Page 82 - Jesus is coming - Class version

RAPTURE AND REVELATION. 79

them yet, as He had said that He would (1 Thes. 4:15-17),
and then by adding certain other things which must occur
before the Day of the Lord should come. He had told them
that the Day of the Lord should come as a thief in the
night (1 Thes. 5:2), but that they were not of the night,
and therefore He exhorts them to watch and be sober. (See
16
alsoLu. 21:36. )
Another evidence of the difference between the Rapture
and Revelation consists in the fact that the Church is to
escape the Tribulation, which precedes the Revelation.
(Mat. 24:29-30.)
Enoch, a type of the Church, by his rapture, that is by
being caught away or translated (Heb. 11:5) escaped the
flood.
Christ in Luke 21:36, "Watch ye therefore, and
says,
pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand be-
fore the Son of man."
And in keeping with this injunction He gave a blessed
promise to the Church, in Rev. 3:10, viz.: "Because thou
hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee
from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all
the world, to try tnem that dwell upon the earth. Behold
I come quickly," etc. A special hour, or time, of tempta-
tion i. e., trial is here mentioned, which shall come upon
all the world the whole habitable
( oiKov/xen;-oikoumenee
same word in Mat. 24:14 all the world).
It is a time of trouble not limited to Judea, but as ex
tensive as the inhabited earth. This accords with the great
tribulation described in Mat. 24:21, a "tribulation, such as
was not since the beginning of the world . . . nor
ever shall be."
Jesus promises to keep the Church from, or () out
of this tribulation, or hour of temptation, that is, the
watchful and prayerful believers will escape it. Luke
21:36. Now, as it covers the whole earth, there is no way
(16) Luke 21:36. Watch ye escape all these things that shall
therefore, and pray always, that come to pass, and to stand be
ye may be accounted worthy to fore the Son of man.