Going, Going, Gone. Three Theories About The Rapture PART 1

Tonight's Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

“Rapture” is not mentioned by name in the Bible but the concept is clearly taught in Scripture. The event when God removes all believers from the earth to make way for His righteous judgment to be poured out on the earth during the tribulation period.

Described primarily in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-54. God will resurrect all believers who have died, give them glorified bodies, and take them from the earth, along with the believers who are still alive, they also will be given glorified bodies. “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

The rapture will be instantaneous in nature, and we will receive glorified bodies at that time. “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

There are three theories about when the rapture will take place. Pretribulationism, Midtribulationism, and Posttribulationism. All supported by scripture, all rebutted by scripture. We will examine all in this series. The important issue is Jesus. Keep your eyes focused on Him and it wont make a difference when the rapture takes place.

The rapture is the glorious event we should all be longing for. We will finally be free from sin, in God's presence forever. There is far too much debate over the meaning and scope of the rapture. This is not God’s intent. God wants us to “encourage each other with these words” The words of tonight’s scripture reading. (1 Thessalonians 4:18) “Therefore encourage each other with these words.”



PRETRIBULATIONISM:

Pretribulationism teaches that the rapture occurs before the tribulation starts. The church will meet Christ in the air, sometime after that the antichrist is revealed, then the tribulation begins. In other words, the rapture and Christ’s second coming (to set up His kingdom) are separated by at least seven years. According to this view, the church does not experience any of the tribulation.

Scripturally, the pretribulational view has much to support it.
1.) the church is not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 & 5:9)
2.) believers will not be overtaken by the Day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:1-9)
3.) The church of Philadelphia was promised to be kept from “the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world” (Revelation 3:10)

Note: The promise is not preservation through the trial but deliverance from the hour, i.e., from the time period of the trial.

Pretribulationism also finds support in what is not found in Scripture. The word “church” appears nineteen times in the first three chapters of Revelation. The word is not used again until chapter 22. In entire description of the tribulation in Revelation, the word church is noticeably absent. In fact, the Bible never uses the word "church" in a passage relating to the tribulation.

Pretribulationism is the only theory which clearly maintains the distinction between Israel and the church and God’s separate plans for each. (Daniel 9:24) "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.. A decreed upon Daniel’s people (the Jews) and Daniel’s holy city (Jerusalem). This prophecy makes it plain that the seventieth week (the tribulation) is a time of purging and restoration for Israel and Jerusalem, not for the church.

Pretribulationism has historical support. John 21:22-23 Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?" It would seem that the early church viewed Christ’s return as imminent. The rumor would not have persisted that Jesus would return within John’s lifetime. Imminence is incompatible with the other two rapture theories. A key argument of pretribulationism.

The pretribulational view seems to be the most in keeping with God’s character. Biblical examples of God’s salvation include Noah, Lot, and Rahab, who was delivered from Jericho.
(2 Peter 2:6-9) “if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.”

One perceived weakness of pretribulationism is its relatively recent development as a church doctrine, not having been formulated in detail until the early 1800s. Another weakness is that pretribulationism splits the return of Jesus Christ into two “phases”, the rapture and the second coming, the Bible does not clearly indicate any such phases.

Another weakness is the fact that there will obviously be saints in the tribulation (Revelation 13:7, 20:9) 13:7 “He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.” 20:9 “ They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.” Pretribulationists answer this by distinguishing the saints of the Old Testament and the saints of the tribulation from the church of the New Testament. Believers alive at the rapture will be removed before the tribulation but there will be those who will come to Christ during the tribulation.

A final weakness of the pretribulational view is shared by the other two theories: 1.) the Bible does not give an explicit time line concerning future events. 2.) Scripture does not expressly teach one view over another. That is why we have diversity of opinion concerning the end times and some variety on how the related prophecies should be harmonized.

Next week we will look at Midtribulationism. Remember, keep your eyes focused on Jesus and it will not make a difference when He returns. These are theories and are good for conversation. Don't allow yourself to be so fixated on the subject that you loose your focus. Till next week may God Bless you and yours.