THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH

Few religious topics will generate as much discussion (and heat) as the Rapture does.  There are a number of different views on the Rapture of the church, but basically it is understood by most people as Jesus Christ coming back to take His church, both those Christians who are still alive at that time and the bodies of those who already died as Christians.  This event is also called the Resurrection.  This “Day of the Lord” is also linked to the Tribulation (7 years of great distress, trouble, pain and chaos, such as the world has never seen) and the Millennium (when the devil is chained for a 1,000 year period, and Jesus Christ reigns on earth in peace and righteousness).  Without going into great detail, some of the more popular views of these end-time events include:

• Pre-Trib view (Rapture happens before the Tribulation)

• Mid-Trib view (Rapture happens in the middle of the Tribulation) [A variation of this would be the Pre-Wrath view]

• Post-Trib view (Rapture happens at the end of the Tribulation)

• Amillennial view (Rapture and 2^nd Coming are the same event and the Millennium is just symbolic of “a very long time”)

Let me just mention at this point that the Catholic Church’s view generally falls into this last category (Amillennial).  For more details and comments on the Catholic view, see my other blog here:

http://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-rapture-and-catholic-eschatology.html

But from a biblical and logical standpoint, I believe that the Pre-Trib view is the only one that makes sense, given the whole of Scripture.  It is very important to keep in mind the distinction between God’s dealings with the nation Israel and His dealings with the church.  Remember, the Jews have always been God’s chosen nation.  But since the majority of them have rejected Jesus of Nazareth (their Messiah), God has then turned His focus, for an undetermined amount of time, to the (mostly) Gentile church (Romans 11:11), which has enjoyed the blessings and favor of God for over 2,000 years.  But when the Rapture happens, the church of Jesus Christ (including believing Jews) will be removed from the earth in an instant to meet Jesus in the air (1 Corinthians 15:51-52), and He will take us to Heaven.  But after the church is gone, God will turn His focus back onto the Jews on earth and deal with them through the Tribulation, where many of them will turn to God and accept Jesus as the true Messiah.  The purpose of this Tribulation is for the punishment of the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles.  This 7 year period is known as Daniel’s 70^th week (Daniel 9:24-27), and is a time of God’s wrath.

   

Note that the Bible uses different names for the same event – “Day of the Lord” (Isaiah 13:6-13; Joel 2:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9), “the great and terrible Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31), “the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6), “day of God” (2 Peter 3:10-12; Revelation 16:14-15), “the Last Day” (John 12:48), “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21), “a time of trouble” (Daniel 12:1-2), the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), etc. 

 

But how do we know that these terms all point to the same event or time period?  Because it will be a time in which man has never seen such chaos and judgment, nor will we ever see such again.  Since this is true, there can only be ONE such day / time period / season which is “like no other.”  And since the “Day of the Lord” is associated with “times and seasons / epochs” (1 Thess. 5:1), we know it is not just a 24-hour period. 

I believe that the Rapture is the very beginning of the “Day of the Lord” time period.  I will now give some reasons that support a Pre-Trib Rapture view.

The Church is NOT Appointed to (God’s) Wrath

1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God has not appointed [“destined,” NASV] us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The context here is the “Day of the Lord” (verse 2), and the “us” that Paul is speaking of is the church.  The church of Jesus Christ will not go through His wrath (the 7- year Tribulation period).  The “elect” and the “saints” mentioned in Revelation are those who missed the Rapture, but got saved during the Tribulation.  They are not members of the church because the “church age” is a special dispensation, and its unique role on earth will be completed at the time of the “fullness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:25).

     

Romans 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”  Just a little earlier in this chapter (verse 3), Paul speaks of Christians going through “tribulation,” that is, personal trials, persecution, etc., to develop patience and grow as a Christian.  But this “personal tribulation” is not the 7-year end-time Tribulation to which the book of Revelation refers.  To be sure, it is the wrath of Revelation’s Tribulation from which the church is saved. 

 

Some say that not all of the Tribulation is “God’s wrath.”  But early on, during the fourth seal, we see the fourth horseman bringing death by “the sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8 - NASV).  This is indeed the wrath of God, since we see God, in Ezekiel 14:21 (NASV), calling them “My four severe judgments.”  This is not just the wrath of man, or of the antichrist, or of the devil.  It is the wrath of the Lamb of God, who breaks ALL of the seals, and oversees all of the “trumpet” and “bowl” judgments, as well.

Again, Jesus has “delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10), and He promises “to keep [us, the church] from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them who dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).  Jesus also knows how to deliver the godly “out of temptations” (2 Peter 2:9).  In all three of these verses, the Greek “ek” means that we are delivered “out of” temptation and “out of” the wrath - not just offered protection while we’re in the midst of it.  This implies the Rapture of the church will happen before God’s wrath falls.  Notice that the context of 2 Peter 2 (just above) is the rescuing of Noah (verse 5) and Lot (verse 7), and the Day of Judgment (verse 9).  Which brings us to the next point…

As in the Days of Noah and Lot

If we must (as some suggest) go through the Tribulation and endure its suffering and distress, then why did Jesus give us Lot in Sodom as an example of the Day of the Lord (Luke 17:28-30)?  Was not Lot and his family “taken” (i.e., safely removed) by God from the danger zone, while the people of Sodom were “left behind” to suffer the wrath of God?  Remember, the angel said that he could do nothing until Lot and his family were safely out of the area (Genesis 19:22)!

And why use Noah as an example of the Day of the Lord (Matthew 24:37-39)?  Weren’t he and his family removed (“taken”) by God from the danger zone (the land) when they went into the ark?  And were not the inhabitants of the world “left behind” on the ground to suffer God’s wrath as punishment?  If the church were expected to actually go through the Tribulation, Jesus could have used passages like Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:16-22), or the 3 Hebrew children in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:19-26) as examples, since these actually stayed in the danger zone while God protected them.  But He didn’t use those as examples.  The fact that Noah and Lot are used as examples tells us that the church will be taken in the Rapture, missing the 7-year Tribulation, while the unbelievers are left to endure God’s wrath.

Taken and Left

Notice that in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, the righteous are taken and the wicked are left.  But in Matthew 13:30, 49-50, the wicked are taken and the righteous are left behind.  These two events cannot be the same thing, and are necessarily two separate events for two different times.  The former is the Rapture, the latter is the Second Coming.

What Happened to the Church?

There are several points here that, taken together, will certainly point to a Pre-Trib Rapture.  First, before the Tribulation starts, there is a door opened in Heaven (Revelation 4:1), in which a voice like the sound of a trumpet says, “Come up here.”  I (and many others) believe that the Rapture of the church happens here, before the 7 year period of trouble begins.  These same words are also spoken to the two witnesses in Revelation 11:12, where they, too, were lifted up into Heaven.  Also notice that nowhere is the church mentioned after Revelation 4:1.  Furthermore, in Revelation 19:11-14, we see Jesus Christ coming out of Heaven toward the earth with an army on white horses, wearing “fine linen, white and clean.”  It is interesting to note that there is no mention of a resurrection in this context, because this army is no doubt the church which was raptured / resurrected 7 years earlier, and coming back to earth with Him in His Second Coming.  In 1 Thessalonians 4:14, it says that Jesus will bring with Him from Heaven those who have fallen asleep (i.e., died in Christ).  But how can Jesus bring them to earth with Him if they haven’t been first resurrected and taken to Heaven (in the Rapture)?

The Barrier Removed

Apparently, today there is something or someone that is holding back the appearance of the antichrist (and, by extension, the 7-year Tribulation).  2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 speaks of one who must be taken out of the way.  Paul is speaking of the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit in the church.  Since the church is “salt” (Matthew 5:13), i.e., a preservative, and is also “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and therefore, holding back the tide of evil that is trying to enter into the world.  Once the barrier (the influence of the salt and light) is removed (in the Rapture), the onslaught will start.  Thus, a Pre-Trib Rapture is indicated.

A Known Day and an Unknown Day

Within the “Day of the Lord” time period, there is a day which will come unexpectedly as a thief, and there is a day coming which can be calculated.  Jesus told us that no one knows the day or the hour of His Coming (Matthew 24:36; 25:13).  Yet, we know that after the antichrist reveals himself in the temple (Matthew 24:15; Daniel 9:27) midway into the Tribulation, he will have 1260 days (Revelation 12:6) to do what he wants, that is, until Jesus comes back to put an end to his reign.  This is confirmed by Revelation 13:5 (42 months) and Daniel 7:25 (“a time, times, and half a time,” i.e., 3 1/2 years).  All three of these are referring to the same amount of time and the same event, one that is known. 

 

The “known” day and the “unknown” day are two different events… the “unknown” is the Rapture, and the “known,” which has a reference point and can be calculated, is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.     

Business as Usual

Luke 17:26-29 and Matthew 24:36-39 both tell us that at the time of the Son of Man’s coming it will be “business as usual.”  That is, people will be eating and drinking, planting, building, marrying and giving in marriage – all normal activity.  This certainly does not sound like the Tribulation, where there will be major unrest, earthquakes, famines, wars, terrible signs in the heavens, plagues, 100-pound hailstones, etc!  The unexpected “birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8; Mark 13:8) have not yet come upon mankind when the Son of Man comes in the clouds for His church, to receive them in the air.

Typology

The Jewish Wedding is one of the best symbols that can be used for evidence for a Pre-Trib Rapture.  It includes the “midnight cry,” the return to the father’s house, the 7-days of “hiding” in the wedding chambers, etc.  See these:

http://www.khouse.org/articles/2003/449/

http://www.bridalcovenant.com/wedding1.html

Zero Population Growth?

Isaiah 60:21-22; 65:23; 66:22; Revelation 20:8 - According to these passages, there will be a definite increase in population in the Millennium.  But some (like the Post-Tribbers) say that the Rapture and the Second Coming are the same event.  If this is so, then who would be left to populate the Millennium, since Jesus destroys all the wicked, and the righteous / raptured would all be given glorified bodies, unable to produce children (Matthew 22:30)?  There would be no “natural” people left to populate the land.  The Pre-Trib view doesn’t have this problem, since the church returns to earth with Jesus, and all the wicked are destroyed, but the righteous survivors of the Tribulation are still around (with natural bodies).  

Imminency

Last, but certainly not least, is the issue of imminency.  “Imminent” means forthcoming, approaching, threatening, unavoidable, inevitable.  And such is the Rapture.  Jesus told us over and over to be watchful and alert because He will come unexpectedly, as a thief (Matthew 24:42-43; Mark 13:32-33; Luke 21:34-36).  He said this because we don’t know the time of the Rapture.  Once the Tribulation starts, we can easily count down the days and calculate its end.  But there is nothing to “count down” to the time of the Rapture, there is nothing that must precede it… it can happen at any moment.  Imminency must be dealt with, but none of the other views can account for it like the Pre-Trib can.

There are still other arguments for the Pre-Trib Rapture, but I believe these demonstrate that the Pre-Trib view is a very reasonable and biblical conclusion.  It is not only comforting (1 Thessalonians 5:11), it is our “Blessed Hope” (Titus 2:13).