and the Rapture

n light of the fulfillment of certain prophecies con- church “goes extraterrestrial” (Coming 61). Encouraging Icerning the nation of Israel and in consideration of the the believers to “prepare for liftoff,” he says, intensity and nature of the current world situation, many genuine and Bible-believing Christians today are studying Just think of it. In the flash of a nanosecond, every living the second coming of Christ with renewed interest. believer on earth will be gone, vanished, bye-bye, say- Central to the prophecies concerning the Lord’s coming onara, outta here.…As for us, one moment we will be and our blessed hope at His appearing is the rapture of going about our life here on earth, and the next moment the saints, as described or alluded to in several texts we will be hurtled into the presence of Jesus.…We are throughout the New Testament. Perhaps no single passage snatched away before we even know what hit us. of Scripture is quoted in this regard as much as (Apocalypse 300-301) 1 Thessalonians 4:15 to 17: LaHaye dramatizes the rapture as being “electrifyingly For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we sudden,” producing a “titanic chaos as Christian auto and who are living, who are left remaining unto the coming of bus drivers, train engineers, pilots and others suddenly the Lord, shall by no means precede those who have fall- vanish,” creating “the greatest freeway gridlock in histo- en asleep; because the Lord Himself, with a shout of ry!” He even proposes that at that moment unsaved command, with the voice of the archangel and with the mothers will sorrow intensely over the loss of their chil- trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead dren, as babies under the age of accountability vanish with in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living, who are the true believers in the great event (40-41). As we shall left remaining, will be caught up together with them in see in this article, while we acknowledge entirely that we the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will shall be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” be always with the Lord. (1 Cor. 15:52), we shall point out that the rapture of the believers is in actuality the consummating stage of a life- long process of growth in It is not sufficient that we who love the Lord and seek Him merely the divine life. It is not suf- go about our life here on earth. We must diligently prepare ourselves, ficient that we who love the Lord and seek Him merely because our adequate growth in the divine life is a natural and go about our life here on necessary prerequisite for our rapture. earth. We must diligently prepare ourselves, because The rapture texts are of particular interest to modern our adequate growth in the divine life is a natural and nec- evangelicals, some of whom approach the subject with essary prerequisite for our rapture. It is a practical fact scholarly care, while others treat it with a more free- reflected in the New Testament that some believers will wheeling excitement. Much has been said and written thus prepare themselves while others will not. Since the concerning the major details related to the Lord’s coming rapture, as the glorification of the believers with the divine and the rapture of the saints. In addition, the subjects of glory, requires our diligence and faithfulness, the truth of a premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial advent and the rapture should be considered with respect to the a pretribulation, posttribulation, or midtribulation rap- “word of righteousness” in the New Testament (Heb. ture provide much opportunity for study and debate. 5:13), the truth concerning the believers’ responsibility However, almost all Bible students presume the same and accountability to God for their life in the church age. impression as to its nature. It is generally accepted to be a single, self-contained event that will happen without Three Stages of Our Full Salvation notice, conveying the believers into a sudden, surprising, and uncharacteristic ecstasy. This view of the rapture has In Mark 16:16 the Lord Jesus says, “He who believes and been sensationalized and popularized by writers such as is baptized shall be saved,” and in John 10:9 He says, “I Lindsey, who calls the rapture “The Great Snatch,” as the am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be

50 Affirmation & Critique saved.” In Acts 8:37 Philip declares, “If you believe from in us (Rom. 6:6-7; 7:16-20; 8:2). In this stage God is also all your heart, you will be saved,” and Paul says very clear- sanctifying us by the person of His Holy Spirit with the ly, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and element of His holy nature. In the progressing stage of sal- believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the vation God is also causing us to grow in His life, and He is dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). As we know, salva- transforming us by renewing the inward parts of our soul tion as spoken of here is by grace through faith. It is a free by the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 3:6-7; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17-18; gift that we receive at a distinct moment in our life. A Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23). Throughout the process of our number of passages in the New Testament, however, Christian life, He is also building us together into a spiri- speak differently concerning salvation. First Peter 2:2 tual house for His dwelling (1 Pet. 2:5; Eph. 2:22), and He says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the is maturing us in His life for the completion of His full sal- word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.” In vation and the fulfilling of His eternal purpose. this verse, salvation is something that the believers who drink the milk of God’s word grow into. The phrase grow The final stage of God’s full salvation is the completing unto salvation plainly indicates that salvation also is a stage, the stage of glorification, which is composed of the matter of progression. Not only so, but in verse 5 of chap- (transfiguration) of our body, conformity to ter one Peter reminds the believers that they are “being the Lord, glorification, inheritance of God’s kingdom, guarded by the power of God through faith unto a salva- participation in Christ’s kingship, and the topmost enjoy- tion ready to be revealed at the last time.” Here salvation ment of the Lord. These three stages are not divided is something that will be revealed in the future, at the according to knowledge or merely according to objective time of the Lord’s coming. Obviously then, salvation is a aspects of God’s salvation. Rather, they are arranged rich and full reality, not a simple one. according to the experience of the divine life.

he full salvation of the Triune God is in three stages The Need for Transformation and Conformation Tand comprises many items (Recovery Version, 1 Pet. 1:5, note 5). In each of the three stages of God’s full Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be fashioned according to this salvation, we are delivered from particular things, we age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” experience certain matters, and we have definite results. Not only so, 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all with Because we are of three parts—spirit, soul, and body unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the (1 Thes. 5:23)—the Lord in His salvation takes three glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same steps to deal with us: in our spirit, transfor- image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” mation in our soul, and transfiguration in our body. The Throughout the entire course of our Christian life, the corresponding stages of God’s salvation may be called the believers must enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity initial stage, the progressing stage, and the completing in the divine transformation for the divine conformation, stage. The initial stage of our salvation is the stage of as spoken of in these verses. To be transformed is to have regeneration. It is composed of redemption, sanctifica- Christ added into our being to replace what we are so tion (positional separation unto God), , and that Christ may increase and our natural life may reconciliation, the result and totality of which is regener- decrease. It is a divine, spiritual metabolism in which the ation. In this stage God justifies us through the old element of our natural being—the constitution of our redemption of Christ and regenerates us in our spirit with old man in the old, fallen creation—is carried away, and His life by His Spirit (John 3:3-6). Thus, we receive the glory, the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit God’s eternal salvation and His eternal life and become (v. 17; 1 Cor. 15:45) with all His riches, is added into us His children, who shall not perish forever. This initial sal- to replace the natural element. Thus, the Spirit’s work in vation has saved us from God’s condemnation and from transforming us involves a change in our whole being—in eternal perdition. As the result of regeneration we have life, nature, essence, element, form, and appearance. By received God’s eternal salvation and His eternal life. In the dispensing of Christ’s element into us, we are being this sense, of course, we have already received God’s sal- transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His vation. There is no need to grow unto this stage, and it is life power with His life essence. not necessary for us to wait until it is revealed to us. To be sure, to gain the filling of the Holy Spirit to this The progressing stage of our salvation is the stage of trans- extent requires us to pay a price in our daily and lifelong formation, which is composed of freedom from sin, pursuit of the Lord. We must give up the world, deal with dispositional , growth in life, transformation, our self, love the Lord above all, and count all things loss building up, and maturing. In this stage God is freeing us for Christ. Without gaining the extra portion of the Spirit from the dominion of indwelling sin—the law of sin and in our human vessel in this way, we cannot experience of death—by the law of the Spirit of life through the transformation into His image to an adequate degree, and effectiveness of the death of Christ working subjectively we will not be prepared for the next stage of our full

Volume VII  No. 1  April 2002 51 salvation, the glorification, the transfiguration—the rap- being conformed to His death.” We need to take the ture—of our body. death of Christ as the mold of our life. The mold of Christ’s death was the continual putting to death of His The Lord starts His salvation from the center of our being human life so that He might live by the life of God. As by regenerating us in our spirit. As a result, a change of our human life is conformed to such a mold, we die to our life begins from the center of our being. This change of human life in order to live the divine life. The more our life continues by spreading into our soul so that our mind, natural life is put to death, the more the divine life with- emotion, and will may be transformed into His image. in us will be released. Then in our experience we shall be This transformation results in conformation. Transfor- conformed to Christ’s death, and unless we are con- mation is inward and is a matter of the divine essence, formed to His death, we cannot be conformed to His and conformation is outward and is a matter of shape image. Regrettably, not all believers receive the light that (Lee, Conclusion 1593 ff.). Transformation involves a their self must be put to death, and even among those change in form whereas conformation involves the shap- who have seen this truth, not many are fully willing to ing of this form into a certain image, the image of Christ deny the self and stay in the mold of Christ’s death. as the firstborn Son of God. Romans 8:29 speaks of this Without being conformed to the death of Christ, we can- stage of our full salvation, saying, “Because those whom not be conformed to His image and thus prepared to be He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to taken into His presence. the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” Christ, the firstborn Son, is the The believers must deny their self, take up the cross of prototype, and we, the many sons of God, are the mass Christ, and follow Him (Matt. 16:24). This is to identify production. Christ is the mold, the model, the pattern, themselves with the death of Christ, to allow the death and God has put us into Him so that we may be molded, of Christ to work on them continually, and to stay in the conformed, into the image of the firstborn Son. death of Christ (2 Cor. 4:10-12) to keep the self under the termination of death. We must also realize that our n many respects, however, we do not yet have the old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6), caus- Iappearance of Christ, the Firstborn. For this reason, we ing the body of sin to be made of none effect so that we need to be saved in the life of Christ (5:10) from self- no longer serve sin as slaves, having crucified the flesh likeness, that is, from the expression, the appearance, of with its passions and lusts, and putting to death the prac- the self in order to bear the appearance of God’s sons. To tices of the body by the Spirit (Gal. 5:24; Rom. 8:13). be saved from our self-likeness is to be conformed to the Moreover, the believers must lose their soul, that is, their image of the firstborn Son of God. When we have been soul-life (yuchv). In Matthew 16:25 the Lord says, saved from our self-likeness and have been fully con- “Whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but formed to the image of Christ, we shall be sons of God in whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.” To reality, and in every aspect we shall bear the appearance save the soul-life is to allow the soul to have its enjoyment of His sons. In the light of the Scriptures, and in all sober- in this age and not to suffer. To lose the soul-life is to ness, we cannot expect to be “hurtled into the presence cause the soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment in this of Jesus” in our self-likeness, still marred with the spots age for the Lord’s sake and for the sake of the gospel. In and wrinkles of the old natural life (Eph. 5:27), that must summary, in order to be conformed to the death of Christ not and cannot be found in the bride of Christ. we must deal with the old man, the body of sin, the flesh, Therefore, it is only at the conclusion of our progression the practices of the body, the self, and the soul. The more of the experience of God’s full salvation that we shall be we deal with these things, the more we are conformed to ready to be raptured and presented to Christ as His coun- Christ’s death that we may be conformed to His image as terpart and bride. the firstborn Son of God. By all this we can see that to mature in Christ through transformation and conforma- The believers are presently in the process of maturity, tion requires us to pay a price. For this reason, we are led that is, in the process of transformation and conforma- to doubt that all genuine believers, if many at all, will be tion. When this process has been completed, we shall fully matured at the time of the Lord’s coming. Since reach maturity. Our maturity is the full extent of the conformation is the preparation for our glorification, this process of transformation and conformation. This process is equivalent to saying that not all believers will be ready of maturity involves the believers’ experience of the to be raptured into the Lord’s presence. divine life, for conformation is actually the gradual shap- ing of life by the function of the all-inclusive, divine life The Glorification of Our Body within us. However, this process also implies a certain amount of suffering and the killing of our natural man. In At the end of the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, Philippians 3:10 Paul says, “To know Him and the power the believers are transformed and conformed to the of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God, and they look

52 Affirmation & Critique to and wait for the Lord Jesus’ coming back to usher salvation depends upon our experience of the previous them into their glorious future. It is then that they are stages of our salvation. To be sure, without being regener- prepared, qualified, and ready to enter into the final stage ated in our spirit we can never be transformed and of God’s full salvation in His life. The completing stage of conformed to the image of Christ in our soul. Likewise, our salvation comprises our glorification (Rom. 8:30), the without being transformed and conformed we cannot redemption of our body (v. 23), and our rapture. Glory is experience the spreading of the glory of Christ from our the expression of God. It is Christ Himself, the hope of soul to our body. That is, without the maturity of life we glory (Col. 1:27), who has been sown into us as the seed are not ready, prepared, and qualified to be raptured. of glory and who grows within us throughout our entire Christian life. For God to glorify us means that the glory Growth, Maturity, and the Harvest which has been sown into us saturates our whole being and is expressed through us. When our entire being has The Old Testament contains a significant type of the been permeated and saturated with the element of glory, maturity and rapture of the believers. Throughout the that glory will come out of us, even through our physical course of the year, the children of Israel sowed in the good body. The seed of the divine life has been sown into our land, nurtured the crops unto their maturity, and finally being, and now this seed is growing within us. As the seed reaped the harvest. Among the harvest a certain amount grows, it develops gradually until it reaches full growth, of the produce ripened first. These first-ripe ones are the maturity in life. At that time there will be a “blos- called the firstfruits. Leviticus 23:10 says, “Speak to the soming” of the divine seed within us. This is what it children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into means for the believers to be glorified, which is the ulti- the land which I am giving you, and reap its harvest, then mate consummation of God’s full salvation. you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.” Exodus 23:19 speaks of these first-ripe Romans 8:23 speaks of our full, divine sonship, which is ones, saying, “The first of the firstfruits of your ground “the redemption of our body.” When we are glorified, our you shall bring into the house of Jehovah your God.” The glorification will also be the redemption of our body. At first of the crop to be ripened was set aside to be brought the present time, our mortal bodies are of the old cre- into the temple to be presented to God. At a later time, ation, weak, subject to death, infected with the sin nature, most of the remainder of the crop ripened. These were and under bondage and corruption. At the time of our rap- harvested when they were ready and brought into the ture, however, our entire being, including our physical barns. Toward the end of the time of harvest, another cer- body, will enter into the divine sonship of the sons of God, tain amount of the produce still remained in the field. and our whole being will shine with the glory of God. Leviticus 23:22 says, “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely reap the corners of hilippians 3:21 says that Christ will “transfigure the your field, nor shall you gather the gleaning of your har- Pbody of our humiliation to be conformed to the body vest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the of His glory.” The indwelling Christ will saturate our sojourner; I am Jehovah your God.” The gleanings were entire being, including our physical body. This will cause that part of the produce that took the longest to ripen. our body to be transfigured and to become like His glori- These were harvested last. ous body. Christ’s body of glory is His resurrected body saturated with God’s glory and transcendent over corrup- ccording to 1 Corinthians 3, God’s people are His tion and death. When we are transfigured, God’s glory A produce, His farm. In verse 6 Paul says, “I planted, will be expressed from our spirit to our soul and through Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” Then in our body. The three parts of our being will be the same as verse 9 he says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are Christ is and will be fully saturated with God’s glory. God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” The concept of Then “we will be like Him” (1 John 3:2) not only in our God’s cultivated land is carried forward to Revelation, in regenerated spirit and in our transformed soul but also in which the believers are seen as the produce harvested at our body. At that time we shall be in His full likeness both the end times, that is, at the time of the Lord’s coming. inwardly and outwardly, from the center of our being to There we see first the harvest of the firstfruits in 14:1 the circumference. This is the ultimate consummation of through 5 and later the general harvest in verses 14 our full salvation, making our entire being—spirit, soul, through 16. In verse 15 we see the principle of the rap- and body—organically one with Christ and making Christ ture. This verse says, “Send forth Your sickle and reap, for everything to us. the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” On the one hand, the rapture of the saints occurs Being glorified, redeemed in our body, and raptured are in a hour, but on the other hand, the hour of the reaping actually three aspects of one thing. To be glorified is to be depends on the ripening of the harvest. At His first coming redeemed in our body, and to be redeemed in our body is to the earth, the Lord sowed Himself into His believers to be raptured. As we have seen, the completion of our (Matt. 13:3-8, 24; cf. 9:37-38; Mark 4:26-29). All the

Volume VII  No. 1  April 2002 53 believers since that time, who have received Him as the our entire life through the subjective operation of the seed of life, have become God’s crop on the earth. At the Triune God. Neither is this to say that our rapture is end of this age, they will be reaped, that is, raptured, according to “merit,” as some have derisively misstated. according to the extent and the time of their maturity in The rapture of the believers at the end of this age is nei- the divine life. D. M. Panton summarizes in this way: ther by faith alone nor by merit. Rather, it is according to and dependent upon their subjective, organic growth in Our general conclusion is now confirmed with astonishing life unto maturity through the processes of transformation clearness by the great Type designed to portray rapture. and conformation to the image of Christ. For the vital principle of all harvesting has been laid down In this article we have not Based on the strong foundation of the organic aspect of God’s full entered into the arguments salvation, the aspect of our salvation that relates to our subjective concerning midtribulation raptures or partial or multi- experience of Christ and our growth in the divine life, the rapture ple raptures, but the exact of the believers is not an entitlement given freely by grace. eschatology of the rapture is not the point here. Let by our Lord once for all:—“When the fruit is RIPE, imme- the reader receive this principle: Our rapture will be the diately he putteth in the sickle” (Mark iv. 29). No farmer completion, culmination, and consummation of our reaps his field because a fixed date is come, but because maturity in the divine life. We can die in an immature his corn is ripe; the reaping of unripe corn is utterly condition and go to be with the Lord in Paradise, as many unknown.…Thus our Lord unfolds a momentous princi- already have done. We can even be resurrected to stand ple. It is not wheat that the Angels (Matt. xiii. 39) reap, before Him in an immature state, and indeed many but ripe wheat: neither the individual believer, nor the believers will do just that. However, we cannot be rap- Church as a whole, is ripe simply because of being wheat. tured in an immature condition. To be raptured requires (25-26) our full growth in life, including our transformation and conformation to His image. Only when we are matured He continues by noting that even the timing of the Lord’s and conformed to the glorious image of Christ will we be coming is according to the principle of the maturity of the ripe and ready for the harvest at the end time. Let us believers: “It is not Christ’s return that rules the ripeness receive this light and governing vision from the New of the wheat, but the ripeness of the wheat that rules the Testament, and let us be desperate in these last days to date of Christ’s return.…Christ is responsible for the pay the price, cooperate with the Lord, and gain Him to sowing of the Wheat, but not for the date of its maturi- the fullest degree for our maturity in His life. Then we ty” (26, 28). Lang says similarly: “It is ripeness, not the may look to Him for His coming, and we shall be ready, calendar or the clock, that determines the time of reap- prepared, and qualified to be raptured into His presence. ing (Mk. 4. 29). The Heavenly Husbandman reaps no unripe grain: hence, ‘the hour to reap is come’ when the harvest is ‘dried up’ (Rev. 14. 15)” (44). by John Campbell

ccording to certain passages in the New Testament, Works Cited A the rapture may appear to be a sudden occurrence. However, the entire revelation of the New Testament LaHaye, Tim. Rapture under Attack. Sisters: Multnomah, 1998. indicates that it will actually be the consummation of a Lang, G. H. Firstfruits and Harvest. Miami Springs: Schoettle, process of gradual growth and development in life, our 1985. growth in the divine life unto maturity. A flower does not blossom until it has reached maturity, and in like manner, Lee, Witness. Footnotes. Recovery Version of the New the believers will not be glorified until they reach maturi- Testament. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991. ty in the divine life. Based on the strong foundation of the ———. Life-study of the New Testament Conclusion Messages: organic aspect of God’s full salvation, the aspect of our sal- The Believers. Vol. 2. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, vation that relates to our subjective experience of Christ 1998. and our growth in the divine life, the rapture of the believ- ers is not an entitlement given freely by grace. To be sure, Lindsey, Hal. Apocalypse Code. Palos Verdes, Western Front, our justification is a matter of sola fide; it is by grace, 1997. through faith alone, and because of Christ’s once-for-all ———. There’s a New World Coming. Eugene: Harvest House, work of redemption. Our rapture, however, our glorifica- 1984. tion and the redemption of our body, is the consummation of a process of salvation that we experience throughout Panton, D. M. Rapture. Miami Springs: Schoettle, 1988.

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