Hello Dave,
You will have to receive what I am capable of, and no more, I'm afraid.
* Re the pre-tribulation rapture:-
'And now I stand and am judged
for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:
Unto which promise our twelve tribes,
instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.
For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.'
(Act 26:6-7)
'For this cause therefore have I called for you,
to see you, and to speak with you:
because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.'
(Act 28:20)
* The one hope that dominates the period covered by the book of Acts is Israel's hope (Acts 26:6,7; 28:20).
'And again, Esaias saith,
There shall be a root of Jesse,
and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles;
in Him shall the Gentiles trust.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that ye may abound in hope,
through the power of the Holy Ghost.'
(Rom 15:12-13)
* Romans 15:12,13 links this hope with the millennial chapter of Isaiah 11:1-16, making it quite clear that it is to be realised on the earth.
'For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west;
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn,
and they shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other.'
(Mat 24:27-31)
'For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent them which are asleep.
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.'
(1Thess. 4:15-17)
* Those who share in it return to the earth with the returning Lord and the holy angels, at the parousia that He reveals so clearly in Matthew 24:27-31. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 teaches that after meeting the Lord in the air, those who have part in that event will return to the earth with Him.
'And at that time shall Michael stand up,
the great prince which standeth for the children of Thy people:
and there shall be a time of trouble,
such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time:
and at that time thy people shall be delivered,
every one that shall be found written in the book.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.'
(Dan 12:1-3)
* The Lord descends with a 'shout' (keleusma) which means, 'the word of command'. The other occurrence of this word, comes in the Septuagint of Prov. 20:27, 'With the voice of the archangel'. The archangel's name is Michael (Jude 9) and in Daniel 12:1 he is linked with Israel (the children of Daniel's people) and the Great Tribulation, and this definitely fits the time described by the Lord in Matthew 24 and Israel's hope.
* This is confirmed by the next statement 'and with the trumpet of God'. 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 links the believer's hope in the Acts period with resurrection at the last trumpet. Now 'the last trumpet' presupposes a series, and the only series of trumpets in the New Testament are in the Book of Revelation. The 'last trumpet', the seventh, leads us to the same point as 1 Thessalonians 4, the realization of the kingdom of the Lord on the earth (Rev. 11:15) which most clearly takes place at His parousia or Second Coming.
'Behold, I shew you a mystery;
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:
for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality.'
(1 Cor 15:51-53)
* The hope of the church after the Acts period as revealed in Paul's prison epistles, is not the parousia of Matthew 24 or 1 Thessalonians 4, with it's earthly goal, but is a hope that takes us to the glory of heaven's holiest of all.
Praise God!
In Christ Jesus
Chris
Note:
I am indepted to a book by my dearly loved brother-in-Christ, Stuart Allen,
'The Early and Pastoral Epistles of Paul'.