When Jesus ascended back into heaven in Acts 1:11, angels said to His disciples:
This same Jesus, who was taken up
from you into heaven, will so come in like manner.
So we are promised a Blessed Hope of
a visible return of our Lord. Scripture elsewhere clearly records it will be in
the Last Days, a tumultuous period of martyrdom, beheadings, and rapture. But a
huge question is still debated: Do Christians get raptured early, and escape
all the terror, as I hear some people say? I have a theory, based on Scripture,
that I will lay out for you, and it will hopefully be as clear as anything
you’ll read. The End Times scenario is not as some make it out. The answers are
surprising.
Fact #1:
From Joel 2:30-31 and 3:15 we learn that a particular cosmic
disturbance will precede the "day of the Lord" (an End Times
day).
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth… 31
The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the
coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD…15 The sun and moon will grow
dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness…
What’s noteworthy about this cosmic disturbance is that (1)
it gives us a blood-tinged moon, and the sun and stars 'turn off,' as well, and
thus (2) it blackens the sky—which has a specific purpose (more on that in a
later article). And, these cosmic events are before the Day of the Lord.
***The order thus far: Cosmic disturbance, then Day of
the Lord.
Fact
#2: Well, what is the Day of the Lord? Is it the same as the
tribulation? No, they are not the same. From Isaiah 13:6-9 below, we understand
that the “day of the Lord” is primarily God’s wrath on sinners, i.e. on
people whose sins have not been covered or removed—nothing is said here about
it attacking true Christians. It is the unsaved that are overcome with fear
of what God will do:
Wail, for the day of the LORD is at
hand! It will come as from the Almighty. 7 …Every man’s
heart will melt…8 And they will be afraid… They will be in pain as a woman in
childbirth… 9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath
and fierce anger… And He will destroy its sinners from it.
The Tribulation, on the other hand,
is Satan’s wrath on true Christians--and on Jews, since Jesus Christ, Satan’s
enemy, was of Jewish birth. Revelation 12: 12-13, 17:
Woe
to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come
down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short
time. 13 Now when the
dragon (Satan) saw
that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman (the
Jews) who gave birth to the male Child (this is Jesus, who had a
Jewish heritage)...17 And the dragon was enraged
with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring (Jews and Christians),
who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
For
proof of my parentheses identifying people in this symbology, I give
you: (a) the
dragon: Revelation 12:9-10:
...the
great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called
the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast
to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him... the accuser of
our brethren, who accused them before our God, day and night, has been
cast down.
b) The Devil’s angels are most
likely the demons. One of he Devil’s occupations, formerly, was in the heavens,
with access to God, accusing Christians when they stumble and sin—the kind of
thing he did in the Book of Job (and he probably does about us).
c)
True Christians are those who "keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ." Because we love Jesus, Satan is out to get us.
d)
The woman is Israel, the ascendants of Jesus, God’s Son. So Israel is also
targeted. The Old Testament's prophets elsewhere
referred to Israel as a "woman" (Isaiah 54:5-6; Jeremiah 4:31; Micah
4:9-10); 'she' was represented as the bride of Christ in the Old Testament. ‘Her’
idolatries were called “adultery” by God.
So the Tribulation expressly says true Christians (and Jews) will
receive the wrath of Satan. But as we
pointed out before, in the Day of the Lord, God’s wrath is on sinners, men
and women whose sin has not been covered. Thus, the Day of the Lord is
not the same as the Tribulation--those being punished are exact opposites, and
the Punishers also are opposites. This will be further proved soon by the
chronology. It will also be proven in Part II of these blogs next week.
Fact #3:
On the Day of the Lord, there is a surprise event just before God’s wrath
breaks loose: namely, the return of Christ to gather His own. In that return,
He will rescue righteous men whose sins have been covered by rapturing
them. Scripture promises this will occur immediately before God’s
wrath on unsaved people—in fact, the rapture-rescue and then the beginning of
God's wrath happen ON THE SAME DAY. Proof for that is in Luke 17:26-30. There,
Jesus cites the order of events for Noah and Lot as the pattern for His return.
The pattern is: (1) the rescue precedes the wrath, and (2) both happen on the
same day:
And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the
days of the Son of Man. 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were
given in marriage, until THE DAY that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came
and destroyed them all (So there’s the pattern: in the same day, there was rescue
of the righteous Noah's family, then a cruel Day on the disobedient.)
28 Likewise as it was also in the
days of Lot: They ate… they built; 29 but ON THE DAY that Lot went out of Sodom
(Lot was warned and then rescued), it
rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even
so will it be IN THE DAY when the Son of Man is revealed.
Note that Jesus emphasizes "the Day" and "on
the Day" and “in the Day” to conjoin what happened to the two persons who
set the pattern; on that same day, there was--rescue, THEN judgment. The most
important point for us: Jesus is using this pattern as the same order “when the
Son of Man is revealed.” So from Facts
1-3 we have the following order of events:
***The cosmic disturbance. Then,
on the same Day of the Lord, Jesus makes His single visible return for (a)
rapture of the righteous who were under the thumb of Satan’s wrath; and (b) then,
God’s wrath on unsaved men and women.
Fact #4:
From Mark 13:24-25 we learn that the cosmic disturbance occurs AFTER the Tribulation.
This is a VERY important point:
“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.
Now we see the following necessary order of End Times so
far:
***The Tribulation, then
later cosmic disturbance, then, on the same day: Jesus’ visible return for
rescue (the rapture), then God’s wrath begins.
Note how the rescue/rapture is after the tribulation.
Thus, genuine Christians living at that time do not escape the Tribulation.
Note again that the Lord’s wrath and the Tribulation are NOT the same
thing. I proved it one way before; here is another proof. The Tribulation
is BEFORE the cosmic event, but God’s wrath is AFTER the cosmic event.
Scripture gives lots more information on the Tribulation.
Let’s look at events around it.
Fact #5:
Jesus, in Matthew 24:5-21, in what is called the Olivet Discourse,
describes three important trends BEFORE the tribulation, then gives two more
trends DURING the tribulation. Here’s the relevant passages: (more study on this
in our next article, Part 2):
"For
many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled;
for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation
will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be
famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these
are the beginning of sorrows. 9 Then they will deliver you
up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be
hated by all nations for My name’s sake... 15 Therefore when you see the
‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the
holy place”… 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. …21 For
then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the
beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. …
Summarizing events, in order, from the verses above:
a. In verse 5, the key word is Deceive.
(Keep in mind: the tribulation has not begun yet.)
b. Then we have Wars in verse
6-7a.
c. In verse 7b, there is Famine
(along with pestilences and earthquakes).
These three (deception, wars, and
famine—with pestilences and earthquakes) are called the “beginning of sorrows”
in v.8.
After that, the TRIBULATION BEGINS,
as verse 9 clearly points out, with two trends: Death and Martyrdom
(they will...kill you) and (you will be hated…for my name’s sake).
Note also that just before the Tribulation, Christians and Jews see the
'abomination of desolation.’ More on that later.
Thus, in these verses, there are
five important disastrous events, in the order given. Three before the
tribulation begins, two after. And the abomination is in there, too.
In verses 15 through 21 of Matthew 24, Jesus breaks away
from straight chronology, with some details, that flesh out our events: For one
thing, He spends several verses to give an important “tip-off” as to what
specific sign that tells us when the Tribulation begins: The tribulation begins
when they see the “abomination of desolation” (that’s the name given in Daniel
11;31 to the blasphemy of the last-days Antichrist), who does it standing in the holy place, in Jerusalem. A
place only occupied by priests. Those who read and are obedient to God’s Word
are urged to then flee into hiding as fast as they can, because the Antichrist
will begin the Tribulation immediately by starting to kill two groups of
people: the Jews first, and Christians as well. Note Revelation 13:7 how God
gave him that authority:
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.
Note: The “saints” referred here are all genuine
Christians living at that time. Nobody got raptured away from this, as we
proved at the end of Fact #4 above, from Scripture. Christians living then will
have to endure the Tribulation. Rescue doesn’t come til’ after the Tribulation,
just before God’s wrath.
***Now the order of End Times
is: Deception, wars, famine (called 'the beginning of sorrows'),
then the “abomination of desolation” (done by the Antichrist) in Jerusalem's
holy place, then they should hide, because the Tribulation begins with the
widespread death and martyrdom of Jews and Christians. Later there is the
cosmic disturbance, and then on the same Day, Jesus appears, rescues and raptures
His people, and then God’s wrath on the unsaved takes effect.
My next two articles expand further on this chronology.
I would like to take our final minutes on Part I to address
two arguments brought up by the pre-Tribulationists (those who believe saints
are raptured before any of the five terrible events in Matthew 24). Their idea
is, Christian rapture is before any of the above disasters.
One of their first lines of defense is their insistence of
“imminency,” that there are no signs preceding the rapture. Under their
scenario, with no signs, the rapture can occur at any time: maybe today, maybe
in 50 years, or 500 years from now. They assume that's to God's preference, to
keep us looking upward for deliverance. Under the scenario I’ve laid out
per Scripture, there are signs preceding
the rapture: for instance, ‘the beginning of sorrows’ above, the deaths and
martyrdoms, and the to-be-explained ‘abomination of desolation.’
I would like to prove that God does
give warning signs. In Matthew 24:31-33 below, a description of Jesus' rescue, plainly
says rapture events are preceded with signs. It begins with a description of
rapture:
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. 32
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become
tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also,
when you see all these things, know that it (the rapture,
his subject matter) is near—at the doors!
As you can see, when you see all these things,
these signs, you know that summer (harvest, the rapture) is near. Thus,
Scripture blows the “no-signs-imminence” idea away.
“Pre-tribbers’” second argument is based on I Thessalonians
5:9:
For God did not appoint us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ
Pre-tribbers assume three things: (1) the five disastrous
events above are all Tribulation—since they believe the Tribulation includes
all 7 years (more on that later); and (2) the Tribulation is God’s wrath, and
(3) To them, avoiding God’s wrath means that God wants to save our bodies
from suffering. Christians will avoid the Tribulation because they think the Tribulation
is God’s wrath, and God will not allow such massive suffering on their bodies.
To argue their point, firstly, as I have shown above, three
disastrous events of the five are before the Tribulation; secondly, the Tribulation
is not God’s wrath. it’s Satan’s wrath--they’re two separate events; and
thirdly, the word “salvation” (or, rescue) in Scripture usually means saving
our souls from an eternity in hell, not saving our bodies from harm.
Jesus guarantees suffering of our bodies in persecution. Wrong assumptions,
wrong conclusions.
But we still have to ask ourselves, will God allow massive
suffering and death to His children? The simple answer is, yes. You all the
martyrdom that has gone on (in various blogs I cover some of these.) I read Voice
of the Martyrs regularly, and there are horrendous sufferings by Christians
that you never hear about in today's anti-Christian media. Another
perspective on that question; ask yourselves, what’s more important, the body
or the soul? The soul, of course (Matthew 5:30 and 16:26). Christians WILL
endure intense persecution of their bodies during the tribulation. Jesus
promises it. Our bodies may be sacrificed for Him. But thank God, believers’
souls won’t be touched by His wrath, whereas most souls go to hell. THAT’s what
I Thessalonians 5:9 means: when it says we’re not appointed to God’s wrath, it
means our souls are not so appointed. We need to take the long view, thinking
about our eternal souls, not our temporary bodies. Also, if we are martyrs, we
go immediately into the presence of the Lord—which is a blessing!
I’d like to plead a word of exhortation to today’s
pre-tribbers: What if all this happens while we’re alive, say in the near
future? If my Scriptural proofs are right, pre-tribbers will be shocked when
they have to endure suffering. With the wrong result from what they have
been told, pre-tribbers would feel they’ve been conned, and with such a non-trusting
and disappointed mindset, they are terribly sad, as well as uneducated and unprepared
for the End Times. They will react to every surprise when disaster after
disaster comes, and they haven’t been rescued yet. We’re talking about a lot of
people who believe this theory--most evangelicals have been swayed by popular
teachers like Hal Lindsey, movies and books like the “Left Behind” series, a
lot of TV evangelists like John Hagee, and most pastors from Dallas Theological
Seminary. But the earliest church fathers (closest to Christ and the apostles)
felt Christians would go through Tribulation in the End Times. It’s clearly
taught in Scripture as well—not only in my above chronology, but look also at
II Thessalonians 2:1-4:
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our gathering together to Him (Paul is getting ready to answer their question about the
timing of the rapture) 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 (or, day of the Lord) had come
The phrase "day of Christ" here in the NKJ
version, is translated the “day of the Lord” in the NIV, because it’s the
same thing. Thus, he’s implying that the rapture (“gathering together”)
is part of the day of the Lord. Let’s move on to v.3:
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day (remember,
Paul is answering their question about the rapture) will not come
unless the falling away (apostasy) 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.
This apostasy is yet another sign before the Lord comes. (Another
sign is how the “man of sin is revealed”—more on that later.) I think that the
pre-tribbers will have a larger portion of apostasy than other groups. Sure, it
would be great to float off before the tribulation and avoid suffering. It’s
easy to see how such a theory, even if it had no real Scriptural basis, would
become VERY popular. But popularity is not truth.
Pre-tribbers, think about this, too: Wouldn’t this pre-trib
flight of yours abandon unsaved relatives and friends to go through
the world’s worst hell-on-earth without you? So, are you saying that you want
to leave your unsaved friends and relatives without the Holy Spirit in us to
help them? You want to leave them without explaining the meaning of all
that's happening, you don’t want to try to get them saved before they die in
countless numbers in God’s wrath? If you ask me, if a real Christian is a
soldier for the Lord, that’s “absent without leave,” or AWOL thinking! The
pre-trib theory recommends an irresponsible “AWOL” mentality. Thinking that way
seems uncompassionate, to say the least. Now I ask you to probe yourself:
What behaviors do you have (not counting the number of appearances in church)
that prove you’re a Christian? When we consider that only a minority of people
on earth make it to heaven (Matt 7:13-14), it is really possible that you might
be deceiving yourselves by assuming you’re Christian. Do you have the fruits
(Galatians 5:22ff) and obedience (John 15:6) necessary? Pray, confess sin, get
baptized, make Jesus your Lord and follow His commandments; repent, seek a new
life daily, discipling and abiding in Him. Be ready to suffer or die for Him if
necessary, rather than sticking to this desire to run away. He did the ultimate
sacrifice for us. We may have to do it for Him.
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