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"What is the 'rapture' and when will it happen?"

ASK THE PASTOR BY DAN KIEHL, Senior Pastor, Oakwood Presbyterian Church

     Question: “What is the ‘rapture’, and when will it happen?”

     Answer: Due to the influence of some TV and radio evangelists, along with popular Christian books and movies in the last 30 to 40 years, there has been much misunderstanding about what the Bible teaches concerning the “rapture” and the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are from my generation or older, then there’s a good chance that you have been subjected at some point to a cheesy, sensationalistic movie called “A Thief in the Night,” at some youth event or revival meeting. Or you read Hal Lindsey’s book on prophecy called “The Late Great Planet Earth”. More recently, this view of the end times has been repackaged and has found immense popularity in the Tim LaHaye series of books and movies called “Left Behind.”

     According to this popular scenario, there won’t be just one Second Coming of Christ; there will be three. First, Christ would come secretly and remove all of the true Christians from the world (hence the bizarre images of driver-less cars suddenly crashing on the highways and un-piloted planes crashing into cities). Then would commence a seven-year period of “tribulation,” when the Anti-Christ will come to dominate the world. At the end of the seven years, Christ would come another time (the second “Second Coming”) to defeat the Anti-Christ and his allies, and to establish a 1,000-year kingdom on earth. At the end of that reign, Satan would be released to cause havoc again for a short time, and then Christ would return again (the third “Second Coming!”) to defeat His enemies once and for all and establish the New Heavens and New Earth.

     In this limited space I can’t respond to all the arguments and proof-texts used to support this idea of a pre-tribulation, three-part coming of Christ. Let me just cut to the chase…the promised return of Christ will be much more simple and straightforward, just the way the Bible presents it. The number “1,000” is used to describe the kingdom of Christ only once in the New Testament, in Revelation 20. Like the other numbers and images in Revelation, it has a symbolic, not literal, meaning, related to completion and perfection. It is the time when Satan is “bound” so that he can “no longer deceive the nations.” The meaning of the symbol is clear – Christ established His Kingdom when He came to die on the cross, where He defeated Satan and rendered him incapable of stopping the Gospel from spreading to the ends of the earth, as it has since then. So the “millennial (1,000-year) kingdom” began with Christ’s resurrection and ascension to His throne in heaven, and will conclude in God’s perfect timing, when Christ returns.

     Tribulation (suffering by true believers) will characterize this entire period between the first and second comings of Christ, although it will intensify just before He returns (there is no secret departure by the church before the end). When Christ returns (ONE time) to defeat His enemies and to make His people and the universe perfect, we will be “caught up…to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Not so that we can return to heaven, with our salvation delayed, but so that Christ can cleanse the earth with fire and commence with the judgment of all who have lived. At that point, we, along with the whole creation, will be glorified in body and soul, and we will “descend” to spend eternity in the presence of God.

     So the idea of a “rapture” comes from this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4, where it says that when Christ returns, we will be “caught up together…to meet the Lord in the air.” Notice that all it tells us is that after that point is that “…we will be with the Lord forever.” Where? Back in heaven? No. Interestingly, the Greek word for “to meet” was a technical term used to describe what happened when a dignitary visited a city in the first century. All of the people would come outside the city gates to meet the dignitary or conquering king as He approached. Then they would shout their praises to him as they accompanied him into their city. Sound familiar? Yes, the greater “Triumphal Entry” of Christ, just before His crucifixion, foreshadowed His Second Coming, when every eye will see Him, and every knee will bow before Him. The next events after Christ’s final “triumphal entry” are described in 2 Peter 3:10-13 which says, “the heavens will disappear with a roar…the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Why? To make way for “a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” That is our hope, our anchor.

Baseball, God's Favorite Sport

BY DAN KIEHL, Senior Pastor, Oakwood Presbyterian Church

     I made the provocative comment in a sermon once that baseball is God’s favorite sport. Someone called me on that assertion later and suggested that I defend it, so I will attempt to do so, with my tongue only partially in cheek! So, with some fear that someone will take me too seriously, here goes…

     First, I have to admit that the superiority of baseball among all sports is a truth to be discerned by natural revelation, not special revelation (Scripture). Contrary to some well-meaning but misguided expositors, there is nothing explicit in Scripture that indicates God’s preference for baseball (it doesn’t really teach that “in the big inning, Eve stole first, Adam stole second, and Cain struck out Abel”). But just as reasonable observation and experience in God’s creation show that strawberries are God’s favorite fruit, the guitar is His favorite instrument, and Pennsylvania is His favorite part of the earth, we can easily discern that baseball is His favorite sport. Consider the evidence:

     1. Baseball isn’t bound by time. There is no clock ticking away the moments and opportunities of the game. My wife would say, “Baseball games are eternal,” but she doesn’t mean it as a compliment. The game continues until the outs are recorded until the opportunities are exhausted. God is outside time and therefore would most enjoy a game that is not constrained by the clock. As Bill Veeck once said, “This is a game to be savored, not gulped.”

     2. Baseball is all about history and tradition. As Terrence Mann says in the movie “Field of Dreams,” “The one constant through all the years…has been baseball. America is rolled by it like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.” Baseball has been around since the early 1800’s, and no other sport has resisted change and basks in nostalgia like baseball, as anyone who has been to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown can tell you. Our God, who never changes and is the one true constant in history, must love baseball as a reflection of His own nature.

     3. Baseball is about perseverance. One hundred and sixty-two games are played every year. That’s twice as many as basketball and hockey, ten times as many as football. Baseball is much more like life in God’s design than other sports. It’s not about the quick sprints and hot streaks; it’s about who can stick it out over the long haul, game in and game out. And what other sport has so many players over 40 years of age still performing effectively?

     4. Baseball is the thinking person’s sport. Unlike most other sports, baseball is contemplative. There are moments of high drama, flashes of athletic brilliance, and outbursts of exuberance, but in between are quiet, still moments – times to think, to prepare, to plan and strategize. It is a game filled with complicated statistics, details, nuances, and precision, not pyrotechnics, cheerleaders, and brutal collisions. Our Creator must be pleased.

     In Revelation 21 the Apostle John describes a vision of the New Jerusalem, the center of the New Heavens and the New Earth. In verses 24 through 26 he says, “…the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it…they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” I think that this means that the best, most beautiful, and most virtuous accomplishments of the nations will be redeemed and glorified in the eternal kingdom. Professor and writer Gerald Early once said, “I think there are only three things America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music, and baseball.”  If baseball isn’t among America’s contributions to the eternal kingdom, I’ll be surprised!