NOTES ON THE SOON COMING GREAT EVENT: SPECIAL REVIEW OF THE ‘CATCHING AWAY’ OF THE TRUE CHURCH (WITH VIDEO)

1. THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”  – 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-17, NKJV

KEY TERMS.

• “HOPE.” ‘Elpis’ [ἐλπίδα]: “To anticipate or expect (with earnest intensity and great pleasure); the assurance of salvation [rescue], the ultimate form of blessedness.” NOTE. Hope in Scripture is not wishful thinking but a confident, Spirit-wrought expectation that God will fulfill every Promise He has made in Christ. It rests on the Character of God (Hebrews 6:18) and is Secured by the ‘Resurrection of Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 1:3). While Faith looks back to the finished work of the Cross and Love acts in the present, ‘Hope stretches forward toward the Consummation of Redemption!’ (1 Corinthians 13:13).”

• “CAUGHT UP!” ‘Harpazó’ [ἁρπαγησόμεθα]: “From a root word meaning, ‘To take for oneself, to prefer or choose.’ ALSO: ‘To seize, to [violently] catch away or take by force!’ As with what occurs when one is snatched suddenly away or hurried off, contextually, from some great danger.” NOTE: “The verb translated ‘catch up,’ ‘snatch,’ ‘take by force,’or ‘pluck’ occurs fourteen times in the Greek New Testament. In every setting the action is sudden, decisive, and beyond the power of the one seized to resist. Whether the context involves hostile aggression, Divine Rescue, or eschatological transport, the idea is consistently that of: ‘Swift Removal!’”

QUOTATION. “‘So let me get this straight,’ said Adam eventually, leaning forward on his crate. ‘Jesus came back and took all His righteous believers with Him, right? Now the rest of us are stuck here for the next seven years while demons emerge every night to drag our sorry arses to Hell? Is that the gist of it?’ … [Indeed] ‘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’ (1 Corinthians 15:52).” ― PHILLIP W. SIMPSON, Rapture, 2013; edited

COMMENTARY.  “‘Shall be caught up!’—‘Our Assumption,’ as Bishop Ellicott well calls it. The Spiritualising of our natural bodies without death, as described in 1 Corinthians 15:50, et seq., will enable us to be ‘caught up’ equally well with, and in company with (both of which thoughts are included in ‘together with’), the resurgent dead. ‘Clouds’ and ‘air’ will be support enough for material so immaterial. Theodoret says, ‘He showeth the greatness of the honour: as the Master Himself was taken up upon a shining cloud, so also they that have believed in Him.’ ‘The absolute equality, then, of Quick and Dead is proved.

‘To meet the Lord in the air.’—St. Chrysostom says: ‘When the King cometh into a city, they that are Honourable proceed forth to meet Him, but the Guilty await their Judge within.’ The phrase ‘in the air’ certainly does not mean ‘Heaven.’ The word ‘air’ in itself properly signifies the lower, denser, grosser atmosphere, in which the powers of Darkness reign (Ephesians 2:2); but here it is only used in contrast with the ‘ground,’ and means ‘on the way from Heaven whence He comes,’ of course not to dwell there, but to ‘accompany Him to His Judgment-seat on the Earth.

‘And so.’—Now that St. Paul has settled the question of Disparity between the Dead and the Living, he does not think it necessary to describe what is immediately to follow; that, the Thessalonians were sure to know (see Hebrews 6:2): ‘It only remains to say that having once rejoined the Lord, they would never be parted from Him.’” – CHARLES ELLICOTT, An Old and New Testament Commentary for English Readers, 1878, 1897; edited

II. TEACHING

I still remain astonished these days with the patent absence of responsible teaching from our Pulpits about the soon Return of Jesus Christ to the Earth to ‘Rescue’ His True Church and ‘Judge’ the Nations.

I mean, this sustained GREAT DOCTRINAL SILENCE is deafening!

THE FORGOTTEN CANON. Though the theological literature is vast concerning the “Great Catching Away” of the Christian Church, the great majority of that literature has grown decidedly dark in the ‘last ten years’or more.

If I were writing a dissertation, I could wax analytical for hundreds or even thousands of pages. But I do not have the space nor the time in this little essay for that. Instead, I have reduced this Historic Rejection of the Doctrine of the Rapture to simply THREE PRIMARY REASONS.

• SUPERFICIAL THEOLOGY. Ever since the publication of “The Late Great Planet Earth” byHal Lindsey in 1970, and the follow up series, “Left Behind” by co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (1995-2007) the Church was pretty much soaked in a Pop-Culture Second Advent. THE RESULT: The utterly unbiblical “Prophecies” as with the recent one wherein Jesus was to Return on September 23, 2025, in conjunction with the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana). This False Prophecy is based on social media trends and a viral dream from South African individual Joshua Mhlakela.
• FALLACIOUS THEOLOGY. Since roughly around the turn of the century in the Year 2000 AD, theologians and Bible teachers in America and Europe have increasingly taught that the very claim that there will be a “Catching Away” of the True Church prior to the Wrath of God is false. It is a view held by many Christians who argue it lacks direct Biblical support, has a recent origin (19th-century, popularized by John Nelson Darby), misinterprets key Scriptures, and contradicts the traditional Christian understanding of a single, public Second Coming of Christ at the End of Times. Critics point out the word “Rapture” isn’t in the Bible, and that Biblical accounts of the Lord’s Return describe events like Judgment, the Resurrection of the dead, and Destruction of the Earth, not a ‘Secret Disappearance of believers from the Earth.’
• DOMINION THEOLOGY. On top of this nearly perfect formula for the virtual Destruction of the Doctrine of the Rapture came the Dominionist Doctrines I just reviewed in my last Commentary in considerable detail (Sep. 24, 2025: “Special Précis on Redeeming the Time”). You will recall that Dominion Theology, or ‘Dominionism’, is a cluster of Far-Right Christian political ideologies and movements that advocate for Christians to gain control over secular Society and Government. Drawing its name from a drastically perverted reading of Genesis 1:28, adherents interpret the command to have “Dominion over the earth” as a Mandate for Christians to govern all areas of life based on their understanding of Biblical Law. In its most extreme form, it is the False Doctrine that Jesus indeed cannot Return until his vice-regents (‘The New Dominionists’) perfect the earth its peoples over a long period of time. This again based on a corrupted reading of Acts 3:21.

THE EARLY CHURCH. “After the Time of the Apostles, a number of writings indicate belief in ‘The Imminence of Christ’s Return,’ which is consistent with ‘Pre-Tribulationism,’ or what I have renamed and theologically amended to more precisely mean: “PRE-WRATH” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).Clement of Rome (35-101), Ignatius of Antioch (died 110), ‘The Didache’ (a late first-century anonymous Christian treatise), ‘The Epistle of Pseudo-Barnabas’ (circa 70-130), and ‘The Shepherd of Hermas’ (second century) ALL reference Christ’s Imminent Return. Even though it appears that the Apostolic Fathers were largely ‘Post-Tribulational’ (because they believed the persecution they were enduring was the Tribulation itself), they held to the Doctrine of Imminency. J. Barton Payne (a Post-Tribulationist) concluded that ‘Belief in the Imminence of the Return of Jesus was the Uniform Hope of the Early Church.’” – DR. DAVID PETTERSEN, Franklin Nutting Parker Professor of Old Testament in the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, “The Rapture: A Pre-Darby Rapture,” Truth and Tidings, July 2020 edited

Note on John Darby. “Although there are many references to the Rapture, some ‘Pre-Tribulational,’ [or more specifically, ‘Pre-Wrath’ as amended by C. Kelly, 2024) by published works before his time, we simply do not know if John Nelson Darby was influenced by these works. His writings articulating a Pre-Tribulation [or Pre-Wrath] Rapture should not be minimized but fully appreciated. We are indebted to him for his enormous contribution to the subject, setting it forth in a clearer way to a wider 19^th-century audience and beyond. ‘Darby did not invent this teaching, nor did the many who taught it prior to his time. He taught it, and they taught it, because the Bible teaches it.’”

III. THE CHRONOLOGY

One of the most frequently asked questions of me is this: “Dr. Kelly, just where are we in the Sequence of Events leading up to the Return of Messiah?” Being fully and painfully aware of the countless faulty and even foolish ‘Time Lines’ that have been foisted upon us over the generations, I am going to answer that question in the following review.

I take the following TEN STAGES OF THE END OF THE AGE published in my book: ‘The Sixth Seal II: A Pre-Wrath Redux Commentary on the Rise of Donald Trump and the Decline of the American Order’ (January 2024, pp. 190-196, Faith Publishing; edited).

“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” – 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-4, NKJV

• • • ONE: BIRTH PANGS. “As I have argued throughout this work, I do not believe that Jesus’ description of ‘Birth Pangs’ constitute any part of the Tribulation described by the Prophet Daniel. Rather, they are exactly what the Messiah described them as: Birth Pains ‘leading up to’ the Tribulation Era, but not the Tribulation Era – yet. Thus again, they are found in the FIRST FIVE SEALS of Revelation Chapter 6 and the early verses in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13, Christ’s parallel accounts of His Olivet Discourse.”
  • • TWO: THE APOSTASY. “Clearly, inarguably, the Great Falling Away precedes everything else in this passage. The remarkable thing about this is it is already happening all around us in a torrent of ‘Betrayal of Christ and Canon’ everywhere in the American Church’[drafted in the Fall of 2023]. Poll after poll after poll since 2016 consistently demonstrates over 80% of the White American Church supports Donald Trump and his policies. ‘For this reason, I fully expect him to rise to the White House one last time in the historic 60^th quadrennial presidential election of November 5, 2024.’ This despite the failure of a probable Republican sweep of both the House and the Senate in the Midterms of November 2022 (this entry was made early on Election Day, November 8 accompanied, interestingly, by a Blood Moon).”
  • • THREE: THE RISE OF ANTICHRIST. “Here we find a much clearer interpretation that cuts through all the confusion about when ‘Antichrist is to be revealed.’ I propose that it will all be in TWO STAGES: First, ‘The Apostasy’ operationally separates the Wheat from the Chaff (Matthew 3:12), and the Lord reveals Antichrist to His ‘true,’ faithful and discerning followers. Second, however, the Chaff, or nominal, false followers have no idea of his identity, and actually become servile to this False Christ who they believe to be ‘The One.’ I frankly see this happening as the vast majority of American Christians scramble into the ‘Trump Nationalist Camp.’”
  • • FOUR: THE RESCUE. “‘When this Grand Threshing is complete [under the grinding Trials of the First Five Seals], every true member of Christ’s Remnant, the Wheat, is soon thereafter “swept into His barn,” there to be forever with the King of Glory.’ His thunderous Appearance shatters the historic timeline, and the world catches its first direct glimpse of the Face of the furious Lion of Judah about to Judge all the Nations. Indeed, as I have already written, the world is quite literally rocked to its foundations by this stupendous, catastrophic ‘Mega Event.’ Taking place at the very end of the Sixth Chapter of the Book of Revelation with the ripping open of the ‘Sixth Seal’ by the Messiah, it also serves as ‘Trigger’ for the Seven Year Tribulation, or Daniel’s 70^th Week. – cf. Daniel 9:27; Matthew 13;30; Revelation 6:16”
  • • FIVE: THE TRIBULATION. “As I have also argued and continue to do so, the actual Tribulation Era cannot commence until the Church, the Bride of Christ, is ‘Removed’ (or ‘Raptured;’ 2 Thessalonians 6:6). The Scriptures are clear on this important Doctrinal point: ‘We are not appointed to God’s Wrath!’ (cf. Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9). Thus,‘The Tribulation’ begins with, and is marked by, the Onset of God’s unprecedented, nearly unbridled, ‘Divine Outrage!’ Virtually all reputable theologians agree The Tribulation starts with Jesus’ epic ‘Opening of The Sixth Seal in Revelation 6’ (vv. 12-17). I propose that this constitutes the first 3 ½ Years of the Tribulation Era that is operationally defined by The Seven Trumpet Judgments (Revelation 8-11). They depart significantly from the Birth Pangs Runup, as the world now enters upon GOD’S WRATH that clearly begins to rip and rend the natural laws of physics apart in demonstration of God’s great power.”
  • • SIX: THE ‘GREAT’ TRIBULATION. Based upon all that I have studied   for the past four decades, I now see much more clearly the following. The Last 3½ Years of the Tribulation Era (triggered by the ‘Antichrist’s Abomination of Desolation’) are so very ‘Great’ (i.e., ‘Catastrophic’), that God’s Outrage must be ‘shortened’ lest no one survive their sheer violence and terror and impact on the Natural Order. They in turn are operationally defined by ‘The Seven Bowl Judgments,’ so terribly destructive that they very nearly annihilate all that is left upon the Earth, except for a ‘Surviving Remnant’ of Tribulation Saints (as distinct from Church Age Saints). This constitutes nothing less than JEHOVAH’S ‘GREATER’ WRATH, the likes of which Humanity has never before experienced, nor ever shall experience again. – cf. Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15”
  • • SEVEN: THE RETURN. “‘At the End of the Seven-Year Great Tribulation, a triumphant Jesus Christ thunderously Returns with the Armies of Heaven on horseback’ [Angels and the Church Age Saints; Revelation 19:14] ‘To Rescue’ (not ‘Rapture’) the remaining Jews, when things come Full Circle with Jews and Christians being ‘Reunited and Restored’ to Fellowship in the Messiah forever and ever. That is why I call this phase the beginning of ‘The Grand Reconciliation.’ – cf. Matthew 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; Romans 11:26; Revelation 19:19-21”
  • • EIGHT: THE MILLENNIUM. “Following the Last Great War at Armageddon, the Lord prepares all things for a ‘One Thousand Year Rule from the Throne in Jerusalem’ after dispatching Satan in chains to the ‘Bottomless Pit,’ [an ‘area of containment’]  having already thrown the Antichrist, his False Prophet ‘and all their followers’ into the eternal ‘Lake of Fire’ [‘Place of Absolute Destruction’] (cf. Revelation 19:20, 20:3). Thus commences the ‘nearly’ perfect Millennial Earth completely absent from any demonic influence. (What follows is derived from several online Biblical Summaries of the Thousand Years). ‘The Millennium will be an unparalleled and unbroken period of Peace and Prosperity.’ Satan will be spiritually bound for the entire time (Revelation 20:1-3) and therefore unable to deceive Mankind. Jesus and His Resurrected Saints will Rule the Earth from Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:20-23). Scripture also tells us of a ‘Great multitude of Tribulation Martyrs’who were beheaded who shall be brought back to life to remain ‘before the Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple’ (Revelation 7:13-15). NOTE: The Royal Bride of Christ, the Church, shall ‘Co-rule’ with the Messiah, while these Tribulation Saints will personally ‘Minister’ to Him for Eternity in some important ways [distinct from the Bride’s duties of ‘Co-rulership’]. – cf. Daniel 2:44, 7:27; Isaiah 65:25; Zechariah 14:15”
  • • NINE: THE LAST REBELLION. “Mysteriously, nearly incomprehensibly, Jesus releases Satan from the Bottomless Pit for a short time at the End of the Millennial Era. ‘Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth’ (Revelation 20:7). Thankfully, after Satan leads one last massive worldwide force to surround Jerusalem, John the Apostle tells us: ‘They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them’ (v. 9). After which it is now Satan’s turn to be pitched into the Lake of Fire to join the Antichrist, the False Prophet and ‘ALL THEIR FOLLOWERS’who shall all be burned and tormented forever (v. 10). – cf. Jeremiah 17:9, 29:29”
  • • TEN: TO INFINITY AND BEYOND! “Now here once again I completely fail in my ability to adequately express what comes next: That which shall last forever and ever and forever. But we still can gain rich and even prudent insight by looking at a simple passage in Paul’s Letter to Timothy: ‘If we ENDURE, we shall also REIGN with Him. If we deny and disown and reject Him, He will also deny and disown and reject us’ (2 Timothy 2:12, AMPC). From the Greek word, ‘sumbasileuó’ [συμβασιλεύσομεν]:‘To reign together with, to co-rule, metaphorically, to possess supreme honor, liberty, blessedness, with one in the Kingdom of God; to become Co-regent; a Joint Heir to a throne or monarchy.’ The Apostle Paul taught that in our glorified condition, we shall havel been raised so high that we will judge even the angels! (1 Corinthians 6:3). But we are never to assume we are in any way equal to God as some of the Charismatic-Prosperity Gospel church have attempted to do (‘Theosis Heresy’). – cf. John 10:28-30; 1 John 2:17; Revelation 21;3-4

DK. Well now, that is, to understate it exponentially, a great deal to process in a single teaching session. I greatly encourage you to ‘Test all this by the Scriptures and the Spirit,’ to see what God will say, beloved.

Now to some Conclusions.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

So, we descend from these nearly inexplicably dizzying heights of Glory and Wonder to The Present Hour in American Church history, and it is a breathtaking Descent indeed.

CAPITULATION. I cull my last brief remarks from an ink-still-drying article just out by ADAM SERWER, a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the prize-winning author of the New York Times best-seller, ‘The Cruelty Is the Point,’ a collection of essays to document America’s present compulsion toward the brutality of Authoritarianism.

His title, appropriately: “Lower Than Cowards: The Surrender of the Elites” (Sep. 25, 2025; edited). A few CLOSING THOUGHTS.

• • • JIMMY KIMMEL. “‘We have to speak out against this bully,’ Jimmy Kimmel said in an emotional monologue after returning to ABC on Tuesday. The Network had suspended him, under pressure from the Trump administration, for remarks last week in which Kimmel appeared to inaccurately suggest that Charlie Kirk’s killer was a conservative. Kimmel choked up when discussing the violence and praised Kirk’s widow, Erika. But he also warned his viewers—an audience four times larger than usual—that Trump and his cronies are threatening free speech in all its forms: ‘Our leader celebrates Americans losing their jobs, because he can’t take a joke,’ Kimmel said. But, ‘He’s not stopping. And it’s not just comedy.’ Trueto form, Trump has since threatened to sue ABC for bringing Kimmel back, as if it were illegal not to like him.”

• • • RULING CLASS. “‘The sheer number of American Elites willing to acquiesce to the DESTRUCTION of Democratic institutions is demoralizing. But it’s worth noting that many ordinary people seem to be made of sterner stuff.’ ICE detainees such as the Palestinian-rights activist Mahmoud Khalil, for example, have continued to speak publicly about the administration’s abuses. These are people who stand to lose their homes, their freedom, their families, and they are showing more courage than people who have summer homes and trust funds. Protesters continue to show up in the streets, risking being brutalized by armed agents of the State. In Washington, D.C., citizens called to serve on grand juries have refused to indict people accused by the Trump administration of political crimes. ‘The People, it turns out, are far more courageous than their Leaders.’”

CODA. Therefore, there is Very Good News here, and Very Bad News – depending on which side of the Great American Divide you stand. For all those who Stand with ‘Trump’s Elites and Deception,’ there awaits you the ‘Fires of Hell, just reviewed in some painful, theological detail.

But for all those who shall firmly Stand with ‘Christ and Truth,’ there awaits the indescribably stupendous wonders of Heaven and Eternity in endless Honor and magnificent ‘Co-Ruling with the King of the Universe!’

‘Beyond Tragic,’ transcending all possible American and Human Horror, the White Church has chosen the Former, the Antichrist, the Great Deceiver of Mankind for earthly gain. And they shall pay the Ultimate Price.  UNLESS …

There are still a few Eschatological Moments remaining for Repentance, beloved. PASTORS: ‘How about you take the reins once again and lay down all your oppositions to the Final Shouts of the Holy One of Israel.’

Do it now. Do it today. Lest you perish in the Last Adversities of the Human Condition. ‘For Him!’

Selah. Selah.

MEDIA

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/Q_iL74ygirg