1516. The Rapture Proved by Christ's Return with His Saints

The Rapture Proved by Christ's Return with His Saints

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col_3:4).

If, as we have before shown, the saints are to be raised, and the living saints raptured, all with glorified bodies to meet the Lord, then we would expect to find, in the Word of God, plain and positive statements that these selfsame saints shall return with the Lord.

Let us put it another way. If the Word of God plainly states that when Christ comes to the Mount of Olives, His saints are to come with Him, that fact alone presupposes, and establishes the fact that the Rapture of the saints has already occurred.

To the Word and to the testimony:

1. "When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear WITH HIM in glory" (Col_3:4). This Scripture is plain, and sufficient. It says that when Christ appears, we shall appear with Him, that we shall appear with Him in bodily form, and not merely as disembodied spirits which have left the body to be with Christ, we know. We know this because the Word of God places the resurrection, prior to our appearing with Him in glory. Certainly then, coming with Him, we must have gone to Him.

2. "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints" (Jdg_1:14). Once more the Bible tells us that we are to come with Christ, and if we are to come with Him we surely have gone to Him.

Since we come with Him, clothed with our new bodies, we certainly have gone to Him, clothed with our new bodies.

3. "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, * * and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee" (Zec_14:4-5). Some may argue that the word "saints" should be translated "holy ones," and that it may fittingly refer to the angelic beings who are to accompany the Lord in His return. This is gladly granted, but certainly the little word "all" will include not only the angelic hosts, but the saints of God who have been raptured, and clothed upon with immortality, in order that this very passage of Scripture may be fulfilled. Besides, "saints" is not applied to angels.

4. "Upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir" (Psa_45:9). The forty-fifth Psalm says in Rev_19:6, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre."

Heb_1:8-9, gives the direct quotation of these words, and tells us that God speaks them of His Son, when He returns again to the inhabited earth.

This makes conclusive our statement that the queen, who stands with Christ the King, coming from the ivory palaces, into the inhabited earth to reign with Him upon His throne, has already been married. The saints have been raptured, the marriage has occurred, and the Lord is coming as King, with His queen upon His right hand.

5. "And the armies which were in Heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (Rev_19:14). The nineteenth chapter of Revelation, Heb_1:11-14, gives the vision of Christ's return to the Mount of Olives. The battle of Armageddon is on, and Christ is descending robed in a vesture dipped in blood–He is coming as King of kings, and Lord of lords.

Accompanying Christ are certain ones clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

A reference to the marriage of the Lamb with His Wife made ready, in Heb_1:6-8, suffice to identify these who followed the Lord upon white horses.

To the Lamb's Wife, it was granted that "she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."

The identity is complete, those who come with Christ, as He returns are His saints. Now they have become His Wife.

The fact that they come back with Him, necessitates the fact that they have been caught up to Him.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR