The world’s seeming victory over the church (the two witnesses) will prove short-lived. No sooner does the world’s celebration over a vanquished church begin, when it is turned into consternation at the sight of a victorious church rising from the dead and ascending “up to heaven in a cloud” (Revelation 11:10-12).

Notice, the world is said to “rejoice…make merry and…send gifts to one another” over the death of the “two prophets” who “torment them that dwell on the earth.” How will the “two prophets” (the church) “torment [those] that dwell on the earth”? Is it not by preaching the Gospel? Remember, Paul made the following prediction about the end-time: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

The absolute truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is intolerable to today’s relativistic and politically correct world. It is so intolerable that today’s world even insists upon taking Christ—the “good tidings of great joy”—out of Christmas. Why then should we be surprised at the Bible’s prediction that the end-time world will celebrate like it is Christmas when the preaching of Christ—the good news of the Gospel—appears to be all but silenced in the earth?

The word “rapture” does not appear in the Bible. It comes from the Latin Vulgate, which was a fifth century translation of the Bible into Latin by Jerome. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the Apostle Paul writes, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” In the Vulgate, the Greek for “caught up” is translated by Jerome into the Latin word “rapere.” It is from this Latin word that we get our English word “rapture.”

Now, all Bible-believing Christians—there is no other kind of Christian than a Bible-believing one— believe in the “catching up” (rapture) of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The disagreement comes in the timing of this event. Some Christians see it as the first part of a two-staged Second Coming of Christ. Christ secretly comes the first time to snatch his saints out of the world and then visibly comes the second time with His saints to judge the world. Others, on the other hand, see it as happening simultaneously with the Second Coming and as synonymous with it.

One thing we know for sure; prior to 1830 every saint saw the Second Coming as a single event. No one believed in a two-staged Second Coming, as so many Christians do today. Contemporary distinctions between the “Rapture” and the “Revelation” or between Christ’s “Epiphany” and His “Parousia” were absolutely unheard of. No such distinctions had ever been made, believed, nor taught.

In Revelation 11:12, we read these words: “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” When we compare the “Come up hither” of this verse with the “Come up hither” of Revelation 4:1, which immediately follows the seven letters to the seven churches—believed by many to be symbolic of the church age—and compare both of these verses to Acts 1:9-11 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, where Christ and His church alone are said to ascend up to Heaven in the clouds, it becomes clear that Revelation 11:12 is speaking of the “Rapture.”

Furthermore, the fact that “their enemies beheld them” belies the popular notion and commonly accepted present-day theory of a secret rapture of the church. How could their enemies behold their ascension into heaven in a cloud if they, as figurative representatives of the church, are being secretly snatched out of the world?

In addition to all of the above, verse 13— “And the same hour was there a great earthquake”—suggest that the “rapture” of the two witnesses is simultaneous with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. According to Scripture, Christ’s Second Coming is accompanied by “a great earthquake” (Revelation 6:12-17). Thus, the occurrence of “a great earthquake” in “the same hour” suggest that the “rapture” of the church, represented by the “rapture” of the two witnesses, is not a separate event from the Second Coming or the first stage of a two-part coming of Christ. Instead, it should be understood as synonymous with it!

There was an earthquake when Christ died on the cross (Matthew 27:50-54). There was an earthquake when Christ rose from the dead (Matthew 28:2). So why should we be surprised that there will be an earthquake when Jesus Christ comes again (Revelation 6:12-17)?

Finally, the events of the subsequent passage (Revelation 11:14-19), make it unmistakably clear that the event being depicted in the symbolism of these verses is none other than the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. For instance, consider the following:

• “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (v. 15) 

• “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” (v. 18)

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