There are two comings of the Lord Jesus Christ:  The Rapture of the Church, and the Second Advent. 

1. The Rapture is private.  It is only for believers.  The world will not know what is happening.  It will happen in a moment.  It will happen in the smallest measure of time.

The Second Advent is public.  God will display His Son Jesus Christ for the entire world to see.  Twenty-four hours before Jesus comes back, God will make the whole world go into a supernatural darkness.  No light will be able to pierce it.  The world will have twenty-four hours to accept Jesus.  After that, it is too late.  After this twenty-four hours Jesus will return.  The only thing that will split supernatural darkness is the glory of God.  Every eye will see Him (Matthew 24:30).

2. The Rapture occurs in the air.  Jesus appears in the sky, and we rise to meet Him.

The Second Advent occurs on the earth.   Jesus’ feet will touch the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4).

3. At the Rapture, the Church will go to heaven.

At the Second Advent, the Church returns to earth with Jesus.

4. The Rapture begins the judgment of believer’s works in heaven.  The Judgment Seat of Christ

The Second Advent begins the judgment of unbelievers on the earth.  The baptism of fire.

5. The Rapture is the removal of the Church’s ministry.

The Second Advent is the removal of Satan and his ministry.

6. At the Rapture we have the change in believer’s body.

The Second Advent is the change in the earth.  The curse will be lifted completely from off the earth.

7. At the Rapture, Jesus appears as the groom.

At the Second Advent, He appears as Messiah.

8. Believers will be taken from the earth at the Rapture.

Unbelievers will be taken from the earth at the Second Advent.

9. The Rapture begins a time of terror.

The Second Advent begins a time of peace.  The thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection

“But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 

“Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies and what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.”  (1 Corinthians 15:36-38)

The resurrection is so simple you are a fool if you don’t understand it.

When a seed is planted the shell of the seed dies and releases the life that is on the inside.  Our physical body is a shell, the outside of a seed.  Our spirit man, on the inside, is the heart of the seed.   

“All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.”  (1 Corinthians 15:39-41)

When we rise in the resurrection, every one of us is going to be different.  Just like the sun, the moon, and the stars are all different in brilliance and magnitude so will we shine differently.  The sun, moon, and stars have been shining for thousands and thousands of years, we will be shining for millenniums to come – all different.  No two Christians will be the same.  Right now, we all look alike because we are wrapped up in a human body. We cannot see our spirits, but we are all on different levels of growth in our spiritual life on the inside.  Seeds all look the same on the outside and you don’t know what they are until they are planted. The resurrection will show the difference we are in our spiritual lives.  Spiritual growth determines what you are going to be forever and forever in heaven.

The Antichrist

An Antichrist will come out of the European economic community of nations that is going to rise and make a seven-year peace treaty with Israel.  But in the middle of that time period, the Antichrist will break the covenant.  He will walk into a temple or some kind of structure which will be built at that time.  Sacrifices will be offered, and Antichrist is going to go into that temple and sit where Messiah is supposed to sit and declare himself to be God and demand that he be worshipped.  This marks the middle of the Tribulation.

Revelation chapter 12:9 states that Satan will be cast out of heaven at this time.  Satan does not live in heaven, but he has access to heaven.  The first two chapters of Job tells us that Satan has the right to go into heaven and accuse the brethren.  Zechariah 3:1-2 shows us that Zechariah had a vision and saw the high priest before the Lord and Satan at his right hand to oppose him.  Romans 8, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are our intercessors against the one who comes to make accusation against us.  

In the middle of the Tribulation, Satan will be banned from heaven and not allowed back in.  Then, he will unleash his fury like never before because even he can read the Bible.  He knows he will only have three and a half years left.  Antichrist will take over and try to wipe out the nation of Israel and all of the believers from the earth. 

Will the Church Go Through the Tribulation?

The Rapture of the Church is a sovereign act of God.  There is a difference between God’s sovereignty and God’s grace.  We must use our faith for what God does in grace.  What God does in sovereignty does not matter if we believe it or not.  He is just going to do it.  Every scripture that teaches about the rapture of the Church says we will all go.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:51).

We are all going to change because we are all, at the same instant of time, going to receive a resurrection body and rise to meet Jesus in the air, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

“I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named…” (Ephesians 3:14-15).

Part of the family is in heaven and part is on the earth.  Rapture is what unites us all together.  We all must go through the judgment seat of Christ.  The rapture is what gets us all into heaven and seven years later, we come back at the Second Advent with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Bible, figuratively, defines us as the bride of Christ.  We are not the bride of Christ until we get to heaven.  For seven years we will go through the judgment seat of Christ.  All the sin – the things we did in the flesh – will be burned up and at the end of those seven years, we will come back as a “bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).  This is God’s divine, supernatural, sovereign act to get everyone together.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ…” (2 Corinthians 5:20).  Ambassadors are citizens of their home country sent to a foreign country to represent their home country.  They are not citizens of the country they are in.  The needs of an ambassador are supplied by the country they are from.  Earth is not our home.  We are representatives of heaven. When the home country declares on the other country, the first thing they do before the war begins is to remove their ambassadors. The Judgment Seat of Christ is God’s way of bringing all the ambassadors into one spot.