Chapter 20
1 ¶ The first day of the week cometh Mary
Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone
taken away from the sepulchre. 2 Then
she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus
loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre,
and we know not where they have laid him. 3
Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the
sepulchre. 4 So they ran both together:
and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
5 And he stooping down, and looking in,
saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. 6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and
went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not
lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. 8 Then went in also that other disciple, which
came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that
he must rise again from the dead. 10
Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
Sunday, of course, is the first day of the week. As the
Jewish day begins with the evening, Sunday would start on Saturday at nightfall
or around 6pm, then Sunday began on Saturday night. Before daylight Mary
Magdalene came to the tomb and saw the stone that was placed in front of it was
moved away. You can read more about the stone being placed and the watch over
the tomb in Matthew and Mark.
Mary told Peter and John, the writer of this gospel, and
they both ran to the tomb. John was younger and faster so he arrived first and
saw the linen clothing Jesus had been wrapped in laying there but he was
looking in and did not go in the tomb. Peter also witnessed this and the
covering for His face lying separately after going inside the tomb. John
followed after. That these details are important to John but not the placing of
the stone in front of the tomb is very interesting.
But, once again we are faced with the fact
that the Jews were not looking forward to the Cross and the empty tomb like we
are told so often. Even though Christ’s body is gone His disciples still do not
understand that He was to rise from the grave. The next passage reveals that to
underscore this point.
This brings to mind an interesting point. A doctrine exists
even if the majority of people do not understand or believe it. If it is true,
it simply is, regardless of opinion. As an example, the early church was
premillennial, in that they believed in chiliasm (kill e as um), believing that
Christ would return to rule physically on earth for a thousand years.
Historical writers like Will Durant, in his epic eleven volume The Story of Civilization noted this.
“The apostles were apparently unanimous in believing that
Christ would soon return to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.” (35)
With this belief came the understanding that the church itself,
the people, would be removed or translated from the world before Christ’s
return, based on several verses in the Bible beginning with Enoch being
physically removed without dying. See Genesis 5:24; Proverbs 25:7; Luke
17:34-36; Hebrews 11:5; 1Thessalonians 1:10;
1Thessalonians 4:14-17; Revelation 4:1; 11:12, 18.
Writings of early church leaders that have come down to us
expressing belief in the premillennial return of the Lord include Papias, Shepard,
Irenaeus, Lactantius, Victorinus, Cyprian, Ephraim the Syrite, Commodianus,
Origen, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr while some of them also include implications
and clear statements that the church will not see the wrath to come but will be removed beforehand. This does not prove, of course, that the doctrine is true but
just that it is not a new doctrine, either the premillennial view or the
translation of the church, but that these early church leaders, the viewpoint
of the Apostles who knew Christ, and the Scriptures point in this direction.
The dominant viewpoint of the Roman Catholic Church after
Augustine was that there was no millennium, in that references to a thousand
year reign were allegorical and that the Roman church was ruling the world in
Christ’s place as his proxy. The Reformation called that into doubt. The
dominant viewpoint in early America up to the turn of the 20th century
among evangelical Protestants was called postmillennial, in that the church
would rule the world with Christ reigning spiritually through it, as men became
more righteous and more Christian in appearance and practice.
As I pointed out before the American Theological Review, in
1859, said that postmillennialism, whereby a millennium would be set up and the
religion of Christ would be everywhere and, “his spiritual reign would be
universal,” and that would be followed by Christ’s physical return was the,
“commonly received doctrine.” While
admitting that this was not what the early church believed, as the early church
said and we believe, He will return first to rule and then the millennium, the
thousand year reign, will come, the author goes on to say that the early church
was simply wrong.(36)
Christians today who do not believe in the translation of the
church, popularly called The Rapture, will
say that preacher of the early 1800’s, John Nelson Darby, invented the doctrine.
He did popularize it in a world that regarded evolutionary progress as truth and
that mankind and Christians in particular were headed toward a Golden Age of righteousness and peace.(37)
But, he obviously did not invent the doctrine, merely gave
it his own twist. As John Reeve wrote two
centuries before Darby’s, in the 1600’s, “Then shall the Elect, by the Decree
or Voice of Jesus Christ, the Archangel, first
appear out of the Graves, and, in the twinkling of an Eye, with all the Elect that
are then living, as one Man, with a glorious Shout, shall, with distinct
immortal Bodies, like unto their God, ascend to meet the Lord in the Air, and
with him and his mighty angels, as swift as Thought, enter into that vast new Heaven and new Earth above the Stars….(38)
My intent here is not to approve of any preacher’s particular
doctrines or idiosyncracies or even personal opinions or heresies but simply to
show that the doctrine was not invented by Darby, as some would say. Only the
timing of when it would happen, before the Great Tribulation mentioned in Matthew
and Revelation, during, or at the end of it were in contention among those that
believed in it.
Other references to the idea of the church being physically removed
are from such diverse preachers and commentators
as Jesuit priest, Francisco Ribera, in 1590, Puritan Cotton Mather in the 1600’s,
and John Gill in the 1700’s.(39) In the
first decade of the 1700’s Matthew Henry even uses the phrase, “rapture in the clouds,”
in his commentary on 1Thessalonians 4:17 which is so commonly free on the
internet I don’t need to give you directions here.
Again, the issue is when that happens and how close it is to
the general judgment of the dead. Darby’s view was that it must take place
before the return of Christ. The Bible seems to indicate that then there is the
thousand year reign of Christ and the general judgment follows.
My point in bringing all of this up is to only say that a
doctrine can exist in the Bible and either be misunderstood, not be known by
most believers, or that those against it may misrepresent it to justify their
own beliefs. The Jews believed that Israel would be restored to its past
greatness, not seeing the Cross or the Resurrection of their Messiah. Many
Christians believed they would turn the world over to Christian principles and
values without Christ present. We must always remember that our understanding
is incomplete until we stand before our Saviour.
Don’t put the Jews of Christ’s time down because they did
not see this coming. We, ourselves, may be surprised that many of our pet
doctrines, including The Rapture, may be wrong or not quite how we envisioned
or our preachers taught us. All that matters is the truth and we have our hands
full trying to obey the clear instructions of the Bible without arguing
incessantly about who the antichrist is or when The Rapture is to take place
when we should be focused on the proof or fruit of the Spirit in our lives as
Paul wrote in Galatians, chapter 5. Rather than excitedly seeking out the next
prophecy conference why don’t you spend some time on your face praying to be
filled with the Spirit?
(35) Will Durant, “The Apostles: A.D. 30-95,” The
Story of Civilization:Volume 3, Caesar and
Christ (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944), 575.
(36) Henry Boynton Smith, ”History of Opinions Respecting
the Millennium,” The American Theological
Review (Boston: Charles Scribner & Son, 1859), 642.
(37) J.N.
Darby, “The Rapture of the Saints,” in The
Heavenly Hope, or, What is the Hope of the Christian? What is the Hope of the
Church? (Dublin: Dublin Tract Repository, 1844).
(38) John
Reeve, “An Epistle to a Kinsman,” in Joyful
News from Heaven (London: Francis Cosinet, 1658), 60.
(39) Mal Couch, ed., Dictionary
of Premillennial Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1996.
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