Part Five and the Final in a series of articles on the pre-tribulation Rapture of the Bride of Christ - I pray the reader will have gotten the answers they've needed by the end of this series...in Jesus Mighty Name
Among Christians - who believe in a rapture event - there are basically three schools of thought. The catching away before a time of trial called pre-tribulation, a belief in a partial experience of world wide persecution of believers culminating in a gathering of the Lord's elect near the three and one half year mark termed mid-tribulation, and the deliverance of the church at the end of the seven years period called post-tribulation. There are an abundance of reasons for the confusion, but in the interest of the reader's attention span and for the purpose of clear understanding, I will try to simplify these arguments. Since I subscribe to the first ideological viewpoint I will begin with the last and work forward, attempting to do away with the dogmatic and stick to the doctrinal.
Post-tribulation interpretation of the rapture has many theological problems but I will stick with the most obvious - the Magog versus Israel conflict. Most who subscribe to an 'after tribulation' view require the Magog conflict of Ezekiel 38 and 39 to occur after the tribulation period, during the millennial reign and give the following Scripture as their proof:
Revelation 28: 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom [is] as the sand of the sea.
However, this cannot be for one very important reason...timing. In context with the rest of Revelation 20 it is clear that this specific uprising of Gog and Magog will occur during the time in which Jesus Christ is physically reigning upon His throne in the city of Jerusalem, and Satan - who has been loosed from his bonds in the abyss for a short season - climbs up out of his hole to lead the nations of the entire earth who do not follow Christ, in one final rebellion against Him. One that will end in utter defeat, as one might imagine. In Ezekiel, though, we find that the Lord will use this first conflict to reveal His mighty hand to the nations of the world and to Israel - during a time when Messiah Jesus is not on the earth - and the defeat will appear to the world as a supernatural event. The nations involved are also significant evidence that this is a pre-reign attack, launched against Israel during the 'latter days,' as they are much more sparse in number. Rather than the entirety of global nations, only those Islamic neighbors surrounding the Jews will be involved in the confederation, with Russia (Rosh) as the exception. These are two completely separate events occurring a thousand years apart; the first happening just before the return of Christ and the latter, during His earthly millennial reign.
For the mid-trib believer, the argument is made that the church will experience persecution during the time of testing that the Lord brings upon the earth. They point to the many references to the 'saints' found throughout the book of Revelation.
The word saints occurs 96 times in 95 verses in the Holy Bible [at least in the KJV], 34 times in the Old Testament, 61 times in the New Testament - of which only 13 times is it found in the book of Revelation. Part of the conundrum in this theory is that it is found in chapters 5 - 20 in the Apocalypse - the period of testing or the tribulation - but not once during the first 3 chapters in which the words church or churches is used 20 times. Also, the word saint (Strong's #G40 ἅγιος from the Greek hagios - pronounced hä'-gē-os = most holy thing, a saint / set apart or reserved for God) is used to show that someone is redeemed by God without regard for their ecclesiastical association. Just as there are Old Testaments Saints and New Testament Saints, there will also be them that come to faith during the tribulation period who will also be called Saints. If this is the strongest argument for a mid-point rapture it is quite feeble. Yet, there is more. We see as aforementioned, that the tribulation period is a time of testing, a time of trying the hearts of men. This actually lends credence to the pre-trib viewpoint which I believe is the only possible and plausible explanation.
There are many more arguments for than against a pre-tribulation rapture (the 'against' are truly perceptive and not definitive) - many, many more - but, lets narrow it down to just what I consider to be the most evident and persuasive and Biblically persistent; consistently found elsewhere in Scripture including the words of Christ Himself:
Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
Revelation 3:10 'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that {hour} which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
If this weren't enough, we can see in the Pauline letters a not so subtle explanation of the time in which the rapture will occur. Described as the 'He that restrains' the Antichrist's unveiling, the Holy Spirit will be taken out of the way. Since the believer is married to Jesus and His Spirit is now bonded with a bond that no man can tear asunder, if He is taken out of the way so must the believer in which the Holy Spirit dwells. There is also a hint to the timing in these verses, alluding to the emergence of the Antichrist at the very beginning of the tribulation period when he strengthens the covenant with Israel and the nations for seven years - as foretold by Daniel the prophet; seen also in the book of Revelation as two periods of 1260 days or 3.5, 360 day lunar calendar years: (parenthetical notation mine)
2nd Thessalonians 2:3-12 Let no one in any way deceive you, for {it (the Day of the Lord / the Last Day) will not come} unless the apostasy (apostasia/apostasion = rapture) comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God (the abomination that causes desolation of Daniel 9:27 - quoted by Christ in Matthew 24:15), displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him (Antichrist) now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He (the Holy Spirit)who now restrains {will do so} until He is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one the Antichrist)will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; {that is,} the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
While the previous text is a very large chunk of Biblical meat to take in, it should be readily visible to anyone who reads it. What we see above is that the same event is described twice in slightly different ways, the former telling his audience that the final day will not come until the rapture occurs, then the revelation of the Antichrist, followed by the abomination that causes desolation and finally Antichrist's defeat, The latter, explaining that the Holy Spirit must be removed from the earth in order for the Antichrist to be revealed, then the same chronology of events unfolds.
Earlier, in the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul shows a division between the world and the church that also speaks to the rapture. Pay close attention to the they/them and the you/us/we/our :
1st Thessalonians 5:2-5 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you . For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you , brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; ....(verse 5:)For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
The time of testing, the tribulation period, is described time and again in the book of Revelation as the wrath of the Lamb or the wrath of God - which is judgment against sinful, wickedness. It is important to understand that the end of times leading up to the tribulation period is 'like labor pains' and sudden destruction is the event or events that will occur just prior to the revelation of the Antichrist on the world scene (as well as during the tribulation period) - when it will be beyond a shadow of a doubt who he is to them that will be saved during this time - which, as seen in the previous Scripture, cannot happen until the rapture - the removal of the 'He that restrains' or the Holy Spirit indwelt believers called the church and the Bride of Christ.
Many times Christ and the Pauline letters foretell of Christ's coming as being like 'a thief in the night.' Many gloss over this statement with a mere surface understanding, ascribing this to His second coming without getting the meat out of it. Ponder this, if you will. If Christ is coming as a thief, of course it will be at an unexpected hour, but a thief does not come and move into your living room and take up permanent residence. He arrives when you do not expect it, and takes away your most treasured possessions; in this case, the pearl of great price - the very pearl He sold everything He had in order to purchase. Then the thief is gone - taking His booty with Him, leaving the house burglarized and the inhabitants reeling from their loss feeling violated and full of remorse for not being aware.
Timing is everything and more so in this case. Sounds more like a prophecy of a hit and run than a come and stay, don’t you think?
Even so, Lord Jesus!! Come Quickly!!!
A final piece of information for those who, like myself, love etymological super-sleuthing:
Encarta World English Dictionary
(The word from which we get the word rape, rapere, is used to describe the catching away of the church in the Vulgate)
(4th usage)abduction: an act of seizing somebody and carrying him or her away by force (archaic)
The Latin word rapere "to seize," from which rape is derived, is also the source of the English words
rapacious,rapid,rapine,rapture,ravage,raven1,ravine,ravish,surreptitious, and usurp.
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
