Will the Rapture occur and if so, will it be before, during or after the Tribulation?
Only those in the Body of Christ will be raptured before the tribulation. The rapture is described as being "imminent" by Paul:
"For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body...The Lord is at hand (eggus)" (Phil.3:20-21;4:5).
The Greek word
eggus means
"of times imminent and soon to come to pass" (
Thayer's Greek English Lexicon).
Now let us look at the following verse from the Hebrew epistles where the same coming of the Lord is described as being near:
"You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near" (James 5:8).
The Greek word translated "is near" at James 5:8 is
eggizo and in this verse that word means
"to be imminent" (
A Greek English Lexicon, Liddell & Scott [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940], 467).
In an article found on the "Pre-Trib Research Center" web site Dr. Renald E. Showers writes:
"In light of James' statements C. Leslie Mitton wrote, 'James clearly believed, as others of his time did, that the coming of Christ was imminent.' On the basis of James' statements we can conclude that Christ's coming was imminent in New Testament times and continues to be so today, and that this fact should make a difference in the way Christians live" [emphasis added] (Showers, The Imminent Coming of Christ).
Paul Sadler, past President of the Berean Bible Society, wrote the following:
"The 'secret' resurrection that will take place at the Rapture should never be confused with the 'first' resurrection at the Second Coming of Christ. Those who rightly divide the Word of truth now see that only the members of the Body of Christ will be raised at the Rapture" [emphasis mine] (Sadler, Exploring the Unsearchable Riches of Christ [Stephens Point, WI: Worzalla Publishing Co., 1993], 167).
Since only members of the Body of Christ will be raised at the rapture we can know, beyond any doubt, that those who originally received the Hebrew epistles were members of the Body of Christ. In the first century, as well as today, there is only one coming of the Lord Jesus which can be described as being "imminent" and that is His coming which will happen at the rapture.
Clete, you are wrong when you assert that those who received the Hebrew epistles are not members of the Body of Christ.