The Pre-Tribulation Rapture Refutation and Alternative

1. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture Refutation and Alternative

2. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • Rests upon dispensationalism and imminence • Definition • The rapture is defined as the moment that we “meet Jesus in the clouds” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). To claim this moment is “pre-tribulation” is to say that it happens before “the great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14), which is the last seven years before the second coming of Jesus. Some claim the rapture to be the commencement of the tribulation, and others claim it could happen even decades beforehand.

3. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • The notion rapture before the tribulation falls upon the idea that God will not let us endure wrath. • Revelation 3:10, “I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world.” • The only way to keep us from the hour would be to take us out.

4. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • Internet quotation • “You would think the desire to go through the tribulation would be as popular as the desire to jump into a pit with vipers and broken glass. As illogical as it may seem, there appears to be a large number of Christians that fully expect to get roughed up before Christ returns. Many Christians argue strongly for the right to suffer persecution at the hands of the Antichrist and the one world government. These tribulation saints wannabes constantly harp, ‘Because Jesus and His disciples suffered persecution, we should expect no better.’ It’s been my experience that people with the weakest faith are generally the ones that talk the boldest. When the slightest difficulty comes their way, they cry to high heaven.”

5. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • Some have responded to the notion that we won’t be raptured, “You are somewhat correct. I believe a huge number of people – who are Christian in name only – will find themselves left behind.”

6. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • Because the church will not endure wrath, we expect that there will be a rapture before the time of wrath. • 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 is seen as the rapture, and the coming of the Lord is mentioned in that passage, it is assumed that Jesus ‘comes’, or at least appears in the sky, in order to gather the people of God into heaven. • 2 Thessalonians 2:7 speaks of “a restrainer” who holds back the coming of the “man of sin”. The interpretation is that this is the Holy Spirit.

7. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • 1 Corinthians 15:22-25 • “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” • Here we see three stages. First, there is the rapture. Second, Christ destroys all dominion, authority, and power. Third, Christ returns.

8. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • The rapture and the second coming are separated by at least seven years. • Christ appears in the clouds, and this is called “the day of Christ”. Then, at a later time, Christ steps down upon the Mount of Olives. This is called “the Day of the Lord.” • The distinction would say, “The rapture relates to the church; the Second Coming relates to Israel.”

9. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • The known day and the unknown day cannot be the same. • “But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36). • “In such an hour as you think not the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 24:44). • Revelation 12:6 speaks of 1260 days, which coincide with the 42 months in Revelation 13:5. This end seems to have a clear timeline laid out. From the abomination of desolation, there are 1290 days (Daniel 12:11).

10. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • The restrainer is the Holy Spirit. • 2 Thessalonians 2:7 speaks of a restrainer that must be taken out of the way in order for the tribulation to commence. • The church is indwelt by the Spirit, and so it is assumed that the church must also be taken out in order to take out the Holy Spirit.

11. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • This means two things: the Antichrist is established at the beginning of the seven year Tribulation, and the church will not see the establishment of the Antichrist. • We find in Revelation 13:7 that the Antichrist overcomes the saints, but it is said in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church.

12. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • Belief statement • God has said that the church will not endure wrath, and so has promised to rapture the church before the Tribulation.

13. Saved From Wrath • Will the Church suffer wrath? • Israel didn’t need to be taken out of Egypt in order to not experience the plagues. • There are the 144,000 sealed. What exactly that means, and who exactly the sealed are, is debated. What is clear is this: the seal of God keeps them from the plagues upon the earth (see Revelation 9:4 as an example). • David, when fleeing from Saul, was kept from his Saul’s hands. • Lot was spared from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – even taken by hand and led out of the city. • Elijah was supernaturally provided for at the brook and in the widow’s home.

14. Saved From Wrath • 1 Thessalonians 5:9 • In 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, we find the “rapture” of the saints explained, and then in the beginning of chapter 5 we find Paul explaining that though this day comes like a thief, those who are not in darkness will not be surprised by that day. The statement that we will not suffer wrath comes immediately after the explanation that we are not children of darkness, therefore the day of the Lord will not catch us by surprise.

15. Saved From Wrath • 1 Thessalonians 5:9 • In Matthew 24:45-50, we find Jesus speaking of the two kinds of servants. There are they who will be found watching for His return, and therefore they act righteously, and then there are they who are not watching for the return, and therefore act wickedly. • “But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

16. Saved From Wrath • In this whole section of 1 Thessalonians 4:15-5:11, Paul is quoting and referencing this Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. • What is the wrath? The wrath is that this servant doesn’t know the times, and therefore isn’t able to get his act together before Christ returns. The righteous will discern the times, but the unrighteous will be taken by surprise.

17. Saved From Wrath • Thus, in the passage of 1 Thessalonians, we find that there is little, if any, reason to accept that this wrath being spoken of has anything to do with the wrath of God in the end times. • The wrath being spoken of is from the Day of the Lord, and not merely the plagues and wrath poured out during the Tribulation. • We could ask if this implies that believers saved during the time of Tribulation are “appointed to wrath”? • What about Isaiah 26:20? • “Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.

18. Saved From Wrath • Beat up Bride • 2 Corinthians 4:11, “For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” • To say that this is average “tribulation” and not “THE tribulation” doesn’t answer the statement. Galatians 3:28-20 claims that we are all Abraham’s seed, which implies “Jacob’s seed”. Jacob’s Trouble is not simply Jacob’s problem.

19. Saved From Wrath • Day of the Lord • If Paul goes from 1 Thessalonians 4:17 straightway into the “day of the Lord” (5:1-4), can we truly believe the day of the Lord is actually seven years like the pre-tribulationist declares? • Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” • The Lord is clear that the signs in heaven won’t happen until after the tribulation.

20. Saved From Wrath • Acts 2:20, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.” • Here, Peter (quoting Joel) unequivocally states that that the heavenly signs precede the day of the Lord. • Please note that I cannot go into the hundreds of other Scriptures splattered throughout the prophets that declare the same kind of heavenly signs as the day of the Lord. The point remains: If the heavenly signs are after the tribulation, and they occur before the day of the Lord, then we cannot say that the day of the Lord is the whole tribulation, nor a three year period after the tribulation.

21. Saved From Wrath • Revelation 11:18, “And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.” • This is a picture of His literal second coming (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10, 2:8, Revelation 19:14-21).

22. Saved From Wrath • This signifies that Paul was declaring we’re not appointed to the wrath of the day of the Lord, but the tribulation is not God’s “wrath”. • What about the day like a thief? That has to be a rapture, right? • Consider Revelation 16:15, where Jesus uses the exact same phrase just before the return – literally just before the battle at Armageddon. Unless Jesus comes like a thief twice, the thief-like coming must be the actual, literal, physical second coming.

23. Saved From Wrath • Also note what Matthew 24-25 declare happen to these “left behind”. They are cut asunder, or cast into outer darkness. • How can that be “reward”?

24. Saved From Wrath • Revelation 3:10 • Jesus promises the church in Philadelphia that they will be kept from the hour of trial. • If you look up the verse, you’ll notice I only quoted part of it. If you noticed that, hopefully you’ll also notice that the rest of the passage speaks of a people who are already facing persecution. If you noticed that, hopefully you also noticed that this is written to one of seven churches. Not only is it only written to one of seven churches, but we even find that these are actual, literal churches. They aren’t allegory. This isn’t symbolism for different ages.

25. Saved From Wrath • We have in Revelation 2-3 epistles written to seven different churches, each struggling with their own problems. Some are told that they need to repent, but two of them are not. Of those two that are not in need of repentance, we find Smyrna and Philadelphia. Now, if we want to say that these are different church ages, we have a problem. For example, we would assume that the last church age before the rapture is the Laodicean age. However, this verse is cited in reference to they who will be raptured. So, we have a problem right away. To the church that we would expect to be raptured, because it is in the last church age, Jesus only gives harsh reproof and demands repentance. But in the second to last, Jesus says that He will keep them from the hour of trial. • It cannot be that Laodicea is the Jewish believers during the Tribulation, because that would then call them “church”.

26. Saved From Wrath • Notice as well in Revelation 3:12 that Jesus says, “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple…” Wait a second… How is it that these are the people who have already been found faithful, and so they won’t endure the hour of trial, and now here Jesus is saying that they need to overcome? Isn’t that the point? Haven’t they already overcome? • Overcoming in the book of Revelations refers to something very specific. There is the contrast between the saints who overcome the beast and his mark, and the beast who overcomes the saints. The Greek is the same root word.

27. Saved From Wrath • Jesus is saying to the saints in Philadelphia that they will need to overcome (the Greek is present-progressive). If that is true, then they won’t be taken out of the Tribulation, for the whole point of overcoming in Revelations is in regard to the Antichrist kingdom.

28. Saved From Wrath • In Revelation 3:7, we find that Jesus is the one who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can close, and what he closes no one can open. Then, in the next verse, the promise is given of an open door. • This has been referenced to Revelation 4:1, where a door is standing open in heaven, and a loud voice cries out, “Come up here…” and has been taken as the rapture.

29. Saved From Wrath • Revelation 4 is the very throne room of God. “I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting upon it.” Where have we heard this before? Isaiah 6:1 and 1 Kings 22:19 both address the throne of the Lord. • We continue onward and find that “the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.” Where have we heard this before? Ezekiel 1:25-28 gives us the exact same language.

30. Saved From Wrath • “Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.” Who are these? These are representative of the twenty-four priestly families (2 Chronicles 24). • “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder.” Where have we seen this before? This is language borrowed from Sinai (Exodus 19:16).

31. Saved From Wrath • “Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.” Where have we heard this before? Revelation 1:20 has already explained these, but also 1 Kings 7:49 speaks of ten lamp stands in the temple, where Zechariah 4:2 speaks of a golden stand with seven lights (menorah). • Then we see a sea of glass, which seems reminiscent of The Sea in 1 Kings 7:23-45.

32. Saved From Wrath • In the midst of the throne and around the throne are four living creatures. Who are these? Ezekiel 1:5, 18 speak of these four living creatures, but we also find them in 1 Kings 6:23-28 and Exodus 25:18-22. • This is the heavenly Holy of Holies. Did any of these men (Moses, David, Isaiah, or Ezekiel) need to be raptured in order to see this? • What is this door that has been opened to the Philadelphians? Paul speaks of open doors in 1 Corinthians 16:9 and 2 Corinthians 2:12 as being opportunities for ministry.

33. Saved From Wrath • “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19-22). • This open door is about direct communion with God. It is about the saints entering His presence, not by rapture, but by the Spirit.

34. Saved From Wrath • The Greek word used is tereo, which is translated, “keep, guard, or watch over”. • Even if we were to grant this verse does mean a rapture to keep us from the “hour of trial” to come upon the whole earth, simply open the book of Revelation and read it. Use a concordance and look up every time that it uses the word “hour”. It is never used for the entire tribulation, but most particularly of the day of God Almighty at its end. • If “kept from the hour” is to mean physical removal, then we can still claim a “translation” at the physical return, being kept from the hour that Jesus unleashes wrath upon the Antichrist and his armies.

35. The Rapture • The pre-tribulation rapture ultimately falls upon a misunderstanding of one key text: 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. • The word rapture appears in the Latin Vulgate, but not in our English versions. • The passage actually starts in verse 13, which gives us the context of the dead in Christ. The comfort isn’t rapture, escape, etc, but that we’ll see our loved ones again.

36. The Rapture • Surrounding the confusion are a few key Greek words, and the placement of those Greek words in the schema of the end times. • The first Greek word is parousia. Parousia means “coming” – specifically referred to the coming of Jesus. The second is harpazo. Harpazo means “gathering”, which is where the idea of rapture comes from. • There is a third Greek word not found in this passage that needs to be known. Epiphaneia refers to the “brightness” of Christ Jesus. • This brightness is considered to be Jesus’ coming at the end of the tribulation, where He returns to destroy the Antichrist “with the brightness of His coming”.

37. The Rapture • 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 • Indeed, this we declare to you in the Lord’s word, that we the living that remain unto the coming (parousia) of the Lord, no shall not precede those having fallen asleep. Because the Lord himself with a shout of command with a voice of an archangel, and with a trumpet of God, descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise up first. Thereafter we, the remaining living, at once together with them will be caught up (harpazo) in the clouds for meeting the Lord in the air, and so at all times we will be together with the Lord. (Personal translation from the Greek)

38. The Rapture • From the plain reading of the text, what does it say? • Paul is telling the Thessalonians that the men and women who died in Christ are only sleeping – big encouragement. They aren’t in the ground, and therefore gone forever. • It simply says that the dead will rise first. Then, those who are left, will meet the Lord in the air. • It seems to be a bit of a stretch to then say that those “left behind” are the ones that missed the rapture. It is the dead who rise first, not the ones “worthy” of rapture.

39. The Rapture • Matthew 24:29-31 • “Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 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. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

40. The Rapture • Notice the similar language here. We have the coming in the clouds, the gathering of the elect, the angels, and the loud trumpet call. These seem like the same event. • What is necessary to then ask is the timing of this event. The pre-tribulation rapture claims 1 Thessalonians is before the Tribulation, but Matthew 24 is after the Tribulation. Is it exegetically possible to claim that this is before the Tribulation? I think the words of Jesus answer that for us quite well: “Immediately after the distress of those days…”

41. The Rapture • One man has said, “It is skewed logic to think that both 1 Thessalonians 4:15 and Mark 13:26 are both speaking of the same ‘coming’ of Jesus. It is like me saying that because I have eyes, and a horse has eyes, that I am thus a horse. The context is completely different in those two passages.” • I’ll admit that the context is slightly different. In 1 Thessalonians, the context is about the dead in Christ. In Matthew (Mark 13 is a parallel), the context is Jesus answering a question of the end times by His disciples.

42. The Rapture • But that isn’t what is meant. In their mind, Paul is writing to the church, but Jesus is speaking to Israel. • Therefore, since we know (or assume) that Israel will be left behind and we’ll be taken out, Jesus couldn’t be describing the same event

43. The Rapture • Notice the circular reasoning here. The rapture is true, because we know that the rapture is true. • In the rebuttal of the many who have shown the obvious connection of 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 and Matthew 24:29-31 (and other parallels), the pre-tribulationist simply says that the context tells us these are two different things, because the pre-tribulation rapture wouldn’t be true otherwise.

44. The Rapture • If we look at Matthew 24:3, we find that it is the disciples who are asking Jesus about the destruction of the temple and the sign of His coming. In Mark 13:3, it is Peter, James, and John who approach Jesus. • The claim that Jesus is addressing the Jewish people here is false. He is addressing His apostles. How much more “Christian” can this message get? If the apostles weren’t “Christian”, then no one is Christian. • To say that the “church” didn’t exist at this time, I would simply tell you to read Matthew 18:17. Notice that Matthew 18 comes before Matthew 24, and yet Jesus is addressing the church.

45. The Rapture • The gathering by the angels in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 is the same gathering that is mentioned by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 unto Christ. • The argument that you can’t have one gathering be of Christ and the other be of the angels is also faulty. Who do you think the angels are with? They gather at the command of Christ, and not because they felt like it was a good idea – nor because “Michael the archangel” says so.

46. The Rapture • If we take away presuppositions, the incredibly obvious understanding that emits would be that these are indeed both speaking of the same event.

47. The Rapture • Paul’s language that he chooses is not to go up into the air and stay there, but to meet Jesus in the air to join Him in His victorious war against the Antichrist. It reflects the triumphal return of the victorious Roman armies. When they would return, they would camp outside of Rome with all of their men and captives, and they would send a message to the senate. And that would give the time for the city planners to erect a banner and decorate the city and then at a prearranged time the signal would be made that the trumpets would be blown and the armies of Rome would march in triumph into the city. But before they began, at the signial of the trumpet, everyone who was a citizen of Rome was allowed to go out and meet them in order to join them in their march into the city.

48. Two Comings and Two Days • Jesus’ first second coming isn’t truly a “return”, because He doesn’t touch the ground. It is rather an “appearing” so that the Church can be raptured. After this event, Jesus will return bodily to fight the war of Armageddon and set up His kingdom upon the earth.

49. Two Comings and Two Days • What Scriptural basis is there to believe this? • In all sobriety, I can only find circular reasoning to explain this. I honestly hoped that someone would at least cite one reference for this. But alas, all I could find are the assumptions being the reasons, and the reasons being the assumptions. The assumption is that if Jesus only returns once, then there can be no rapture. So, because we “know” there is a rapture of the church, there must be an appearing and a coming. • Once again, the argument is utterly circular in every possible way.

50. Two Comings and Two Days • What is more logical is to say that the appearing is the bodily return. • We saw in the last section how 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 seems to be the same event as Matthew 24:29-31. If this is the case, the Greek words are not speaking of different events, but are rather different synonymous words describing the same thing.