RESOURCES: The End of the Age as well as The Resurrection of the Dead and the Rapture
When the rapture will take place is one of the most contentious topics in Christendom. Some say it takes place before the end times begin, others say it is at the mid-point of the seven years, and still others say it is after the tribulation. And all sides use Scripture to support their mutually exclusive positions.
But of all the positions taken polling of Christian leaders indicate the pre-tribulation rapture belief is the most embraced. Probably the most basic reason why that belief is embraced the most is the fact that God’s wrath cannot touch any believer. Therefore, the logic goes, no Christian can be present when the end times launch because that is the time of God’s wrath. And there is certainly logic to this perspective.
One of the first things I think of each time this logic is presented by a proponent of the pre-tribulation rapture is that God is more than able to protect His children as His wrath pours down. Some good examples of this are the Israelites in ancient Egypt, Noah and his family during the flood, and Lot and his family. The typical response to such an objection is presenting the question of why He would want to leave believers here and then have to protect them. And why this question comes up I seem to always have a couple of other points pop into my mind.
First, why wouldn’t He want us here during that difficult time? Certainly as His wrath pours down the field for witnessing will expand wildly allowing for some of the greatest evangelism in the history of the church. Another thought is that witnessing believers during this time will be glorifying His name to the greatest degree in human history by loving not their lives unto death. Are not we created in order to glorify Him? Would He really remove us before the ripest time in world history to witness the truth of Jesus Christ as well as glorify Him?
But as daunting as those questions are in my mind in opposition to the notion of a pre-tribulation rapture, it is the words of the prophets that to me shut the door on any possibility of a pre-tribulation rapture. In fact, I count four prophets whose words eliminate it. Consider just one.
Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4 that 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. The point is not that there is a rapture as this is one of the Scriptures that support it, but that the dead will rise first. Only thereafter can the rapture take place. This simple fact shuts tight the door for a pre-tribulation rapture when reading Revelation 20.
In Revelation 20 there are three verses that focus on martyrs who refuse to worship the Beast after he declares himself a god at the midpoint of the seven year tribulation. Read the verse and notice how we are told these particular martyrs are included in the first resurrection of the dead.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Revelation 20
By calling it the first John tells us that there is only one resurrection prior to the thousand year reign of Christ. And yet martyrs unique to the second half of the seven years are included in it. This tells us that the resurrection of the dead does not happen until the second half of the seven years as it can’t happen earlier in order to include those martyrs.
Since this is the first resurrection meaning none before it, and it doesn’t happen until the second half of the seven years and not pre-tribulational, and Paul told us the dead must rise first and then the rapture, it is impossible for the rapture to take place before the second half. It’s simple logic.
Some try to say this John is really talking about the second resurrection for the Jews only. However, this places those people on thin ice. Because at the end of the Book of Revelation are two warnings. One is that anyone who takes away from Revelation God shall take away his part from the Book of Life. And anyone who adds to the word of Revelation God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. So those who remove first and add second and Jews to the verses appear to be in violation of both warnings.
This is one reason why I cannot accept the claims of a pre-tribulation rapture.
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