The Redeemers Return

The leading advocates of the partial-rapture theory teach that all believers who fail to come to the standard necessary for participation in the Rapture will not only be left behind on earth to suffer the judgments of the Great Tribulation but that such will have no part or place in the Millennial kingdom, and therefore that they will not be raised from the dead until after the thousand years. [12] Now apart from the fact that there is no Scripture which teaches a resurrection of saints at the close of the Millennium, we affirm that such a theory as the above involves confusion of the worst kind. We are told that certain saints (many of them) because of their unfaithfulness or failure to "look" for their returning Saviour will not be raptured at the time our Lord descends to the air, in fact will not be "glorified" until the close of the thousand years. Unquestionably there have been many saints all through this Dispensation who failed to measure up to the standard fixed by partial-rapturists and yet, dying hundreds of years ago, they have during all the intervening centuries been "present with the Lord" (2 Cor.5:8). What absuridy is it then which teaches that these saints who have been with the Lord all these centuries, will nevertheless, be separated from Him during the Millennium!

Again. During the Tribulation period there will be on earth a Jewish remnant who will cry unto God in the language of the Imprecatory Psalms. These Jews, harassed by the Anti-christ and persecuted by his followers, will cry -- "Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth" (Ps.59:13). They will exclaim: -- "Keep not Thou silence, O God: hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, Thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people, and consulted against Thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against Thee. ** Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yea let them be put to shame and perish" (Ps.83:1-5, 13-15, 17). Now could such prayers as these ascend from the lips of the members of the body of Christ who have been saved by grace! The above are inspired prayers which the Jews will appropriate to themselves in the time of "Jacob's Trouble," but who can imagine Christians praying such prayers? We have been instructed to be "king one to another, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph.4:32). The saints of this Dispensation are told "Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not" (Rom.12:14). The requirement of the Church Epistles is, "See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men" (1 Thess.5:15). If then a part of the Church were on earth during the Tribulation period we should have the following strange anomaly -- The Jews praying to God to take vengeance upon their enemies and Christians praying to God to "forgive" these same foes! Surely a theory which involves such confusion as this cannot be according to the Scriptures.

The truth is that partial-rapturist's confound entrance into the Kingdom with position of honor in it. All believers who belong to this Dispensation will partake of the blessedness of the Millennial era and will reign with Christ throughout it, but all will not be on the same level. Special positions of honor will be allotted to those who have qualified themselves for such (Luke 19:17, etc.). Special "prizes" await those who shall win these marks of distinction. But this is quite another thing from entrance into the Millennial Kingdom itself. Entrance into that Kingdom is solely a matter of Divine grace, but an "abundant entrance" into it is conditional upon our present fidelity to the Lord. New birth admits us into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5), but diligent service, faithfulness unto death, and loving the appearing of Christ are the several conditions for the "crowns."