Since this is a post, you only get the very short and abbreviated version on the end times. First of all, Jesus will return only once, and His return will be at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. The rapture (i.e. believers being caught up in the air) will take place at the end of time and not before.
All pre-tribulation and mid-tribulation believers look at 1 Thess 4:15-17 where it says that “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,*** shall not precede those who have fallen asleep***. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Left Behind theology uses this and a few other verses to justify their end time’s interpretation. The problem is that they fail to note that the verses say that the “dead shall rise first.”
In John 6:54 Jesus says, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Also in John 12:48 Jesus says that, “He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.” Then in John 11:24 we read, “Martha said to him [Jesus], “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” So it’s clear from these passages that judgment day, the last day, the resurrection of the dead, and the rapture are all the same day. The rapture is to be understood as an honor granted the living who are saved to meet the Lord as He returns triumphantly to earth, and not as a secret taking of believers to heaven prior to the end of time.
There are also problems with the Left Behind believers in how they look at Matt 24:34-41 which says “Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. They interpret these verses as the rapture. Instead this set of verses as well as the companion verses in Luke 17:26-36 point out something quite different than the Left Behind series would lead you to believe. It is clear, from the context, that the people that are taken are those that are being punished and this is made clear by the analogy to the days of Noah and the days of Lot and how “the flood came and
took them all away.” Read all of these verses carefully and you will see this connection clearly, and you will see that those who are taken are not raptured to heaven.
John Martignoni has a great tape on this subject that you can order for $5.00 mailing fee from
biblechristiansociety.com. I hope this is enough to get you started. I’m sure that additional posts will fill in some more of the blanks.
