The Rapture is the event we define as everyone, including the living and the dead, who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ will be called up from the earth to join Christ in His kingdom in heaven. We base this definition on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. The question we aim to answer today is this: when the Rapture happens, is that also Jesus making his Second Coming? Is the Rapture and The Second Coming of Jesus the same?
The answer to this question is yes and no. As I understand it, when Jesus makes his return it will be in two parts. For the first part of Jesus’ return, it will be to rapture his church to spare His church from the tribulation that is to come, which is why Paul writes in 1 Thess. 4:16&17, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air…” There are two observations we need to make here. Observation #1: Notice the text says that Jesus does in fact descend from heaven to earth. So no bones about it, Jesus clearly is making a return. Observation #2: But I also notice that Jesus is not descending to earth. He remains in the sky above and is calling His church to him “in the clouds to meet…in the air.” So, in the Rapture, Jesus descends from heaven, remaining in the sky above and calling the church to Himself. That’s the first part of Jesus’ return.
The second part of Jesus’ return is when Jesus makes his return seven years after the rapture, which we call The Glorious Appearing or The Second Coming. We read about this in Revelation 19:11-21. This will be when Jesus returns to earth as King and reign for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:1-6), he will defeat the powers of evil in the battle known as Armageddon (Rev. 20:7-10), and more. And when Jesus makes his Glorious Appearance at his Second Coming, he will return with the church he Raptured seven years before.
If that is confusing, Dr. David Jeremiah tells us to think of this way: “At the Rapture, Jesus will return for His saints. At the Second Coming, He will return with His saints. At the Rapture, Jesus will not descend to earth. At the Second Coming, He will descend to the Mount of Olives as a prelude to His earthly reign. At the Rapture, Jesus will bring a blessing for His saints. At the Second Coming, He will bring judgment for those who have rejected Him. The Rapture could occur at any moment. The Second Coming will occur seven years later.”