Second Coming Procession
Session 2: Disproving the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory
I. Widely Held False Doctrine:
There is a widely held doctrine commonly referred to as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture or pre-trib for short. It states that the Church will be taken up (rapture) before (pre) the events of the tribulation period (trib) unfold. We want to understand that this idea was not held by any of the early Church fathers and didn’t even show up until less than 200 years ago. This doctrine introduced speculation as a form of interpretation and despite it’s popularization now was propagated by only a few powerful people and to this day only represents a small percentage of the Body of Christ. Apart from the fact that this position doesn’t have any biblical backing it is dangerous because it leaves the Church ill prepared for the events that lie ahead for us. We will spend this session looking at the popular teaching one detail at a time.
II. Introduced Nearly 2000 Years After Christ:
The pre-trib position was never part of historic Christianity and was only introduced to Christendom for the first time in the early 1800s.
A. Not Part of Historic Christianity:
Invented in approximately 1825 by Edward Irving, the father of the Apostolic Catholic Church, who was later deemed a heretic because of his views on the nature of Christ. Later it was promoted by John Nelson Darby, one of the founding fathers of the Plymouth Brethren Church of Great Britain in 1830.
B. Popularized in the 1900s:
In the late 1800s the view was picked up by Dr. Cyrus Scofield on a visit to England. When he returned home he began teaching this theory in his church in Dallas. In 1909 the Scofield Study Bible was printed and began circulation. It included study notes written from the perspective of a pre-trib position and quickly became one of the best selling Bible resources of that time. The spread of this study Bible was rapid due to the work being excellent study resource with detailed cross-reference system and same page commentary (instead of it being a separate book). Scofield’s growing popularity in that hour also fuels the sale of this study bible and so the message grew. Because of this influence the pre-trib position became the position of Dallas Theological Seminary and the Moody Bible Institute; both of which have graduated thousands of preachers, writers and bible scholars.
C. Not a Universally Held Position:
We must also understand that the pre-tribulation rapture position is not in any way a universally held doctrine in the global Church, in fact it is very western. The Church of China and Russia has been experiencing great measures of persecution for decades now and though it is also an error much of their leadership has been convinced that we are actually in the great tribulation currently. They have been appalled at teachings that present the Church as being absent form the trouble of the last days quoting many New Testament passages that promise the Church tribulation difficulties.
“In the world you will have tribulation (Jn. 16:33 NKJV)”
“They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake (Mt. 24:9 NKJV).”
III. Arguments From Silence:
The entirely of the pre-tribulation theory is derived solely on arguments from silence and not biblical teaching. Any debate team or legal counsel in the world will tell you that this is a flawed way to build a case.
A. Definition:
This means that the belief system and all of its supporting arguments are made on the premise of things that the Bible doesn’t say or mention rather than on things that are explicitly taught.
B. Pre-Trib Scholars:
Scholars who hold to this position will even admit that there is not a single Bible verse that says it clearly states a pre-tribulation rapture. Because the New Testament so clearly paints the picture that the Church will be here during the time of great difficulty all of the pre-trib arguments have to rely on arguments from silence.
C. Assumes Christ is Coming Multiple Times:
The pre-trib position necessitates that Christ comes multiple times in the end times, once to rapture the Church secretly without warning and then a second time to actually come back. This idea is purely theory and not found anywhere in scripture, but it is a foundational premise to the pre trib position. This is another argument from silence as the Bible never speaks of two separate Second Coming events; it instead emphatically describes one event, which occurs after the tribulation not at any point before it.
D. Church Not in Revelation After Chapter Four:
Another main pre-trib pillar is that that the term “the Church” isn’t mentioned in Revelation after chapter four. The argument says that means that the Church will therefore not be around for the events described in those chapters; namely the judgments of the Book of Revelation and the rise of the Antichrist. We will look at how flawed this idea is later in the session.
IV. Clear Proofs that the Church is Here:
Before we look at the pre-tribulation arguments we will first look at a handful of passages that directly address the Church still being here while the events of the Great Tribulation unfold. To look at all the dozens of passages would take longer than we have time for in one session but I have listed several of these below. Each one is a clear proof from the scripture that the Church will be present during the Tribulation period.
A. Two Things Must Come First:
Paul tells us clearly that we are not to be deceived that the rapture of the Church could occur before two very clear distinct things occur. Both of the things he mentions are particulars of the Great Tribulation period. He tells us that we will definitely see these things happen and that the return of the Lord comes sometime later.
“Now, brethren, 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, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 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, 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 (2Th. 2:1-4 NKJV).”
B. Endurance Before the Antichrist is Required:
John tells us multiple times in the Book of Revelation that we will have to endure the Antichrist and the difficulties presented in the period that surrounds him; the great tribulation.
“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Whoever has ears, let them hear. “If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.” This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people (Re. 13:8-10).”
“If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus (Re. 14:9-12).”
C. After the Tribulation:
Jesus told us many things in Matthew 24 about the timing of His return. Among them He clearly states that He will come back after the tribulation is over. Jesus is only coming back once and when He does it is to march to Jerusalem to take His rightful place on the throne.
“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. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn (see Re. 1:7), 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 (Mt. 24:29-31 NKJV).”
V. The Church is Absent from the Book of Revelation:
The pre-trib camp wrongly says that the Church is not mentioned in the Book of Revelation after chapter four and that this means that the Church is not around during the events of that unfold in the Book after chapter four.
A. Come Up Hear:
The below passage is taught as being one of the proofs that the Church will be raptured before the tribulation. They say that when the voice from Heaven says to John “come up here” this is symbolic of the Church being raptured up, and that since chapter four comes before chapter six, when the judgments begin, the Church is gone. This is a serious stretch as nothing at all within the actual text says anything like this, it is purely speculative and it completely ignores the context of the passage. This is John being taken to Heaven in order that he might see the events of the Great Tribulation and it has nothing to do with the rapture what so ever.
“After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it (Re. 4:1-2).”
B. The Saints are Mentioned:
Then the pre-tribbers say that after that point the term “the Church” is not mentioned again until chapter 20. This is another careless argument, because while it may be true that the term “the Church” isn’t found in large portions of the New Testament acronyms like “the saints” can be found in it’s stead. This is the case many times in the Book of Revelation in between chapters 4-20; I have listed a few such references below.
1. Servants and prophets (Re. 11:18)
2. Saints overcame by the blood of the Lamb (Re. 12:10)
3. Makes war against the saints (Re. 13:7)
4. Calls for patience endurance on the part of the saints (Re. 13:10)
5. They shed the blood of the saints (Re. 16:6)
6. Drunk with the blood of the saints (Re. 17:6)
C. Saints vs the Church:
To answer this the pre-tribbers infers that “the saints” mentioned in Revelation 4-20 are those who get saved during the events of the great tribulation in the absence of the Church. They claim that all those who are included in this group come to know Jesus without the Church being present to preach the gospel to them. They infer that these “saints” are able to become all that Revelation says of them without the godly training of the Church who has been raptured before any of these people get saved. This includes these “saints” becoming faithful servants of Jesus and mature prophets (Re. 11:18), bold martyrs (Re. 12:10), an organized force in the Earth, and godly in character. All of this supposedly occurs during the greatest time of difficulty in human history, all in a three and half year period of time and all without the help of the Church.
VI. Not Appointed Unto Wrath:
There is a very common misinterpretation of the following verse. The verse tells us that God has not appointed the Church to receive His wrath. But the misunderstanding is that one, this somehow refers to the rapture and that two the only way for God to keep His saints from His wrath is to remove them from the situation. This is another argument from silence where the scripture actually speaks much about the opposite of what is being assumed by taking this passage to mean these things.
“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Th. 5:9 NKJV).”
A. Picture of the Exodus:
The Lord told the Israelites that He was going to come bring His wrath against the Egyptians but He would protect His people in the midst of the plague of death He was about to bring.
“Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs...I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Ex. 12:7-13).”
B. Peter Tells Us this is What is Like:
In 2 Peter the apostle actually addresses this very issue by citing multiple biblical accounts where God showed Himself able to bring judgment on one while protecting another. He ends with a statement about this being who God is and how He relates to mankind.
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment (2Pe. 2:4-9).”