‘Not Wrath But Rapture’ By Floyd O. Baker

[I discovered in our Pastor’s Office this vintage booklet by Pastor Floyd Baker called “Not Wrath but Rapture.” Inside was a transcribed message he had delivered on June 28, 1973, at the 5th Annual Bible Conference of the Berean Bible Fellowship. I loved it! So I scanned the booklet and converted it into an article! Enjoy! PTL! -Joel]

I am not going to assume, this evening, that all you have a foreknowledge or a fore-understanding of the Word of God, rightly divided. I am certain that many of you are here to learn, and that some may have a great deal to unlearn. Generally unlearning is far more difficult than learning, for all of us, when we study the Word, are apt to enter into it with some pre-conceived thoughts and ideas. Often we would make God’s Word conform to our thoughts rather than conforming our thoughts to His Word.

Thank God, we never need to cease to learn! No matter how long one has been a student of the Word, no matter how much knowledge he has thus gained, there is still more to learn as the Holy Spirit continues to enlighten our hearts and minds to the wonderful truths He has for us.

I praise God that I have had the opportunity these past years to be used of Him in some measure, not only in preaching the message of salvation, but also in proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ according to the revelation given to the apostle of the nations: the Apostle Paul.

At first glance it may seem that our subject is very simple and easy to understand, but when it comes to the study and understanding of God’s Word, we do find ourselves confronted with problems. I have, in my own mind, re-preached tonight’s message many times this week.

So will you turn with me please to Luke’s gospel chapter 21, beginning at verse 20:

“And when ye shall see Jerusalem com- passed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

“Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

“For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

“But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.“

In order to deal with our subject properly we must point out that there are those who do not agree with us as to the catching up of the Church. There are three positions that we will mention briefly. There are those who believe that the Church will be caught up at the end of the tribulation. Then, there are those who hold a mid-tribulation view, that is, that the Church will be caught up in the middle of the tribulation. And finally, there are those, our-selves among them, who hold the doctrine of the pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture of the Church to be with Christ.

Now, it is not amazing to me that many of our fundamentalist friends and brethren do not see the pre-tribulation rapture, because many of them go to Matthew 24, Luke 21, John 14, etc. to find the hope of the Church, the Body of Christ. I cannot understand how these could come up with a pre-tribulation rapture, for these passages contain tribulation and post-tribulation truth.

But does it make a difference whether a man teaches that the Church will go through the tribulation or be caught up before the tribulation? Well, it should make a difference to those who have been fearful of going through the tribulation! What a blessed surprise will be theirs when the Lord comes for them before the tribulation begins!

Let me say, dear pastor, that we are dealing with a very serious matter, because if you and I are wrong in this we are deceiving our people and are not preparing them properly for events to come. I tell you this evening, if I did not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, I would not tell believers to look for Christ tonight. I’d have to tell you to look for the judgments of the tribulation period. You see, it is not just a matter of a doctrine that some group has decided to hold to; it is a very important subject of the Word of God. If the post-tribulationist or the mid-tribulationist is right, then we are in error, and if we are right-and I am convinced that we are then they are in error. There is no other way to look at it, for we are dealing with truth on the one hand and error on the other.

I trust that God will enlighten as to what our hope and expectation are in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The passage I have just read to you says: “Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days.” Listen, pastor, how often have you preached this to your assembly? How often have you warned them about this prophecy here in Luke’s gospel? You see, if we are to go through the tribulation, we had better begin preparing our people for it. Instead of looking for the Lord to come, we had better go to our stores and start stocking up for the famines that the Lord has predicted even for the first part of the tribulation period. Will any of God’s people in this dispensation of the grace of God, or any past administration, have to face the time of God’s wrath? Notice what you have here in verse 23:

“Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath UPON THIS PEOPLE.“

Upon what people? Upon the nation, not the Church, the Body of Christ.

In verse 24: “They shall fall by the edge of the sword….” Who? Israel! “They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

You say, “Pastor Baker, Jerusalem has already been destroyed.” Yes, it has, but Jerusalem is going to be trodden down again. The book of Revelation tells us this. God tells the angel to measure the temple, but to leave out the outer court, for this is to be trodden down by the Gentiles for forty-two months. (Revelation 11:1-2). Israel is going to be scattered among the nations again, and this is why you read at our Lord’s return to earth. He will send out His angels to gather His elect from the four corners of the earth.

Let us go on. Will the Church, the Body of Christ, go through the tribulation? The answer is, No, though this is not actually the question, for most of the members of the Church are already in heaven. The question, more properly is, Will any part of the Church go through the tribulation? And the answer again is No. Not one member of the Body of Christ will enter into so much as one small part of Daniel’s seventy “sevens”!

We are living at a time when signs do not prevail. The members of Christ’s Body are not to look for signs. We do not look for signs this evening, but signs will prevail again when God resumes His dealings with Israel. In Luke 21:28 we find our Lord’s words:

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.“

Let me ask you to show me one passage in Paul’s writings parallel to this. Paul never once tells the believer to look for any signs before looking for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to come for His people. God said to Israel: “When you see these signs, then look up.” Paul says: “Be looking, waiting. It’s a blessed hope, a glorious expectation that is ours every moment.”

I cannot tell you when the Lord will come to meet us in the air. I do not know. It could be very soon. I believe it could be this evening, but I don’t know. I do not know how wicked the world has to become. I do not know how far unbelief and god- lessness must spread among the nations before God deals with them. But again, when fundamentalist brethren go back to Luke 21 and Matthew 24 to find the rapture of the Church, I do not marvel that they see us going through the tribulation. In fact, I marvel that any of them at all can see a pre- tribulation rapture in these passages of Scripture.

Let me take you now to Matthew 16:18:

“I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.“

What Church? Have not our fundamentalist brethren erred in beginning the Body of Christ in Acts? They have erred, because they have failed to see the difference between the kingdom Church and the Church the Body of Christ. This is where they have gone astray. In the next verse of this passage the Lord goes on to say to Peter: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”

And so, when we get into Matthew 24, Luke 21 and the early chapters of Acts we are dealing with the truth about a kingdom Church.

That’s what John the Baptist preached, is it not? He preached: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2). That which God had prophesied through Daniel, John proclaimed at hand. He believed that the kingdom of God, which was to come down and destroy all the kingdoms of this earth, would soon come, and that the kingdom of righteousness would be established in its place. John knew, of course, that there was still one more “seven” (of years) to be fulfilled, but he believed all this was “at hand.” The Lord too preached: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” and so did the twelve (Matthew 4:17; 10:7). Don’t take my word for it. Look it up in your Bibles.

But Paul preached that the establishment of this kingdom has been temporarily set aside in favor of God’s blessing upon the nations.

Let us turn to 2 Corinthians 5. Someone here this week read from Sir Robert Anderson to the effect that God’s throne has been turned into a throne of grace, that God is withholding His judgments upon this world. Did you know that? God is not judging atheistic nations like Russia tonight. He is not judging ungodly nations as He did in Old Testament times.

2 Corinthians 5, then, at verse 19:

“To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath com- mitted unto us the word of reconciliation.“

What I want to point out here is that God’s wrath cannot come upon the nations, or upon Israel, until the program of reconciliation has come to an end. You see, God cannot both have the world reconciled to Himself, with us proclaiming this reconciliation, and judge the world at the same time. It can’t be both. You can’t have the world reconciled to God and God pouring out His wrath upon the world at the same time.

You and I are privileged to live during the administration of grace, when He says of this world that He is “not imputing their trespasses unto them.” This is why we say: It’s not the sin question today; it’s the Son question.”

But I say to you, brethren, that God did impute sins to man under the law. We have a lovely setting at our assembly in Genoa City; about 7 or 8 acres of woodland. And on a Sunday afternoon as I walked out in the church yard recently, I picked up a stick and threw it off to one side so that the mower would not run over it. As I did this, I thought how a man under the law doing this on the sabbath day would have been stoned to death-except that Sunday is not the sabbath! You may say, “That was not for picking up sticks, but for the rebellion in his heart.” Yes, but they would not have known what was in his heart until he picked up the sticks, so breaking God’s sabbath. And God said: “Stone him to death.” Fearful, isn’t it! God isn’t saying that tonight. God isn’t telling us to stone anyone to death. He is withholding His judgments. Not that God is not going to judge in the future, for unbelievers are stored up wrath against the day of wrath and the righteous judgment of God. But in this present administration of grace God is not pouring out His wrath upon the world but is sending us forth with a message of reconciliation.

This is why, dear friends, no matter how greatly you may have sinned against the Lord, no matter how deep into sin you may have gone, we can tell you that Jesus Christ took care of it all at Calvary. So tonight, by faith, believing God’s wonderful of love and mercy and grace, you can be wholly reconciled to God. Dear friend, God has done all for you that He can; He has done all for you that He will. You must now believe and receive the message of reconciliation in order to become a child of God.

I know that some say: “If God is a God of love and mercy, He will never condemn anyone to the lake of fire.” I tell you, brethren, a God of love, a God of mercy, “the God of all grace,” took His beloved Son, laid all of our sins and all of our guilt and all of our condemnation upon Him, until Christ cried out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” and was veiled in darkness from the presence of the Father that He might save wretched, guilty men and woman such as you and I were, and some still are tonight. Don’t tell me that if you spurn this love and reject God’s gracious offer of salvation, He will not hold you accountable for your sins. The Word of God reveals only one thing for such: everlasting condemnation in the lake of fire. You may say, “I don’t believe that, pastor.” But you will! No man ever dies an atheist. The moment he dies he becomes a believer, but then it’s too late.

I can’t think of anything worse, though, than the case of a person who thinks he is saved. He has gone through a whole lifetime thinking he is saved, but then dies without Christ. Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing? Yet there are many like that. They put their trust in their church, or their religion; in what dad and mother were, or what they think they are.

Many people think one has to be very arrogant to be able to talk about the assurance of salvation. Well, I’m not egotistical enough to believe that I ever could deserve to be saved, but I am saved by His grace, through faith in Christ who died for me.

I tell you one thing: You are not going to be in the rapture unless you are a child of God. You are not going to glory unless you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.

God, in Christ, is reconciling the world unto Himself tonight, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Brethren, if God were imputing men’s trespasses unto them today there would hardly be one man left on this earth among the unsaved. We are living in a very vile, wicked generation, and I suppose all of us think we have come to the worst era of history.

Someone pointed something out recently that I appreciate very much. What tree did Adam and Eve eat of in the Garden of Eden? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God had said: “In the day that thou eatest therof thou shalt surely die.” But do you know what tree they passed up? The tree of life. Why? They passed it up for knowledge. Aren’t men doing the same thing today? They are rejecting life tonight for knowledge. The world in its wisdom is rejecting life in Christ, but God says that the “wisdom” of this world is foolishness. “The fool says in his heart-No God.” The wise man doesn’t say that. It is a sobering thought that according to God’s Word we have many fools teaching our children in our schools. and colleges.

But let us go on to 2 Thessalonians 2:2. You see, there are some who believe that there is only one coming again of Christ, and that this coming will take place after the tribulation period, so that the Church will be caught up after the tribulation. I want you to keep this in mind as we consider 2 Thessalonians 2:2. The apostle writes here:

“That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord is at hand.“

I believe that “the day of the Lord” is the proper rendering here. But why did the apostle have to write such a thing if the believers could not look for the coming of Christ until after the tribulation?

If they were in the day of the Lord and this was when Christ would come back, they should have been rejoicing. But they were not rejoicing. They were troubled. They were disturbed. Why? Because they thought the Lord’s coming for them was so near? No, because they did not understand how they had gotten into the day of the Lord! And really the thought here in 2 Thessalonians 2:2 is “as though the day of the Lord is already upon you. The Thessalonian believers understood that the day of the Lord was to be an extended period of time. I don’t know how long it took for letters to travel in those days, but there was time for Paul to learn about the Thessalonians’ concern and to write back about this. And he did not say: “Now look, the day of the Lord will come all at once, so don’t worry about it.” He rather said, “Brethren, don’t worry about the day of the Lord, for ‘the departure,’ the catching up, must come first. Also, there is a Restrainer who is holding back the manifestation of the man of sin, the son of perdition. Before the day of the Lord can ever come, this Restrainer must be “taken out of the way.”

I realize that most commentators that I have consulted hold that the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit, but always the Holy Spirit in the Church. Personally, I have always thought this to be the Church itself, the Restrainer to be “taken out of the way” by being caught up to be with Christ. Now if you believe it is the Holy Spirit in the Church, that’s fine, I have no problem there. The Church is still going to be caught up before that wicked one, the man of sin, is revealed, no matter how you look at it. This is why we say: Not Wrath, but Rapture, for if the Church is caught away before the wrath begins it will obviously not go through the time of wrath. You see, the Word of God teaches that the Church will not be here on this earth when God begins to vent His wrath on the nations and even on Israel.

God cannot do it now, because He has reconciled the world to Himself by Jesus Christ and is not imputing their trespasses unto them. But when the Church is gone and this period of grace is over and the proclamation of reconciliation withdrawn, we have an entirely different situation. Then we have the judgment, described as “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” “wrath upon this people,” etc.-not upon you and me, but upon “this people,” Israel, and upon the nations. The Church, the Body of Christ, at that time will know only God’s blessing; with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, accepted, or engraced, in the Beloved One. and complete in Him.

Why would God pour out His wrath, or allow His wrath to come upon, the Body of Christ? Israel deserves and I say this very humbly-that period of tribulation because she played the role of a harlot and committed spiritual adultery against Jehovah. That is why, in Daniel 9, you see Judah and Jerusalem in captivity and Daniel praying for wisdom regarding his people. How long would this condition continue? And God sends the message back: Seventy sevens (i.e., weeks of years), and the last of these sevens will be a time of great trouble. Daniel 12:1 says it will be “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time,” though the passage goes on to say: “and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”

Yes, this will be the “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” God’s wrath upon a nation that chose to forsake the true and living God and go off with the gods of the Gentiles.

But this will mean wrath for the nations too. Here comes someone who says: “I don’t believe it makes any difference what your religion is, whether Christian, Buddhism or what. It’s all the same.” But listen, my friend, there is one God, who is the Creator of us all, and we must worship Him. To go after other gods is to commit spiritual adultery, and this God does not tolerate.

In closing I want to call your attention to one more passage of Scripture. 1 Corinthians 11:26:

“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come.“

Brethren, as we gather tonight about the Lord’s table, though we look back to the cross and thank Him, we anticipate His coming for us, and will do so until He comes. This is our hope tonight. I’m not looking for wrath. I’m “looking for that blessed hope and the appearing in glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).