Rightly Dividing the Next Event on God’s Calendar – The Rapture of the Body of Christ
Series — Lesson 2

Please Note: the Bible does not treat the Rapture of the Body of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ as the same event. Mix those two and you will confuse the church, flatten Israel’s promises, and lose the urgency God placed on this present hour.

The Second Coming is Christ returning with His saints and His holy angels to make war, judge the nations, and establish the millennial kingdom on the earth. The Rapture is Christ coming for His Body catching us up to meet Him in the air. One is public, earthly, and wrathful. The other is sudden, heavenly, and delivering. Do not blur what God has divided.

I. The Body of Christ Was a Mystery Revealed Through Paul

The doctrine of the Body of Christ is not found in the four Gospels as a present truth. It is revealed in the epistles of the apostle Paul.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
— Galatians 3:28

That oneness was not the message of Christ’s earthly ministry. In the Gospels there is still a wall.

“Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”
— John 4:9

Again we see the distinction:

“But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
— Matthew 15:26–27

Children and dogs. Israel and the nations. That was the earthly program. Jesus said He was “not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). He sent the twelve: “Go not into the way of the Gentiles… But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5–6).

Then came the blood of the cross, and then came Paul.

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”
— Ephesians 2:12–13

The “dogs,” the aliens, the strangers now made nigh. That is why, in this present dispensation, there is neither Jew nor Greek in the Body.

• “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.”
  — Romans 3:10
• “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
  — Romans 3:23

No nation stands taller under the gospel of grace. All stand condemned and under the label as sinners who has grace extended and available as a result of the cross of Christ. All may be saved.

In Acts 15 the apostles settled the matter: Paul was sent to the Gentiles; the twelve continued with the circumcision (the Jews) . Two programs. One Saviour. Different administrations. We see that later on in the book of Acts 21 : 18-20. In this passage Paul gave them a report of what things God wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. The gave praise to God! Then James gave a report to Paul and said “ Thou seest brother, how many Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law.”

II. Two Pictures of Christ — Lamb and Lion

Peter wrote of the prophets searching:

“Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.”
— 1 Peter 1:11

Lamb first. Lion later. That is why John the Baptist sent from prison: “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). The Old Testament put both advents in one horizon. John saw the suffering; he waited for the reigning.

Jesus answered with Isaiah:

• “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”
  — Isaiah 35:5
• “…to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison…”
  — Isaiah 42:7

He is the Christ. First advent: sacrifice. Second advent: reign. Between those two comings God inserted a mystery the prophets did not see: the Body of Christ and the catching away that ends this age of grace.

The word rapture is not in the King James Bible. The doctrine is.

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17

Caught up. That is the event that closes this dispensation. After that comes Jacob’s trouble. After that comes the Second Coming.

III. Why This Doctrine Matters Right Now

Religious systems confuse the Rapture with the Second Coming because they will not “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). The result is a church that either fears the wrath God never appointed us to, or sleeps through the only hour we have been given to work.

Paul says a dispensation was committed unto him repeatedly.

• “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.”
  — Ephesians 3:2
• “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God.”
  — Colossians 1:25

A dispensation is a stewardship an administration in which God reveals His will for that hour. There is no Body of Christ in the Old Testament. God spoke to a nation called out in Genesis 12. In the Gospels, Christ “came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). After the cross, on the Damascus road, the risen Lord took Saul and made him the apostle of the Gentiles, steward of the mysteries of Christ, preacher of the gospel of the grace of God.

What ends that stewardship? The trump of God. The dead in Christ rising first. We which are alive and remain caught up. That is not the Second Coming.

IV. The Time Constraint — The Day Is Still Open

“(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”
— 2 Corinthians 6:2

Now ! Not after the trump. Now !

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand…”
— Romans 13:11–12

Salvation here is deliverance the catching away. It is nearer than when we first believed.

“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:5

“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:9

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
— Romans 5:9

The jailer cried, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30–31). Saved from wrath. Saved now. The night is coming. While it is day—work.

V. The Assignment of the Body

This is not theory. This is marching orders.

• Preach the Word. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine…” (2 Timothy 4:2–3).
• Run lawfully. “So run, that ye may obtain… I therefore so run, not as uncertainly… lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9:24, 26–27).
• Endure hardness. “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).
• Be a faithful steward. “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1–2).
• Do not be ashamed. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

Paul was not ashamed of his bonds. They fell out “unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). Neither should we be ashamed of this message.

VI. Two Peoples, Two Destinies, One Door Still Open

The Church, the Body of Christ, is God’s heavenly people. Israel is God’s earthly people.

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
— Colossians 3:2

To Israel He said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

Different callings. Different hopes. Different next events. Same Jesus !

• The Body of Christ is delivered at the Rapture.
• The nation of Israel is refined through Jacob’s trouble and saved at the Second Coming of her Messiah.

Can a Jew be saved now? Yes. “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12–13).

After the catching away, the prophetic program focused on Israel resumes. The door of this present grace will have closed for the Body. That is why the Spirit still cries: now.

The Rally Call is one of Urgency!

The next event on God’s calendar for the Church is not wrath, not the tribulation, not the appearing of the Beast. It is a shout, a voice, a trump and we are gone.

Until that moment:

• We are children of the day.
• We are stewards of a mystery.
• We are ministers of grace.
• We have daylight left so therefore:

Do not sleep through it.
Do not confuse it.
Do not be ashamed of it.

Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
The trump will sound. Be found faithful when it does.