What does the Bible say about the Rapture ? Is it a Pre-tribulation or Post-tribulation or even Mid-tribulation Rapture?
Praise God, Jesus is Lord!
Credit: Mountain View Church
I don't normally start my posts like this but this time, I must state the following:
The authority of Scripture means every word and stroke of the Bible possesses the authority of God and the right to rule the hearts, minds, and bodies of every inhabitant of the earth. Scripture's authority doesn't depend on whether mankind cooperates with, or understands it.
This post is based on the NIV Bible. It does NOT refer to books outside the canon, Therefore, I will NOT be referring to the Book of Enoch which is outside the canon, that does not have the authority of Scripture.
I will state facts, from sources outside that are not from the Bible. These facts are given in good faith and are as accurate as I can get them, but they do not have the same authority as scripture.
“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 Thess 4: 16&17
The rapture comes from 1 Thess 4:17, where the believers are caught up and taken to Jesus Christ. Paul writes, “ 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.” The New Testament Greek word is “harpazo”, which means to seize, to snatch. It describes an involuntary act by someone on another. In this case, God in His mercy will take, seize, or snatch His believers out of the situation they are in, and bring them home. If we look at the Latin Vulgate Bible (how many read Latin!!??), the Latin word for “caught up” is “rapiemur”, where we get the word “rapture”.
The rapture should not surprise any believer, who reads their Bible, as they will be familiar with Enoch (Gen 5: 24), and Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-12), who were both raptured.
First, Matthew tells us that we don't know when the Rapture will occur. He wrote, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So, no one knows when the rapture will take place, not even the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Only Father God knows when it takes place.
Before the end of time, as we know it, the signs of His coming will be all around us. Jesus said, “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.”. The beginning of the birth pains - the woman’s waters have broken, and the contractions have started but the baby has not yet given birth. Therefore, according to Jesus, the signs of the beginning of the end are as follows:
For many will come in Jesus’ name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.
You will hear of wars and rumours of wars; Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be famines
and earthquakes in various places.
Taking each of these bullet points in turn:
There have been plenty of people who have claimed to be Jesus, including Ann Lee, John Nichols Thom, Hong Xiuquan, Abd-ru-shin, Lou de Palingboer, Father Divine, André Matsoua, Ahn Sahng-hong, Sun Myung Moon, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, Cho Hee-seung, Yahweh ben Yahweh, Laszlo Toth, Wayne Bent, Iesu Matayoshi and Jung Myung-seok.
Turning to the wars, today, we are confronted daily with the following wars:
Russia/ Ukraine
Israel/ Hamas and Hezbollah,
But right now other wars seem to go unnoticed/ have happened:
The war in Darfur,
Iraq (remember that war)
Kuwait, invaded by Iraq
Iran/ Iraq
Iran/ PJAK
South Thailand Insurgency
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Niger Delta
Kivu
Houthis in Yemen
Central Africa Bush
There are more wars/ conflicts are going on that I have not mentioned.
Famines, wherever you have wars/ conflicts there are famines, but because of “Climate Change”, there are famines in several countries. On 20 April 2021, hundreds of aid organizations from around the world wrote an open letter to The Guardian newspaper, warning that millions of people in:
and Sudan all faced starvation.
Earthquakes
Those living close to the earth’s tectonic plate boundaries will testify that earthquakes are daily events. There are just too many to detail, but earthquakes are occurring all over the world daily. The following map shows earthquakes in California/ Nevada
This simple map shows several earthquakes on the 10th July, this week and even more last week.
From the above, we can see that ALL the components have been fulfilled, and so we can say with certainty that we are at the beginning of the end days, the birth pangs are certainly being felt.
Changing the topic from the birth pangs Joel said, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Joel 2: 28-31, NIV). Do you see that Joel is combining the day of Pentecost, with the end times. He is effectively saying when the Holy Spirit came down, the church era started, but so did the beginning of the end times. The birth pangs have been going on for 2000 years.
This leads to the next point; imminency. The first disciples saw the Holy Spirit come down, saw the Holy Spirit move in power, and remembered Jesus speaking, saying that he would come back. The Bible teaches that Jesus’ return to His church is imminent, which means the rapture could happen at any moment. The apostles seem to have believed that Jesus would come back in their lifetimes. They often referred to the “last days” (1 Peter 1:20; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 1:2) and urged believers to be ready. It appears that Jesus also intended for us to believe in His imminent return because He often urged His followers to “be ready” (Luke 12:40; 21:34–36; Mark 13:33). Because no one has known or can predict exactly when He is coming again (see Matthew 24:36), we should live in the expectancy that He may come any moment. That seems to be Jesus’ point, in not being more specific. He wants every generation to live with the conscious awareness that the Lord may suddenly appear and we will have to give an account of the way He finds us (Luke 12:38). So we have to comprehend the first disciples understanding of imminency in light of the Book of Joel where we are now 2000 years into the end times.
Next, I will provide scriptures showing that we will eventually be with our Saviour at the end. There is no real order to the scriptures.
Let us look at Matt 24: verses 30 and 31:
30“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” So Jesus Christ will return from heaven to earth, in a great display of power and glory. What happens is that the “elect”, Christians, will be gathered from all over the world. To be clear, God’s elect, are God’s chosen people. Paul wrote, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.” Peter said that Christians were, “are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.”
Paul goes into further detail in 1 Thess 4, “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. 17 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.” So just as Jesus said, Paul is now saying that Jesus will come back, but this time, those who have died will rise from the dead. Then, those who are alive will then be brought to Him.
The Gospel writer John records in John 14: 2, “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? 3 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.” So, Jesus is saying clearly that at the end, he will come to take us back to Himself. We need to keep this scripture in our minds as we read this post.
Back in the Old Testament, Job recalls, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Even the Old Testament prophets and writers believed that they would rise again.
Paul’s great passage on the resurrection, at 1 Cor 15, writes, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” In the end, Paul has shown us that we will rise to be with Christ.
The Rapture is well established, and the end is settled, we don't know when it will happen, but we do know it will. Yet a question that remains is this. We look at some scripture and we ask ourselves will Christ come before the Tribulation after the tribulation, or midway through?
The 3 gospel accounts that we read regarding the end times are Matt 24&25, Mark: 13, and Luke 21. These passages point to an Old Testament passage in Daniel 9. “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” The passage that we generally focus our attention on is the last 4 verses of Daniel 9: “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 Place. “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Where is Daniel? The prophet Daniel is in exile. He was taken into exile by the Babylonians who attacked Judah because of Judah’s sin. It was at this time that Jerusalem and the temple (the first temple) were destroyed by the Babylonians. Next question, who sent out the word that Jerusalem and the temple would be restored? It was King Artaxerxes, (see Neh 2: 1-6). Who is the Anointed One? It is Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Therefore, here, in Daniel 9 we read that from the time that King Artaxerxes allowed Nehemiah to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild Jerusalem/ the temple to the time of Jesus Christ, there is a period of seven “sevens” and sixty two “sevens”. This is a total of sixty nine “sevens”. (Please don't get hung up on the “sevens”). However, Daniel had previously stated, "Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness”. Note the term everlasting. This can only be the eternal nature of things AFTER the end times since before then things die. Now the following is crucial and a lot hangs on this. Daniel said “after the sixty two sevens”, not during or before. So, crucially there is a single “seven”/ “week” from the time of Christ to the end. The crucifixion of Christ, the church age, and the beginning of end times are a single “seven”/ “weeks”. What do we see happening in this period? Daniel states that the following will take place in the single “seven”:
Jesus was put to death, on the cross by the Romans
The Romans destroyed Jerusalem (in AD70).
War will continue, and desolations will occur.
He will confirm a covenant (the ONLY covenant, that came into being was the new covenant in Christ as described in Hebrews 8).
In this period, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation. Now, the temple was destroyed (as Jesus predicted) in AD70 therefore sacrifices and offerings had to cease. But why would sacrifices be required anyway? We believe that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice; therefore, no other sacrifices are required. Also, the temple is not required because we are now the temple of God.
We also need to note that this places the abomination that caused desolation at the time of Roman rule over Judea. The Roman armies were always an abomination because they carried with them idolatrous images of the emperor, whom they worshipped. And those armies brought desolation because their commander leveled the city and entered the holy of holies, defiling it.
The end will come.
Looking at the above bullet points, everything has already come to pass (apart from the end), and we are now in the New Covenant era. Thus, the last 4 verses of Daniel 9 do not tell us anything new that will happen in the future. To answer this, we need to look to the Book of Revelation.
In Revelation 1, John writes, “12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man….20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” To be clear, in Rev 1the lampstands are symbolic of the churches. Next, Rev 2 and 3 are the letters to 7 churches, and God is telling the churches, where they are going wrong and encouraging them to improve. These churches are on earth struggling with everyday troubles.
Now, let's turn to Rev 4 and what do we see? “4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. ““The twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne.” In Rev 5 we read, “the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne.” Who are the elders? The elders are the church elders and they are in heaven, at the throne of God, in the very presence of God. This is before the scroll is opened. The timing here is crucial. The church is in heaven but the seals on the scrolls are untouched! Right at the beginning of this post, we noted that the dead will rise first and then those who are alive. Here in Rev 4 and 5, the church elders whether they were dead or alive are now in the presence of God. They are NOT on earth. What has happened? My understanding is that they have been raptured. The Rapture happened after Revelation 3.
Now look at Rev 6 (copied and pasted in full). “I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us[f] from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” When the scroll seals began to be removed, the tribulation started. The tribulation started in Rev 6, and the church was already raptured in Rev 4.
Carrying on, in Rev 7, we see the following, ”After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. ” We need to note that the scene has moved back to earth, we are not in heaven. Rev 7 goes on with, “4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.” The people who are suffering from the tribulation are the Israelites, not Christians. It is the Israelites who are going through the tribulation, not Christians. Rev 7 continues, “13 Then one of the elders (we are back in heaven) asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” 14 I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Therefore, some Israelites have now professed their faith in Christ and had their robes washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. There is a remnant of Jews who will accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord, during the Tribulation. This is in accordance with Paul’s letter to the Romans, where he said, “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.” (Rom 9: 27, NIV)
To recap, in the Book of Revelation, in Rev 2 and 3, the Church is on earth, and then in Rev 4 and 5, the Church is in Heaven. The tribulation starts when the seals of the scroll are removed in Rev 6. By Rev 7 the Bible confirms that the Tribulation has started. Those who are suffering are the Israelites.
To reinforce this thought process, the Church is not mentioned in Revelation 6–18 as being on earth. The term “church” is used 19 times in Revelation 1–3, a section that deals with the historical church of the first century toward the end of the apostle John’s life (ca. AD 95). However, “church” is then used only once more in the book, and that use is at the very end (22:16) when John returns to addressing the first-century church, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
The Gospel writer John, writing about the vision he is seeing, shifts from detailed instructions for the church to complete silence about the church. If the church did continue into the tribulation, then why the silence? If the church were to experience the tribulation during Daniel’s seventieth “seven”, then surely there would be a detailed study of tribulation events that would include an account of the church’s role—but it does not. The only timing of the rapture that would account for this frequent mention of “church” in Revelation 1–3 and the total absence of the “church” on earth until Rev 22:16 is a pretribulation rapture which will relocate the church from earth to heaven before the end of Daniel’s seventieth “seven”.
Today, the church universal is God’s human channel of redemptive truth. The Book of Revelation gives indications that a Jewish remnant will be God’s human instrument during Daniel’s seventieth “seven”. The narrative abruptly shifts from the “church” in Revelation 2–3 to the 144,000 Jews from the twelve tribes of Israel in Revelation 7 and 14. Further, because Revelation 12 is a mini-synopsis of the entire tribulation period, the woman (Israel) gave birth to the male child (Jesus Christ) (Rev. 12:1–13), then the Tribulation period focuses on the nation of Israel, not the church. How could this be? Because a pretribulation rapture has removed the “church” from the earth before Daniel’s seventieth “seven”.
The next paragraphs will now show why a post-tribulation rapture is wrong.
The Rapture Is Rendered Inconsequential if it is post-tribulation
First, if God miraculously preserves the church through the tribulation, why have a rapture at all? If it is to avoid the wrath of God at Armageddon, then why would God not continue to protect the saints on earth just as He protected Israel (see Exod. 8:22; 9:4, 26; 10:23; 11:7) from the wrath He poured out on Pharaoh and Egypt. Further, if the purpose of the rapture is for living saints to avoid Armageddon, why also resurrect the dead saints who are already immune at the same time?
Second, if the rapture were to take place in connection with a post-tribulation coming, the subsequent separation of the sheep from the goats (see Matt. 25:31 ff.) would be redundant. The separation will have taken place in the very act of translation.
Third, if all tribulation believers are raptured and glorified just before the inauguration of the millennial Kingdom, who then will populate and propagate the Kingdom? The Scriptures indicate that the living unbelievers will be judged at the end of the tribulation and removed from the earth (see Matt. 13:41–42; 25:41). Yet, they also teach that children will be born to believers during the millennium and that these children will be capable of sin (see Isa. 65:20; Rev 20:7–10). This will not be possible if all believers on earth have been glorified through a post-tribulation rapture.
Fourth, the post-tribulation paradigm of the church being raptured and then immediately brought back to earth leaves no time for the Judgment Seat of Christ to occur (1 Cor. 3:10–15; 2 Cor. 5:10), nor for the Marriage Supper (Rev. 19:6–10). Thus, it can be concluded that the post-tribulation time of the rapture is incongruous with the sheep-goat judgment and eliminates two critical end-time events. A pre-tribulation rapture avoids all of these difficulties.
The New Testament letters contain no preparatory warnings of an impending tribulation for Church-age believers
God’s instructions to the church through the New Testament letters contain a variety of warnings, but never do they warn believers to prepare for entering and enduring the tribulation of Daniel’s seventieth “seven”.
The New Testament letters warn about coming error and false prophets (see Acts 20:29–30; 2 Pet. 2:1; 1 John 4:1–3; Jude 4). They warn against ungodly living (see Eph. 4:25–5:7; 1 Thess. 4:3-8; Heb. 12:1). They even admonish believers to endure amid present hardship and suffering at the hands of the non-believers (see 1 Thess. 2:13–14; 2 Thess. 1:4; 1 Peter). However, there is absolute silence on preparing the church for any kind of tribulation like that found in Revelation 6–18.
It is incongruous, then, that the Scriptures would be silent about such a traumatic change for the church. If any time of the rapture other than pre-tribulation were true, one would expect the various letters to teach the reality of the church in the Great Tribulation, the purpose of the church in the Tribulation, and the conduct of the church in the Tribulation. However, there is no teaching whatsoever. Only a pre-tribulation rapture satisfactorily explains this silence.
1 Thess 4:13–18 demands a pre-tribulation rapture
Suppose, hypothetically, that some other rapture timing besides pre-tribulation is true. What would one expect to find in 1 Thess 4? How does this compare with what is observed?
First, one would expect the Thessalonians to be joyous over the fact that loved ones are home with the Lord and will not have to endure the horrors of the tribulation. But the Thessalonians are grieving because they fear their loved ones have missed the rapture. Only a pre-tribulation rapture accounts for this grief.
Second, one would expect the Thessalonians to be grieving over their impending trial rather than grieving over loved ones. Furthermore, they would be inquisitive about their future doom. But the Thessalonians have no fears or questions about the coming tribulation.
Third, one would expect Paul, even in the absence of interest or questions by the Thessalonians, to have provided instructions and exhortation for such a supreme test, which would make their present tribulation seem microscopic in comparison. But not one indication of any impending tribulation of this sort appears in the text.
1 Thess 4 fits only the model of a pre-tribulation rapture. It is incompatible with any other time for the rapture.
The parallels of John 14:1–3 and 1 Thess 4:13–18
John 14:1–3, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 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.” This refers to Christ’s second coming. It is not a promise to all believers that they shall go to Him at death. It does refer to the rapture of the church. Note the close parallel between the promises of John 14:1–3 and 1 Thess 4:13–18. First, the promise of a presence with Christ: “. . . that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3) and “. . . thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). Second, the promise of comfort: “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:1) and “Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18).
Jesus instructed the disciples that He was going to His Father’s house (heaven) to prepare a place for them. He promised that He would return and receive them so that they could be with Him wherever He was.
The phrase “wherever I am,” while implying continued presence in general, here means presence in heaven in particular. The Lord told the Pharisees in John 7:34, “Where I am you cannot come.” He was not talking about His then-present abode on earth, but rather His resurrected presence at the right hand of the Father. In John 14:3, “where I am” must mean “in heaven,” or the intent of 14:1–3 would be meaningless.
A post-tribulation rapture demands that the saints meet Christ in the air and immediately descend to earth without experiencing what the Lord promised in John 14. Since John 14 refers to the rapture, only a pretribulation rapture satisfies the language of John 14:1–3 and allows raptured saints to dwell for a meaningful time with Christ in His Father’s house.
Revelation 3:10 promises that the Church will be removed before Daniel’s seventieth week
John, in his letter to the Church in Philidelphia, wrote, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.” It would appear that God is saying to His Church in Philidelphia, that they would avoid the Tribulation. The issue here is whether the phrase “keep you from the hour of testing” means “a continuing safe state outside of” or “safe emergence from within.” However, when you take this verse combined with Rev 4 and Rev 5, it seems a safe assumption that the church would avoid the Tribulation and be raptured.
In conclusion, the Church is raptured before the Tribulation.
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Robert
Over the years, I have read, or watched on video, bible scholars much smarter than me debate this very topic of the timing of the rapture of the church. (There is a very good series on this very topic of the rapture by Joel Richardson & FAI Studies on YouTube). Each bible scholar has presented scripture to support their belief in either pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation (pre-wrath) rapture.
Although I lean to a pre-tribulation rapture, and I hope and pray we are taken out of this world by the Lord before the 7 year period, I am not convinced of it. I do know the church, the true believers in our Lord Jesus, the Christ, are not meant for wrath.
Christians throughout the 2,000 year history of the church have endured many hardships, including martyrdom. For those Christians in secret churches in China and the middle east, in primarily Muslim nations, those that are caught and murdered are enduring their own apocalypse & end times scenario. Who are we in various places around the world, including the UK & the US any different? Meaning, are we so special that we believe we could never endure such hardships?
Anyway, for me, the timing of the rapture is not a salvation issue and I'm not all that concerned of when it happens. So, I will continue to put my faith in the Lord and He will do what He plans on doing, when He plans on doing it.
Thank you Robert for your detailed and biblical summary. The salient point is that the “ecclesia” is not mentioned after Rev 3, and in Rev 4 we see the Throne Room after the instruction to “come up here”. The Spirit discerns truth, and you have discerned it and stated it. Opinions are like mouths, everyone has one. But those with ears to hear are rare. Well done.