By Dennis Farrell

Author of The Late Great Secret Rapture

“…the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians is one of the great prophetic chapters of the Scripture. No other chapter in the entire Bible covers precisely the same points of revelation that are given here.”  John Walvoord

In what Walvoord refers to as “new revelation,” the first three verses of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 serve as an important key to comprehending not only Thessalonians, but most biblical prophecy. Commentators’ interpretations of these verses likely determine their conclusions about Christ’s Second Coming.

So, is there really a secret rapture? Is the Second Coming of Jesus in two stages? And how do those who teach this arrive at such a conclusion?

The only way to truly draw the two-stage conclusion is to divide the Word of God and isolate key scriptures. The prime example in my book analyzes these verses in 2 Thessalonians and demonstrates how two stagers (or those who believe in the pre-tribulation) conduct this division. 

 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and by our gathering together unto him, 

That ye not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word,

nor by letter as form us that the day of Christ is at hand. 

Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Some might refer to this as “rightly dividing the Word,” but in truth, it is just poor hermeneutics. This is exactly what John Darby did in the 1830’s with these same scriptures. Prior to that, there is no clear example of anyone doing the same or even believing in two stages. While there are claims of examples of a pre-tribulation rapture prior to Darby, the examples are vague or taken out of context.

This is in large part due to the rare practice of Christians studying prophecy for themselves, rather than simply letting their teachers indoctrinate them with one particular view. Since prophecy is what some refer to as a third-tier doctrine, there should be open debate on the subject in churches. While one can occasionally find a debate on the subject on YouTube, many churches discourage this practice and might even refer to other opinions as heresy. 

Even the term rapture is manufactured from the Latin translation of the bible. It is not found in the Greek. Henry Wiebe provides the proper designation of the event. He claims that rather than rapture, the “proper scriptural term is resurrection” of which there is only one for the righteous (Rev 20:5). Wiebe, who has planted churches across the world and has the first-hand knowledge of the church apart from its Western counterparts, sums it up best: 

We will be caught up, but it will not be a secret rapture, neither will it be before the time of widespread tribulation, nor will this rapture in any way precede Christ’s second coming. It is the final destruction of the last enemy, death. It is at the second coming of Christ for we are caught up to meet him and then we will come back to earth with Him to participate in the final events of history.