There will be two comings of the Lord: one to carry His Church to Heaven and the second to set up His Kingdom on the earth.

There is no basis whatever for the doctrine that there will be a secret coming of the Lord prior to His coming (parousia) in the clouds of glory. His Kingdom is coming. His will shall be done in the earth. And the idea that there will be a secret coming, prior to Christ's historic return, is simply against the tenor of the New Testament passages that deal with the second coming of Christ.

In fact, the pre-tribulation "rapture" preoccupation is cultic in nature, given the obsessive devotion to it instead of to the mainline teachings of the New Testament. It is a specialized doctrine that does not follow the flow of biblical revelation concerning the Day of the Lord.

Can you imagine the Apostle Paul saying, "If by any means I might attain to the catching up"?

The central goal of redemption is the resurrection, not the catching up of the saints to meet the Lord in the air.

It is interesting to note that those who subscribe to the pre-tribulation rapture of the saints, subscribe also to his coming seven years later to set up His Kingdom. But they seldom describe this post-rapture return.

Without doubt the coming of the Lord to set up His Kingdom on the earth is more important than removing His Church, His witness, from the earth. Why, then, is so much attention paid to the removal of the Church while the return of the Lord, the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, is not presented accompanied by the numerous statements of the Prophets?

We Christians are greatly deluded concerning this issue. There is no indication whatever in the passages announcing the coming of the Lord that there will be a secret coming seven years previously to whisk away the Church before it is exposed to Antichrist and the Great Tribulation.

In fact, the doctrine of the pre-tribulation "rapture" of the believers has the characteristic of false doctrine in that it is not stated clearly in the text, but is garnered from a few passages, removed from their context and then supported by reason and assumptions. It is easily disproved by a dispassionate examination of the principal passages that deal with the coming (parousia) of the Lord.

This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:49,50)

For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:27)

Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. (Luke 17:23,24)

And give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. (II Thessalonians 1:7-10)

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. (Revelation 19:11)

To be continued.