The Rapture - with Regard to the Nations and Unregenerate Individuals

Matthew 24:30, "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory."

With regard to the nations and unregenerate individuals:

(a) The second coming of Jesus Christ is a happy day for the church and Israel but a sad day for the rest, Revelation 1:7, "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen."

(b) The judgment of the Nations will follow the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Matthew 25:31-32, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, and he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."

(c) The sheep nations will follow the Lord, Isaiah 2:2-3, "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."

(d) The goat nations will be rendered vengeance in the flaming fire, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9, "and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power."

(e) Those remaining on earth will be forced to serve Christ for He will rule with a rod of iron, Psalm 2:9, "You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

(f) These nations will cease war and live in peace, Micah 4:3-4, "He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken."

(g) The earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, Isaiah 11:9, "They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."

To the Antichrist and the devils:

1. Antichrist will be revealed after the rapture and his reign of terror will be culminated with the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ with His saints, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming"; Revelation 19:20, "But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur"; Revelation 19:20, "But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur."

2. The devil shall be chained and cast into the abyss for a thousand years beginning with the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Revelation 20:1-3, "And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time."

We are warned to watch and be ready, Mark 13:33, "Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come"; Matthew 24:42, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." We are warned that we have a stewardship given to us by our Lord and He requires that we be faithful in the discharge of that responsibility. We must be careful to maintain a worthy character, 1 John 3:1-3, "How great the love the Father has lavished on us is, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure."