Why Should You Be Watchful?

Why Watch?

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I will keep thee from the hour of trial, that [hour] which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Therefore are they before the throne of God. These were redeemed from among men, [being] the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, stood before the throne. The eternal will of God in the church brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and [to] his throne. Therefore are they before the throne of God. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Two [women shall be] grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive [and] are left unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] are left 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. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison for a little season. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Then the earth was burnt up. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Some argue that according to I Thessalonians 4.15, the living “shall in no wise precede them who are fallen asleep” -The dead are resurrected at the seventh trumpet; and so timewise, rapture occurs after the Tribulation. Now if there is a first rapture, it will have to take place before the resurrection of the dead. But since this verse distinctly says “shall in no wise,” how then can rapture take place twice? Let me say in reply that it is most precious and significant to find in both verse 15 and verse 17 the qualifying clauses “we that are alive, that are left” - Now to be alive is obviously to be left on earth; why, then, is there this apparent unnecessary repetition? Because it implies that there are people who though alive yet have already gone ahead (that is, raptured) and therefore are no longer left on earth. Would Paul enlist himself among this class of people who are alive and are left? Not at all. He uses the word “we” only because he is speaking at that moment of writing, and the proof of this is that since Paul no longer lives today, he cannot be numbered among those who are left on earth. Our summary conclusion to all this is that one group of believers will be raptured before the Tribulation while another group of believers will go through the Tribulation and be raptured afterwards. Were the entire body of believers to be raptured after the Tribulation, there would again be no need for us to watch and wait and be prepared. Knowing that the Lord would not come before the end of the three and a half year's period, we could live evilly up to three years five months and twenty-nine days. Yet such a concept violates the very principle of the Scriptures. Were all of us believers to be raptured after the Great Tribulation, then our waiting would not be a waiting for Christ but for the Antichrist, since the latter must come first. The church would lose her hope - “Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2.13) - for included in this hope is the blessing of escaping the Tribulation. Some do not accept the idea of a secret rapture; yet its followers forget the word, “Behold, I come as a thief” (Rev. 16.15). A thief comes secretly, is never preceded by a band, and always steals the best.

Some view the twelve disciples as being purely Christians in direct contrast with the view of those which considers these twelve as being merely Jews. As a matter of fact, however, these twelve disciples are Christians as well as representatives of the Jewish remnant. For example, in Matthew 10.5-6 and 23.3 we see that all have a Jewish background, a fact which is thus inapplicable to Christians. Some can't distinguish between rapture and the appearing of the Lord. There is a difference between Christ coming for the saints and Christ coming with the saints. That which Enoch prophesied, as recorded in Jude, points to the coming of the Lord, with his holy myriads” (see Jude 14-15) when His feet step down on the Mount of Olives. So does the prophecy which is given in Revelation: “Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen” (1.7). In taking the historical view, the interpretation regards that part of Revelation up to chapter 17 as having already been fulfilled, with only the part from chapter 17 onward waiting to be fulfilled. (This is exactly opposite to the futuristic view taken by the first school of interpretation which deems only chapters 1-3 as having already been fulfilled, with the rest remaining to be so). If the book of Revelation only records primarily things of the past, then how can the average child of God ever understand it? It would require doctors of philosophy and learned historians to comprehend it! Furthermore, it would no longer be revelation either! The accurate interpretation is that rapture does not take place until Rev. 7.9 for it is first here that we see the rapture of the saints.