a rapture. >>DR. THOMAS E. MANTEUFEL: Yes, indeed, it does. And we who do not believe in a literal political millennium, nevertheless, do believe in a rapture. Because Scripture does teach that in the passage that you just mentioned. Now, let's read the passage. I Thessalonians 4 beginning at Verse 15. Paul says: We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. That is to say have died. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead can in Christ will rise first before anything else happens. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall be always with the Lord. And the Word rapture simply means being caught up. And this is what Paul says. That this is what will happen when Christ comes again. However, the dispensationalists have their own doctrine of the rapture which goes beyond what is stated here. That is they then say things that Paul does not state in I Thessalonians 4 and the words just read. That is he does not state that this event of the rapture will be secret and that it will not be seen by anyone else besides those who are taking part in it. There's nothing that says that. And he does not say that the flow of history will go on then for seven years before the judgement at the end of time. None of that can be shown from this text. They have read it into the text. Now, I think what was behind your question is that dispensationalists talk a great deal about the rapture. And they say that when this rapture happens, many people, namely, Christians will disappear out of the world. And those that are dead in the graves will also then disappear out of their graves. And they will simply not be in this world any longer. And that the only ones that will remain in the world are those who are unbelievers at that time. And sometimes you see a car sticker that says: In the case of the rapture, this car will be unmanned. Meaning that the Christian driver will suddenly be gone. And who knows what will happen to the car then on the highway? And there are all kinds of ideas like that. However, Paul does not indicate anything like that. But rather, as we have been seeing before, we expect that the rapture will be simply part of what's going to happen at the last day. When the dead in Christ rise, then the other people will also rise at the same time. And there will be a -- an appearance of all mankind before the judgement throne of God in order to be judged in the final judgement. That is how amillennialists understand the rapture. Also, dispensationalists then say that there will be conversions that will take place after this return of Christ and after this rapture. That is to say they are called dispensationalists because they believe that history is divided up into dispensations. And they say that we are now living in the dispensation of the church. And dispensationalists also then say that at the rapture the dispensation of the church will come to an end. And then another -- it will be time for another dispensational period to begin. And there's a certain problem there with teaching that because dispensationalism, at least the -- according to the Scofield Bible, which is one of the many reference books for the teaching of dispensationalism, each dispensation has its own revelation by which God deals with people. And this revelation is different in each dispensation. And so what is said in the Scofield Bible is that during the church period, which we are in now, people are saved by the Gospel of grace. That's the revelation that God is using now in this dispensation. But after this dispensation is over, after the rapture, God will be using a different revelation for converting people. And the Scofield Bible says that this will be the Gospel of the kingdom. And it is said that this is a different Gospel than the Gospel of grace. It's very comforting to know that they are wrong on this. Another problem is that Scripture does not say that there will be conversions after a chance of salvation after the time of the rapture. Dispensationalists regularly say that there will, indeed, be another chance for those who have not up to the time of the rapture actually turned to God and believed in Christ. And they then will have another chance to be converted. But that hope is not held out in Scripture. We see this, for example, in the parable of Matthew 25 about the wise virgins and the foolish virgins. The wise virgins were ready for the coming of the bridegroom, that is for the coming of Christ in the parable. And the foolish virgins who were not ready had the door shut on them and they couldn't get in. There was no more chance for them. Or again, I Thessalonians 5 says that when Christ comes again, that will be the end of the whole period of grace. And that there will be no chance of salvation after that. That is it says: Now is the time of salvation. It does not say: You will have a another chance later. But now is the time of salvation. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. That is unexpected. The thief does not send notice that he's coming. And sudden destruction will come upon them and they will not escape.