Martin Luther said, "I feel as if Christ died yesterday." Can we say the inverse about His return? "I am ready for Christ to come back tomorrow!”

In Romans 7:24, Paul cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever get tired of your own sinful desires? Do you ever feel weary over your sinfulness?

Your greatest enemy is not Satan. Your greatest enemy is not demons. Your greatest enemy is not your employer, professor, or landlord. I’s not even your in-laws. We are our greatest enemy.

You may go live in the desert. You may climb to the top of Mt. Whitney. You may sink to the bottom of the ocean or move to the center of sin city Las Vegas. But no matter where we go, we always carry with us, this sin-savoring, lust-loving, self-glorifying heart of base cravings…it sleeps with us. It eats with us. It goes to school and work with us. It’s with us when we teach, exhort, pray and witness. No wonder Paul cries out: God, set me free from this corpse of evil!

In Paul’s day sometimes authorities punished a murderer by attaching the corpse of the person he murdered to his own body. Over time, the bacteria and maggots of this deteriorating corpse attached to his skin would enter the orifices of his body and he would become the very corpse he caused.

Sin does that. It kills us. Wrinkles, graveyards, hospitals, heartache, broken homes, guilt, depression, sickness, disease, every level and every form of misery suffering, and sadness finds its root in the heart of sin.  

But he doesn’t stop there, does he? Paul answers his question, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25) Thanks for what? He—God—through Christ—will some day set me free!

And do you know when that happens? On the day…of the rapture!

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:16-17).

At the rapture, your body and soul will be changed from sinful to sinless, from sin-desiring to sin-free. Paul told the Corinthians:

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed (1 Cor 15:51-52).

At the rapture, you will be transformed from your humble state of sin and mortality to a glorified state of purity and eternity. Paul told the Philippians:

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself (Phil 3:20-21).

At the rapture, you will become like Christ, in all His purity and sinlessness. John told his flock,

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2).

But when does that happen? I’m glad you asked. Because if all our hope rests in God setting us free from this macabre body of death, then when that rapture happens means everything to you and me!

When it comes to the timing of the rapture, there exist four major views:

Five Major Views

View #1: Pre-tribulation rapture.

One day—what day we do not know—but one day, the Savior will come down from heaven above, and stop in the clouds (1 Thess 4:13-18). He will then catch up all deceased Christians, followed by those still living, and will transform our bodies into sin-free resurrection bodies and then take us into glory where we will be rewarded for our righteous deeds (1 Cor 3:12-15; 2 Cor 5:10). Immediately following the rapture, the world will be cast into seven years of unbelievable tribulation and distress—like never heard of before (Rev 6-18). At the end of those seven years of distress, Christ will return to earth and make war on the unrighteous, punish the godless, cast the antichrist and the false prophet into hell (Rev 19), and begin His 1,000 year rule from Jerusalem (Rev 20:1-6).

Proponents of this position rely heavily on passages indicating the imminence of Christ’s return as well as distinguishing Israel from the church (Christ comes for the church in the rapture, for Israel in His return).

Adherents include: John F. Walvoord, J. Dwight Pentecost, John Feinberg, Paul Feinberg, John MacArthur, Herman Hoyt, Charles Ryrie, Rene Pache, Henry C Thiessen, Leon Wood, Hal Lindsey, Alva McClain, John A. Sproul, and Richard Mayhue.

View #2: Mid-tribulation rapture.

After the first 3.5 years of the tribulation, a time which Christ’s church will suffer, Christ will come back and rapture us home (Dan 7:25-26; 9:27; Rev 11:2-3; Rev 12:6; Rev 12:14). This will be followed by the final 3.5 years of the tribulation, called the Great Tribulation because of the severity of judgments. After the second 3.5 years, Christ will return to earth and set up His kingdom. Proponents of this view rely heavily on Daniel 7:25 which says that God’s people “will be given into his [the Antichrist’s] hand for a time, times, and half a time.”

People holding this position generally do not distinguish Israel from the church. “God’s people” mentioned above means all believers where as a pre-triber would say it refers to the Jews only.

Adherents include: Gleason L. Archer, Norman Harrison, J. Oliver Buswell, Merrill C. Tenney, and G. H. Lang

View #3: Pre-wrath rapture.

This position holds that Christ’s church will suffer the majority of the tribulation, but right before the most severe part, Christ will rapture His church into heaven to spare the lives of those still living, and then shortly after will come back down to earth in His return. Advocates of this view do not nail down exactly when Christ raptures His church, but they do place it some time near the end of the tribulation, after the second half of the tribulation is well under way.

A key verse used to support this position is the following: “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Mat 24:22). Proponents of this view see most of Matthew 24 applying to the church (instead of just Israel). The idea is that God originally intended for Christ to come back in the Second Coming, but sends Christ back to earth early to deliver His church before she is completely wiped out.

Adherents include: Marvin J. Rosenthal and Robert D. Van Kampen. Marvin J.

View #4: Post-tribulation rapture.

People of this camp believe that the rapture and Christ’s return to earth are the same event. For example, they believe that 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 refer to the same event as the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and Christ’s return in Revelation 19.

Here is what they believe happens: Christ raptures up all deceased and living Christians into the clouds where they receive their resurrection bodies, then comes down back to earth where he makes war on the unrighteous followed by setting up His kingdom. (Some holding this view believe in a literally 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth but many do not). Some have mockingly called this the “up-down” theory.

Adherents include: J. Barton Payne, Alexander Reese, John Piper, George Ladd, Dave MacPherson, Robert H. Gundry, Douglas J. Moo, Harold Ockenga, and J. Sidlow Baxter.

View #5: Partial rapture.

This one is interesting. Proponents of this position say that only those saints who are looking expectantly and preparing for Christ’s coming will be raptured. The less mature will be left behind. They get this idea from passages that talk about being alert and sober (1 Thess 5:1-11), and especially the parable in Matthew 24 about the wise slave who got ready for his master’s return as contrasted to the foolish slave who didn’t care. He beat his fellow slaves, drank himself to saturation, and then when his master returned got cast into the outer darkness (Mat 24:45-51).  

Adherents include: Joseph Seiss, G. H. Lang, Robert Govett, Witness Lee, and D. H. Panton.

Click here to see a fuller chart of each rapture position.