From experience, I have learned that when I am discussing the dispensational pre-tribulation rapture doctrine, I need to be careful to explain that I do believe that the saints who are alive when Christ returns will be raptured to meet Him in the air. This is the clear teaching of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:
... the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.The English word rapture is based on the Latin rapere which means to seize or snatch and is used in the Latin translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Since I believe what 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 teaches, I believe in the rapture of the saints. What I disagree with is the notion that the rapture will occur seven years before Christ's second coming and will involve only those saints who were saved after Acts 2. According to dispensationalist Dr. John F. Walvoord:The expression "the dead in Christ shall arise first" (1 Thess. 4:16) seems to include only the church.
The Old Testament saints are never described by the phrase "in Christ."1
For what purpose will the saints meet the Lord in the air? A study of the Greek word translated meet in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 answers that question. That word was a technical term for a civil custom of antiquity whereby a public welcome was accorded by a city to important visitors.2 If any dignitary were newly arriving in an ancient city, the great of the city would go out to meet him as he approached the city gates and then would personally escort him into the city. It was the ancient equivalent of rolling out the red carpet. This word translated meet does not always refer to this ancient custom, but, interestingly, this understanding of the word does fit each of its three occurrences in the New Testament. This word occurs in Matthew 25 in the parable of the foolish virgins:
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. ...the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.This word also occurs in Acts 28 in the account of Paul's arrival at Rome:... we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and the three taverns ... And when we came to Rome ...The use of this same Greek word, translated meet, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, would indicate that the resurrected saints will meet the Lord in the air to honor Him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords by providing Him with a royal escort for the remainder of His descent to earth. The saints, the truly royal citizens of planet earth, will meet Christ in the air at His second advent to give Him the "red carpet treatment" when He comes to earth to renew it and to rule over it for eternity.I believe that the rapture of the saints will occur at the time of Christ's second advent and not seven years before. I know of no place in Scripture that teaches the rapture and the second advent are separated by a significant time span. And there are certain passages that are especially difficult to explain in terms of the dispensational pre-tribulation rapture doctrine. For example, in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, Paul comforts the church age saints at Thessalonica with the blessed hope of the rest that will be both theirs and Paul's when Christ returns in flaming fire and judges those who have been troubling the church. According to dispensational assumptions, however, this passage could not be referring to the Christian's blessed hope. In dispensational thinking, there is no flaming judgment associated with the church return of Christ, which is a secret rapture. Flaming judgment is associated only with the Jewish return of Christ, which is the second advent. So the Christian, church age recipients of 2 Thessalonians 1 were there being taught Jewish truth. According to a consistent application of the dispensational distinctions and assumptions, the Christians at Thessalonica must have been acting as representatives of Jewish tribulation saints.3
Notice also Titus 2:13. Paul there mentions "the blessed hope," which dispensationalists acknowledge to be the church return of Christ, the secret rapture. Paul, however, also mentions in this verse the appearing of the glory of Jesus Christ. To what end-time event does that refer? The most obvious answer is the second advent when Christ will openly come to earth in flaming glory, the opinion of Dr. John F. Walvoord in an early article.4 The problem with this interpretation for the dispensationalist, who distinguishes and separates in time a church return of Christ (the rapture) and a Jewish return of Christ (the second coming), is that the Greek of Titus 2:13 strongly identifies "the blessed hope" and "the glorious appearing" as one event. This can be clearly seen in the New International Version which translates this phrase "the blessed hope -- the glorious appearing." The dispensational answer that has appeared in the later writings of Dr. Walvoord is an argument that "the glorious appearing" must refer to the rapture. He points out that at least the raptured church saints will then see the glory of Christ.5
The main subject of the classic rapture passage (1 Thess. 4:16-17) is not the rapture of living saints but the resurrection of the "dead in Christ." Paul wrote this passage primarily to assure Christians that those saints who are alive at the return of Christ will have no precedence over those saints who die before the return of Christ. Paul states, "we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep" and "the dead in Christ will rise first." Paul's main point in this passage then is that the physically dead who are in covenant union with Christ will be resurrected prior to the rapture.There are two passages of Scripture which dispensationalists commonly interpret to teach that the OT saints will not be among those resurrected at the time of the pretribulation rapture: Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:1-2. I will discuss only the clearer of the two: Daniel 12:1-2:
At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall be awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.This passage teaches that there will be a resurrection of saints after "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation." Most dispensationalists identify this "time of trouble" with an end-time tribulation and interpret this passage to teach that the Old Testament saints will be resurrected at the second advent. If the OT saints are resurrected at the second advent and if the "dead in Christ" are resurrected seven years before the second advent, then the Old Testament saints cannot be included among the "dead in Christ." Dispensationalists will argue that the OT saints are included among "those who are Christ's" (1 Cor. 15:23) but not among the "dead in Christ" of 1 Thessalonians 4:16.Dispensationalists must either give up the pretribulation rapture doctrine or teach that the Old Testament saints were saved apart from covenant union with Christ. As a rule they have held onto their pretribulation rapture teaching. Note the following statements by Drs. Ryrie and Walvoord, respected dispensational theologians:
Concerning the completion of the Church when saints will be translated and resurrected, Paul uses the phrase "dead in Christ" (1 Thess. 4:16). This clearly distinguishes those who have died in this age from believers who died before Christ's first advent, thus marking the Church off as distinct to this age and a mystery hidden in Old Testament times but not revealed.6The Old Testament saints are never described by the phrase "in Christ." . . . The best answer . . . is to concede the point that the resurrection of Old Testament saints is after the tribulation, but to divorce it completely from the translation and resurrection of the church.7
End Notes
1 John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1957), page 154; compare John F. Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), page 280. 2 Gerhard Kittel, Editor, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964), 1.380-381. 3 John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976) pages 122-124. 4 J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, page 157; quotation from John F. Walvoord, "New Testament Words for the Lord's Coming," Bibliotheca Sacra, 101:288, July 1944. 5 John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question, pages 81,157; John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, pages 57,165 6 Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today (Chicago: Moody Press, 1965), page 136. 7 John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question, page 154.