The post has since gone viral, drawing thousands of views, likes, and comments.

While I am not here to evaluate the authenticity of Donnie’s dream, certain theological claims embedded in his post warrant careful biblical examination. Can genuine believers miss the rapture? Will the rapture be a secret event? What follows the rapture? What about the rise of the Antichrist and the great tribulation?

These questions belong to the branch of theology known as eschatology—from the Greek eschatos, meaning “last things”, and logia, meaning “study of” or “doctrine”—the doctrine of the end times and the future. My aim in this article is to provide biblical clarity on each of them and, in doing so, to offer genuine comfort to believers who have wrestled with them.

Some aspects of eschatology are genuinely complex, about which we cannot speak dogmatically, and we should extend grace to those who hold alternative views. Nonetheless, certain things are clear. Rather than surveying all the competing positions, I will begin with what Scripture teaches plainly, then move into areas of legitimate controversy. I invite the reader to weigh the arguments and judge for themselves by Scripture alone.

What Is the Rapture?

The term rapture refers to the taking up or snatching away of believers to be with Christ when He returns. It derives from the Latin rapio, meaning to seize, snatch, or carry away. The primary proof text is 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17. The same concept appears in our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 24:40–41: two men in the field, one taken and one left; two women grinding at the mill, one taken and one left—all of it grounded in His promise that He will come again and take His followers to be with Him forever (John 14:3).

Could Believers Miss the Rapture?

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul is emphatic: believers who have died in Christ will rise first, and those still alive will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. Who are those who are “alive and left”? Given that the criterion for those who rise first is that they are “in the Lord,” it follows that those still alive who are caught up must likewise be in the Lord—believers living at the time of Christ’s return.

“In the Lord” is the New Testament’s shorthand for all who have placed saving faith in Jesus—a description of the union believers share with Christ and with one another. This is clear from the immediate context: verse 14 states, “since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” Paul is plainly addressing those who believe in the death and resurrection of Christ. He calls them brothers throughout the letter—the standard New Testament term for fellow believers—and describes them in 1:1 as “the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.“

Union with Christ: the deepest assurance of salvation

When one comes to saving faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit miraculously and irrevocably unites the believer to Christ Himself. Through this union, the believer receives all the saving benefits Christ merited by His life, death, and resurrection.

This spans their election in Christ before the foundation of the world, and by it they participate in everything that Jesus did during His earthly ministry as their representative. This means that when Jesus died, the old nature of the elect was crucified with Him (Galatians 5:24). By this Union, the believer’s sins were imputed to Christ, He atoned for them, and, in turn, the righteousness of Christ was imputed to the believer (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Notably, the believer’s union with Christ guarantees our security as Christians. Once united spiritually with Christ, one cannot be ‘unjoined’ from Him. The Union is an inseparable one. It is as irreversible as one cannot be unborn. This is what it means to be in Christ.

Justified in Christ by Union with Christ, free from condemnation

We can therefore conclude that the sole criterion for being raptured is the fact that we are in Christ, not works, achievement, or a particular level of spiritual zeal. To be precise, the reason no genuine believer can miss the rapture is not that he has met some subjective standard of spiritual readiness, but that God has already declared him righteous in Christ.

This is the doctrine of justification—the gracious and judicial act of God whereby He removes the guilt of sin and declares the sinner righteous in His sight, not because of anything done by them, but because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to him and received by faith alone. It is a forensic verdict, spoken from the throne of the eternal Judge. And it does not change.

Paul presses the point in Romans 8: 33–34 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?“. God does not justify by degrees. When He declares a sinner righteous, the verdict is final. The case is settled. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The assurance we need is not a better assessment of our recent spiritual performance, but a clearer view of our objective standing before God in Christ. The question is not, “Have I been holy enough?” but “Has Christ truly atoned for all my sin, and am I clothed in His righteousness as a result?” And the answer to that second question, for every genuine believer, is an unequivocal yes.

Reading the comments on Donnie’s post, one cannot help but notice that many of the fears being expressed are not fundamentally eschatological—they stem from a lack of assurance of salvation. Many seem to be evaluating their standing before God in terms of recent spiritual performance rather than in light of the finished work of Christ. The remedy for such fear is not a more anxious inspection of one’s spiritual record, but a more confident resting in what Christ has already accomplished on our behalf.

Dear reader, as a sinner, have you come to Christ in faith? Then you are in Christ. And they who are in Christ will be caught up to meet with Christ upon His return. 

What then is the place of ongoing holiness?

We ought to take seriously our Lord’s command to remain watchful, like servants who do not know when their master will return (Matthew 24:45–51). But this warning should not be read to mean that a genuine believer can somehow miss the rapture. I suspect this is precisely the implication in Donnie’s post—that if the Lord returned while you were in the middle of committing a particular sin, you might be left behind.

I am not dismissing the importance of sanctification or holy living; quite the opposite. However, we must distinguish between our good works, which demonstrate that we are saved, and the fact that it is not our good works that save us.

What, then, do those warnings accomplish? Believers have been set free from slavery to sin (Romans 6). The warning passages of Scripture, therefore, call them to be functionally or experimentally what they already are positionally in Christ: holy (Galatians 5:1; Philippians 2:12–13).

Thus, the warnings of Scripture serve as the means by which God calls His people to watchfulness, not to be seen as a threat of exclusion, but as a means of sustaining those He has already secured (Philippians 1:6).

Will the Rapture Be Secret?

Here we enter an area of controversy. Donnie’s post implies that the rapture will be a secret event—a view held by those who believe the church will be quietly snatched away to escape the coming tribulation, after which Jesus will return to establish His millennial reign, followed by final judgment and the eternal state.

My difficulty with this view is that it requires not one but two future returns of the Lord: a second coming to remove His people secretly, and a third coming to establish His kingdom. But does the Bible teach two second comings?

Nowhere in Scripture do we read of two separate future returns. When Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, the angels told the disciples plainly: “He will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). In Matthew 24, speaking of His return, Jesus says:

“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man… Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:26–27, 30)

His coming will be visible to all—as unmistakable as lightning splitting the sky. Every person on earth will witness it. On my part, I cannot reconcile a secret return with this. 

Caught Up to Meet the Returning King

If the second coming is not secret, and there can be only one future return of Christ, then 1 Thessalonians 4 must be read accordingly: believers who have died and those still alive will be caught up together to meet the Lord as He arrives—not to be whisked away to a different location, but to welcome Him back.

The Greek word Paul uses for “meet” here—apantēsis—was used in the ancient world to describe the formal civic procession in which citizens would pour out of their city to welcome and escort a returning dignitary, conquering general, or king.

Similarly, the word Paul uses in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 for Christ’s coming—parousia—was the term for a royal visit: the arrival of a high-ranking official, even Caesar himself. Whenever such a figure approached, the people would go out to meet him with fanfare and celebration, then escort him through the city gates.

The direction of travel is telling: the citizens go out to the approaching figure, then turn back and accompany him in. We see the same pattern in Matthew 25:6, where the bridesmaids go out to meet the bridegroom, and in Acts 28:15, where Roman believers travel out to meet Paul on the road and then accompany him into the city.

Paul’s use of apantēsis, therefore, strongly suggests that believers meet Christ in the air not to be permanently transported away, but to escort the returning King back to earth as He takes His throne. This reading is supported by Revelation 20, which indicates that upon His return, Christ will immediately establish His millennial reign, with believers reigning alongside Him on a renewed earth (more of this in the subsequent article). 

Conclusion

We have established that no genuine believer can miss the rapture; not because of any spiritual achievement on their part, but because their standing before God rests entirely on the finished work of Christ. We have also seen that the biblical evidence points away from a secret rapture toward a visible, glorious return, in which believers are caught up not to escape to heaven, but to escort their returning King back to earth.

Much remains to be said: what happens next after the rapture? The questions of the great tribulation, the Antichrist, and the millennial reign of Christ all bear directly on how we read the times we are living in, and how we ought to live in them. We will take these up in the next article.

For now, let this much be settled in your heart, dear reader: if you are in Christ, you have nothing to fear. The God who justified you will glorify you. The Saviour who died for you is coming back for you. And when He comes, He will not lose a single one of those the Father has given Him.

Notes

1. For further reading on the doctrine of the believer’s Union with Christ, see this previous article and this series of articles and resources from Ligonier Ministries.
2. For further reading on the doctrine of Justification, please see this article.

The post A Biblical Perspective on the Rapture appeared first on TGN.

The post Looking Unto Jesus appeared first on TGN.

One of the difficult doctrines to wrap one’s head around is the doctrine of eternal security monikered as “Once Saved Always Saved”. The controversy around this doctrine is the misconception that maintaining good works doesn’t matter. One can live as they want; after all they are saved. This misconception showed up in a conversation with a friend, who on the basis of Titus 3:8 pointed to me that “Receiving salvation should also be coupled with maintaining good works”. The text reads:

This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

You see, this friend holds a misconception that Once Saved Always Saved means a cavielier attitude towards grace. Now, it is important for all to understand that salvation is the complete work of God; It was initiated by God, and it will be sustained and brought to an end when we are glorified by God (Phil. 1:6; Jude 1:24). Many people seem to misunderstand the doctrine of works and perhaps Paul’s words “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) has been erroneously interpreted by many to mean working to earn our salvation. It must be noted that works–good works– is always a consequence of the great work of salvation done by God in us. It is the fruit we show that we are saved and no believer worth their profession will think works can earn them their salvation.

Every regenerated child of God has or must have the longing and desire to live a holy life…if that is not the case that person we can argue is not genuinely born again. When you are truly saved by The Lord you are in a state of grace that will carry you through to the end of your life into glory. God is able to keep us to the end. This is an important element to understand the doctrine. Believers must work out their salvation not because of the fear of losing it but rather; because obedience is a hallmark of a regenerated life. Even what we call good works is initiated by the Holy Spirit who enables us to carry out those works and not us. There is no good in us but as scripture has said the Holy Spirit works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Now, picture the relationship between a parent and their child. Under what condition will that child cease to be a child of the parent? Will they ever disown a child because of disobedience?Will a parent who loves their child throw her out and take their family name off? Would you? If we as earthly parents will not disown our children because of disobedience, how much more our heavenly father? Ephesians 1:14 tells us our salvation is sealed by the Holy Spirit.

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:11-14).

Those who are genuinely saved are those who bear fruits. There is always an evidence of the new birth in the life of the disciple of Christ Jesus. Fruit bearing follows along with being born again. It does not lead to the new birth but it stands with the believer after the new birth. “The Christian is Justified by faith alone but not faith that is alone” Luther said. Throughout scripture, the assurance of the believer’s security is outlined:

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;‭‭(Hebrews‬ ‭7:25-26‬).

Come to think of it, when the Sovereign God takes someone in His mighty hands the devil cannot take that person away from His hands. If Jesus died for us to be born again and for us to lose it then there is a problem. However, Scripture tells us “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
‭‭(Romans‬ ‭8:1-2‬).

Once you are in Christ, there is no more condemnation. Your salvation is sealed.

The post Eternal Security: Saved Never To Lose It appeared first on TGN.