A CLEARER VIEW OF THE RAPTURE
People who believe in a pretrib rapture say the saints in Revelation 7 are not part of the Church. They say the Church was was already raptured, in chapter 4. The Bible says nothing of a rapture in chapter 4. The saints in 6:10 were still waiting for the rapture. The pretrib brethren here add to the Bible.
Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 tells us that the parousia (coming) of Jesus is the time of the rapture. Matthew 24 is about the parousia (coming) of Jesus. It places the gathering of Jesus' saints at the rapture AFTER the Tribulation. That is clear.
Two hundred year ago a post tribulation rapture was the orthodox view among Christians. Today this view is held by many Presbyterians and Adventists but they hold to one single future coming of Jesus and do not see the rapture as being separate from the "second coming" which will punish the wicked.
Jesus said, "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." Matt. 24:36 (ESV) He was speaking of his "parousia," the time, according to 1 Thess. 4:15, when Jesus will gather the Church to rapture it out of this world.
The Holy Spirit tells us, "Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." 1 Thes. 4:17 (ESV) Why does it say "who are left"? It is because many believers will have died in the Tribulation. This event when the Church will be "caught up" is called the Rapture.
People wrongly apply Rev. 3:10 to the rapture. It tells one church out of seven, "I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world," But this is for only one church. Can it be that Jesus will rapture only one seventh of the churches? This verse does not even use the Greek word thlipsis, tribulation. No, this promise refers to the persecution under the Roman empire in the first centuries. But another church was told they will get the tribulation. 2:10
1 Thess. 5:9 (ESV) says “For God has not destined us for wrath." Does this contradict Rev. 13:7 (ESV) about the Beast? “Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,”
The Great Tribulation is not the same as the Wrath of God.
What is the rapture? The Greek word harpazo that is translated "caught up" is used in Acts 8:39 where it says, "The Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more." At the rapture, the Church will be carried away from the earth.
Many evangelical Christians today believe the rapture will happen before the Great Tribulation. They assume the Bible says so, even though "experts" like John Walvoord, Tim LaHaye, and Thomas Ice have said the Bible doesn't actually say so. The theory has no biblical basis and those who teach it are lying without realising it.
Why do so many Christians believe the pretribulation rapture theory? There is no passage of Scripture that demands this theory. It cannot be found in Matthew 24 where Jesus told His followers about His parousia. The chapter on its surface tells us the rapture will come after the Great Tribulation. Other passages say the same.
John MacArthur believes the pretrib error and he wrote that the Church is never asked to look forward to the Tribulation. He is wrong. Luke 21 is about the coming Tribulation and it says in Luke 21:35-36 (ESV) "For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. [36] But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
If the Church is to be raptured before the Tribulation, we would not need to pray to escape it.
John MacArthur wrote, "The day is still at hand. There are no other events that must occur on the prophetic calendar before Christ comes to meet us in the air." Again he is wrong. The Bible says about the parousia, the rapture, in 2 Thes. 2:3-4 (ESV), "Let 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, [4] who 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."
There are signs that will precede the rapture.
But the idea of a pretribulation rapture will endure until the very end. Jesus said that even after the tribulation has started, people will still be looking for Jesus. Matthew 24:23 says, "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not."
Jesus warned us in this chapter, "See that no one leads you astray." Corrie ten Boom said that Jesus here was warning against the pretrib rapture view. She may be right.
The widespread appeal of false views and the opposition to the true biblical view suggest that there are spirits that confuse the minds of men on this point. The net result is that there will be multitudes taken by surprise when the Great Tribulation arrives. In Luke 21:34 (ESV) Jesus said,
"But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down ... and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap."
Because many believers think we will be raptured first, this may result in some believers turning away from the faith. They will find the Tribulation has come upon them and they may think that God has lied. But God never said the rapture will come first.
Those who teach the pretrib rapture theory are building with "wood, hay, and straw," and the day of judgment will reveal that this is the case.... and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. [15] If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 1 Cor. 3:12-15 (ESV)
People who believe this heresy sometimes say they cannot find the Church in chapters 4 - 19 of Revelation. But they are blind, for it is there.
Sometimes in pretrib rapture literature I find a statement like this: "Nowhere in the Bible does it directly say that the Church will be raptured before the tribulation." That is true. But then when they say the same about a post tribulation rapture, that is false. The Bible does teach a post trib rapture. But if one has a mental block so he has already accepted the pretrib view, he cannot see God's truth. See my book, THE RAPTURE EXAMINED.
Those who hold to a pretrib rapture modify definitions to fit their theory. They adjust the definition of the word "church. The Church becomes for them the body of believers who live only between Pentecost and the pretrib rapture. They cut the Body of Christ into pieces so that the tribulation saints are not considered part of the Body. There is no biblical basis for this dismemberment.
Hebrews chapter 11 recounts numbers of saints in the Old Testament with emphasis on their faithfulness under suffering. It ends with the words in verse 40: "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." That word perfect can be translated as "complete." The Church would not be complete without those O. T. saints. It would be better to recognise that the Church is the whole body of redeemed humans who live at any time in history.
Pretribbers define the Great Tribulation as the Wrath of God. This is terribly wrong. In the Tribulation, those who will not worship the Beast will be killed by the Beast. Rev. 13:15 In the Wrath of God, those who do worship the Beast must be killed. Rev. 14:10
The Tribulation is a future time of persecution by Satan against God's people, whether the Church or the people of Israel. The saints who will die in the Tribulation will not be victims of God because the Tribulation is not the Wrath of God.
I expect the belief in a pretribulation rapture, part of dispensational eschatologly, will cause a great apostasy from the faith (2 Thess. 2:3) before Jesus comes again. Believers who find themselves in that awful time of trouble will think that God broke his promise of rapture and they will give up their faith.
Some folks assume that, since no man knows when, He could come at any time. But Matthew 24 tells us that certain things will happen before He comes at the parousia.
The idea that Jesus may return at any moment is called the precious doctrine of "imminency." This precious doctrine is not true. Reason says it is not true. Matthew 24:36 says that God the Father knows when Jesus will return. Jesus cannot return at any moment other than that point which is fixed in God's knowledge. Otherwise God's knowledge is defective. That cannot be.
The Bible tells us of things that will happen before Jesus returns, and some of those things have not happened.
Jesus cannot return until everything predicted by the Bible to happen before His return has actually happened. There has never been a time in history when He could have returned. Matthew 24 tells us some things that must happen first. People who are not careful students do not see these things.
Dispensationalists assume that "there are no prophecies left to be fulfilled before the rapture." This statement of personal opinion does not rise from careful exegesis of the Scripture. It is easy to disprove from the Bible for anyone willing to accept the normal meaning of the words of the text.
Now, at the end of my life, I have written four books on Bible prophecy. My aim is not devotional to improve your worship of the Lord, nor motivational to inspire to greater effort, but instructional to help you see truths which many teachers have obscured.
WHY THE THEORY OF A PRETRIB. RAPTURE IS NOT BIBLICAL
I first questioned the theory of a pretribulation rapture because I could not find it in the pages of the Bible. It certainly is not in Matthew 24. Years later I found passages that make the theory impossible, and that information is in my book, The Rapture Examined.
If the theory were true, it would have been in Matthew 24 where Jesus told His disciples about the future. But you cannot find it here. If a new and untaught Christian reads Matthew 24, he will know that Jesus said the Church must endure the Great Tribulation before He returns. That same Christian, when he has received instruction in a fundamental Baptist church, will be told the Bible doesn't mean what it seems to say.
If he believes it, it will be because he has never taken time to notice the verses that teach the rapture will follow the Great Tribulation. This book was written to bring some of these verses to the attention of the careful student of prophecy.
If the theory were true, it should not have taken eighteen hundred years for the Church to find it. When one reads the letters of John N. Darby, one finds that Darby called this theory a new idea. Darby is credited by some folks with discovering this "truth."
According to Isaiah 8:17, the Lord is "hiding His face from the house of Jacob," so Israel remains blind to the Messiah who has come. Has God struck blind most Baptist pastors so they do not see what He has written about the rapture? Or is the average pastor too lazy to search the Scripture?
Any pastor who teaches the pretrib rapture must disobey Jesus' command in Luke 21:36 (ESV) to "stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." One who beleves in a pretribulation rapture wouldn't pray to escape the terrors of the Tribulation because he falsely assumes the rapture will protect him from it.
The Bible does teach a "rapture" in the future for believers. Paul wrote, "we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." I Thess. 4;17 The meaning of the Greek word for "caught up" is seen in Acts 8:39, "the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip." One who is caught away does not immediately return to the place from which he was taken.
Paul wrote that the rapture will come at the parousia of Jesus. 1 Thess. 4:15-17, and Matthew 24 are specifically about the parousia. If the idea of a secret pretribulation rapture were true, it would be found here. It is not. Instead, this chapter clearly says Jesus will gather His elect after the Great Tribulation. Those who teach or believe in a secret rapture have added to the Bible.
Here is proof that so many fail to find. In 1 Thess. 4:15 Paul calls the coming of Jesus for the Church the PAROUSIA. In Matthew 24 Jesus explains what will happen in the coming parousia. Verses 29-31 show the gathering of the elect, the Church, after the Great Tribulation. The parallel passage in Mark 13 tells us the the elect will come from both earth and heaven. This is the time of the rapture.
Some folks teach that the rapture will be a secret event, unseen by inhabitants of the earth. This idea contradicts the Bible, which says it will be visible as the lightning. Matt. 25:27
Some folks say there will be no signs before the rapture, but the Bible says in Matt. 24:33 (ESV) "So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates." Jesus gave signs for the believer.
But those who teach an any moment secret pretribulation rapture CLAIM Matthew 24 IS NOT ABOUT THE RAPTURE. Such a view contradicts the Bible because verse 3 specifically connects the chapter to the parousia of Jesus. Anyone who knows Greek should see this. The pretrib. rapture theory ignores this fact.
Some pretribbers hold that the elect mentioned here are Israel returning to the land of Israel. But Jesus said, "Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." Matthew 24:42 (ESV) Who would call Jesus "Lord" if not the Christian? Those who assume a rapture before this have added to the Bible.
Mark 13:27 says some of the elect will be gathered from heaven. How could Jews be in heaven if they are not in the Church? Instead, these elect must be those of whom Paul wrote referring to the parousia, "even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." 1 Thes. 4:14 (ESV)
When I was in Bob Jones University, the sermons of Dr. John Rice were required reading for the preacher boys. Five times I wrote and asked him for the biblical basis of the pretrib. rapture idea. He could not give it. No one who believes this theory can give it. I asked Dr. John Walvoord the same question, and he said he was too busy. I read the literature written by those who held that view and the answer to this question was never given. Instead, he wrote that the Bible doesn't actually say.
Dr. Walvoord wrote that a man's ecclesiology will determine his eschatology. This means that a man's definition of the word Church will determine whether he believes the theory of a pretribulation rapture. This is evidence that belief in the theory does not rise naturally from the text of Scripture.
Tim LaHaye wrote, "no single verse specifically states Christ will come before the Tribulation to rapture the Church." What Mr. LaHaye does not seem to realise is that there are verses that demand the contrary view, that Jesus will come for the Church after the Great Tribulation.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia contains this statement about the Parousia, "the NT nowhere says that the rapture will take place at the beginning of or before the Great Tribulation ... the natural meaning of the relevant passages is that the Rapture will follow the Great Tribulation."
Do any passages require that the Rapture follow the Great Tribulation? Yes. Compare the following two passages.
1 Thes. 4:15-18 (ESV)
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming [the Greek word here is parousia] of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. [18] Therefore encourage one another with these words
Who will deny that this passage from Paul is about the rapture?
Matthew 24:3 (ESV)
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming [the Greek word here is parousia] and of the close of the age?"
Both passages are about the same event, the parousia of Jesus. It follows that Matthew 24 is about the rapture. Verses 29-31 place the rapture after the Great Tribulation.
The parousia here is the coming of Jesus to gather the Church, but the word means more than an arrival. It involves also the idea of remaining. Literally parousia means "being alongside" or "presence." Paul wrote of the parousia, "so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Recently I was talking with two men and I presented the post trib rapture view. Both men told me that I didn't need to tell them this because the Bible clearly teaches a post tribulation rapture. To them this is obvious.
The fact is that the idea of a rapture of the Church before the terrible Great Tribulation is a human invention that does not rise naturally out of the text of the Bible. The obvious meaning of Matthew 24 is different.
The idea that the antichrist will be revealed on earth after the rapture contradicts clear Bible passages. 2 Thes. 2:8 (ESV) reads, "And 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." The word "coming " is the Greek word parousia, which is the event when Jesus returns for His Church in I Thess. 5:15-17. So antichrist will be destroyed then, not revealed.
There are some fine people who are fundamentalists and who believe in a pretrib rapture. But I have wondered how some of them can hold false views even while reading the very scriptures that contradict those views.
I wrote to a fundamentalist paper, The Sword of the Lord, to ask for the biblical basis of the secret rapture theory. The editor sent me in reply a book on the subject. The book taught a false distinction, that at the rapture, Jesus will come FOR His Church, but at the glorious appearing He will come WITH the Church. And yet the book also promised a believer will see his deceased loved ones when Jesus returns. Thus the author contradicted himself, but still the paper continues, as far as I know, to push this defective book.
In 1938 I moved to a new (to us) church, and for the first time I heard the idea that the rapture is to be a secret event before the predicted Great Tribulation. Scripture tells us to "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." I found this doctrine of rapture before the Great Tribulation cannot be found in the Bible. There are predicted in the Bible certain events that must happen before Jesus will return to rapture His Church.
People often say that Jesus can return at any moment. If they mean that they do not know when He will return, that is true. But if they mean that there is no timetable, it is quite wrong. There is a timetable, and it is to be found in the Bible.
My book is an elementary study of Bible prophecy written to correct common misconceptions. It shows that Matthew 24 is about the rapture of the Church, the common sense meaning of the words of this chapter in Matthew. Those who deny this fact need to be more careful in their study.
In this book I show that the Old Testament predicted the rapture. It shows that the Great Tribulation is not the same as the final Wrath of God. Any interpreter who does not understand this elementary truth has no right to have an opinion in the matter of Bible prophecy.
This book shows how both the Old Testament and the New are consistent in teaching a posttribulation rapture. See my book, "The Rapture Examined" to consider those scriptures which specifically contradict the pretribulation rapture view. They make the "any moment" rapture theory impossible.
The normal meaning of the words of Matthew 24 teach a post tribulation rapture. The normal meaning of the words of 2 Thess. 2 teach a post tribulation rapture.
2 Thess. 2 mentions one who restrains until He is taken out of the way. This cannot be the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, how can the multitude of saints be in heaven who come out of the Great Tribulation, Rev. 7:14, if the Holy Spirit was not operating in them? If one is willing to accept what the Bible says and not add to it, for him a pretribulation rapture is not an option.
It may be that the restrainer is Michael, mentioned in Daniel 10:13 & 21.
AT THE RAPTURE, JESUS WILL REMOVE THE SAINTS FROM EARTH
Some folks assume that a post tribulation rapture view will include only one future coming of Jesus. But there are two. He will come first for the Church. He will come again to punish a world of unbelievers. See Rev. 11:15 and Rev. 19:11.
When Jesus returns for the Church at His parousia, at the rapture, will He then return again to heaven or will He remain on the earth to set up His kingdom? Consider some Scriptures.
Jesus said, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." John 14:3 (ESV) He will take us away from where He found us. Believers will not at that time remain on this earth.
"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." 1 Thes. 4:16-17 (ESV) Those who will be caught up will have left the place where He found them.
This meeting will be in the air above the earth. There is nothing here to say He will even touch the earth at this time.
The expression "caught up" used in this verse translates a Greek word meaning to seize, steal, snatch. The same word was used in John 6:15 (ESV). "Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force [snatch him] to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself."
The same word is used in Matthew 13:19 (ESV). "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path." So what had been sown is removed from that place.
The same word is used in 2 Cor. 12:2 (ESV) "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows."
The same word is used in Jude 1:23 (ESV). "Save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh." They will not be left in the fire.
The same word is used in Rev. 12:5 (ESV). "She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne ...."
The same word was used in "Acts 8:39 (ESV) "And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing."
These verses seem to require that at the rapture, the saints will not remain on the earth.
There will be two resurrections. The first is the time when the dead are judged, specifically God's servants, the prophets and saints. Rev. 11:15-18. John called this "the first resurrection." There is a later resurrection of all men according to Revelation 20:12-15. A thousand years separates these two resurrections.
Those who refuse the natural meaning of the words of Matthew 24 may say that the gathering of the elect predicted there refers to Jews, not the Church. That is faulty exegesis. Mark says some of the elect will come from heaven. How can they not be part of the Church?
The rapture is clearly located in the book of Revelation. It is not at chapter 4, but at chapter 11. This book shows biblical proofs for this fact.
Folks who hold the pretrib heresy sometimes ask "Where is the Church in Revelation chapters 4-19?" The Church is there, but when one looks through pretrib glasses, it becomes invisible.
Please notice that when the word ekklesia is found in the first three chapters, it refers always to local churches. But local churches cannot exist when the Beast is killing the saints. Rev. 13:7 It is the saints who compose the Church, so the Church exists on earth at that time.
"I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'" Rev. 7:14 (ESV) Those coming out of the Great Tribulation must have been in it. The Church will be in it.
Those who say these saints are not members of the Church must disbelieve the words of the Holy Spirit. "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— ...." Ephes. 4:4 (ESV)
Islam aims to obliterate the Christian Church. "All religions must disband and acknowledge that Allah is God and Mohammed is the last Prophet. Any method, any strategem, any agreement may be used to achieve this end. If teaching the youngest child that the infidel is to be hated and killed, then that is taught as a noble achievement."
WHY WE EXPECT TWO FUTURE COMINGS OF JESUS
Notice this: In Rev. 20:4-5 (ESV) we read "Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended."
"This is the first resurrection." This statement does not make sense if there is only one future coming of Jesus. The first resurrection is the time of the rapture. It includes the martyrs in the Tribulation period.
Realizing that there must be two future comings of Jesus, some folks speak of a Rapture coming followed by a Second Coming. The first coming gathers the Church to Christ, and the second coming punishes earth's unbelievers.
The pseudo-scholarship that teaches a pretribulation coming makes various mistakes. They commonly call the Great Tribulation the "wrath of God." Would God be killing these Tribulation martyrs? No, Satan would. It is not the time of the wrath of God, but of Satan. The wrath of God will begin around Rev. chapter 15.
They commonly teach that the antichrist will begin his work after the rapture. The rapture occurs at the parousia of Jesus, according to 1 Thess. 4:15. Paul wrote that the antichrist will be destroyed by the parousia of Jesus. 2 Thess. 2:8. If he will be killed at the parousia of Jesus, he cannot begin his work after the parousia, can he?
According to the Bible, the Church on earth will see the Antichrist before she sees the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is there so much ignorance among Christians in the area of prophecy? One clue was given by Billy Graham who estimated that eighty percent of church people have not had a second birth. 1 Cor. 2:14 (ESV) says "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." Their pastors are probably not much better.
The Olivet Discourse mentions several things that must happen before Jesus comes to catch up His Church. There will be frightful astronomical phenomena. Luke wrote of "the roaring of the sea and the waves." This reminds us of a recent tsunami that killed many thousands of people. Expect a repeat.
"People fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Luke 21:26 (ESV)
I found the following paragraph by Dr. Oswald J. Smith, former pastor of the famous Peoples Church. He listed some of the Bible scholars who reject the pretrib. notion.
"I have a list of nearly seventy Bible Teachers who have proclaimed this view of the [posttribulation] Return of Christ. Among them, in addition to those who have written the above books, there are such names as W. J. Erdman, Charles R. Erdman. Dr. Campbell Morgan, Bishop Frank Houghton, Dr. A. B. Simpson, Dr. J. W. Thirtle, Dr. Charles T. Cook, Alexander Reese, Dr. Horatius Bonar, Dr. Adolph Saphir, Henry Varley, Dr. Nathaniel West, David Baron, H. W. Soltau, Dr. Bergin, Dr. Harold J. Ockenga, and many others. To ignore the convictions of such spiritual leaders is impossible. Deference must be given to their views."
Others who reject the pretrib rapture include Jim McKeever, Peter Marshall Jr., and Dr. Charles Brokenshire.
We do not believe in a post tribulation rapture because Dr. Smith believed it or because Dr. John Barton Payne said it is the positon held by the early church. It was believed by Alexander Reese and by George Ladd and Robert Gundry, modern authors with some variations.
We believe it for two reasons: 1) The pretrib. view cannot be found in the Bible, and 2) the post tribulation view is taught in the Bible.
There is a logical error of petribulationists. We ask for just one or two verses that teach that doctrine. They reply with verses that actually say nothing of the kind, and they think we are perverse for not agreeing. Theirs is an error in logic. Instead of an exegesis that brings out the truth of a verse, they practice eisegesis. They read into the verse their own ideas and suppose they have thereby proved the point. They simply assume what they were asked to prove.
I regularly read a pretrib web site. They often give certain scriptures to support their viewpoint. Let's look at them.
1 Thess. 5:9: "God has not destined us for wrath..." Paul here says the ultimate destiny of the believer is not the wrath of God. But the Great Tribulation refers to the wrath of Satan, not of God. Rev. 13:7 specifically says the beast will have authority to conquer the saints.
1 Thess. 4:13-18 is a clear rapture statement, but it gives not a word that requires a pretrib. rapture.
Rev. 3:10 (ESV) says, "Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth." Under the Roman emperors at least ten times persecution against believers became intense.
Notice that the word "trial" does not use the Greek word thlipsis which is used for the Great Tribulation.
Notice this promise is given to only one out of seven churches, and not to the last one. So the message is restricted to only one out of seven. But St. Paul wrote, "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed ... " At the rapture, all the saints will be caught up. This verse in Rev. 3 says nothing about the rapture or about the Great Tribulation. But if one is willing to ignore the context, he will continue to sell a view that lacks a biblical basis.
Will any harm come to those who believe the theory of a rapture before the Great Tribulation? Yes. I expect that belief will help to cause the apostasy of 2 Thes. 2:3 (ESV) "Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, [the day of the parousia of Jesus, see v, 1] unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction ...."
This word rebellion translates the Greek word apostasia, meaning apostasy, defection, revolt. When people who profess faith in Jesus find themselves in the Great Tribulation, they will assume that God has failed to keep His promise of a rapture, and they will leave the faith. If believers lose their faith, the preachers who today teach false doctrine will have a heavy burden of guilt to carry.
Alert Christians see the number of mosques multiplying in the United States, and they know the time of the revelation of the Antichrist approaches.
In Islam, it is not how one lives one's life that guarantees spiritual salvation, but how one dies, ... Dying while fighting the infidels in the cause of Allah reserves a special place and honor in Paradise. And it earns special favor with Allah." according to a recent Pentagon briefing paper titled, "Motivations of Muslim Suicide Bombers
The Church is destined to pass through the Great Tribulation. The number of martyrs is called "a great multitude that no one could number." Rev. 7:9
A final section of my book tells how a person may receive salvation. 110 pages
Available for $8 from the author, comments welcome.
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