A few weeks ago a pastor I know casually asked me if I teach a "pre-trib" rapture (i.e. believers in Christ being taken away (snatched up) prior to the beginning of a seven year period of death, destruction, wrath, and woe at God's hands). He told me not to do it as it was bad theology.
Sorry folks - it's Biblical (the following is a quick overview of this teaching.
White Stone will be concentrating our teachings on this in order to better understand our world and the world to come.
What
is the "Pre-tribulation" Rapture?
The rapture is an event that will take
place sometime in the near future. Jesus will come in the air, catch up the
Church from the earth, and then return to heaven with the Church. The Apostle
Paul gave a clear description of the rapture event in his letters to the
Thessalonians and Corinthians.
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians
4: 16-18).
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed, 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. For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality." (1 Cor. 15: 51-53).
The timing of the rapture is not specifically
known. From the Word of God and from sound reasoning--something Jesus used
quite frequently--I hope to prove the reality of the pre-tribulation rapture.
The word "rapture" comes from
Paul's "caught up" remark in verse 17. The words "caught
up" are translated from the Greek word harpazo, which means
"to carry off," "snatch up," or "grasp hastily."
The translation from harpazo to "rapture" involved two steps:
first, harpazo became the Latin word raptus; second, raptusb
ecame the English word "rapture."
Scriptural Evidence for the
Pretribulation Rapture <="" (rev.="" days=""
1260="" vs.="" 25:13)="" (mat.=""
hour"="" the="" nor="" day=""
neither="" know=""> The Unknown Hour
When we search the Scriptures and read the passages describing the Lord Jesus'
return, we find verses that tell us we won't know the day and hour of that
event. Matthew 25:13 says Jesus will return at an unknown time, while
Revelation 12:6 indicates that the Jews will have to wait on the Lord 1,260
days, starting when the Antichrist stands in the Temple of God and declares
himself to be God (2 Thes 2:4).
This event will take place at the
mid-point of the seven-year tribulation (Dan 9:27).
Note that some people only see a
three-and-a-half-year tribulation. In a way, they are correct because the first
half of the tribulation will be relatively peaceful compared to the second
half. Nonetheless, peaceful or not, there still remains a seven-year period called
the tribulation.
When the Jews flee into the wilderness,
they know that all they have to do is wait out those 1,260 days (Mat 24:16).
There is no way to apply the phrase "neither the day nor the hour" to
this situation. The only way for these two viewpoints to be true is to separate
the two distinct events transpiring here: 1) the rapture of the Church, which
comes before the tribulation; and 2) the return of Jesus to the earth, which
takes place roughly seven years later.
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
In Luke 12:36, the Word states that when Christ returns, He will be returning
from a wedding. In Revelation 19:7-8, we read about the marriage itself. The
marriage supper takes place before the marriage.
According to Jewish custom, the
marriage contract, which often includes a dowry, is drawn up first. The
contract parallels the act of faith we use when we trust Jesus to be our
Savior. The dowry is His life, which was used to purchase us. When it's time
for the wedding, the groom goes to the bride's house unannounced. She comes out
to meet him, and then he takes her to his father's house.
This precisely correlates with the
events according to the pre-trib scenario. Jesus, the Groom, comes down from
heaven and calls up the Church, His Bride. After meeting in the air, He and His
Bride return to His Father's house, heaven. The marriage supper itself will
take place there, while down here on earth the final events of the tribulation
will be playing out.
After the marriage supper of Jewish
tradition, the bride and groom are presented to the world as man and wife. This
corresponds to the time when Jesus returns to earth accompanied by an army
"clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (Rev 19:14).
What They Didn't Teach You in History
Class
Many groups try to discredit the pre-trib rapture by saying most of the
end-time events in the Bible have already taken place. A group of people called
preterists claims that the Book of Revelation was mostly fulfilled by 70 AD.
If the events described in the Book of
Revelation took place in the past, I'm at a loss to explain some of the current
situations I see around us: the rebirth of Israel, the reunification of Europe,
the number of global wars that have occurred, and the development of nuclear
weapons.
During history class, I must have slept
through the part where the teacher talked about the time when a third of the
trees were burned up, 100-pound hailstones fell from the sky, and the sea
turned into blood (Rev 8:7-8, 16:21). I think several people would have to
question their opposition to the pre-trib rapture doctrine if they knew that
the evidence provided to them was based on the understanding that most
tribulation prophecies have already occurred.
The People of the Millennium
If Christ were to come back after the
tribulation, rapture all the saints, and slay all the ungodly, who would be
left to populate the earth during the millennium? Only the pre-trib viewpoint
can account for this post-trib problem. The Church is raptured before the
tribulation, a vast number of souls are saved during this seven-year time
frame, and those who make it through the tribulation go into the millennium
while the unsaved are cast into hell.
The Saint U-Turn
In the pre-trib scenario, after we rise
to meet the Lord in the air, we will go to heaven and abide there seven years.
At the end of that period, Christ will come down to earth, defeat the
Antichrist, and cleanse the temple.
In a post-trib rapture, we would rise
in the air to meet the Lord, then do a 180-degree U-turn and come back down to
earth. Revelation 1:7 states that Christ will appear out of the clouds and come
down to earth. Zechariah 14:4 says that His feet will stand on the Mount of
Olives. If He's already headed our way, why would we need to be caught up to
meet Him?
"Come Up Hither"
Many pre-trib writers cite Revelation 4:1, which says, "come up
hither," as a prophetic reference to the rapture of the Church, leaving
Revelation chapters 1 through 3 as a description of the Church Age. After the
shout to "come up hither," the Church is not mentioned in Scripture
at all. The attention of Scripture switches from the Church to the Jews living
in Israel.
Armies in Fine Linen
When Jesus returns (Rev. 19:18), an army follows Him. The army's members are
riding on white horses, and they are clothed in fine linen that is white and
clean. In Revelation 19:8, we are told that the fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints (who accompany the “Man of Linen”). If the saints of God are
returning with Christ to wage war on the Antichrist, then it is not possible to
have a post-trib rapture without us running into ourselves as we are coming and
going.
The Time of Jacob's Trouble
In several passages, the Bible refers
to the tribulation as a time of trouble for the Jews. The phrase "Jacob's
trouble" pertains to the descendants of Jacob. Jeremiah 30:7 says that
this time of trouble will come just before the Lord returns to save His people.
The final week of Daniel's 70th week is
yet to take place. An angel told Daniel that, "70 weeks are determined
unto thy people" (Dan 9:24). Scripture never mentions that the tribulation
is meant to be a time of testing for Christians.
However, some post-tribbers try to
claim that they are the ones being tested during the tribulation. To make this
so, they need to spiritualize the 144,000 Jewish believers in Revelation 7:2-8
who receive God's protective seal. Placing the Church dispensation into the
same time frame as the seven-year Jewish dispensation, as the post-tribbers do,
raises one good question: Can two dispensations transpire at the same time? In
the past, God has only dealt with one at a time. Having both present during the
tribulation would have to be an exception.
"He" That is Taken Out of the
Way
Before the Antichrist can be revealed,
Paul said a certain "He" must be taken out of the way. According to 2
Thessalonians 2:7, the "He" that must be removed is widely thought to
be the Holy Spirit. It has been promised that the Holy Spirit would never leave
the Church, and without the working of the Holy Spirit remaining on earth, no
one could be saved during the tribulation. The removal of the Church, which is
indwelt by the Holy Ghost, would seem the best explanation for this dilemma.
The working of the Holy Spirit could go on during the tribulation, but His
influence would be diminished because of the missing Church.
War or Rapture
(Rev 19:19-21) When Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation, He will be
coming for battle. For those who believe in a post-trib rapture, it would be
strange to meet your Lord and Savior just as He's rushing into battle. The idea
that war and rapture could occur together is difficult to imagine, especially
since they transpire at the same moment.
The Five Foolish Virgins
The wedding story that Jesus gave in Matthew 25:2-13, I believe, is a parable
of the rapture of the Church. It explains how some will not be ready. Jesus
clearly states that a group of people will miss out on an event, and will cry
out to God to let them into the place where He resides, heaven. Although some
try to put this parable in a post-trib context, it doesn't fit very well. The
ones left behind in a post-trib rapture will not need to seek the Lord because
they'll immediately be confronted by Him and His army of angels.
God Hath Not Appointed Us to Wrath
In 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul assures us that God has not appointed His people
to wrath. This wrath is plainly God's anger that will be poured out during the
tribulation. Pre-trib believers interpret this as meaning that Christians will
be removed from the earth. Post-trib believers tell a different story. They
describe this as meaning that God will protect Christians during the tribulation
and pour this wrath out on the unbelievers only. This idea runs against the
statement made in Revelation 13:7, in which the Antichrist is given power to
make war with the saints and to overcome them.
A post-trib view would make God's
promise of protection from wrath into a lie. In years past, it was possible to
think of being protected from the guns and swords of that day. Today, when any
major war would involve nuclear and chemical weapons, it's impossible to expect
that same kind of protection. When Nagasaki, Japan was bombed during World War
II, the bomb exploded over a Catholic church. Everyone who was in the center of
the explosion died--both Christians and non-Christians. The only way to validly
interpret God's promise of protection from wrath is by viewing 1 Thessalonians
5:9 as the bodily removal of the Church from this world.
The Salt of the Earth
Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of
the earth" (Matthew 5:13). When the believers are supenly removed, the
earth will be plunged into spiritual darkness. When this happens, the
Antichrist will then be free to control the world.
God Takes an Inventory
In Revelation 7:3, an angel descends to earth and seals the servants of God.
Two bits of information about this sealing highly disclaim a post-trib viewpoint.
The first item is the number of people sealed: 144,000. The second one is that
all those who are sealed are from the 12 tribes of Israel. For the events in
Revelation 7:3-8 to be true in a post-trib interpretation, either the Church
has turned against God or God has turned against the Church. A post-tribber
could write a thousand-word commentary about why the Church doesn't need to be
sealed. Instead of trying to argue about why the Church is not mentioned or
sealed, a pre-trib proponent could just say, "We're already in
heaven."
Noah and Lot as Examples
The tribulation period is compared to
the times of Noah and Lot by Jesus in Luke 17:28. Most people argue over
whether the time frame Jesus was talking about in that passage was pre-trib or
post-trib. In doing so, they miss an important point. The two circumstances
that the Noah and Lot situations have in common are the removal of the
righteous and the judgment of the unbelievers. From these two accounts, we see
that God prefers to remove His own when danger is involved…
Common-Sense
Reasons for Believing in the Pretribulation Rapture
The World Test
One way to check the soundness of a
doctrine is to see how the world reacts to it. One company put out a
questionnaire that was used to screen prospective employees. One of the
questions was, "Do you believe in the rapture?" If you answered "yes,"
your chances of getting hired would not be good. Some internet sites do not
allow the topics of Rapture or Second Coming. They do allow topics such as sex,
gays, and drugs. The only time the news media mentions the rapture is when
someone sets a date and is proven to be wrong.
That Old-Time Religion
It used to be a rule of thumb that when
one was visiting a church or listening to a preacher, one could assume the
preacher believed in repentance, prayer, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost if
he taught the rapture doctrine. It was also true that the churches on fire for
God worshipped out of storefronts. Today, many of those storefront churches
have moved into marble palaces and have strayed from their principal doctrines.
Birds of a Feather Flock Together
Whenever I look at all the groups that teach false doctrine and are highly
focused on end-time events, I cannot find any that support the rapture theory.
Some organizations, the Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, teach a false gospel
and are heavily into Bible prophecy. Why, then, don't Jehovah's Witnesses teach
a false doctrine that would be right up their alley? Could it be that the
demonic forces that influence these groups know something that Christians
opposed to the rapture don't know? The list of prophetically minded cults that
reject the idea of a rapture goes on and on. Here are some more: the Mormons,
the Worldwide Church of God and the Moonies, as well as leaders like Jim Jones
and David Koresh.
The “True” Church Would Rebuke the
Antichrist
If the Antichrist came to power with the Church still here, I do not see how he
could operate. When Hitler was fighting to take over England, a number of
Christians were praying for victory. Hitler made mistake after mistake, and
England outperformed its enemy at every stage of the conflict. It is difficult
to measure the impact of intercessory prayer in physical warfare.
Little is known of how great a role
praying saints played in the defeat of Nazi Germany. If the Church were to
reside on earth during the tribulation, I am sure she would give the Antichrist
fits. In Revelation 11:3, the two witnesses alone give the Antichrist enough
headaches. Millions of Christians who know their Bibles well would recognize
the man of sin and pray fire down on his head. The post-trib view would have to
plan on the Church just rolling over and playing dead the whole seven years…
We should all remember one thing: Knowing the Antichrist's
mother's maiden name isn't the primary goal. Knowing Jesus Christ as your
personal Savior and having your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life should
be your number-one priority. The jailer asked Paul, "What must I do to be
saved?" The answer was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved" (Acts 16:30-31).
And God will take care of the rest.
