By Elizabeth Prata
Believers of the Church Age will not go through the Tribulation. Let’s define the Tribulation period and the word wrath to help understand what this unique event and time period is for. Here are the verses:
The Tribulation’s purpose is stated in Daniel 9:24. God’s purpose for the Tribulation is to accomplish 6 things. It is actually a decree:
Continue reading “The Rapture will occur before the Tribulation”I’ve written many times from a biblical standpoint that the rapture will happen before the Tribulation. Church Age believers living in this present Age of Grace will not go through the Tribulation. The Tribulation’s purpose is for the salvation of Israel, not the refining of the Bride. (Jeremiah 30:7, Isaiah 45:17).
Here are some of the links of previous writings on this topic:
More on the rapture will be pre-tribulation, from John MacArthur
Why the rapture is biblically pre-tribulation.
Why pre-tribulation rapture is doctrinally correct
Thirty–Six Pre-Trib Rapture Texts
Pre-tribulation rapture in the Old Testament
More on why the rapture will happen pre-tribulation
The differences between the Rapture and the Second Coming
LOL, I think you can see that I am passionate about the topic. That is because it pains me to see people needlessly worry. It hurts to know people may be stocking up instead of looking up. It is all so unnecessary.
Anyway, here is another thought for you.
In the New Testament at the end of His time on earth, Jesus told the Church to go and make disciples. He charged the church with evangelizing the world.
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20).
Originally, the Jews were supposed to be the evangelizing vehicle for His name. (Isaiah 42:6). However, they turned to idolatry, became insular, and so He cut them off for a while and selected a new people for His name who would be grafted into the original vine and be the light to the Gentiles. (Acts 13:47, Romans 11:11, Romans 11:24). This is the church age. The church is the vehicle He is currently using to bring salvation to the lost peoples.
During this Age, He has partially hardened the hearts of the Jews while He is building His church. He will continue to do this until the number He has ordained to complete the church has come in. (Romans 11:25). Then the rapture will happen.
But what about evangelizing, the Great Commission? Who brings the Light to the Gentiles, then? If the Tribulation is a return to working on His people the Jews, as it is, then His original commission also re-ignites. Who does Jesus tell to evangelize the world during the Tribulation? The Jews. 144,000 of them. (Revelation 7:4).
Why?
Because the church is gone. He is returning the original commission back to the tribes of Israel. They are his first fruits of which Zechariah prophesied. (Revelation 14:4, Zechariah 12:10). The Tribulation is about ISRAEL, in every respect. (Daniel 9:24-27).
If you read all of Romans 11 in context and go through Zechariah it will widen your perspective. God is always at work. It is amazing to read what He has done and what He plans to do, by reading both the New Testament and the Old. My voice isn’t loud enough to proclaim all His goodness and wonders! But I will still try!!
“Chicken! Bwaawck bwaawck bwaawck!” Children on the playground pretend to be tougher than they are, and taunt others into doing deeds which are in effect, kind of dumb or downright dangerous. Kids don’t like to be called chicken, or be to be seen trying to get out of a punishment that all his mates are enduring.
These kind of puffed up playground games are just that, children’s games. However, a new kind of game in the sandbox of theology is emerging and that is the ‘bwaack bwaawck bwaawck! You’re too chicken to go through the Tribulation’ game.
Post-Tribulation doctrine believers, or believers who are not sure which stance to take on when the rapture will take place in relation to the Tribulation, level an accusation against Pre-Tribulation believers. They say that we are either chicken, or not a strong Christian, or have some kid of pride to even think we will escape all these things. (but we will … says Luke 21:36).
Theirs is wrong thinking. It actually is a kind of perverse, reverse pride in itself, something I’ll explain in a moment. I’d like to address several of the misunderstandings that a person who thinks these things betrays.
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| Chris Koelle, Book of Revelation, Graphic Novel |
But first, to make something clear, far from being angry or upset that a person isn’t fully understanding of the biblical reasoning behind a pre-Tribulation doctrine, I am sad for them. It must be very scary to think that they are going to enter the worst time on earth where billions will die horrible deaths. But in these people who level sandbox charges of an ad hominem flavor, I ask for moderation and patience from you.
Now, in my opinion, a person charging pride or arrogance or chicken-ness in stating one will be removed prior to the Judgments, labors under one or more of the several following misunderstandings. They either-
-misunderstand what pride is,
-misunderstand what the Tribulation is prophesied to accomplish,
-misunderstand the Church Age believer’s position before Christ, or
-have a false or superficial understanding of just how bad the last 7 years will be.
First, what is pride? We already know that God hates pride (Proverbs 8:13). We are not talking about the kind of pride we feel about a job well done. The kind of pride God hates is pride that stems from self-righteousness. This is a sin, and God hates it because it is a obstacle to seeking Him. Pride is seeking satisfaction in something we have accomplished, instead of seeking to be weak so He will be strong in us. That kind of pride is giving ourselves the credit.
Having arrived at a doctrine via prayer and diligent study and which is supported biblically is not pride. It is study. As GotQuestions defines biblical study:
“First, through prayer and humility, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to give us understanding. Second, we should always study Scripture in its context, recognizing that the Bible explains itself. Third, we should respect the efforts of other Christians, past and present, who have also sought to properly study the Bible.”
I have done these things and I arrived at an understanding of when the rapture will take place. I am comfortable in my understanding and I adhere to it, because it makes sense in the large scheme of things- and by that I mean from Genesis to Revelation. (As a commercial for the bible- Genesis and Revelation are marvelous bookends, one is controlled Creation with a forward-looking redemptive intent and the other is controlled UNcreation with a backward-looking redemptive intent). I have a biblical response to support my Pre-Trib stance.
The second misunderstanding a person often has is a misunderstanding of what the Tribulation is prophesied to accomplish. The pre-church age and the current church age are different. Before the Church Age began (which started at Acts 1:8) God was working through His people the Jews to bring the message of salvation. As the blog Compelling Truth states,
“They were chosen as a nation to receive instruction on Who God is and how to worship Him. Their mission was to embody this knowledge by obeying the laws God gave them and spreading the truth about God to other nations. Since God chose Israel as a nation, His blessings and their obedience were to be on a national scale.”
However, the Jews rebelled, and they rejected their Messiah. The mystery then became that Jesus was going to use the Gentiles to bring His message. (Ephesians 3:6, 9, 11). He partially hardened the hearts of the Jews so that they would become envious. (Romans 11:7, 11).
“But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!” (Romans 11:12)
But make no mistake, God will release that hardening when the full number of the Gentiles comes in (Romans 11:25) and then His work with the Jews will resume. From the cross until now, He has set Israel aside in the timeline of things, in a 2000 year pause. This was so that He would build His church. That pause is noted in Daniel’s prophetic timeline, a chapter also called the Prophetic Clock and the Seventy Weeks of Daniel.
This was a very broad summary of the complex and wondrous plan of God regarding His people the Jews and His people the grafted-in Gentiles. But understanding that God has a plan for each, and that plan is not the same, is critical to understanding what the Tribulation is due to accomplish. So, what exactly is God planning, and why? The what is mainly contained in Revelation, though parts of what is going to happen are scattered throughout the entire bible (Ezekiel, Zechariah, Joel, etc). The why is in Daniel 9:24.
Again, Daniel 9 and verse 24 has the specifics:
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“The prophecy contains a statement concerning God’s six-fold purpose in bringing these events to pass. Most scholars believe that we are now living in a huge gap between the 69th week and the 70th week. The prophetic clock has been paused, as it were. The final “seven” of Daniel is what we usually call the tribulation period. Verse 24 says the seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thine holy city, 1) to finish the wickedness, and 2) to seal up the sins, and 3) to reconcile the iniquity, and 4) to bring in everlasting righteousness, and 5) to seal up the vision and prophecy, and 6) to anoint the most Holy.”
Note that the main intent is to resume dealing with Daniel’s people (the Jews) and the holy city (Jerusalem). The Tribulation focus is NOT THE CHURCH. Of course, all sinners who are left behind in the Tribulation will be part of the effects of His dealing with the Jews, and one of His intents is to stop sin globally, but the part the church plays in Hie eternal plan will have been accomplished when “the full number comes” in. (Romans 11:25).
In one sense, it is prideful to think that the church is the focus of everything all the time. It isn’t. We are a special blessing, and we are His bride, but He will return to working with His remnant the Jews during the last 7 years. It is their time, not ours! And that is to the glory of Christ, who will see His people finally mourn the One that they pierced and accept Him as their Messiah! They will come to accept Jesus as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10). God will restore their relationship with Him (Ezekiel 11:17).
The third kind of misunderstanding a person shows when they charge a Pre-trib believer with pride or arrogance or cowardice for their beliefs is a misunderstanding of who we are in Christ. As Daniel’s verse explains, 3 of the 6 purposes of the Tribulation are to deal with sin. Though I pasted the verse above, here is what the NLT says-
“A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.” (Daniel 9:24 NLT)
However, those in the Church have a position before God: clean. (Revelation 19:8; Revelation 3:4; Isaiah 64:10). He has forgotten our sin. (Hebrews 8:12). They were nailed to the cross. (Colossians 2:14). He remembers them no more. (Hebrews 10:17). Why would He keep us on earth to punish us for our sins when according to Him, our sins are as far from the east as the west? (Psalm 103:12). If He keeps the Church, His Bride, on earth to punish us for our sins, then all those other verses become lies.
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| “Robe of Righteousness” by Lars Justinen |
No, our position before Christ is clean, arrayed in White linens, the robe of righteousness. He is not going to drag His clean and washed Bride through the mud of the Tribulation to punish our sins. Our sins are finished. The sin of the Jews is not.
As an aside, oftentimes people make the mistake of using the word Tribulation as a general term for trials or trouble. The two words are different. Of course Christian people throughout the ages have endured trials or tribulations. But THE Tribulation is altogether different. The word that the Gentiles use comes from Matthew 24:9. In Matthew 24:9 Jesus did say “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” But the official term for the 7-year time period is “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” (Jeremiah 30:7). It is also known as The Day of the LORD.
Saying that THE Tribulation is the same as general tribulation is like saying that THE Antichrist is the same as an antichrist mentioned in 1 John 2:22. The pockets of persecution Christians have endured since the beginning are definitely not the same as the worldwide testing with a 6-point plan that the entire inhabited world will endure at the end of time. (Revelation 3:10). In the former, glory was brought to Christ via the deaths of the martyrs and the effect was to spread the Word. In the Tribulation/Time of Jacob’s Trouble, it is not glory but punishment and the effect is that the saints will be wearied (Daniel 7:25) and eventually overcome. (Revelation 13:7) so that satan’s sin will be made full.
As for the perverse, reverse pride in saying that a saved person of His church will go through the Tribulation, John MacArthur spoke to that.
“If a person comes along, and this is popular today, there are a lot of people who…who wanna go through the Tribulation. It’s become…got sort of a martyr complex, you know? In a very mechanized society and a…and very high-powered society and a very…a very easy kind of existence, a lot of people would try. They kinda think it’s neat to go through the Tribulation, and they see the movie about thief in the night, and they can see themselves running from the beast and all this intrigue; … sometimes I’ll listen to a Christian…those Christian television programs, and they’re talking about, “Well, you know, I’m not convinced that we’re going to be taken out. I think we may go through it…” you know, and it’s all very dramatic. Listen, folks, well, I don’t wanna be there. It doesn’t sound good to me at all. If I have my choice of being here with the beast, to be in Heaven with Jesus, it isn’t even a question.”
A person who even dares to think that they can withstand a moment of the Tribulation is wildly self-deluded. I say this lovingly but pointedly- the last 7 years will be hell on earth. The Holy Spirit will not restrain men from their evil inclinations. Everything will be happening. Child slavery, perverse molestation, bestiality, violence and gore unparalleled. Demons will chase you, the ground will collapse under your feet, the volcanoes will be going off, and probably Yellowstone’s supervolcano too. Half of America will be blown away. Sulfur will rain down from the sky. The sun will burn you to a crisp and there will be no water to drink. You will be cold, hot, hunted, starved, lonely and grossly diseased. And that will be just the first half. The second half will be worse.
Jesus said that it will be the worst time on earth that ever was or will ever be again (Matthew 24:21). You think you can withstand that? Half of the stricken cruise ship Carnival Triumph had a bunch of whiny babies on it that didn’t last 3 days before they turned into savages grabbing for the last lobster. You do not want to withstand 7 years of hatred and being stalked tot he death!! You most likely cannot. Most will not. The Holy Spirit will not be indwelling you to aid you in resisting sin, so you will not have His help there. If they are beating up innocents now just to see them bleed, and raping 100 year old women, what do you think they will do when the RESTRAINT is gone!?!?
They are going to tear out your eyes with their fingernails just to hear you scream, and get bored halfway through and wander off to do something worse to the next person.
No, I know I do not want to be here. Yes, I am a chicken. I am scared of all that. Any sane person would be. Call me chicken, I am. I am strong enough to know my weakness. I am low enough to know my high position before Christ.
I also know that through years of prayer, study, and a contextual understanding, Jesus is going to call His bride home and consummate His long-awaited reunion. We will finally be called Wife!
“Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
If you want to be punished, that’s your thang. If you think you’re strong enough to withstand hell come to earth, go for it. If you want to fling sand my way, go ahead. But please refrain from extra-biblical emotional remarks because after all, you’re the Bride too. We are one in Christ. I love all my brethren, even the ones with a martyr complex 😉 And I hope you would love me too, the big chicken 😉
Or maybe, we can simply share what we believe and why from the bible, and love on each other without the sandbox games?
Revelation 3 is a letter to the Laodicean Church, and Jesus has nothing good to say about them. He says that He would rather they be cold or hot, but they are lukewarm, saying they are rich and in need of nothing. Jesus knocks at the door, but they do not open. He tells them that since they are neither hot nor cold, that He will vomit them out of His mouth.
He is not saying that He will vomit Christians out, because once we are saved not even the devil can snatch us out of Jesus’ hand, (John 10:28) but He will spit out lukewarm believers. In other words, lukewarm people are those who talk the talk, but never really repented to walk the walk. They make a show of Christianity, but Jesus knows their true spiritual condition, and it is an unrepentant sinner. Belief never reached the heart.
I mentioned the other day on Saturday’s prophecy newsletter, (email me if you want to sign up) that I find it harder to talk with lukewarm Christians than cold atheists. The most common response I get when talking to CHINOS (Christians In Name Only) when I mention prophecy, the rapture, or end times, is “Oh, we don’t know the day or time…” and with a wave of the hand they dismiss all prophecy. Do NOT let them get away with it!
Prophecy is incredibly important. It comprises almost 30% of the entire bible, Old and New Testaments. One could summarize the Old Testament as ‘faith and the promise of a future Messiah’, and the New Testament as ‘salvation and the promise of future judgment’. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 specifically urges us not to despise the prophesies “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”
No, we do not know the day or the hour, but too many real and fake Christians use that as an excuse not to study prophecy at all. At this late point in God’s timeline, the prophesies left to be fulfilled are all about sin and judgment, and that hits too close to home for too many wobbly Christians, and certainly too close to home for Christians In Name Only. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not knowing the season: “Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” (Matthew 16:1-3)
When the disciples asked what would be the signs of the end of the age, He gave a long and specific answer. (Matthew 24:1-51; Luke 21:5-38), Mark 13:1-37). Revelation is a letter describing what will happen to the ungodly, unrepentant, unredeemed at the end of the age. It is also the only book that blesses the one who reads it. (Rev. 22:7). Jesus placed a great deal of emphasis on end time prophecy. Why anyone would turn their back something our God thinks is important is beyond me.
When Paul says “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” I am also not ashamed. I’m not ashamed of any part of the Gospel. The flip side to God’s Holiness is judgment. The flip side to the cross’s salvation is unredeemed sin. I am not ashamed of any part of what is in the bible, and you shouldn’t be either. CHINOS and others attempt to paint a taint onto prophecy, marginalizing it to something less important, less savory. It is not. It is the fulfillment of all that God is, all that He has shown of Himself to us. It is something to cling to, it buttresses our faith and gives us the next pictures in our walk that we clamor for and are blessed to read. Stand firm in your prophetic studies. At the end of his life, Paul said,
“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day–and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). We are near the end. Keep proclaiming, Keep studying.Keep longing. And keep looking up!
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Believers of the Church Age will not go through the Tribulation. This statement is not an opinion. It is decree from God. Anyone who firmly believes the Church will go through the Tribulation is twisting verses. Further, anyone believing the Church will go through the Tribulation has an incomplete understanding of what the Tribulation is all about. Here are the verses:
The Tribulation’s purpose is stated in Dan 9:24. God’s purpose for the Tribulation is to accomplish 6 things:
Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to:
1. finish transgression,
2. to put an end to sin,
3. to atone for wickedness,
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. to seal up vision and prophecy and
6. to anoint the most holy.
First, the verse begins by stating it is for “your people,” the Jews. Not the church. It is stated for Jerusalem, (and wicked unbelievers by extension). Not the church. The transgression to be finished was the prophesied 490 years of a decree stated in Daniel 9:25:
“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
The starting point of that decree began in Artaxerxes given in 444 b.c. as recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8. It paused at the crucifixion of Jesus. It will resume the last 7 years of this earthly existence, after the rapture. It is a time when the Jews will be dealt with, God picking up the threads of a work begun at the decree of Daniel.
Second, believers in the church age have had our transgressions is already put an end to. We are considered righteous with Him, made perfect, our sins nailed to the cross. (Heb 12:23; Col 2:14). So that takes care of #1 and 2 and 3. Jesus atoned for our wickedness and our repentance clears the judgment against us. Why would Jesus die to make us perfect, we are seen as righteous in His eyes, only to be punished for sins already wiped away? Makes no sense. It makes God contrary and inconsistent, and He is not that!
Third, Paul said we are not appointed for wrath. (1 Thess 5:9). The “wrath” is not that God is really, really mad. It’s not an emotion. It is punishment and it is controlled and it has a purpose (see above, again). It has a designated beginning and an end. Rev 6:17 declares that His wrath has begun (with the seals opened) and Rev 15:1 concludes it. The church is seen in Rev 5 in heaven already (singing!), and a reasonable interpretation of Rev 4 shows our arrival. Revelation is mostly chronological and we arrive in Heaven prior to Rev 6 when the wrath begins.We are not only not appointed for it, but He promises to rescue from it.
“They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thes. 1:9-10).
Fourth, Paul wrote: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess 13-18). The Second Coming shows Jesus returning all the way to earth. But that is not where we meet Him. We meet Him in the air. When? Prior to our return with Him in Rev 19:4.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3).
“For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.” (Psalm 27:5)
The Holy Spirit spent a tremendous amount of energy and words encouraging us to look for Him, telling us we won’t be here, and blessing us for longing for His appearing. Therefore, we will not be here. It is not an opinion, it is a promise of GOD! 🙂 You can bank on it, rest on it, and declare His glory through it!
Have a wonderful day and blessings to you!
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1 Thes. 4:15, right at the beginning of the Rapture passage, verse 15 opens with the phrase “According to the Lord’s own word.” Here’s the whole rapture scenario from verse 15-18:
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Well, WHAT ‘Lord’s own word? Paul was referring to the Old Testament, because he was revealing the mystery of the rapture for the first time, and the Gospel of Matthew hadn’t been written yet, or if it had just been written was not widely disseminated yet. So Paul meant the Old Testament. It’s in Isaiah:
Isaiah 26:19-21. “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins.”
More explanation here.
I didn’t make up the rapture doctrine. It’s “by the Lord’s own word!”
the-end-time.org 