No Rapture; No Tribulation; No Armageddon

Some people believe that Christ is coming very soon to secretly snatch Christians away from the Earth. They believe that families will be shocked when a mother, father, or child will strangely disappear. Cars will crash in the streets because the drivers disappeared. A man and wife will be in bed; she will turn her head, and find him gone. Planes will crash, with no pilots found. They say the "Rapture" will be an invisible coming of the Lord for His saints. But the Bible does not teach this idea. The New Testament refers to only onereturn of Jesus—at the end of time before the Judgment. The Second Coming of Jesus will not be secret, but will include "blazing fire" (2 Thessalonians 1:8), the sound of a trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:52), a "shout," the "voice of the archangel," and the "trump of God" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). All persons everywherewill see and hear this event. In fact, the very passage they claim refers to the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16) is about the noisiest verse in the Bible!

These people also believe that after the Rapture, a seven-year tribulation will happen. They think Jesus taught this idea in Matthew 24:1-34. But Jesus, speaking in A.D. 30, referred to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem that happened in A.D. 70—nearly 2,000 years ago! He said the event would happen to the generation of people to whom He was speaking (vs. 34)—and it did!

These same people claim that another thing is about to happen—a big, terrible war that will affect the whole world. They refer to this battle as Armageddon. They claim the Bible teaches that this battle will take place in the near fu-ture. But this word is found only in Revelation 16:16. There it refers—not to an actual physical battle—but to the spiritual fight that the early Christians had to face when the government persecuted them because they were Christians. The book of Revelation is a book of symbols, images, and figures. God did not intend for us to take the symbols as literal. For example, chapter nine talks about locusts that looked like horses with human faces, had little gold crowns on their heads, and lions' teeth. They even had scorpion tails! But these creatures never have existed, and never will exist! They are just symbols—like Armageddon. The Bible says that when Jesus returns, the whole world will stand in Judgment before God, with everyone then being sent to heaven or hell.

---

Copyright © 2014 Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

*Please keep in mind that Discovery articles are written for 3rd-6th graders.

This document may be copied, on the condition that it will not be republished in print unless otherwise stated below, and will not be used for any commercial purpose, as long as the following stipulations are observed: (1) Apologetics Press must be designated as the original publisher; (2) the specific Apologetics Press Web site URL must be noted; (3) any references, footnotes, or endnotes that accompany the article must be included with any written reproduction of the article; (4) textual alterations of any kind are strictly forbidden; (5) Some illustrations (e.g., photographs, charts, graphics, etc.) are not the intellectual property of Apologetics Press and as such cannot be reproduced from our site without consent from the person or organization that maintains those intellectual rights; (6) serialization of written material (e.g., running an article in several parts) is permitted, as long as the whole of the material is made available, without editing, in a reasonable length of time; (7) articles, in whole or in part, may not be offered for sale or included in items offered for sale; and (8) articles may be reproduced in electronic form for posting on Web sites pending they are not edited or altered from their original written content and that credit is given to Apologetics Press, including the web location from which the articles were taken. Further, documents may not be copied without source statements (title, author, journal title), and the address of the publisher and owner of rights, as listed below.

For catalog, samples, or further information, contact:

Apologetics Press
230 Landmark Drive
Montgomery, Alabama 36117
U.S.A.
Phone (334) 272-8558

http://www.apologeticspress.org