PRE-TRIB OR PRE-WRATH RAPTURE? LOOK TO SCRIPTURE

 

PRE-TRIB OR PRE-WRATH RAPTURE? LOOK TO SCRIPTURE

 

We will assume you are familiar with the 70 “weeks” (or sevens) of Daniel 9:24-27. We believe these sevens are in years. In those verses, after the 69^th series of 7 years, Messiah is “cut off” (v.26). That means one more 7 years is yet to come. This will be future. According to Scripture, it will be the greatest persecution that God’s people will ever endure; far worse than the Holocaust. Many deaths. The Antichrist will run this death march. When will it be? Will all Christians alive at the time go through it? Pre-Tribulationists believe that Christians alive at the time are raptured before that 7. Pre-wrathers believe we will go through the last 7. An important question. So let’s do a Scripture-compare.

Start with I Thess. 5:9:

⁹ For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ

Pre-tribulationists assume that God’s Wrath at the end is all the 7 years, so Christians have to be raptured ahead of time to avoid it.

But Scripture gives a different chronology to “Wrath” in the last days:

Revelation 6:14-17:  I looked when He opened the sixth seal …. ¹⁵ And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶ and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷ For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Thus, the Wrath of God is at the end of the 6^th seal. The seals are all in Revelation, all happen during the 7 years, and the six seals are in chronological order as follows:

1)  A deceptive person (the Antichrist) will ride a white horse with the intention of conquering.  

2)  A red horse, which means Wars, far and wide over the globe. Nothing is said about the rider, but we can easily assume it is the Antichrist.

3)  A black horse, which means scarcity and inflation. Brought by war. (Luke 21:11 adds these: great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences, and fearful sights and signs from the heavens.)

4)  A pale horse (the way peoples’ skin looks when they are dead). The rider is Death, and Hades (which is like Hell) follows him.

5)  The martyrs’ cry: How long, O Lord, til’ you avenge our blood? (That suggests the Wrath has not started yet).

6)  Cosmic Disturbance, similar to Christ’s crucifixion--a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. ¹³ And the stars of heaven fell to the earth. Also, great rulers know their day of judgment is to come: they said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us… For the great day of His wrath has come.”        (Luke 21:25 adds, “the sea and the waves roaring”).

The 6 seals do not speak of Christ’s return. But you can trace the very same events in order in Matthew 24, which DOES end with Christ’s return.

You can see that there was plenty of action in the 7 years before the 6^th seal. It’s easy to conclude that the 6^th seal, when the Wrath hasn’t come yet, is late in the 7 years, even AFTER of the 7 years, NOT the “entire seven years” as Pre-Tribulation rapturists say.

Pre-Tribulationers are also in effect saying, God’s wrath will kill saints. See Revelation 13:6, which shows that many Christians die in the 7 years:

 Then he (the Antichrist) opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. ⁷ It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them…

It also shows that God’s Wrath is only on those who hate Him, not on saints. Nahum 1:2:

He reserves wrath for His enemies

So how can God’s Wrath be in the 7 years? It can’t. But Scripture says that Satan has great wrath (Rev. 12:12). That’s what this 7 years was, through His “son,” the Antichrist.

For the last days, God’s Wrath is not just persecution. If that were so, every time a Chistian is persecuted, does that mean God’s Wrath has begun? No.

Luke 21:16b, 18-19 says:

…they will put some of you to death…  ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head shall be lost. ¹⁹ By your patience possess your souls.

Does it seem odd that “not a hair of your head shall be lost,” yet in the same phrase “they will put some of you to death.” Simple explanation:

God’s Wrath means hell for those under it. Verse 17 says that God’s saints will lose their lives in the 7 years. But in eternity, they lose nothing—they gain heaven. They have not lost anything in the 7 years. We obviously lose hair in this life, but we haven’t lost any hair in eternity.

 We (if it’s us) are forced to choose between a brief time of plenty to eat and no death, for a while—by following the Antichrist’s commands. But that means rejecting belief in God’s way, and in effect, worshipping the Antichrist’s way. That way ends in God’s Wrath, which means hell (Rev. 14:9-11). Your other choice is extreme persecution--even death for a while, but it all ends in heaven--which do you choose? Hopefully you choose to follow God even through Tribulation and death, if your love for Him allowed it; and you are rewarded with heaven.

WHEN IS THE TRIBULATION

All Christians go through tribulation in their lives. But for the last days, here are the references to a greater Tribulation, from the mouth of Jesus:

Matthew 24:4-9

“Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ 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.

Verses 4-8 are seals 1-3 in Rev. 6, and are clustered together and are called the “beginning of sorrows.” So it makes sense that those events are in the first half of the 7 years. Note that Tribulation is after this.

Mark 13:14,19

“So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not… “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains…. ¹⁹ For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. ²⁰ And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

Mark mentions ‘abomination of desolation,’ which is in the middle of the 7 (Daniel 9:27). Tribulation follows this too. So Tribulation is after seals 1-3, the first half of the 7; and even after the middle. So Tribulation is the second half of the 7 years. But death and martyrdom (seals 4 and 5 in Rev. 6) are what follows seals 1-3. It makes sense, then, that Tribulation means the death and martyrdom of the saints. This, logically, would happen in the second half of the 7 years, since those acts of violence are after Antichrist reveals himself and shows his hate for Christians and Jews.  

Thus, we conclude that the meaning of Tribulation in the Last Days is limited to the extreme persecution and killing of the Jews and Christians and is limited to the last half of the 7 years.

WILL ALL CHRISTIANS BE IN THE TRIBULATION?

Saints, which refers to Christians, are referred to 14 times in Revelation, so yes, for them. But Pre-Tribulationists say that Christians went through a rapture before, so the only Christians hanging around would be those saints who got saved during the 7.  

I would like to dispute a related Pre-trib argument first: the word “church” is used in chapter 3, but not later. So Pre-tribulationists conclude that that means church members are raptured. But please humor me for a moment that ALL the Christians are still there, no rapture yet. Why, indeed, does God use the word “saints” and not “churches” after Rev. 3? I suspect because many people in many churches will go apostate (Matthew 24, II Thess. 2, and I Timothy 4). Consider Matthew 7:14, which says that “few” would be saved. So it would be improper, after church populations have been decimated by apostasy, to call the remaining faithful “churches;” call them “saints,” because the winnowing of the tares through their apostasy has partly gone on, and mostly saints are what you have left (many of them would be immediately killed by the enemy if they showed up in a church building anyhow, so the word “churches” doesn’t work there either).

For those who argue that John is called up to heaven in Revelation 4:1-2 as a symbol of a pre-Trib rapture, I have one answer: he comes back down to earth in Rev. 13:1. Where does that fit in your future doctrine? No, it’s just a vision mixed with a reality God was showing just him.

FURTHER PROOF THAT ALL CHRISTIANS WILL BE IN THE TRIBULATION

First, a background comment. An advent is defined as “a coming into being or use.” Since Pre-Tribulationists do not believe the rapture is the Second Coming, they must accept that Jesus has three advents. The first one ended in Crucifixion. His next advent was the rapture, a “silent” advent (with cars colliding, planes falling from the sky); then the third one will be His Second Coming—wait, you mean the Third Coming. But Scripture only mentions Two Comings. A problem here for the Pre-Tribs.

ANOTHER PROOF: NOTE THE ITEMS ACCOMPANyING  THE FAVORITE RAPTURE VERSES:

I Thessalonians 4:16-17:

¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

1.   The items: A shout, the voice of the archangel b. Trumpet sounds  c. Christians caught up in the clouds

I Corinthians 15:51-52:

 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1.   Trumpet sounds 2. Christians shall be raised (caught up) and changed

COMPARE THIS TO ACKNOWLEDGED SECOND COMING VERSES

Mattthew 24:30-31, which Pre-Tribulationists admit are Second Coming verses:

 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. .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.

Note how this mentions a cloud, the gathering together of His elect, with angels, and a trumpet, which are the exact items mentioned in I Thessalonians 4:16-17 and I Corinthians.  But this is at the end of Matthew 24, which has already featured a tribulation in v9. I maintain that the Rapture verses represent the same event as the Second Coming verses. They are one and the same. There is no rapture separate from the Second Coming. Second coming—or rapture--is after Tribulation, just before the Wrath of God.

 

HOW DOES NOAH STILL TIE INTO THE RAPTURE?

Pre-Tribulationists like to say that Noah escaped the Wrath by being in the Ark; therefore, we should “escape the Wrath” as well. But Noah did not take a space ship, he took a boat. The boat tossed him about in all the turmoil of the Flood. They were right there; they could see people dying. Noah suffered through the tribulation, not out away from it.

Considering all the suffering by EVERYBODY, saved and unsaved, I consider it AWOL for God’s “soldiers” (II Timothy 2:3, 4) to fly away from all the suffering and make everybody else go through the tribulation alone. No, they should be there, praying for people, helping people, suffering persecution gladly, death with dignity. Much evangelism will save many more for God’s glory. Especially explaining to them how God should let them suffer so.

IMMINENCE

PreTribulationists believe no event separates us from Rapture, so it is imminent. But consider Matthew 24:32, during the same Olivet Discourse:

“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 is near—at the doors! 

This does not speak of imminence. It says there are hints of other events first. Our hints are: watching the writing of the 7-year Covenant (I assume it will be a global event); and the middle of the 7 years when Antichrist is revealed. Presumably, from those you could count to the end of 7 years and know the day we’re to be raptured. But neither of those will tell the exact day (which is forbidden anyhow). Because the 7 years is cut short to keep us all from being killed--so the rapture date is unknown. See Mark13:19-20:

For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. ²⁰ And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

 

LASTLY, THE ONLY VERSE THAT CONNECTS THE RAPTURE WITH ANOTHER END-TIMES EVENT

Paul was making every effort in Thessalonians to explain the rapture. The people were confused, thinking even that a fake letter from “him” meant the rapture was past. Here he connects the rapture to another important event from II Thess. 2:1-3:

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…

This says quite clearly that rapture must come AFTER the man of sin, the Antichrist, is revealed. If you see my writing above, that event happens at the middle of the 7 years. That is clear that there will be no pre-trib rapture. It must wait until after the middle of the 7. Based on what we’ve proven, the rapture will be at the end of the 6^th seal, at least.

So after all this, I have a chronology.

1.   The Antichrist makes a covenant with Jews (and possibly others) that will last for 7 years. But in the middle, he breaks it. Daniel 9:27:

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one seven;
But in the middle of the seven
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate

2.   After the “beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8 agrees with Revelation 6’s first 3 horses and first 3 seals—deception, wars, famine, pestilences, earthquakes) for the first half of the 7, then in the middle he reveals himself as a hater and blasphemer and begins to kill Jews and Christians (seals 4-5) in the last half of the 7 years.

Note that no rapture has taken place yet.

3.   Late in the second half, when the Antichrist threatens to kill ALL, Jesus is set to arrive. His arrival has just-preceding signs; Revelation 6:12-13, 17:

…was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. ¹³ And the stars of heaven fell to the earth…¹⁷ For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

4.  Jesus intervenes the Antichrist’s killing for His Second Coming (He advents twice, not three times) and raptures the Christians left alive, in the 6^th seal, before the 7 years are finished. (As Mark 13:20 says He shortened the days).

5.  His Wrath will then begin immediately, as the doomed men in Matthew 24:17 say.

 

So His Second Coming has two purposes; to rapture Christians and believing Jews out (Revelation 6), before He begins the Wrath upon the unbelieving nations (Revelation 8-9). The Wrath of God is different than the wrath of Satan, which is what we see in the 7 years (Revelation 12:12).

 

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER is not to dispute or quarrel; all Christians are brothers. It is to steer you to the possibility that you may indeed go through the tribulation. THERE ARE MANY THINGS YOU COULD DO TO PREPARE FOR THAT POSSIBILITY…A lack of preparation, a mindset too unconcerned, too often means feeling panicky and confused (and open for deception), when the Antichrist reveals himself and it doesn’t “happen as planned.” You could feel betrayal that you were not getting the facts from your pastor or friends.

It seems to be that the opportunity for apostasy is far greater for those people feeling secure by the Pre-tribulation teachers.

by Ron Burnette

6/23/2026