Is the Rapture Pre-Tribulation or not?
The part of the world I grew up in never asked the question above, it was always pre-trib, I can honestly say that the times I spent fellowshipping with Baptist, Pentecostals, Methodist, and Independent brethren, down through the years, this question rarely if ever, came up.
If that were the case today, I wouldn’t be writing this. I am amazed at the number of good brothers and sisters that embrace the theory of the post trib rapture.
Now some may say what difference does it make anyway?
It doesn’t make any difference if the church of Jesus Christ is appointed to wrath, if it’s not it makes a serious difference. So what’s the truth?
To say that truth is relative to a point of view is error. Truth is never relative, it doesn’t have first cousins, aunts or uncles, it is what it is, and it stands solely by itself.
So if it truly stands by itself, why are so many confused by truth?
More times than not it is simply one word, context!
To take something out of context, does not remove the truth from it, it removes the application. Example, will an axe cut butter?Yes, but that’s the wrong application for the axe and the butter, but if you do that, several options become very visible. Yes it will cut the butter, but the potential to injure yourself as well as others is obvious, the truth is the axe will cut it, but it is used out of place. And that my friend is what we have here.
All tribbers agree on the rapture, it’s just (when), that creates contentions.
So at the risk of pouring gasoline on a fire, let me share with you why I believe the rapture really is pre-trib.
We will examine this in context, by that I mean we will examine what God told Paul for the Gentiles under Grace, you know us!
Paul wrote 13 books directly to us Gentiles, there is only one prophecy given to the Gentiles and even it is corporate to both Jew and Gentile believers, what is it?
The Rapture!
So what did the Apostle of the Gentiles tell us?
Paul’s first mention of a “catching away” comes in his first Epistle’s writings, that being 1st Thessalonians Chapter 4, I am sure you know but it’s worth mentioning, that Paul’s Epistles are not in chronological order in the Bible.
13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For 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: 17Then 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.18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
These verses defines a Rapture, but not the timing, all agree on this verse.
The next time Paul mentions this topic is 2nd Thessalonians Chapter 2, this time we are given more detail for a timetable.
1Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2That 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 Christ is at hand. 3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Same verses in The English Standard Version
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
We see a couple of things here, which are not in the first verses, we see timings.
1. A falling away or rebellion in the Church.
2. The Spirit of God is restraining this lawless one from being revealed.
3. Not until the Holy Spirit steps out of the way, can the lawless one be revealed.
So, I have a question!
Will the Holy Spirit abandon us?
I don’t think I even need to answer that... but that is what some are suggesting.
Next verse
The Wrath
1ST Thessalonians 1:10
10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
It would appear to me that believers are delivered from the wrath to come, not appointed to it.
This may be why the Church is not mentioned once in Revelation; between chapters 4 and 18, the wrath chapters. Not to mention the time table for those chapters are roughly seven years.
Romans 2:7-10 echoes, believers will not inherit wrath or tribulation, if that is the case how could we endure the time of tribulation.
7to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
I could go a lot deeper in this, but I won’t, I am a simple writer and being that, the above verses convinced me long ago, you cannot incorporate Grace and Wrath into the same Body; it is one or the other. We are either the Body under Grace or the Body under Wrath.
Why any Christian who understands we are saved by Grace, would think we are appointed to wrath, is confusing to me, I just can’t find it, most of these misconceptions come from what Jesus share’s with his Jewish disciplines, and while some of these things are corporate to the whole earth, almost all are specific to Israel and the Jewish people. Like I said earlier, direct prophecies are written to the Jewish people, the only one we have a part of is the Rapture. Those left after the Rapture, will be incorporated into all the Wrath the book of Revelation has to offer. And don't let people who use the argument that the word Rapture doesn't appear in the Bible confuse you. You see the word Trinity doesn't appear either, but it's implications just like the ones for the Rapture are more than obvious.
And this argument amongst the body over pre-trib, post-trib, was never as much about timing, as it was Grace vs Wrath. And we are not I repeat appointed to wrath.
Remember my fellow Gentile believers, you have one prophecy and one only written to you, and that is the Rapture.
Until next time, I love you all!
Shalom
Until next time, I love you all!
Shalom
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