WHAT IS YOUR BIBLICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH BEFORE THE GREAT TRIBULATION?

People sometimes ask me, “What is your evidence for a Rapture of the church before the Great Tribulation?”

* First of all, in Revelation 1, 2 and 3 you have the church, the word occurs nineteen times. It’s heavy on the church. A great vision of the church in chapter 1 in which the Lord is ministering in the church. And you have the churches being addressed and the letters to the churches in chapter 2 & 3. 

After chapter 3, everything that goes on on earth, all the things that are said, all the warnings, all the descriptions, all the visions totally void of any reference to the church. One could conclude just by that, that the church doesn’t appear to be here. Add to that, that in chapters 4 and 5 you go to heaven. Before the Tribulation begins in chapter 6, chapters 4 to 5 you go to heaven and what do you find in heaven? You find a group called the Twenty-Four Elders which, as hard as I can work at it, are best understood as the glorified church. There are a number of reasons why.

They have crowns which are promised to the church. There are many other features that indicate the 24 elders to be the church. So you have the church on earth in 1 through 3. You have the church in heaven in 4 and 5. And you have the Tribulation break out on earth in chapter 6. Then you have chapter 19, Christ coming back at the end of that time and coming with Him are the saints clothed in white and fine linen which is used to describe just prior to that the saints in heaven. So we are in heaven for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, for our reward time and we come back with Christ at the end of the time of Tribulation. That seems to be a consistent way to understand the book of Revelation.

* A second thing to think about is that there are no warnings of any kind nor is there any instruction given to the church about how to endure the future time of Tribulation. We don’t even get addressed as how to survive in an Antichrist world, how to survive when the whole universe is collapsing, etc., etc. In fact, all that comes to us is about our blessed hope, looking for Christ, waiting for His appearing, longing to be with Him. Titus 2:13, the glorious appearing of Christ, this blessed hope. So what is told to the church is not strong on warning, it is strong on hope.

* Thirdly, the Rapture is defined in 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4 and John 14, three places. And in each case it is the church taken into heaven, taken out of the world and taken to heaven. There’s no judgment. Christ does not come to earth, He takes us to heaven. If that is describing the Second Coming, as some would say, and it comes at the end of the Tribulation, what’s the point? What does He do? At the end, call us up and then bring us back? What’s the up and down for? It doesn’t make sense. If He’s called us up to go to a place He’s prepared for us, if He’s called us up to meet our Bridegroom, if He’s called us up to be rewarded, that makes sense. And then to come back with Him when He comes to reign. But if at the end we are snatched up into the air to be with the Lord, what is the point or coming immediately back?

And then another thought. If, as some say, we are raptured at the end of the Tribulation, then the scene would look like this: Christ comes, destroys all the wicked, they’re all dead, none of them are alive on the earth, all of them are destroyed, the day of the Lord, no one survives. And if all believers are raptured, right? What does that mean? You receive a glorified body and you’re transformed. Then you have a big problem. Who populates the earthly Kingdom? You’ve got no unbelievers and you’ve got no living believers, so who populates the Kingdom? So who has babies? So who populates the nations? So where do the sinners come from that Christ rules with a rod of iron? Where do the sinners come from that rebel at the end of the Millennial Kingdom? Where do the Gentiles come from who are hanging on the garment of a Jew and wanting to be taken to meet Christ? You have to have people survive, godly people, saints, believers survive the persecution and the horrors of the Tribulation so that you have sheep to go into the Kingdom to populate the Kingdom for a thousand years.

And then Revelation 3:10…Revelation 3:10, just one verse that might help you and there are many other things to say about this, but I’m just giving you some things to think about…Revelation 3:10, very interesting verse and comes, of course, to the church as a promise. “Because you have kept the Word of My perseverance,” which is another way of saying you’ve been faithful to My Word, because you’ve been steadfast, because you have a persevering salvation which is the real thing, because you’ve kept My Word, “I will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell upon the earth.”

There is an hour coming of testing, an hour of trial, an hour of Tribulation coming on the whole world, I will keep you from that hour, tereo ek, keep you out from, ek meaning out from a specific hour. He’s not saying, “I promise you this, you’ll never have any trouble in life,” that would be ridiculous. “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials,” same word. We’re going to have those things, but there is an hour, that is a specific time from which we will be kept, out of which we will be kept. That, I think, is a promise of deliverance that is consistent with 1 Corinthians 15, John 14, 1 Thessalonians 4.

At the Rapture, the church meets Christ in the air. 

At the Second Coming, the church returns with Christ to the earth. 

At the Rapture we go to heaven. 

At the Second Coming, we come to earth. 

At the Rapture, the Mount of Olives is untouched. 

At the Second Coming it is touched and split. 

At the Rapture, living saints are translated. 

At the Second Coming, no one is translated into heaven. 

At the Rapture the world is not judged, there’s no judgment, sin gets worse. 

At the Second Coming, sin is judged, the world is ruled by righteousness. 

At the Rapture the body goes to heaven. 

At the Second Coming it comes to earth. 

The Rapture is eminent. 

The Second Coming has distinct signs. 

The Rapture concerns only the saved. 

The Second Coming concerns the saved and the lost.

Even so come Lord Jesus,