BIBLE PROPHECY: Let’s talk about the RAPTURE!

rapture

Many of you have probably been taught, just as I was taught, that the rapture of the Church will occur right before the world is plunged into a dark tribulation period where God pours his wrath out upon the earth. We will be whisked into the air to meet Jesus in the clouds, but he won’t touch down on the earth just yet. That will only happen in his Second Coming, which is altogether separate and well after the Church has already been raptured.

So two events at two different times: (1) The rapture of the church before the tribulation and (2) the Second Coming of Christ later on.

Well I have to tell you that THIS IS WRONG.

As I’ve studied the scriptures for myself, I’ve come up with no scripture that indicates the church will be raptured before any time of tribulation. It’s just not there. All the support for this pre-tribulation rapture doesn’t actually come from any actual verse, but rather from false reasoning and false interpretations of biblical ideas and deductions.

Instead of debunking all these pre-trib rapture claims, I’d rather tell you why I believe that the only rapture that takes place comes at the Second Coming of Christ, when he returns to deliver Israel from the clutches of her Islamist oppressors.

So let’s begin.

 
Daniel 12

In Daniel 12, it describes the rapture of the Church like this:

“And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever.

This is very similar to the passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 where it says “And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

But notice what it says here that happens with the rapture of the Church — deliverance!

And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake

Israel, the Jews, Daniel’s people’, shall be delivered from this time of trouble, or tribulation.

AND…. then the dead shall awake from the dust of the earth.

The deliverance of Israel from this time of trouble is in tandem with the rapture.

Let’s keep moving.

 
Matthew 24

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will 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 great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

This is the passage where Jesus himself described his Second Coming. Notice what He says first:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days…

And then let’s skip down…

And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

So clearly Christ isn’t gathering his elect, the Church, until He comes through the clouds in great glory, which is after the tribulation period.

Mark 13, the sister passage to Matthew 24, puts it very similarly:

24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.

From the farthest parts of earth to the farthest part of heaven, which means the earth and the sky, not the spiritual Heaven, just so you know.

 
2 Thessalonians 2

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Let me make this simple:

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled…for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition…

It could not be more clear that Paul is telling us that the coming of Jesus back to earth and the the glorious rapture, our gathering to him, will NOT take place until the Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, is revealed.

Period. It says exactly what it means.

All of these other reasonings and deductions that pre-tribulation rapture folks have MUST be reconciled with these passages.

There may be other great passages like these, but I think these alone prove that the rapture and the Second Coming of Christ happen at the same time. The Church isn’t secretly taken away before the ‘times of trouble’.

So gird your loins, because the Church will be here to see the Antichrist rise, invade Jerusalem, and fall when Christ returns.

 
Addendum: Revelation 4-19 Argument

For those of you who will say that the Church isn’t mentioned after the first four chapters of Revelation until the 19th chapter, and therefore the Church can’t be here during the tribulation period, let me say this.

If the Church isn’t mention between Revelation chapters 4 and 19, then who is this referring to?

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

It’s the Church.

Revelation 13:7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Who are the saints? It’s the Church!

These aren’t simply references to saints in the past or dead saints. No these events are happening TO the saints, the Church in these two passages. It completely debunks the idea that the Church isn’t mentioned between chapters 4 and 19.

 
BONUS – Rapture style

Since you’ve been so good to read my entire argument here, I thought I’d throw something else at you.

If you are familiar with Revelation 11, then you know about the two witnesses that prophesy in sackcloth for 3 1/2 years. This is during the time the Antichrist invades the city of Jerusalem. After they’ve finished prophesying for 3 1/2 years, they will be killed by the Antichrist and his forces and will be left dead in the streets for 3 1/2 days.

Then it says this:

11 Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. 13 In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Now doesn’t that sound exactly like the rapture? Yes! And if you’ll notice, it was followed by a great earthquake, which is one of the signs at the coming of Christ!


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