The Rapture: Is it Really Biblical? (Part: 3)

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

(Titus 2: 13, KJV)

 

In this third part of this series on dealing with some of the Scripture texts that Dispensationalists use for the Rapture, let's look at Titus 2: 13 and Hebrews 9: 28 passages that supposedly point to this great event called the Rapture. 

Titus 2: 13. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." The words "blessed hope" here refers to the hope we have in the Gospel (see Col. 1: 5, 23). Now as for the phrase "glorious appearing" this speaks about the Second Coming of Christ.  The words "appear" or "appearing" is mention several times throughout the Epistles of the New Testament (see 1 Tim. 6: 14; 2 Tim. 4: 1, 8; Heb. 9: 28; 1 Peter 1: 7; 5: 4; 1 John 2: 28; 3: 2). Each one of these verses refer to the Second Coming of Christ. Not once is the Rapture ever mentioned in these Epistles that supposedly points to the event of the Rapture. Matthew Poole has this to say about Titus 2: 13: 

"Ver. 13. Looking for that blessed hope; the object or end of our hope, the salvation of our souls, Ga 5:5; Col 1:5.   And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; and in order thereunto, looking for the coming of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, to the last judgment. The same person is here meant by the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.  

1. It is he whom God hath appointed to be the judge of the quick and dead.  

2. 'epifaneia, by us translated appearing, is attributed only to the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity, 2Th 2:8; 1Ti 6:14 2Ti 4:1,8. From this text the Divine nature of Christ is irrefragably concluded; he is not only called God, but megav yeov, the great God, which cannot be understood of a made God."[1] 

Hebrews 9: 28. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The first part of this verse talks about how Christ was the One who was offered once to bear our sins on the Cross. Now in the second half, we see the phrase "shall he appear the second time," which speaks of the Second Advent of Christ. Again, quoting Matthew Poole: 

 "And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin; and to his believing, penitent expectants, such as long for his coming, Php 3:20; Tit 2:13, stretching out their heads, as the mother of Sisera, Jg 5:28, with a holy impatience of seeing him, such as by faith and prayer are hastening it, Ro 8:23; 2Co 5:1-10 1Pe 1:3-9, shall he once more visibly appear to them and the world, Ac 1:11; Re 1:7, gloriously, without need to suffer or die again for them, having at his departure after his first coming, carried all their sins into the land of forgetfulness."[2] 

As the reader can see for him or herself, there is no indication ever given in Hebrews 9 that teaches the Dispensationalist's view of the supposed "Rapture." If the Rapture is an important key doctrine to the teaching in God's Word on the End Times, then there should be passages of Scriptures that support that view. But there just isn't any Scripture to back up that notion.

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[1] Matthew Poole, Matthew Poole's Commentary, (Power Bible CD, 5.2).

[2] Matthew Poole, Matthew Poole's Commentary, (Power Bible CD, 5.2).