Chapter One of THE RAPTURE EXAMINED
AT thirteen years of age, I joined a Baptist church. I was already daily and systematically reading my Bible. My pastor taught, among other things, that all people who are in God's family will be raptured, caught up to be with the Lord Jesus before the Great Tribulation that will come on the earth about the time of the end. This was called a "secret rapture," and the idea was found in notes of the Scofield Reference Bible. This idea has been taught in most American Bible colleges and commonly has been accepted by students as a true Bible doctrine.
Because of my personal reading of the Bible, I knew about the return of the Lord Jesus before I heard sermons on the rapture. To an unbiased ear,the language of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew, Mark, and Luke speaks naturally of a rapture after the Great Tribulation. But my pastor saw it differently. He saw a rapture before the Tribulation.
What is the biblical basis for a pretribulation rapture? The words of Matthew 24 do not seem to suggest it. But if God said it, I wanted to believe it. So I looked in the text of the King James Bible to see if God said it. I could not find it there. In my college we used the American Standard Bible of 1901. It was not to be found there, either. In graduate school I was required to write an extensive paper on eschatology. In this research of "the last things," I could not find the pretribulation rapture in any translation of the Bible. This was my most significant and shocking discovery: that I would find respected people teaching me something that I personally could not support directly from the Bible, as well as something contrary to the natural meaning of the words of the Bible.
I continued to search for a Bible basis for the theory of a pretribulation rapture, because the fact that I could not find it in my Bible did not mean it was not there. I figured that other scholars more careful than I may have found it. I questioned several authors who had presented the theory in their books: "What is your biblical basis for a pretribulation rapture?" They all avoided giving a clear answer.
I questioned Dr. John Rice, a Baptist evangelist whom I greatly respected, and who accepted the pretribulation theory. He answered that nobody had to tell him this truth because he got it directly from the Bible. I pressed him for the specific chapter and verse. He finally admitted that he could not give specific scriptures to support it.
I checked other authors of pretribulation rapture books. One prominent author responded that he did not have time to discuss the matter. Another answered with impatience,"Check a concordance." Yet another man mentioned the names of prominent authors who teach the theory, and he affirmed to me that we can trust their scholarship. It seemed to me (and still does) that the question was (is) too important to trust to human opinions.
Then, in a book written by the man who may be the most prominent spokesman for the pretribulation rapture view, I found his statement that the Bible does not actually say that the rapture will precede the Great Tribulation.
This was my second significant discovery: that some who teach it as Bible doctrine admit that actully the Bible does not say it. This is a serious problem. I had assumed that real believers find the source of truth and the basis for correct doctrine in the Bible. In this question about the rapture, I was being asked to believe a doctrine that is not stated in the Bible.
Dr. George E. Ladd, author of "The Blessed Hope," correctly wrote that the early church fathers did not see the idea of a pretribulation rapture in the Scriptures.
In "The Apostolic Fathers," translated by J. B. Lightfoot, one cannot find the theory of a pretribulation rapture. Early Christians almost universally believed that the Church will suffer at the time of the end before the Church is removed from the earth. The "Didache," or "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," contains this information:
"And then the world-deceiver shall apear as a son of God; and shall work signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands; and he shall do unholy things, which have never been since the world began. Then all created mankind shall come to the fire of testing, and many shall be offended and perish; but they that endure in their faith shall be saved by the Curse himself. And then shall the signs of the truth appear; first a sign of a rift in the haven, then a sign of a voice of a trumpet, and thirdly a resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it was said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven. ["The Apostolic Fathers," translated and edited by J. B. Lightfoot (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, Fifth Printing, February, 1970), 129.]
Notice that, according to this document, the resurrection and the rapture of the saints will come after the "fire of testing," or the Great Tribulation. This statement indicates that the resurrection of that time will be for the saints but not for all the dead. Furthermore, this coming will not be a secret event but will be a spectacle for the world to see.
This was my third significant discovery: that the pretribulation rapture was not the belief of the early Church. Bishop Lightfoot assigned the "Didache" to the early infancy of a church, and he suggested a date of writing at the first or the beginning of the second century. Dr. Walvoord, a leading advocate of this questionable view and a former president of the Dallas Theological Seminary, wrote that the early Christians were confused. Does it seem likely that Chrstians living so close to the lifetime of the apostles knew less of what the apostles taught than modern Christians know nineteen hundred years later?
The new view of a pretribulation rapture appeared around 1830 in England, and it was spread by John N. Darby, a clergyman with the Plymouth Brethren. It was denounced by other Brethren like Dr. Samuel Tragelles, an eminent Greek scholar, who wrote that the new view not only adds to Scripture, but also contradicts it. [S. P. Tragelles "The Hope of Christ's Second Coming," Sixth Edition (Chelmsford, England: Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony), 64.]
My fourth significant discovery was that this claim, "the Bible does not actually say" is false. In fact, the very opposite is true. The Bible actually does say that the rapture of the Church will follow the Great Tribulation. That is why I am writing this book. I will seek to answer the "rapture question" directly from the pages of the Bible, as I will explain it in the pages ahead.
It is not helpful to debate terms like pretribulation, midtribulation, and posttribulation unless we agree on the definition of the expression, "Great Tribulation." The New Testament does not call the Great Tribulation the final Wrath of God. Instead, the Tribulation is portrayed as a time of widespread martyrdom of the people who will not worship the beast. It is not God who will kill the righteous, but Satan. This Tribulation will come before the rapture of the Church. From my viewpoint, commentators who do not acknowledge this evidence are left with a badly flawed eschatology, greatly reducing the value of their comments.
To find the proper definition of the Great Tribulation, see the chapter on the correct order of future events. This definition is not invented but rises directly from the Scripture.
It seems incredible that Christians resolutely hold to something that the Bible does not say. Can that properly be called teaching the Bible? Should we not question ideas for which we cannot give a biblical basis? Isn't caution appropriate in such cases? Must we be like the ancient idolaters who did not ask, "Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? ... Is there not a lie in my right hand? (Isaiah 44:20) The answer surely is that we must teach only that for which we find a clear biblical basis.
In "The End Times," by Dr. Herman Hoyt, he states that posttribulationism has had far greater acceptance within the Christian church than has pretribulationism. I do not know if that is so, but truth is not determined by popular vote. In proper exegesis we report what the Bible actually says. Otherwise Bible study becomes only a confirmation of our own views and presuppositions, which may be in error.
After a fifty year search, I can finally state with certainty that I have found no place in the Bible stating that the rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation. Those who disagree with this discovery are invited to help me out by either quoting chapter and verse or see what they come up with by further extending the search.
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