When, in 1830, Margaret MacDonald had the visions that told her that Christians would not have to experience the Great Tribulation because they would be raptured to heaven immediately before this event and that Jesus could return at any moment to accomplish this rapture the teaching came to be called the pre-tribulation rapture. However, this teaching contradicts the following biblical teachings:
1.Jesus returns once so there is no 7 seven year gap between his parousia (coming) and his apocalipsis.2.Jesus will only leave heaven when his enemies are to be his footstool (Acts 2:34-35). This means that he will only leave heaven the one time and not as pre-tribulationists propose.
3.Christians are to be raptured at the same time as the wicked get destroyed (2Thess. 1: 6-10) and note the examples of Noah’s flood and Lot’s rescue-Luke 17:26-30).
4.Christians are not to be raptured to God’s location in heaven for 7 years (or even a few years), but will be caught away into the earth’s atmosphere for a relatively short time as part of Jesus’ descent to earth (1 Thess. 4:17).
5.There must be events which precede the coming of Christ because he said there would be a sign for his return for which Christians must watch. Therefore the rapture cannot be imminent.
6.Paul said that Antichrist must be revealed first before “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 2:1-3).
7.Christians must experience theGreat Tribulation. Therefore the resurrection cannot be pre-tribulational
8.There is no 7 year tribulation period with “the Great Tribulation” being the latter half. There is only an approximately 3½ year “Great Tribulation”
9.“The Day of the Lord”, is separate from and follows immediately on the heels of “the Great Tribulation.”
10 “Armageddon” is simple the place for the gathering of the nations to fight Christ. It is not the key event as such, that being the Battle for Jerusalem.
11. Jesus’ foretold wars, famines, lawlessness, and earthquakes are not the global and general ones but are specific to the antichrist’s activities in the Middle-east (Daniel 11) in the end-time. So Britain and the USA do not have any major role at that time. Furthermore, the European Community does not fulfil the role of the final antichrist empire.
ANSWERING PRE-TRIBULATIONIST ARGUMENTS: COULD THE RAPTURE OCCUR AT ANY MOMENT?
This could not happen in the apostles’ time because:
Jesus had stated that Peter would reach old age and die before Jesus returned (John 21:18-23).
Paul expected imprisonment, sufferings and a visit to Rome before Jesus’ return.
The elders in Ephesus were to expect “ravenous wolves.” Yet they all entertained the coming of Christ as a “present hope”, “the blessed hope.”
The any moment rapture scheme produces a secret rapture. Yet there were many signs that God gave for the first coming of Jesus. Why would God want the second coming of Messiah to be secretive?
WHAT ABOUT THE THIEF PASSAGES?
These emphasize the suddenness and unexpected nature of Jesus’ second coming for those who are unprepared [not watching], and not any silence or secrecy:
“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day overtake you like a thief” (1 Thess. 5:4).
This shows that the day will overtake ‘watching’ Christians who are not in darkness, but unlike those who are not watching, Christians will not be caught unawares as though by a thief. This actually shows that Christians must still be on earth up to the ‘day of Christ.’
“If you do not wake up I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come to you” (Rev. 3:3).
“(Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed)” (Rev. 16:15)
All of these passages show the need for constant spiritual wakefulness, not only during the Great tribulation, but at all times.
“But if the head of the house had known what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to broken into. For this reason you must also be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will” (Matt. 24:43, 44, Luke 12:39, 40).
Christians can never set a date for the return of Jesus. However, within the last 3½ years in Daniel’s 70th ‘seven’ those who are ‘watching’ and wakeful Christians will become aware that Jesus’ return will be soon, although still not knowing ‘the day or the hour.’ This is further indicated in Jesus’ parable of “the fig tree”:
“...when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So you too, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near, right at the door” (Matt. 24:32-33).
NOTE: “All these things” start from the first specific thing that Jesus stated that Christians will see as a marker for the ‘end-times’, namely, “When you see the Abomination…” (verse 15) which causes “the Great tribulation” (verse 21). So from the time it becomes evident that they are in the time of the Great tribulation vigilant Christians will know that their “redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).
WHAT ABOUT THE ABSENCE OF THE WORD ‘CHURCH’ AFTER REVELATION 3:22?
This word also does not occur in 2 Timothy, Titus, 2 Peter, 1 and 2 John or Jude. However, the
word “saints” occurs 12 times after Revelation 3:22. If, however, Israel is absent between Revelation 7:5 and 21:12, does this mean that the Revelation does not include events involving Israel?
PRE-TRIBULATIONALISM: BUT CHRISTIANS ARE “NOT APPOINTED TO WRATH” (1 Thess. 5:9) !
Unlike the Pre-Tribulation scheme, the Biblical scheme demonstrates that “the day of Wrath” follows on after “the Great Tribulation” so that Christians will not be subject to God’s wrath as will be the case for the wicked. Christians will have divine protection through this latter period as did the ancient Israelites for the last of the plagues upon Egypt just prior to the exodus.
WHAT ABOUT GOD’S PROMISE OF: “I WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE HOUR OF TRIAL” (Rev. 3:10)?
Our concern here is to know what the term “keep (Gk. tereo) refers to. According to Thayers Gk-Eng lexicon when “keep [tereo] is used with “from” [ek], it means: “by guarding, to cause to escape in safety out of.”
So this gives the thought of protection provided for someone so that they may be preserved through a difficult situation rather than having avoided it just as with the ancient Israelites in Egypt. The other use of this combination of tereo ek is in John 17:15 where Jesus has just prayed that his disciples not be taken out of the world but rather that the father “keeps them from [Gk. tereses autous ek] the evil one” or as the NRSV renders it “but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.” So it is evident that this text should not be used in an attempt to prove that Christians will avoid “the Great Tribulation” by being prematurely raptured out of it.
THE FAILURE OF MID-TRIBULATION RAPTURE FUTURISM.
This scheme, as the name implies, simply moves the rapture along to the middle of the 70th ‘seven’ of Daniel’s 70 ‘sevens.’ So, as with pre-tribulationism, it fails on all the above counts except in its recognition that the ‘the Great Tribulation’ will last for approximately 3½ years and that there is no 7 year tribulation
