1. What is the Overall Idea of the Passage? John refers to the Rapture in John 14:1-3, although Paul provides a more explicit statement in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Jesus was speaking to the nucleus of disciples that would compose the beginnings of the church in Acts 2; therefore, the Rapture is related to the church. Jesus was encouraging the disciples, who were grieving at His imminent departure, by telling them (as the infant church) He was going to prepare dwelling places for them in His Father’s home. 36
Concerning the phrase “I will come again, and receive you unto myself (John 14:3), Dr. H. L. Willmington says, “This is the only reference to the Rapture in the four-Gospel account, and the first time in Scripture that God promises to take people off this earth.” 37
According to the Biblical prophecy teacher, Mal Couch, this Rapture passage possibly concerns future generations, but is specifically concerned in context with those addressed and implies that Jesus is coming to take believers directly to heaven. John 14:1-3 could have happened while the disciples were still alive. But they died and their souls were taken to be with the Lord in heaven. At the Rapture, Christ will transform those alive and He will come with the souls of those dead, resurrect their bodies into new bodies and take them to his Father’s house to be where he is. This implies being with him (John 14:3 & 1 Thess. 4:17), existing in the new body, changed by the instant resurrection and/or Rapture. 38
2. What is the Outline of the Passage? Context before and after the passage is included in the outline. Outline of the Rapture passage is in bold type.
Outline of the Rapture Passage in the Gospel of John
I. Jesus instructs the disciples concerning his departure (13:31-36)
A. Peter’s Question: “Lord, where are you going?”
B. Jesus’ Answer: “Where I go, you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow me later.”
II. The Question/Pledge of Peter and Jesus’ Prediction of Denial (13:37-38)
A. Peter’s Question/Pledge: “Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you.”
B. Jesus’ Prediction of Denial: “I say to you, a cock shall not crow, until you deny me three times.”
III. The First Revelation of the Rapture by Jesus’ Instruction Concerning Heaven and His Prediction Concerning His Return for the Disciples (14:1-4)
A. He tells them not to be disturbed that He would go where they could not come by admonishing them not to let their hearts be troubled
B. He comforts them to believe in God and to continue to trust in Him (Jesus)
C. His Father’s house (heaven or the heavenly abode of God his Father) has many dwelling places
D. He is going there in the future to prepare places for them
E. He makes a prediction (clear to Him but will be revealed to them) concerning His return to receive them to Himself so they may be always together with Him in His own home
F. He states they know the way to where He is going
IV. The question of Thomas: “How do we know they way?” (14:5-7)
A. Jesus’ answer concerning the way to the Father: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”
V. The request of Philip: “Show us the Father.” (14:8-14)
A. Jesus’ answer: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
3. What are the Sub-Ideas in the Passage? The passage “Let not your heart be troubled,” (John 14:1) probably refers to the disciples’ emotional disturbances when Jesus said he would lay his life down and go where they could not come (John 13:31-33) 39 In Biblical psychology, the heart was the central and unifying organ of personal life. The ancient Hebrews attributed psychological functions to certain organs of the body without making a sharp distinction between physical and psychic powers. The heart was central as the innermost spring of individual life. It was the ultimate source of all physical, intellectual, emotional and volitional energies; the part of man through which he achieved contact with the divine. Here dwelt the thoughts, plans, attitudes, fears and hopes which determined an individual’s character. In the heart God (and, in the NT, the power of evil) could work in secret to transform that character by implanting new thoughts and feelings. The conception of heart in the New Testament is the same as that in the Old Testament. 40 The faith in God that the disciples had in their hearts was beginning to falter. These comforting words, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me” produced a calming effect inducive of the Lord’s transforming work in their hearts.
4. Can the Passage be Compared with Other Prophecies? Yes. It is essential to compare John 14:1-4 with the other major Rapture passages of 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 in conjunction with Jesus’ revelation of the prophetic program for Jerusalem, the nation Israel and the people of Israel in Jesus’ prediction of the King in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24-25 and specifically in Matthew 24:3. Note that he made no reference to the church or the prophetic program for the church. In this passage in Matthew, Jesus did not speak here of events that will precede the consummation of the program for the church at the Rapture (John 14:1-4, 1 Cor. 15:51-52, 1 Thess. 4:13-17). Instead, he dealt with the future program for Israel as revealed in Daniel’s prophecy of Seventy Weeks of Years in Daniel 9:1-27 and specifically in Daniel 9:27, and because of its Jewish context, this portion of Scripture must be interpreted with reference to Israel and not the church. 41
Also, the Rapture should be compared to, and in context with temporally adjacent prophecies, and to the subject of Biblical prophecies in general, to establish a comprehensive understanding of their interrelationships. The following will describe in general terms some of these prophecies.
Mystery, Babylon, called the Great Harlot, or the emergence of a one-world all-powerful religious system which will aid the Antichrist before the seven-year period of the Tribulation, for a time, will actually control the Dictator and aid him in subjecting the world to his absolute authority. Genesis 11:4 shows in this very religion which started here, that God’s plan until Christ returns is not an international one-world government, but nationalism - a system that keeps the world from falling under a dictator who could virtually destroy mankind. The Great Dictator is coming, and with the assistance of the ancient religion called Mystery, Babylon, will be boosted to power and strengthened in his grasp upon the world.42
God is going to judge the wicked empire according to the great prophet Isaiah(Isaiah 47). As God’s prophet, Daniel describes Nebuchadnezzer’s Dream, which turns out to be the whole course of world powers that would conquer the world right up to the Second Coming of Christ (Daniel 2:2, 10, 27). The apostle John has a vision described in Revelation 17-18 which shows the future events that will happen when Christ returns. In his prophecy, John exposes a one-world religious system which will bring all the false religions together in one unit.43
In the time preceding the return of Christ there will be a “falling away” by the apostate church and an abandonment or desertion of principles or faith. Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:4 about what the “mockers” would say in the “last days”, and John wrote about false teachers who deny Christ’s bodily return to earth the second time in 2 John 7.44
When Christ removes His followers, which He calls the salt of the earth, at the Rapture, and the preservative has been removed, the decaying process will increase. The resultant decline in the moral climate will initiate a process in which false teachings and doctrines will become predominant. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 Paul describes the time before Christ’s return: “ ... in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power...” 45
The next great event or prophecy awaiting fulfillment is the imminent coming of Christ in the air to take those who are His own, both alive and those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, with Him to heaven. This is the blessed hope for which we should be constantly looking. According to the pretribulational view, there are no prophecies awaiting fulfillment before the Rapture. 46
5. Is the Interpretation I Believe I am Arriving at Consistent with Other Scriptures? Yes. Paul, having sent Titus to the island of Crete to organize and oversee the churches, instructs Titus to be living in response to God’s grace by “looking for the Blessed Hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13). In the previous verse (12) Paul urges proper godly living in the present age tying it directly to the “looking” or “expecting.” 47
In Paul’s prophecy about the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he tells all that can be known or all that God is willing to reveal of the event - that it will take place and that it includes all believers living and dead. Paul then speaks to the Thessalonians about their responsibility to the hope he has given them and speaks about their lifestyle in the face of the Lord’s coming. In his teaching concerning the coming Day of the Lord, God will execute his judgment against the earth (1 Thess. 5:1-11). The Rapture trumpet calls believers away before the Day of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16).48
Paul, by informing the Corinthians about the resurrection body, about which they did not understand, teaches that all Christians will receive changed bodies at the Rapture (Christ’s return) summoned by the sound of the last trumpet (1 Corin. 15:51-52). Some Christians will be alive when Christ returns (1 Thess. 4:15), but some will have died or “fallen asleep”, wherein the body (not the soul) is said to sleep during the time between death and resurrection (1 Thess. 4:13-15).49
6. Are There Other Passages That Have a Similar or Parallel Idea? Jesus’ promise to return and take the disciples to Himself in John 14:3 is understood to be parallel to Paul’s prophecy in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that the Rapture will take place and Jesus will snatch all believers, living and dead, to meet Him in the air. 50
7. Is There Authoritative Support From Other Bible Scholars? Yes. Perhaps the world’s foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy from a premillennial and dispensational point of view, John F. Walvoord states, “In John 14 Christ told his disciples that he would return to take them to the Father’s house. Paul wrote that the day will come when Christ will descend from heaven to the air above the earth, command those who have died in Him to be raised from the dead, and command Christians who are living to be translated - that is, to receive instant transformation of their bodies. Both the living and the resurrected dead will rise from the earth, meet the Lord in the air, and proceed in triumph to heaven.” 51
The most authoritative support comes from J. Dwight Pentecost. In a monumental work entitled Things to Come, he has exhaustively supported the pretribulation Rapture theory and its relation to the Lord’s whole revealed prophetic program. According to Pentecost, from a dispensational interpretation of the Word of God and from the condensed mass of cumulative evidence, “... the church, the body of Christ, in its entirety, will, by resurrection and translation, be removed from the earth before any part of the seventieth week of Daniel begins.”
Pentecost describes the basis of the pretribulation Rapture position, “Pretribulation rapturism rests essentially on one major premise - the literal method of interpretation of the Scriptures. As a necessary adjunct to this, the pretribulationist believes in a dispensational interpretation of the Word of God. The church and Israel are two distinct groups with whom God has a divine plan. The church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament. This present mystery age intervenes within the program of God for Israel because of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah at His first advent. This mystery program must be completed before God can resume His program with Israel and bring it to completion. These considerations all arise from the literal method of interpretation.” 52
Pentecost gives the following twenty-eight arguments in support of the pretribulational Rapture position, with Scriptural references too numerous to mention here: the literal method of interpretation, the nature of the seventieth week, the scope of the seventieth week, the purpose of the seventieth week, the unity of the seventieth week, the nature of the church, the concept of the church as a mystery, the distinctions between Israel and the church, the doctrine of imminence, the work of the Restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2, the necessity of an interval, distinctions between the Rapture and the second advent, the twenty-four elders, the problem behind 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, the announcement of peace and safety, the relation of the church to governments, the silence concerning the tribulation in the epistles, the message of the two witnesses, the destiny of the church, the message to Laodicea, the times of the Gentiles, the waiting remnant at the second advent, the sealed 144,000 from Israel, the chronology of the book of Revelation, the great object of satanic attach, the apostasy of the period, the promises to the true church and the agreement of typology. Pentecost cites the works of other Bible scholars in his arguments. The authors quoted are: Oswald T. Allis, Norman B. Harrison, Wm. Kelly, Henry C. Thiessen, Joseph Henry Thayer, Lewis Sperry Chafer, C. I. Scofield and W. E. Blackstone. 53
According to Pentecost, John 14:2-3 and 1 Cor. 15:51-52 along with numerous other Scriptures, lend credence to the doctrine of imminence. In absence of any signs of His coming, the church was told to live in the light of the imminent coming of the Lord to translate them to His presence. He emphasizes this precludes the Church’s participation in the seventieth week. 54
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Pentecost states that Paul writes not to teach the Thessalonian Christians the fact of the resurrection, but to teach the fact that at the Rapture, the living would not have an advantage over the dead in Christ. Pentecost states with authority that these Christians evidently believed that the church would not go through the seventieth week, they only mourned that their departed brethren might miss the blessing of the return of Christ. 55
Also warranting mention is Gerald B. Stanton, author of Kept from the Hour. He presents the four main positions on the time of the Rapture and most of the primary issues and Scriptures involved. His book was originally published in 1952 and in 1991 is in its fourth edition. In the intervening years between 1952 and 1991 according to Stanton, the Rapture discussion has narrowed to a debate of technical and detailed proportions between pretribs and posttribs. In a newly added section of his book in the fourth edition, he reviews the literature of the Rapture debate that, in his opinion, have the most to contribute and positions worthy of consideration. 56
8. Is There a Difference of Interpretation Based on an Allegorical vs. Literal Approach? Yes. Because it contradicts their prophetic system, posttribs attempt to eliminate such a Rapture as is described in John 14:1-3, where Christ describes a coming for His saints to take them to the Father’s house, instead of coming from heaven to the earth. Barton Payne refers John 14:3 to the death of a Christian. Robert Gundy states that Christ is going to prepare for them “spiritual abodes within His own Person.” Douty says Christ first returns to earth to judge Antichrist and introduce His glorious reign before He returns to heaven to reign. This is indicative of how postribulationists spiritualize when plain text contradicts their point of view. Even those given to literal interpretation contradict themselves in this manner. 57
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 offers the least comfort to posttribulationists and is one of the strongest passages in support of the pretribulational position. It should be obvious to posttribs that if the Thessalonians would have to pass through the Great Tribulation before the Rapture, this would have concerned them more than the possible delay of the resurrection of their loved ones in Christ and posttribs should be preparing Christians for martyrdom rather than comforting them. 58
Posttribulational writers give their briefest treatment to 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 because it contributes least to their concept of the Rapture. They make “the last trumpet” a technical term based on a prior assumption and ignore the solid biblical evidence. This Scripture is one of the two main passages on the Rapture in the New Testament, and is unique in that it is the only case where a resurrection is connected with the translation of the living. 59
