Some Christians believe in a two-fold coming of Christ. They say the first coming is a rapture where Jesus will quietly and secretly take his people and they will simply disappear from the face of the earth. The Scripture used to back up this theory is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. For example, verse 17 says, …then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air… (NASB). Much more could be said on this, but I like William Hendriksen’s brief critique:
“Dispensationalists like to stress the statement, ‘and the dead in Christ will rise first.’ They interpret as if the entire passage were somewhat on this order: ‘And the dead in Christ shall rise first; then, a thousand years later, the dead not in Christ shall rise.’
“However, nowhere in the entire paragraph does Paul say, ‘then the dead not in Christ shall rise.’ Paul is thinking only of believers, of no one else. He is drawing a contrast between the dead in Christ and the still living in Christ.”
“On the one hand there will be those believers who at Christ’s coming will already have died. On the other hand, there will be the survivors, children of God who will still be living on earth. What the apostle is saying, then, amounts to this: ‘Don’t worry about your dear ones in the Lord, who have already died. In no sense at all will they suffer any disadvantage when Jesus returns. On the contrary, those who are still alive on earth will have to wait a moment until the souls of those who died have re-inhabited their bodies. In that moment of waiting the survivors will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Then together, as one large multitude, those who formerly constituted the two groups will go forth to meet the Lord.”
Also, as far as a “secret” rapture goes, Hendriksen points out verse 16 in 1 Thessalonians 4:
“Note the words: ‘For with a shouted command, with a voice of an archangel and with a trumpet of the God the Lord himself will descend from heaven.’ This has been called ‘the noisiest verse in the Bible.’ It surely indicates that the coming of the Lord will be public and audible.”
Shane Lems
Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Hammond, WI, 54015
The Reformed Reader Blog 
Well said, Shane. Additionally, it seems odd that in the high priestly prayer of John 17 Jesus would pray that his beloved disciples are not taken out of the world but rather kept from the evil one. If they were not exempt from their inevitable persecution, why should we expect to be raptured away when things get tough?
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rwgimpel: In Jn 16:1 Jesus indicates that all he said in the upper room was for our perseverance in faith.
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”
As John would later write, the church partakes of the tribulation (now) by virtue of being in union with Christ. Rev 1:9 If the master suffered, so will the servant.
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Good points, Rick and Dante. Your thoughts harmonize pretty well; there are quite a few places in Scripture that speak in such a way that make a rapture very suspect. One I always think about is how the Bible doesn’t talk about three comings of Christ (incarnation, secret rapture, judgment), but two (incarnation and judgment).
Thanks!
Shane
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