Raptured? When? Part A

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higher-fire@prairienet.org
Subject: Raptured? When? Part A

     There are a number of words used in both the Old and New Testaments to
describe the seventieth week period, which, when considered together, give
us the essential nature or character of this period:  (1) wrath (Rev.
6:16-17; 11:18; 14:19; 15:1, 7; 16:1, 19; 1 Thess. 1:9-10; 5:9; Zeph. 1:15,
18); (2) judgment (Rev. 14:7; 15:4; 16:5-7; 19:2); (3) indignation (Isa.
26:20-21; 34:1-3); (4) punishment (Isa. 24:20-21); (5) hour of trial (Rev.
3:10); (6) hour of trouble (Jer. 30:7); (7) destruction (Joel 1:15); (8)
darkness (Joel 2:2; Zeph. 1:14-18; Amos 5:18). It must be noted that these
references describe the period in its entirety, not just a portion of it, so
that the whole period bears this characterization.

     There can be no question that this period will see the wrath of God
poured out upon the whole earth. Revelation 3:10; Isaiah 34:2; 24:1, 4-5,
16-17, 18-21, and many other passages make this very clear. And yet, while
the whole earth is in view, this period is particularly in relation to
Israel. Jeremiah 30:7, which calls this period "the time of Jacob's
trouble," makes this certain.  The events of the seventieth week are events
of the "Day of the Lord" or "Day of Jehovah." This use of the name of deity
emphasizes God's peculiar relationship to that nation. When this period is
being anticipated in Daniel 9, God says to the prophet, "Seventy weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city" (v. 24). This whole
period then has special reference to Daniel's people, Israel, and Daniel's
holy city, Jerusalem.

     Inasmuch as many passages in the New Testament such as Ephesians 3:1-6;
Colossians 1:25-27 make it clear that the church is a body composed of Jew
and Gentile alike was unrevealed in the Old Testament, the church could not
have been in view in this or any other Old Testament prophecy. Since the
church did not have its existence until after the death of Christ (Eph.
5:25-16), until after the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 4:25; Col, 3:1-3),
until after the ascension (Eph. 1:19-20), and until after the descent of the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost with the inception of all His ministries to the
believer (Acts 2), the church could not have been in the first sixty-nine
weeks of this prophecy. Since it had no part in the first sixty-nine weeks,
which are related only to God's program for national Israel, it can have no
part in the seventieth week, which is again related to God's program for
national Israel after the mystery program for the church has been concluded.

     In an extended treatment of each major passage in the Word on the
subject of the tribulation, [Wm. Kelly, LECTURES ON THE SECOND COMING OF THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST, pp 186-237] in which he deals with passages such as
Matthew 24, Daniel 12, Luke 21, Mark 13, Jeremiah 30, Revelation 7, Kelly
concludes:

     I demand of those...whether they can point out one word which
     supposes a Church on the earth when the great tribulation
     arrives? Have we not seen that the doctrine of Old and New
     Testament--of Jeremiah, of Daniel, of the Lord Jesus, and of the
     apostle John--is this, that, just before the Lord appears in
     glory, will come the last and unequaled trouble of Israel, though
     Jacob shall be delivered from it; that there will be... "the
     great tribulation," out of which a multitude Gentiles emerge; but
     that both Jacob and the Gentiles are totally distinct from the
     Church. As regards the Christian, the positive promise of the
     Lord is, that such as have kept the word of His patience He will
     keep out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the
     whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth
     [William Kelly, LECTURES ON THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD JESUS
     CHRIST, p. 235].

     It must be concluded with the above author, since every passage dealing
with the tribulation relates it to God's program for Israel, that the scope
of the tribulation prevents the church from participating in it.

Walter Copes
The joy of the Lord is my strength
(wcopes@communique.net)
Walter L Copes