Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

Last Sunday we continued and completed our Focus Study on the timing of the rapture. We will jump back into studying the text of Revelation next time.

This class became a question and answer session — with a whole lot of discussion! Our class represents a wonderful mix of viewpoints on this topic. Many questions were asked to challenge my belief that the Bible teaches that rapture comes after the tribulation.

Here are the questions:

1. Does it all really matter? Won’t what happens happen anyway?
2. Are you actually teaching that Jesus could not come at any time and that certain things have to happen before He does come again?
3. What about the Bible passages that say Jesus could come at any moment (Jesus’ “imminent return”)?
4. Doesn’t this view hurt our witness? We can no longer tell people that they need to get right with God because Jesus could come at any moment.
5. How do you reconcile the fact that most scholars and Bible teachers teach a pre-tribulation view of the rapture? How is it that they could all be so misguided?
6. Are there any major scholars, commentators, preachers, etc. who believe in a post-tribulation rapture?

I love conversations like this because I learn a lot and clarify my own thinking! I’ll post the questions and answers below.

First let me encourage you to add comments to articles on this blog. The “comment” feature provides a place for you sound-off with supporting or opposing views, ask questions, and interact — not only with me, but with others who read this blog. Comments can be simple, but they can also become on-line conversations. That’s what they’re for!

Just click the “comments” link at the end of each article to add your own.

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Following is a unified timetable from our study in Part 2. I handed it out in class, so I’m making it available here as well:

A Unified End Times Timeline based on Matt. 24-25, 1 Cor. 15, 1 Thess. 4, and 2 Thess. 2

Matthew 24:1-35 Many will come in Jesus’ name and deceive many Wars and rumors of wars Famines and earthquakes Christians persecuted and killed Many turn away from the faith Many false prophets Gospel preached to all the world The rebellion occurs The Antichrist is revealed and sets himself up as God Satan’s work will be displayed in counterfeit miracles God will send a delusion so people who do not believe the truth will believe the Antichrist All will be condemned who do not believe the truth The Great Tribulation Jesus overthrows the Antichrist Jesus will come again - All will see it Jesus sits on His throne Sun and moon darkened, stars fall from the sky, heavenly bodies shaken (the 6th seal) Archangel voice The last trumpet will sound Everyone gathered before Him He will separate the sheep from the goats Dead Christians are resurrected and made imperishable Living Christians are raptured and made immortal The righteous will go to eternal life The “goats” will be cast away from Him and into Hell The unrighteous will go to eternal punishment Death destroyed Jesus made subject to the Father

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Now for those questions and answers!

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1. Does it all really matter? Won’t what happens happen anyway?

A: There is some truth to that, but it’s a truth that can deceive you. Jesus will come when He comes, and those who belong to Him will be taken to Heaven.

But here’s how ignoring the facts of His return can deceive you:

If it is true that certain things have to happen before Christ comes again — and if you don’t believe anything has to happen before He comes — then you could be susceptible to believing in false Christs.

You may not think you would be that gullible, but Jesus plainly said, “false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect–if that were possible. So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time” (Mark 13:22-23).

Jesus warned even those who personally knew and ministered with Him that they needed to be on their guard so they wouldn’t be deceived by false Christs and people falsely prophesying about Him.

According to the verses above, He “told them everything ahead of time” so they would “be on their guards” and not be deceived. I encourage you to read what came right before this in Mark 13 to find out what He told them ahead of time to prevent them from being deceived. You’ll find that He told them very specific things that needed to happen first.

This deception of Christians already happened in the days of Paul’s ministry. In his first letter to the Thessalonian church (1 Thessalonians), Paul got them all excited about the resurrection and the rapture (1 Thess 4:13-18). But that excitement caused them to be gullible and set them up for deception. That’s why Paul gave additional detail in his second letter. He wrote:

“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come” (2 Thess 2:1-2).

Then he let them know plainly that the day of the Lord could not have already come because certain things had to happen first that hadn’t happened yet:

“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction” (2 Thess 2:3)

The Thessalonians knew that the rebellion hadn’t happened and the antichrist hadn’t been revealed. So, now they knew it wasn’t yet time for Jesus to come back. Now they wouldn’t be deceived again.

Jesus and Paul in these passages were both very concerned that Christians know the things that would happen before He returned so they wouldn’t be deceived.

There’s another important aspect to this, too. If all that is coming is Jesus briskly catching us up in the air to prevent us from suffering the tribulation, that’s one thing. But if Christians really do have to go through the Great Tribulation — a time Jesus described as “great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again” (Matt 24:21), then it really ramps up the type of preparation we as a church need to do to make sure Christians are ready!

Even before the tribulation, Jesus said Christians “will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith” (Matt 24:9-10). We have got to prepare Christians to endure the suffering so they will not turn away from the faith!

So, we really can’t say “it doesn’t matter, He’ll come when He comes.” It does matter.

If it didn’t, God wouldn’t have devoted such a large part of His Word to end-time prophecy.

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2. Are you actually teaching that Jesus could not come at any time and that certain things have to happen before He does come again?

A: Yes, that is what I am teaching because I believe it comes from clear, simple statements in the Bible. As Paul told the Thessalonian Christians (see the previous answer), certain things have to happen before Jesus’ return. Jesus also made that very plain in Matthew 24 and Mark 13.

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3. What about the Bible passages that say Jesus could come at any moment (Jesus’ “imminent return”)?

A: I haven’t found any. I know it is a common belief, and until I began this study on Revelation I took it for granted, too, because that’s what I had always heard. But I don’t know of a single passage that says that. If you find any, would you please add it to the “comments” section of this blog post?

On the other hand, I do know of several Bible passages that say He can’t come again at any moment. I discussed some of them above (in my answer to #1) and throughout the three parts of this focus study.

 

Some pre-trib teachers teach that Jesus will rapture us secretly, silently, and invisibly. Yet 1 Thess. 4:16 clearly says that Jesus will descend “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” 1 Cor. 15:52 says the rapture will happen at the “last trumpet.” And Rev. 1:7 promises that when Jesus comes in the clouds, “every eye will see Him.” You’ll find the same promise in Matt 24:30, Mark 13:26, and Luke 17:30.

There are certainly Bible passages that say Jesus will come “like a thief.” In fact, Jesus told a parable about a man whose house was broken into, and He concluded the story with:

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready…” (Matt 24:42-44).

Jesus said that just after saying in v. 33 that when they saw certain things happen they would know that the time was very near. He was simply telling them that they needed to keep watch, and He told specific things to watch for.

Likewise, in 1 Thess. 5:2 Paul said the day of the Lord would come “like a thief in the night.” That is true. Thieves come in the night unexpectedly. The darkness cloaks them so that no one will see them. Note that they come unexpectedly, not suddenly. If you are in the darkness, you won’t see the thief working. Likewise, if you are in the darkness, you won’t see the signs of the day of the Lord coming. That’s why Paul said in v. 4, “But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.” If you’re in the light, you’ll know when that day is very near.

Finally, 1 Cor. 15:52 says the rapture will happen “in the twinkling of an eye.” But that doesn’t say anything about “Jesus could come any time.” It simply says that when it does happen it will happen instantly.

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4. Doesn’t this view hurt our witness? We can no longer tell people that they need to get right with God because Jesus could come at any moment.

A: Several things to consider here…

First, there are far more important things that should motivate unbelievers than Jesus coming at any moment. I don’t personally know of anyone who became a Christian because of that fear. I’m sure there are people like that, but do we really want people to become Christians out of fear anyway? Fear of the rapture is a terrible motivation that distorts its purpose. The rapture is a promise to bring hope, not a threat to bring fear.

Second, why wouldn’t it be just as easy to motivate someone by promising deliverance through the coming tribulation as by promising deliverance from it?

Third, isn’t there a greater likelihood that someone could die in the next 10 minutes than that Jesus could come any time? How many billions of people have died since Jesus’ day? If you really wanted to work the fear of “not making it” into your evangelism, that option is still available — the shortness and unsurity of life itself.

Fourth, if someone gives their life completely over to God because Jesus might come any time, and if they end up living their 70+ years and die naturally, their motivation for becoming a Christian has in a sense been false. I would rather them give their lives to God because they realize how much they’ve let Him down, because of the promises of eternal life with God, because they are overwhelmed by grace, because they realize their inability to carry on the decisions of life on their own, or because they desire the love, fellowship, and security that’s found in the body of Christ than out of fear of something happening that may or may not happen in their lifetime.

Finally — and this to me is the most important part of this answer — while we may not be able to use Jesus coming again to motivate unbelievers, we can and should use it to grow Christians! It may not be an evangelistic tool, but it should be a discipleship tool! As mentioned above, we should alert existing Christians to the fact that they may well have to endure the tribulation and could even be martyred for their faith. Are they strong enough to endure that? How can we grow Christians who are strong enough to be tribulation saints?

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5. How do you reconcile the fact that most scholars and Bible teachers teach a pre-tribulation view of the rapture? How is it that they could all be so misguided?

A: It hasn’t always been that way. The doctrine of a post-tribulation rapture was practically the only teaching until the early 1800s. John Darby was one of the first to teach it in the 1820’s. C.I. Scofield likely learned the doctrine from Darby and made it a part of his widely-used Scofield Reference Bible. Some say they can find a few instances of its teaching in the writings of early church fathers. That may be the case, I can’t verify one way of the other. But it was definitely not common.

However, pre-tribulationism really grew up and became popular in the 1900s, and that’s when it became more popular in the churches and seminaries.

I can only speculate as to why that happened, but here are some guesses:

• The pre-tribulation doctrine is hinged on the belief that there is a distinction between Israel and the church. In order to defend the doctrine, pre-trib believers must show that there is a category of people called “the elect” and “the saints” that are not part of “the church,” because the church is raptured but the elect and saints are still on the earth. The World Wars brought increased sensitivity to the nation of Israel in the early-to-mid part of the 20th century. No doubt pro-Israel Christian theology was easier to accept during those times.

• In the last 50 years or so there has been massive growth of the “health and wealth, name it and claim it, God just wants you to be happy and prosper” type of teaching in the churches. The pre-tribulation doctrine promises that you won’t have to experience the worst suffering the world will ever know. That certainly fits with that mindset.

• Tim LaHaye and others have put this teaching in the form of well-written fiction and movies. In other words, it has been marketed. And we live in a marketing-driven world. The things we recognize and think about are, these days, largely determined by what is marketed the most heavily.

• Christians have largely quit studying the Bible in-depth. “Bible study” has been replaced by reading books written by Christian authors on topics. It’s not often that most Christians will sit down with an extended passage of scripture and learn from it afresh, by itself, and by themselves. Matthew 24 and Mark 13 are very clear, extended passages of scripture on this topic. 1 Thessalonians 4 and 2 Thessalonians 2 are very clear. You don’t need a teacher or commentator to decipher them for you. They simply say “this happens and then that happens” in their own way. People who are willing to do their own study and take the Bible passages in their clearest, most straightforward and literal way will, I believe, come away with greater understanding.

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6. Are there any major scholars, commentators, preachers, etc. who believe in a post-tribulation rapture?

A: Yes. It’s not a majority belief in the modern era, but neither is it without strong support. Here are some:

• Dwight L. Moody, who was a premillennialist, wrote the following in The Word of Truth (556-7):
  “Belief in a Pretribulational Rapture . . . contradicts all three chapters in the New Testament that mention the Tribulation and the Rapture together (Mark 13:24-27; Matt. 24:26-31; 2 Thess. 2:1-12). . . . The theory is so biblically bankrupt that the usual defense is made using three passages that do not even mention a Tribulation (John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:52). These are important passages, but they have not had one word to say about a Pretribulational Rapture. The score is 3 to 0, three passages for a Post-tribulational Rapture and three that say nothing on the subject. . . . Pretribulationism is biblically bankrupt and does not know it.”
• George Eldon Ladd, Bob Gundry, and Dave MacPherson are all prolific authors who are specifically “post-trib” scholars. There are many other scholars and preachers who fall into this camp, but those are the best known. George Ladd is a professor of exegesis at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has written several books on this topic, including his own commentary on Revelation. He also has written scholarly books and articles used in seminaries (not specifically on end-times prophecy).
• F.F. Bruce is one of the most respected, well known, and prolific theologians of our generation. I’m told (though I can’t confirm yet) that he believes the rapture happens after the tribulation. If I can find something to verify that, I’ll update this post.
• Steve Brown of Key Life Ministries is a well-known pastor, author, radio minister, and professor at Reformed Theological Seminary. He believes in a post-tribulation rapture (I only know that because I’ve heard him talk about it on WCRF).
• Ted Noel has written what I’m told is a great book on the subject called I Want To Be Left Behind (I haven’t read it).
• Additionally, because the “category” of pre-tribulation rapture is relatively new, there are many well-known older commentators who supported the post-trib view but didn’t have the need to defend it (because it was the common belief). Here are examples:
  • Dr. John Gill (1690-1771), in his Exposition of the Entire Bible had this things to say about Revelation 14:16 (which everyone agrees comes after the tribulation):“It seems best to understand it of the Lord’s wheat harvest at the end of the world, when the wheat of the earth shall be reaped, and gathered into Christ’s barn, or garner, or into his and his Father’s kingdom; this reaping of the earth is the removing of the saints out of it, not by death, but by the resurrection of them from the dead; for when Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven, and sit on the white cloud, or throne, the dead in him will rise first, and the living saints will be changed, and both will be caught up together, to meet the Lord in the air.”
  • B.W. Johnson (1891), The People’s New Testament, also regarding Revelation 14:16:
    “There is gathered first the ripened harvest of the elect of God. It is an angel that came out of the temple of God as a messenger of God, carrying to the Son the Father’s command to gather the elect from the four corners of the earth. Then a longing, waiting Church, “loving the appearing of the Son of man,” shall first be gathered into the heavenly garner. The ripe sheaves are gathered.”
  • Matthew Henry Concise Commentary of the Whole Bible, regarding Matthew 24:21:
    “The tribulation of those days includes not only the destruction of Cityplace Jerusalem, but all the other tribulations which the church must pass through; … but when the church’s tribulation is over, her warfare accomplished, and what is behind of the sufferings of Christ filled up, then look for the end.”
  • Albert Barnes (1798-1870), Notes on the Bible, regarding Revelation 14:15-16:
    “The ‘harvest’ in reference to the righteous - fruit of the good seed sown by the Saviour and his apostles and ministers. The time alluded to here is the end of the world, when the affairs of earth shall be about to be wound up. The design is to state that the Redeemer will then gather in a great and glorious harvest, and by this assurance to sustain the hearts of his people in times of trial and persecution.”

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I’ll say this just once:
There is no passage in the entire Bible that I can find which teaches that the rapture happens after the tribulation. I truly want someone to show me if I’m wrong. Until then, I have to conclude that the only way you can hold that belief is to start with it, and then you have to change the plain meaning of many other Bible passages to accommodate it.This will conclude our Focus Study on the timing of the Rapture and Tribulation. Hopefully it has been a clear teaching. Whether you agree or disagree, please leave comments by clicking the link below!