Well, welcome. My name is David Forrest, and it’s my privilege to share with you today. And I’m not preaching today. I’m going to be sharing with you. I want to have a conversation with you about the difference between the rapture and the second coming. There’s a lot of confusion out there, and I will go into the whole why.
I just want to make sure that I’m doing my diligence in helping people to understand the second coming. Everybody saying we’re waiting, we’re anticipating the second coming. Nobody’s anticipating the second coming, okay? The second coming, the people that should be anticipating that are the unbelievers, those who are not counting on going to heaven.
If you’re counting on going to heaven, you’re not looking for the second coming, you’re looking for the rapture of the church. Have I lost you already? Set down your coffee and listen up. First Corinthians chapter 15, I’m going to read verses 51 to 58. Paul says, Behold, I show you a mystery. It’s a mystery, you see because the second coming is alluded to in the Old Testament, like Daniel, about the end times, whatever, but the church, it’s not in the book of Daniel. The church is not in the Old Testament. The church is in the new. So this whole idea about the church being raptured is a brand new concept.
It’s a brand-new concept. Even when Jesus was talking to the sisters of Lazarus, and they were talking about the resurrection, but they were thinking of the resurrection sometime way down the road during the tribulation or whatever. We don’t know what their understanding was, but they were not catching on. And so much of the church today has not caught on. I want to
share it with you. So that’s a mystery. We shall not all sleep. He doesn’t mean sleepy means we’ll not all have passed away. We’ll not all go through the grave. Not everyone will be dead when Christ comes for his church, but everybody will be changed.
That is the New Testament saints in their graves will be changed. And those who are alive and remain will be changed. And how long does it take this to take place? Verse 52 says in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump, we shall all be changed. The trumpet will sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.
No mention here so far of every eye will see him. You know that verse. It’s not in this passage because, at the coming of Jesus for his church, not every eye sees him. This corruption at that moment in the twinkling of an eye, the corruption of our bodies will be transformed and it’ll put on immortality. 54 says, so when this corruption shall have changed to an incorruption and this mortal
has given up to immortality, then it’ll be brought to pass the written saying, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your sting? And grave, where’s your victory? The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now watch this. Therefore my beloved brethren, see he’s not talking to the world here. This is not a salvation pitch. This is a message to the church in Corinth and his final words, verse 58, be steadfast, be unmovable, always abounding on the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So I want to compare then the rapture of the church to the second coming of Christ. So let’s review this. The rapture of the church is for one purpose only. It’s to remove the saints. The saints will be caught up from the earth. The second coming on the other hand is Christ coming and descending on the earth.
At the rapture, his feet never touch the ground. He comes and in the midst of the sky, the trumpet sounds, the archangel will give it out, a shout will come from Jesus himself, the dead shall be raised, and we who are still alive will be caught up to meet him in the air. And the word says, and we will then therefore forever be with the Lord. So the difference is at the rapture we’re caught away.
The church leaves and nothing happens to the world. Nothing changes. At the rapture of the church, Jesus is coming like a bridegroom coming to claim his bride. What picture is that? Well, in the times of Jesus and beforehand and somewhat after that, the concept would be that the groom, the prospective groom, would visit the
house of a young lady. Maybe his father would go with him, but he would visit the house of a young lady and you’d be asking the father, I’d like to marry your daughter. If there was an agreement made, the groom would go back to his house for one solid year and there he would be preparing a place, a room, a small residence, a part of his father’s place, and it would take a whole year. Now, if a son working with the father could prepare the house in less than a year, traditionally a whole year passed, a whole year passed, it didn’t, they didn’t want to look like a
prefab job. They took time to get it done right. And then when the house was complete, then the groom would come down to, towards the bride’s current location, the future bride. Nowhere does it say in the historical records that the groom would come and enter the house of the bride? Now he’d be coming with a lot of clammers and a lot of noise, they’d be shouting, there’d be music, it’d be a glorious thing coming with his buddies.
And at that moment, the bride is excited. She’s been waiting for this whole year, well, the house is being built. She doesn’t wait inside, friend. She comes running outside and along with her wise virgins who’ve kept their lamps trimmed because this is probably at night, she will come and she will meet him almost halfway between his house and her house. You see, this is the picture.
Jesus said to his disciples, I’ve got to go away. In my father’s house there are many rooms, but I’m going to make a new room for you. Then they said, well, when are you coming back? He said, I don’t know. You see, in the bride, bridegroom situation, the groom would go home, and work to get the approval of his father. His father determined the house was ready. You see, it’s the father’s house and the son is going to work very, very diligently to get the approval of his father. So the father would say, okay, you’ve done a good job. I like it. I’m proud of it. Go get your bride.
Jesus said, I go to my father and they’re in preparing a place for you. When you’re coming back, he said, nobody knows. Not even, he said, not even, I know. Only the father knows. It lines up with the bridegroom’s situation. Then the groom comes, collects his bride, takes her to the home, and there they abide the rest of their lives in the father’s house and the father’s estate. So when Jesus comes for the rapture, that’s the groom coming to collect his bride. He came in the first place. On to us, a child is born, a son is given, the angel saying, the shepherds, the wise man, that’s Jesus, the groom coming to make his bid for the bride. He won her. He paid the dowry.
You know, when the groom came in the first place in the historical wedding situation, he had to pay a dowry. This kind of thing still goes on all over Africa. I can tell you some funny stories about paying the dowry over there. But the groom would come and he’d pay a dowry and that was the seal of the deal. And by the way, they drank wine together, not unlike the night that Jesus was betrayed. And he took wine and said, this is a symbol of the new covenant. And this is going to be written in my blood. So the groom would be with the father of the bride on the eve of his asking for her hand. And they would seal it with the drinking of the wine. He goes home and works for a year. Til the father says, it’s time. Go and get your bride. Jesus goes. He’s in heaven. It’s not a year. It’s a long time.
We know that he’s preparing a house. And when the house is ready, the father will determine, go get your bride. So you see, the rapture is the removal of the bride, whom we are, and we’re translated, changed immeasurably. And the world doesn’t even see it, except there’ll be crying and weeping all over the place because suddenly the church is gone. The taxi driver, the car crashes, maybe a Boeing 747 will take a dive in the Atlantic. No reason. We search the remains. We can’t find a pilot. A few people were missing. And you know, the world’s already getting this all figured out. They’re going to have an explanation when the church disappears.
A lot of people are going to be gone, right? What’s the explanation? Well, the Congress of the United States is even reviewing right now. They honestly believe that the UFOs that are flying around are from some other planet and that there are some planetary individuals who are going to come and self-adjust and help us out. When we’re suddenly gone, they’re going to have an answer. Oh, a lot. They took a lot of us home with them. I wonder when they’re coming for the rest of us. The lunatics are running loose already. Yeah. And so the raptor is to take the church out.
The second coming of Christ comes at the end of a seven-year tribulation.
When does the tribulation begin?
At the moment the groom has taken his bride away. That’s the commencement of exactly to the very day. Seven years each year comprised of 365 days. If you want to know when the last day of the tribulation takes place, you have to know the day and the hour when Jesus comes for his bride. So the coming of Christ for his church, is a message of great comfort that comforts us in our hearts. But the message of the second coming of Christ is a message of judgment because you see by the end of the seven years of tribulation, the last three and a half are going to be worse than the first three and a half. In fact, during the first three and a half years of the tribulation, when we, the church are gone. The first three and a half, there’s going to be a bid for peace and Israel’s going to be, Israel’s going to sell out and believe, okay, okay, okay, we’ve had enough of this nonsense and they’re going to agree to a peace and the temple is going to be rebuilt and they’re already preparing to do the same. During the three and a half years, the temple will be rebuilt. They will be killing the red heifer and dedicating the temple, but suddenly in a brand new beautiful temple exactly to the day, three and a half years, the end of Christ will go into that temple and before the whole world, he will do a desecrating fact.
And from that moment, three and a half years later, Israel’s going to start to rebel against this so-called peace pack and the whole world is going to turn against her. They’re actually getting ready to turn against Israel even as I speak. So you see, the second coming is not a message of comfort. It’s a message of fear. You don’t want to miss the rapture, buddy. Three and a half years of peace, three and a half years of desperate sorrow, and where’s the church? They’re in the house that Jesus has provided. And so the rapture has got everything to do with the church and God’s love for her. The second coming of Christ is related to how God is going to deal with the pagans.
The people, as the word of God calls, the foolish people who say there’s no God there, the foolish ones. So the second coming is to deal with the Gentiles and it’s predicted in the Old Testament. It’s predicted in the New Testament. The coming for the church is the taking away of the bride. Predicted only in the New Testament never is it mentioned in the Old Testament. I want to drop a little piece on you just even right now. For those who would say, I believe the church is going through the tribulation. I have some very special friends who actually believe this. What my friends fail to do, watch this, my friends fail to give me one reference in the entire book of Revelation where the tribulation begins.
Don’t talk to me about the first five chapters. They are about the church, right? The church of Thessalonica, the church of Ephesus, the church of Philadelphia. That’s fine. That’s relevant to our today time. But when the tribulation begins, watch this. The church is nowhere to be found, not mentioned. And you know, there’s a promise in the Word of God that the Lord has prepared for us not to suffer. Our badness, our sinfulness, and our wrongdoing in the Lord were satisfied by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are not appointed unto God’s wrath.
We are appointed unto heirs and joined heirs with Christ. But the world is appointed unto judgment. And what brought this on? They’re turning away from God. So the rapturing of the church is related to God’s program for the church and the second coming of Christ is related to God’s program for Israel, for Israel who are not going up in the rapture, you understand that. They’re going to have to endure seven years of tribulation.
And the last three and a half are going to be desolate times for Israel. They’re going to suffer immeasurably. In fact, one-third of the whole world is going to die during the final three and a half years. So at the rapture of the church, the world itself, the planet in a moment, and in the twinkling of an eye, the dead are raised, and those who are alive and remain, go up. The planet is not affected. But at the second coming of Christ, the planet is going to be so powerfully devastated, that it’s going to require what the Bible calls a new heaven and a new earth. In the rapture of the church, the Gentiles are unaffected. The believers are the ones who are affected. At the second coming of Christ, the Gentiles will be judged. In the rapture of the church, Israel’s covenants with the Lord, the promises that God made to Abraham, and so on, they’re unaffected.
But the second coming of Christ, at the end of that, in the battle of Armageddon, all the promises that God made to Abraham will be fulfilled. The sea rapture of the church is before the day of wrath. But the seven years, the end of the tribulation, I’m sorry, it’s tribulation for the Gentiles. Israel’s covenants are unfulfilled when we go up to be with the Lord.
So here’s my message to you. Every one of us needs to get ready. We need to be ready because you see, the second coming of Christ is at least seven years away. Tribulation time begins at the rapture of the church. The rapture of the church will be any minute now. There’s nothing to prevent the church would going up even right now. There are no prophecies to do with the church, yet to be fulfilled. They are fulfilled. Matthew 24, and Jesus answered to them when they were asking questions about the end times. He says, see that no one leads you astray. There’s a lot of going astray right now. The church itself is going astray.
So many churches have abandoned the word of God. Do you know that in the church with all this gender nonsense that’s going on? Now there’s a push. Maybe God is a she. Well, maybe God’s a transvestite. Maybe the Lord. What do you think? Maybe Jesus decided he’s a girl now. Give me a break. There is so much pathetic nonsense going on. Do not be led astray. Many will come representing me. You know that word.
Many will come in my name saying that it’s not what they’re going to come saying. I’m coming Jesus name. They’re simply going to be identified as leaders of the church and would be leaders of the body of Christ. And they’re going to be telling you a whole lot of junk. In fact, it’s going to be so bad that the word of God says, that people are going to be so led astray that even this is the word, even the very elect just might go astray. And so we said, you’re going to hear about wars, rumors of wars. And and and it’s going to be a difficult time. First Corinthians 15 in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised imperishable. And we shall all be changed. We used to have a sign over the nursery in our church. Back in the 80s, I passed it to church in Hamilton. Over the nursery, they had a sign. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. It was kind of like a funny little thing over the church of the near. I loved it because it was reminding us the rapture of the church is
coming soon. We won’t all be dead. Some of us will be alive and remain. First Thessalonians, chapter four, then we who are alive, we who are left will be caught up together with them with who. You see, when Jesus comes and calls for his church, the first who will respond are those who are in the graves.
My mom and dad are there. My grandma and grandpa, bones are in their graves. They will go up before I do. First, the graves will be emptied and those bodies will be transformed like the body of Jesus when he came forth from his grave. And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet them. Where do we meet him in the air?
This bridegroom does not come and enter into our current abiding place. But at the second coming of Christ, his feet touched the Mount of Olives and it’ll be split. Left from right. Do you know the Mount of Olives? Geologists have told us it’s already cracked.
It’s ready to go. Matthew 25, I’m about to close. Watch therefore, you don’t know the day or the hour. I know of a church that I pastored years ago and after I left, the pastor came in and he actually announced to them that in 1998 on such and such a day, that’s going to be the second coming of Christ. That whole church bought into that.
I can’t believe it. Jesus said nobody knows, not even himself. Who knows? The Father knows that when the groom has faithfully prepared a place for the bride, then the Father will say, go get the bride. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. There will be no warning. There will be no warning. Don’t be led astray. Heavenly Father, I pray that this message will find fertile soil to rest in people’s hearts and minds. I pray that this will become a seed and that it will bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, come. We welcome your return. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. God bless you. God keep you. Cause his face to shine upon you. And may he give you his peace. Amen. And amen.
I’ll see you again real soon. I intend to do more of these right from this very location. Be blessed. Bye.
