LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 349

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 349

example, in Left Behind trusting God for the future is often over-
shadowed and outweighed by a curiosity to know the details of that
future, thus diminishing the apostolic counsel, “We live by faith,
not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7).

Specific Issues

The Rapture and Millennium

The first person to propose the end time scenario adopted by Left
Behind was an Anglican priest turned traveling evangelical preacher
named John Nelson Darby. Darby arrived in the United States from
England in 1862 for the first of seven visits, bearing his new under-
standing of Christ’s Second Coming. Darby and minister Cyrus
Scofield, who would expand the evangelist’s ideas in the influential
Scofield Reference Bible, divided God’s relationship with people
into seven ages, or dispensations (the current sixth era began with
the death of Jesus). Their vision included a rapture in which Chris-
tians will be snatched up to heaven before the beginning of an in-
creasingly hellish seven-year tribulation (see “Diagrams of
Millennial Views” in the Appendix at the end of this report),

Prior to Darby’s influence, most Christians understood the “rap-
ture” as an event that would happen simultaneously with the final
resurrection and the end of the age. Yet Darby uniquely repositioned
it to take place at the end of the era of the church and just before the
tribulation. He then taught that at the end of seven years of tribula-
tion Christ would return and defeat the Antichrist and commence
the seventh dispensation—the millennium, a 1000-year glorious
reign on earth.

Triggering the events that lead to Christ’s 1000-year rei gn is the
rapture. The term “rapture” comes from the expression “caught up”
in | Thess 4:17: “After that, we who are still alive and are left will
be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air.” The idea, according to Left Behind, is that the coming of
Christ will occur in several phases. The first phase will be Christ’s
imminent return for believers to “rapture” his church. All Christians
(along with all infants and children who have not reached the age
of discretion) will meet Christ in the air. Those who are alive at the
time will be immediately transferred and taken to the heavenly man-
sions that Christ has prepared for them. .

Accordingly, this rapture of the church means that Christians will
not be on earth at the start of the tribulation period because with the
rapture God has ended the church age and has resumed dealing with
Jews, specifically the nation of Israel. The church is also raptured to
keep Christians from the wrath of God that will be poured out dur-
ing this tribulation. Then, after seven years, Christ will come to end
the tribulation and begin the seventh dispensation: the Savior’s 1000-
year reign on earth in which Christians will reign with Christ from
his capital in Jerusalem. The Leff Behind literature distinguishes this
rapture and the inauguration of the millennial reign by referring to
the former as “‘the blessed hope” of Titus 2:13a and to the latter as
“the glorious appearing” of Titus 2:13b.

Prior to 1830 (the advent of Darby’s teachings) there is no indi-
cation that any Christian church embraced this pre-tribulation “se-
cret” rapture doctrine. Rather, up until then Christians believed that
Jesus would come again visibly at some undisclosed time to judge—
once and for all—the living and the dead. This is what is affirmed
in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds. These statements of faith do not
teach a two-stage coming of Christ as do the proponents of the Left
Behind series —a coming first “for his saints,” and later “with his
saints.” According to the historic creeds there will be one final es-
chatological event: the second and final coming of Christ. The rap-
ture and the Second Coming are equated and are therefore
synonymous. At this moment in history, not just Christians but all
of humanity will respond to the Savior. Christ’s exaltation will
mean, says Paul, “...that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”
(Phil 2:10-11).

Moreover, the Left Behind series presents the rapture as an event
that is not initially understood by all (or even most) people. But
there is no biblical evidence of a secret rapture. The context of
Paul’s teaching in | Thess 4:17 (quoted above) is important, for in
1 Thess 4:16 the apostle writes: “For the Lord himself will come
down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ
will rise first.” The “loud command,” “voice of the archangel,” and
“trumpet call” indicate that when Christians are “caught up together
with them in the clouds” (1 Thess 4:17) the overwhelming sounds
will be heard by all people. Put another way, Christians will not be
the only ones who experience the event of being “caught up” be-
cause the command, voice and trumpet in | Thess 4:16 indicate that
it will not be secret. Jesus confirms this when he says in Mt 24:30:
“*,..all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of
Man coming on the clouds of the sky....” At least five more bibli-
cal passages from Daniel to Revelation affirm that He is coming
with clouds and that every eye will see Him (Dan 7:13; Lk 21:27;
Mk 14:62; Acts 1:11; Rev 1:7). There is therefore no evidence that
Scripture teaches a secret rapture.

Nor does the book of Revelation teach a pre-tribulation rapture
of Christians. Instead, it teaches that God will preserve His people
in the face of persecution and suffering (Rev 3:10; 14:12). Addi-
tionally, since Christ will resurrect all believers and unbelievers on
Judgment Day, Revelation states that there will be no second chance
for repentance (Rev 11:18; 20:11-15).

The Left Behind understanding of the rapture tends to foster a
dangerous “wait and see” attitude. That is to say, non-Christian read-
ers of the series might conclude that if millions of Christians sud-
denly disappear, then—and only then—will they repent and believe
in Jesus. Before that they might “take their chances,” believing that
they will get a second opportunity during the Seven Year Tribula-
tion. However, Jesus states in Mt 25:10: “But while they were on
their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who
were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door
was shut.” This “shut door” indicates that there will be no salvation
offered after the one-time Second Advent of our Lord.

The Left Behind series causes more confusion when it promotes
the idea that there is not just one return of Christ (the rapture), nor
two (Christ’s appearing to usher in his 1000-year rule), but three
comings of Christ. The last advent, it teaches, will be at the end of
the millennial reign or the Great White Throne Judgment of Rev
20:11-15.

However, when discussing these events the Bible uniformly uses
singular nouns. We find, for example, “time” not times in Dan 12:1-2;
“the hour” not hours in Jn 5:28-29; “day” not days in Acts 17:31; and
“a resurrection” not resurrections in Acts 24:15. In other words, “the
rapture,” “the blessed hope,” “‘the glorious appearing” and “the final
Judgment” are terms that designate one event: Christ’s Second Com-
ing. There is but one future hope for the church, the bodily return of
Jesus Christ. This will be the end of history on this earth as we know
it, not the beginning of a glorious, earthly kingdom.

Israel and the Church

An important component of the LaHaye/Jenkins manner of bib-
lical interpretation is their belief that God will reestablish an earthly
kingdom with the nation of Israel. These authors believe that by cru-
cifying Jesus the Jews rejected the earthly kingdom offered to them,
but God did not reject the Jews.

Left Behind assumes that because this kingdom was offered to
(and then refused by) the Jews, it will be offered again in the future.
In what way? The Old Testament prophecies of the restoration of
national Israel to the land in the last days will be fulfilled literally.
The series of books is built upon the belief that the promise of

2007 Convention Workbook