Imminent Pre-tribulation Rapture

Many Bible teachers are still arguing about the Rapture of the Church. Is it going to be a pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation or post-tribulation Rapture? Let us search the Scripture and then look from the standpoint of God's love and wisdom and logic.

Biblical proofs of a Pre-tribulation Rapture

There are several proofs that the true Church will not pass through the Great Tribulation:

First proof

As true Christians, we are in Christ, we cannot be judged a second time. Our sins were judged at the cross of Calvary, borne by the sinless Savior. By offering His own body as a sacrifice, He made all who believe in Him justified and righteous before God.

The Great Tribulation is a seven-year period of the most dreadful nature that will come to those wicked people who rebelled against God and forsook the path of faith. If the Church were to pass through it, we would undergo a second judgment, as if Jesus' sacrifice were not sufficient to justify us, and that is impossible. Therefore the Holy Spirit will translate the Church before the Great Tribulation.

Second proof

We see a pattern of what will happen in the stories of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah. Let us look first at the time of Noah (Gen 6 - 8).

Following Noah's repeated cry that God would judge the world, the flood finally came and lasted forty days and forty nights. Just before that, however, He caused the eight members of Noah's family to enter the ark and escape the flood. Then came God's judgment.

Jesus said: "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matt. 24:37, NKJV).

God let Noah and his family escaped the flood by taking refuge in the ark before He judged the world. How much more will He make a way of escape from the Great Tribulation for those whom Jesus Christ bought with the price of His own blood and sealed with the Holy Spirit? It would be contrary to God's nature for Him to make no difference between His saints and the rest of the world, judging us the same as He judges them. A pre-tribulation Rapture is therefore, imperative.

Actually, both Noah and those who rejected his preaching were taken away. Noah and his family were taken away by the ark, borne up on the water (a picture, though not a perfect one, of the Rapture), and the wicked were taken away to death by the flood-waters of judgment.

Consider also Sodom and Gomorrah. Though Lot lived there by his own free will, yet God, knowing him to be a righteous man, spared the lives of Lot and his family when He rained down judgment. Lot and his family were taken out of Sodom by the angels (a type of Rapture), and after their departure to safety, God's judgment fell (a type of the Great Tribulation). Not until angels had led them safely away did He loose the fire and brimstones (Gen. 19:15 - 29). The pre-tribulation Rapture could not be depicted more accurately.

Thus God rescues those whom He has chosen and who have trusted in Him by faith. And so shall we who have been justified by the precious blood of Jesus escape the Great Tribulation.

Third proof

The fact that the Church is mentioned often in Revelation 1 - 3, but not once in Chapters 4 - 19, also suggests it will not pass through the Great Tribulation. If we were going to endure it, we would surely find references to the Church in those chapters. The word "saint" is used often, however, in those chapters. It may refer to people who become Chrsitians ofter the Rapture. At least by its silence, then, this portion of Revelation strongly suggests the Church will no pass through the Great Tribulation.

Forth proof

Jesus Himself indicated the Church will not pass through the Great Tribulation in Luke 21:

Jesus said: "But take heed to yourselves; lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and care of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:34 - 36).

Did Jesus say we should make preparation to pass through all the things that will happen to us? No. He said we must watch and pray so that we may escape all the things that will happen and to stand before Him.

Fifth proof

Paul said: "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thess. 2:3 - 8, emphasis added).

Here are some statements of truth:

1. The "Day" is the Rapture of the Church. It will only come after the "falling away" (the great apostasy) of the Church and the Antichrist is revealed (made manifest).

2. The man of sin or the son of perdition is the Antichrist. He will exalt himself above God.

3. The Church, being "a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22), is restraining the revelation of the Antichrist. God, the Holy Spirit is present in this world in a unique way that was not true before the Church was formed nor will be so after Church is removed in the Rapture. When the Church is taken to heaven, that special presence of the Holy Spirit will also be removed, though He will be here as God omnipresent as He eternally is throughout the entire universe. When the Church is taken out of the way (by Rapture), the Antichrist will be revealed. The period of reign of the Antichrist is the period of the Great Tribulation.

4. The Lord will destroy the Antichrist with the brightness of His coming - the Second Coming of Christ. This comes after the Rapture. Again this indicates that the Rapture comes before the Great Tribulation.


Sixth proof

In Revelation 19:14 - "And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses," we find Christ coming to earth with His armies at Armageddon to rescue Israel. Further description is in Ezekiel 38 and 39 and Zechariah 12 - 14. The bride of Christ is also clothed in fine linen (Rev. 19:8). So, there is every reason to believe that she, and the saints of all ages, comprises at least a large part of these armies. The bride and these saints of all ages could hardly be part of the armies in heaven had they never been to heaven. Nor could they accompany Christ from heaven had they not been taken up there previously. Again we find compelling evidence that the Rapture of the Church must take place some time prior to Armageddon.


The Rapture and the Second Coming are two separate events


The Rapture and the Second Coming are two distinct events - one occuring at the beginning and the other at the end of Daniel's seventieth week (Daniel Chapter 9). Christ must first of all come for His saints to rapture them to heaven, or He could never come with His saints from heaven to rescue Israel at Armageddon.


The Rapture will occur when least expected; the Second Coming takes place only after all the signs have been given and everyone should know that Christ is about to return in glory and power. The Rapture comes in the midst of peace (1 Thess. 5:3); the Second Coming in the midst of war (Rev. 19:11 - 21). One simply cannot put into one time frame and one event the mutually exclusive statements made in the New Testament Rapture and the Second Coming.


Many Christians fail to understand there are still two comings of Christ after His resurrection. It is true that both the Old Testament and the New Testament do not explicitly say so. But the conclusion was inescapable. The Messiah was not only going to reign, He was going to be killed. One could not put into one time frame and one event what the Old Testament said about the coming of the Messiah. Failure to understand the two comings cause multitudes to reject Jesus.


The same is true today: There are many who call themselves Christians who will end up following the Antichrist, thinking he is Christ. The reason for their confusion is basically the same as it was the first time Christ came. They will be focusing upon and even seeking to build an earthly kingdom and will be taken to heaven. Failure to understand the Rapture and the Second Coming are two different events separated by seven years lies at the heart of this confusion.


That these are two distinct events is also clear from Christ's own words: "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and recieve you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2, 3).


Paul said: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17).


That is what the Rapture is all about - Christ catching up His bride to present her to His Father. The Second Coming has an entirely different purpose - to rescue Israel in the midst of Armageddon and to destroy the Antichrist and his evil world empire.


More on the Rapture


Let us study more about the Rapture. Paul sid: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of and eye, at the last rumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51. 52).


We will soon depart from this old world of sin and sorrow! One glad day all true Christians will be caught up bodily and alive into heaven! The souls and spirits of those who had previously died believing in Christ, having been consciously with Him in the interim, will come with their Lord from heaven to rejoin their glorious resurrected bodies. Those alive at the time of His return, their bodies instantly transformed as will, will be caught up together with the saints of all ages to meet Christ somewhere above planet earth. From there He will personally escort this innumerable throng into the presence of His Father in heaven, as He promised.


The Church and the Antichrist cannot coexist on earth


The true Church would not tolerate the Antichrist for a moment. She would expose his identity, prove it from the Scripture, and oppose him. She would actively warn others and stand solidly in the way of the Antichrist and his diabolical machinations. Satan's plans through the Antichrist cannot go forward until the Church has been removed.


Furthermore, if the Church were persent during the Great Tribulation, she would be wiped out by the Antichrist. But that would not be allowed by God. He who protects the Church, who said: "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18), is the same One who gives the Antichrist the power to "make war with the saints and to overcome them" (Rev. 13:17).


The only way both to protect the Church and allow the Antichrist to kill all the remaining saints is to remove the Church. The remaining saints who are killed by the Antichrist are those who have previously rejected the truth but become believers in Christ during the Great Tribulation. They pay for their faith with their blood (Rev. 6:9 - 11; 7:14).


A post-tribulation or mid-tribulation Rapture would be a classic nonevent. There would be few if any believers in Christ to take to heaven. They would all have been killed, for such is the fate of those who refuse to take the mark of the beast (Antichrist) and worship his image. Submission to the Antichrist is the only way to stay alive during the Great Tribulation. For those, however, who take the mark of the beast and worship his image there is an even worse fate (Rev. 14:9 -11).


Finally, a post-tribulation or mid- tribulation Rapture removes an essential factor involved in the Rapture - Imminency. The Bible teaches that Christ could have come at any time in history. There is nothing to prevent Him from coming at this very moment!