Below is a commentary from chapter sixteen, Rapture Passages in Matthew, from my manuscript, Waiting for the Day and Hour.
“But
of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of the heavens,
but my Father alone” (Darby Bible).
Jesus
begins to prophecy the rapture of the Church in 24:36. Some believe Matthew
24:36 refers to the 2nd appearance/coming of Jesus Christ. I think
the reason they believe this theory is that they are unable to distinguish
between the two events. They do not understand the distinctiveness of the
rapture of the body of Christ and the 2nd coming of Jesus. I hear
people calling the rapture of the Church the 2nd coming. The 2nd
coming happens on the final day of Israel’s 70th week. The rapture occurs
before Israel’s 70th week begins. There are at least 2,520 days
between the rapture and Christ’s 2nd appearance. That is seven biblical/prophetic
years. A biblical/prophetic year is 360 days. I mentioned this in chapter six, Daniel’s
Vision, under the heading Calendar Years.
Sometimes
I hear people say that Jesus is coming back when they refer to the rapture.
They are confused. Jesus returns in his 2nd appearance. At that
time, he redeems the remnant of Israel. After that, he sets up his millennial
kingdom and reigns from Jerusalem (Rev. 19:11-21; 20:4; Dan. 2:44; Ps. 2:6-12).
At the rapture, Jesus does not return to the earth; rather, the church is
raptured into heaven (1 Thess. 4:16-17). When the Scripture says the church
will meet the Lord in the air, it means the church meets Jesus at the place
where the earthly realm meets the eternal realm, the gateway of the heavenly
realm. When Scripture says the Lord descends from heaven, it is emblematic of
getting off his throne to meet the church at the gateway of heaven. He will be
there to greet the body of Christ as they transition from their earthly bodies
to their heavenly bodies once they enter the heavenly realms.
No
one knows the day and hour; the church is raptured. The Lord has mandated the
day and hour as a secret. There is a reason for this mystery. If the day and
hour of the rapture of the body of Christ were revealed, then Satan and his
fallen angels would sabotage it. They would put their destruction of this world
on pause that day, leave their appointed territories, and gather at the gateway
of the heavenly realm to create a barrier. Before the church could enter the gateway
to the heavenly realm, chaos would happen. Satan and his angels would try to
stop the rapture of the body of Christ from happening. This is why God is
keeping the day and hour a secret. By keeping it a secret, the body of Christ’s
transition from earth to heaven happens without any issues. By keeping the
rapture a secret, the body of Christ’s transformation from earthly to heavenly
bodies will be a smooth transition.
Satan
and his angels still have access to the heavenly realm, but they cannot come
anywhere near the realm where the throne room of God is situated, the inner
sanctuary (Rev. 4:1-11; Isa. 6:1; Ezek. 1:26-28). They were cast out of the
inner sanctuary of heaven when Satan rebelled against God (Ezek. 28:12-17; Isa.
14:12-15). Scripture alludes to one-third of the angels rebelling with Satan
(Rev. 12:4). The Lord had created a ουράνι (myriásin) myriad (countless) of
angels (Heb. 12:22). The fallen ones will be cast out of the entire heavenly
realms during the Tribulation Period (Rev. 12:7-9). Therefore, when the rapture
happens, they have access to the gateway of the heavenly realms. But, since the
rapture is a secret to every angel, Satan and his angels do not know what day
or hour it happens. When it happens, they will be unaware of it. There will be no
time to leave their appointed territories to attack the body of Christ because
of how quickly the church is raptured, in the blink of an eye (1 Cor.
15:51-52).
As
it is, Satan and his angels move back and forth from the heavenly realms to the
earth. Satan and his angels roam throughout the Earth, and limited areas within
the heavenly realms (Job. 1:7; 2:2; 1 Pet. 5:8). Evil spirits do not have
access into the heavenly realms, only the earth (Enoch 15:8-11; Matt. 12:43;
Lk. 11:24). But if the fallen angels knew the exact moment the church was to be
raptured, they would be at the gateway of the heavenly realm to assault the
believer’s before they transition from the earthly to the heavenly realm. Every
Old Testament saint and believer in Christ in heaven who has their earthly body
resurrected the moment the rapture of the living believers happens would have
their resurrected body attacked by the fallen angels on this side of the
gateway of the heavenly realm. The Old Testament saints and those who have
already passed away in Christ will be reunited with their earthly bodies at the
place where Jesus meets his church in the air, on the other side of the gateway
to the heavenly realm. This happens before the living believers meet Jesus at
the gateway of heaven: “For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who
are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have
fallen asleep” (1 Thess. 4:15, CSB). Every believer who is raptured alive would
suffer the same assault before they enter the gate to the heavenly realms.
Therefore, God has made the moment the rapture happens a secret. He only lets
Satan know the generation when the rapture will occur. All Satan can do is guess
at what day it will be.
Satan
knows the generation when the rapture will occur because he knows Bible prophecy,
but not the day and hour. The church can know what Satan knows. All they have
to do is study. But sadly, many in the church choose not to. Evil spirits can
trick the church into believing there is no rapture if they reject endtimes
prophecy. Evil spirits can ruse church leaders into thinking the rapture will
not happen in this lifetime, for many generations to come, if they refuse to
study and teach endtimes prophecy. Because many in the church let themselves be
schemed, they do not have their eye on the rapture. They do not view it as
important. They are spiritually asleep. The reason Jesus commands the church to
stay awake is that they do not know the day or hour it will happen (Matt. 24:42;
25:13). The reason Jesus commands the church to be ready is that he is coming
when the church least expects it (Matt. 24:44).
Satan
has deceived many in the church into believing they can change the world. That
they can change the hearts of everyone, so evil is defeated. He has tricked
many into thinking they can defeat him, his fallen angels, and all the evil
rulers of this world. Evil spirits have tricked many Christians into believing
they can create a Christian kingdom on earth. I am not saying the church should
not preach the gospel. We have been commanded to do so. But, conquering the
world for Jesus and defeating Satan is not what the church has been told to do.
If this was God’s plan, then why would he give Jesus the Revelation of things that
are soon to take place, in the endtimes (Rev. 1:1)? Why is it written that
Jesus personally defeats the kings of the earth, the Antichrist, and the false
prophet (Rev. 19:11-21)? Satan is bound for 1000 years by Jesus, not the church
in their earthly bodies (Rev. 20:1-3). The church in their earthly bodies
cannot defeat Satan and his fallen angels. Even Michael, the archangel, when he
argued with Satan over the dead body of Moses, watched what he said: οὐκ
ἐτόλμησεν κρίσιν ἐπενεγκεῖν βλασφημίας (ouk etólmisen krísin epenenkeín
vlasfimías) “He did not dare to impose a judgment of blasphemy” (Jude 1:9,
mGNT). Jesus personally defeats Satan, his angels, and the evil rulers of this
world after the inhabitants of the earth go through seven years of Tribulation.
Evil spirits have deceived the church into thinking they are the ones who will
conquer the spirits of darkness. This deception is called Dominion theology. I wrote
about Dominion theology in chapter nine.
The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement[1] is
largely responsible for this deception. This branch of the church is an
extension of the former Latter Rain Movement.[2] Their
theology is not in line with what the Scriptures teach about the endtimes. They
believe Jesus will give the church dominion over the world. They believe that
Christians will create heaven on earth, a worldwide Christian kingdom. This
theology does not speak about a pre-Tribulation rapture. It does not mention
the 70th week of Israel or the 7-year Tribulation Period.
I
have mentioned in this book that this is the generation when the rapture of the
Church will happen, because Jesus said it would. The generation that witnessed Israel’s
statehood renewed (1948) will also witness the rapture of the Church, Israel’s
70th week, and the second appearance of Jesus (Matt. 24:32-34; Mk.
13:28-30; Lk. 22:29-32). Some say that the preceding passages are symbolic of an
endtimes revival in the church. But that is utter nonsense. These passages
refer to Israel’s renewed statehood. There was a reason why Jesus prophesied
these passages in riddle form. God hides the true meaning of these mystery
passages from church leaders who refuse to preach the rapture to their
congregations. As a consequence, the
disobedient preach delusion.
Satan
knows this is the generation that God will gather his church into the heavenly
realms to complete its salvation. He knows that Jesus will come back again to
redeem the remnant of Israel (Dan. 9:24; Rms. 11:1-5, 11-12, 25-28). He knew
that Israel would govern their state again (Isa. 66:8-10; Ezek. 37:21-22). And
he knew the year before it happened. As I have written in chapter nine, Israel’s
Renewed Statehood, under the heading, The Completion of the Proviso.
That is why the fallen angels tried to destroy Israel’s renewed statehood by
inspiring the Nazi Party (The Third Reich) to exterminate the Jews. They
believed that if they could get rid of the Jews, then they would not become a
sovereign state again. If they could stop Israel from becoming a sovereign
state again, then they could also prevent the church from being raptured. If
they could annihilate the Jews in the 2nd World War, then the
remnant would not be redeemed. But since
Satan failed at stopping Israel’s statehood from being renewed, he began to
focus on stopping the church from being ready for the rapture. That is why he
has deceived many leaders in the church so that they do not teach the church
about the rapture or endtimes prophecy. Satan has convinced pastors to abstain
from teaching the doctrine of endtimes, thereby starving the church of vital
information so they can watch and be ready for when the rapture happens. He
knows that God will complete his salvation in the body of Christ, at the
rapture, when the last person appointed to eternal life is redeemed (Acts
13:48; Jn. 10:26-27; Rms. 8:29-30; 2 Thess. 2:13-14).
Some
English Bibles include in their translations that Jesus (Son of God) is unaware
of what day the rapture will occur. They second-guess themselves by adding a
footnote similar to: Most manuscripts omit that the Son of God does not know.
The manuscripts being referred to are ancient Greek manuscripts—there are no
original Greek manuscripts. The Textus Receptus is a Greek manuscript that I
quote from often in this book. It is considered the most authentic Greek
version of the New Testament.[3] It is one of the ancient Greek manuscripts
that omits any reference to Jesus not knowing the day and hour the rapture will
happen. However, all ancient manuscripts and English versions say the angels do
not know the day and hour.
Picture: Pixabay (PublicDomainPictures)
Free for use under the Pixabay
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[1]
New Apostolic Reformation
(Accessed 8/03/2024)
[2]
Latter Rain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latter_Rain_(post%E2%80%93World_War_II_movement)
(Accessed 8/06/2024)
[3]
What is the Textus Receptus?
https://www.gotquestions.org/Textus-Receptus.html
(Accessed 7/14/2025)
