The Coming of Jesus and the Rapture

The phrase “the coming of Jesus,” or “the coming of the Son of Man” in Matthew 24:39, emphasizes what happens to Christians when Jesus returns on the clouds of heaven.

Matthew 24: 30-31, 36-44: ³⁰At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.  ³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other…
³⁶But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴²Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17, 5: 1-5: ¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. ¹Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ²for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

Matthew 24:30-44 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:5 are teaching the exact same events. The table below reveals striking similarities between Paul’s teaching and what Jesus himself taught about his coming.  Paul based his teaching on Jesus’ teachings. He was not describing a separate event.   Paul was purposely directing readers to make a connection between his teaching and Jesus’ words on his coming.

As we have seen, both Paul and Jesus uses the imagery of Jesus coming on the clouds and gathering the saints off the earth to meet him in the sky.  When the Bible mentions Jesus coming on the clouds, it is also talking about the rapture.  This event is informally called many different names: the gathering of the saints, the snatching away of the saints, the catching up of the saints, and most commonly, the rapture.  These are all talking about the same event.  Revelation 14:14-16 illustrates Jesus’ second coming in connection with the rapture:

Revelation 14:14-20: ¹⁴I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. ¹⁵Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” ¹⁶So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

Jesus comes seated on a cloud and harvests the earth.  This harvest is not specifically defined as the rapture, but we can infer that it is discussing the rapture based on other scriptures, such as the Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, which mention Jesus coming on the clouds in association with the rapture. Revelation 14:17-20, which directly follows the passage on the harvest of the earth, mentions the wrath of God being poured out on the earth.

Revelation 14:17-20: ¹⁷Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. ¹⁸Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” ¹⁹The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. ²⁰They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.

Not only do we see the rapture occurring in this passage, but it also reinforces the timeline we discussed in Part 4, namely, that the saints will be taken off the earth before the wrath of God is poured out. Verse 20 focuses the reader’s attention on the climax of God’s wrath, the Battle of Armageddon.  God’s wrath begins after the sixth seal is opened when Jesus comes back on the clouds, and it continues through the trumpet and bowl judgments. Then Jesus comes back on a white horse with the armies of heaven to crush the man of lawlessness and his armies at the Battle of Armageddon.

Jesus’ coming is one time period that contains many events within it. It is initiated by his coming on the clouds. The Greek word for Jesus’ second coming is the word Parousia.  Parousia is defined in the third edition of the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament as “an arrival and a continuing presence”[i].  Jesus’ coming begins when he comes on the clouds and continues through the Day of the Lord. His wrath is poured out during the Day of the Lord and culminates with the Battle of Armageddon. Jesus’ coming on a white horse occurs at the Battle of Armageddon, which is yet another event within the larger time period of the coming of Jesus (discussed in more detail in the chapter 22).

The Parousia will span from Jesus’ initial coming on the clouds and continue into eternity. Revelation 1:7 also references Jesus’ second coming in association with clouds. When John recorded these words, he was making a reference to Jesus’ words found in Matthew 24:30.

Revelation 1:7: ⁷“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”  So shall it be! Amen

Matthew 24: 30: ³⁰Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

Every eye will see Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven when he returns (Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7). Jesus’ coming will not be a hidden event. Jesus explains what his coming would be like in Luke 17:24, again emphasizing that everyone would know.

Luke 17:24: ²⁴For the Son of Man in his day will be like lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.

The beginning of the Parousia will be a public proclamation to the whole world that his kingdom is coming and cannot be stopped! It will be accompanied by a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet call (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). At this time, all Christians whether dead or alive, will be raised up to him in the clouds. The world will watch as this takes place. They will see believers vanish from the earth before their eyes as they are taken from the earth to be with Jesus (Matthew 24:40).

The prophet Daniel also saw a vision in which Jesus appeared coming on clouds.

Daniel 7:13: ¹³In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.

Jesus disappeared in a cloud when he ascended into heaven after spending forty days on earth teaching his disciples following his resurrection. An angel reassured the shocked disciples watching the scene that Jesus would return in the very same way.

Acts 1:9-11: ⁹After he said this, he [Jesus] was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. ¹⁰They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹”Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Just as the Bible gave clear signs to proclaim Jesus’ first coming (for example, Isaiah 7:14 and Zechariah 9:9), the Bible provides clear signs for Christians to watch for concerning his second coming. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament contain numerous passages related to Jesus’ second coming. Jesus himself gave the clearest possible sign of his coming in Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26, and Luke 21:27 by stating that all the people of the earth would see Jesus coming of the clouds with great power and great glory. Knowing this sign guards against the growing deception that Jesus’ coming as found in Matthew 24 has already been fulfilled, as well as the deceptions of various people claiming they are Jesus himself.  As Jesus’ coming draws nearer, these deceptions along with others will increase in frequency and in their power to deceive, even being accompanied by false signs and wonders.  Jesus has not come back, nor will he come back secretly.  His coming will be impossible to miss. We now just need to prepare for it.

A Pre-Wrath Chart explaining the two most important signs that every believer needs to know and be watching for.

Excerpt from the book: The Saints Go Up and The Wrath Comes Down: A Pre-Wrath Perspective on the End Times by Aaron Eggman.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. (Underlining and added brackets are emphasis added by the author)

Those scriptures noted as (NKJV) are taken from: New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (Underlining and added brackets are emphasis added by the author)

[i] A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, rev. and ed. Fredrick W. Danker, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).