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The Rapture of the Church (Part 3)


Time of the Rapture

 

Mid-Tribulation Rapture

     Simply stated, this view holds that the church will be raptured midway through the tribulation period, after the first three and a half years.

Pre-Wrath Rapture

     This view teaches that all Christians will be taken in the rapture approximately three-fourths of the way through the tribulation, when the wrath of God begins to be poured out on the earth at the seventh seal (Rev. 6:17).

Partial Rapture

     This view holds that the rapture occurs before the tribulation, but the only ones taken will be “spiritual” Christians, all other Christians will remain through the tribulation.

Post-Tribulation Rapture

     Advocates of this view state that the church will be present on earth during the entire seven-year tribulation and that she will be raptured at the end of the seven years. The rapture will occur concurrently with the second coming of Christ, a single event separated by a few moments. Believers will meet the Lord in the air and in a few moments return with Him to the earth. The saints will not experience the outpouring of God’s wrath, it will be confined to unbelievers at the end of the tribulation period after the church has been removed.

Pre-Tribulation Rapture

          Those who hold to this position, this author being one of them, believe that the rapture of the church will occur prior to the start of the tribulation period. We believe that the first phase of His return is imminent, that no prophecy must be fulfilled for the rapture to take place, and that it will occur without any prior signs or warnings. The rapture of the church will bring the church-age to an end, allowing God to continue and finish His program for Israel.

 

Why the Pre-Tribulation Position?

     I will mention 9 reasons why I believe that the rapture will happen prior to the tribulation.

Christ Promised to Deliver Us

Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth (Revelation 3:10).

     Although the promise was made in the letter written to the church in Philadelphia, we can safely conclude that it refers to the universal church for the following reasons:

  • The verse is a reference to a future event.
  • The church of Philadelphia was destroyed and disbanded prior to this event taking place.
  • It was a letter to the universal church.
  • The hour of trial of which the Lord spoke was a trial that would come upon the whole world, not just the church in Philadelphia.
  • The word from (Greek, ek) means “out of.” So, what the Lord is saying is that He will “keep the church out of the trial that will come upon the entire world.”

Christ’s Imminent Return

     Imminent is another word for “at any moment.” There is no sign that we will be able to see or hear prior to His return for the church that will alert us to this event.

“An imminent event is one that is always hanging overhead, is constantly ready to befall or overtake a person, is always close at hand in the sense that it could happen at any moment. Other things may happen before the imminent event, but nothing else must take place before it happens. If something else must take place before an event can happen, that event is not imminent. The necessity of something else taking place first destroys the concept of immanency.”1

     There are many passages in the New Testament that clearly teach that His return can indeed occur at any moment:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near. Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door (James 5:7-9).

So that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:7).

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself (Philippians 3:20-21).

While we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).

     The signs of Matthew 24 (and other passages) were given to Israel concerning the second coming of Christ; no signs, however, were given to the church to anticipate the rapture (which means it will come suddenly). The church was told to live in the light of the imminent coming of the Lord to translate them in His presence (John 14:2-3; Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Timothy 6:14; James 5:8; 2 Peter 3:3-4).

The Church’s Exemption from the Wrath to Come

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10 KJV).

     Paul’s reference here is to the great tribulation spoken of by Christ in Matthew 24:21, from which the church will be delivered.

For at that time there will be great distress, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again.

     Jesus will deliver the church from the coming period of judgment and tribulation when God’s wrath will be poured out on the world that rejected His Son. This period is also known as “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:4-28; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Revelation 6:1-19:10).

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

     Not appoint us to wrath – Christians will be spared of the agony and tribulation occurring at the beginning of the day of the Lord.

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth (Revelation 3:10).

     Hinson and Hitchcock explain that,

“All three series judgments in Revelation 6–18 (seals, trumpets, and bowls) are manifestations of God’s wrath. The seal judgments, which take place at the very beginning of the tribulation, are initiated when Jesus breaks the first of the seven seals (Revelation 6:1). To suggest that the wrath of God is somehow limited to the last half, last one-fourth, or very end of the tribulation ignores the source of the seven seal judgments that commence the seven-year tribulation.

We believe the judgments of the entire seven-year tribulation period are a manifestation of God’s wrath unleashed against a defiant world. The judgment of God begins with the first seal that is opened in Revelation 6:1 and continues all the way until the second coming in Revelation 19:11-21. There are at least seven clear references in the book of Revelation to God’s wrath (6:17-18; 14:8-10; 14:19; 15:7; 16:1, 19; 19:15).”2

     The church is guaranteed protection. If you study the passage carefully, you will notice that Christ is not saying that He will preserve the church through the hour of testing , instead, protection will come in the form of the church being kept from the hour of testing. This form of protection would necessitate that the church be removed from this period of time, which clearly indicates that the rapture must occur prior to the start of the tribulation.

     The Church is the bride of Christ, the object of Christ’s love, not His wrath (Ephesians 5:25). It would be a contradiction of the very relationship of Christ and the church for the church to go through the punishments of the Tribulation.

 


1  David Jeremiah, Is This The End? (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2016), 247.

2  Ed Hinson and Mark M. Hitchcock, Can We Still Believe in the Rapture? (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2017; Database © 2018 Wordsearch), 141.

 

 All Scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

   Copyright © 2021 by Miguel J Gonzalez Th.D.

 

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