The Rapture The Greatest Triumph of the Church

The true church of Jesus Christ has suffered more assaults more attacks, more heartrending confusion, splits, and compromises than one can comprehend. Yet, the church is still the church and His people are still rejoicing. The true church cannot fail because the question is settled and God’s people have made their choice. Jesus Himself settled this question when He said, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). The visible church has miserably failed but the invisible church is still triumphant and waiting for her greatest triumph of the ages. The Rapture is our crowning moment, the greatest triumph of His saints.

We must never forget that we enter into His coming glory by great tribulation. The First Testament saints were champions of suffering and privation. Let Apostle Paul tell you of their trials, "And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of b onds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Hebrews 11:32-38). "Of whom the world was not worthy" sets these saints of old apart like sparkling jewels and that is exactly what the Prophet Malachi called them. "And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him" (Malachi 3:17).

The New Testament saints have never been treated any different than the First Testament saints. The only difference is in the people we call saints. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Timothy 3:12). Apostle Paul described the saints of the early church, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you" (II Corinthians 4:8-12).

It is our joy to suffer for His name. We are His jewels and all our troubles — when rightly suffered — are nothing but His preparation for our coming glory. The Apostle Paul cried forth with the desire to share "the fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10). Jesus said, "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets" (St. Luke 6:22-23). Let’s rejoice in the bitter trials that come across our path and use them to step up higher. The Rapture is the triumph of every Biblical virtue.

The Rapture: Triumph of Grace

First of all, the Rapture is the triumph of grace. The grace of God is our one and only approach to everything that redemption has provided. We dare not claim one promise by merits of flesh and blood. No man can earn the salvation of God and no flesh – even at its best — can enter into His presence unless it is hid in the regalia of blood redemption. Man is wholly incapable of saving himself. In His need of God every experience of man must proclaim, "But God." And every man in his darkest condition of sin has but to declare, "But God." Grace is the absolute "but God" in all of human needs.

Holy Revelation has declared, "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:4-10). This is the final word to every idea of man that would dare exclude one living soul from the possibility of grace. Grace cannot be grace if one person is left at God’s altar without hope. If a pleading soul that casts all trust upon Him is turned away, grace has been corrupted.

We are saved from the dark seven years of the judgment of the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the false god, Lucifer, by grace. No man can claim grace that places God’s chosen saints in the middle of the Great Tribulation. There is no grace in judging the blood-washed saints with the blood thirsty hordes of demon spirits and blaspheming Christ rejecters. There is no grace in allowing the devil to devour the Holy Saints of the church with the godless throng of heathens. The overcomers of the world and sin will be removed by grace because grace has promised, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Revelation 3:10).

The Great Tribulation is God’s final word to a world that has allowed Satan to become its god. It is impossible for grace to be grace and then leave the righteous, who have already by grace escaped sins’ consequences, to be left under its destructive powers.

The Rapture is the triumph of grace for every soul that has trusted only in its merits. We were saved by grace, sanctified by grace, preserved by grace, added to His church by grace, and will finally be "caught up" by grace. The thrones beneath His rainbow framed throne will all be the same height and reflect the same glory. Our rewards will be different but all will be present because of grace. (Continued next week – The Triumph of Patience)