To this point we have considered the primary signals of the “abomination of desolation,” and the coming of the “Man of Lawlessness” to wreak havoc upon the Church, subsequently demanding the worship of all humanity. We have concluded the synonymous structure of the dead in Christ raised first, the timing of the rapture, and the day of the Lord’s return are in fact one event. In this installment it is important to engage other central Scriptures which the pretribulation rapture theory hinges on. The question we will be considering is the issue of judgement, wrath, and tribulation. Based on the Scriptural accuracy which indicates the Church will never suffer the wrath of God, the pretribulation rapture theory believes it impossible for the Church to be here during the Great Tribulation. While it is true, the Church is not subject to the wrath of God, the question of the suffering Church during the Great Tribulation is not one of God’s wrath, rather, it is a question of suffering an embroiled sin-filled humanity and the ministry of Anti-Christ for which the Church suffers.
I THESSALONIANS 5:9
In “The Man of Lawlessness” portion of this series I quickly moved through 1 Thessalonians 5:9. The verse reads, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (ESV). Pretribulationists take this to mean that God will save us from the wrath of God in the Great Tribulation by way of removing the Church from earth. When read with a presuppositional pretribulation rapture in mind, it is not too outlandish to assume this text adds support. However, as stated, the context of Paul’s passage does not match this isolated inference. The context of this passage is not specifically a timing for the rapture, rather, it is an encouragement to those who are alive in Christ to take comfort in the reality of which the dead in Christ are raised first. Furthermore, contextual to Paul’s argument, Paul is comforting those who are awake in Christ, who walk sober-minded, who are not over-taken like a thief in the night, because they are children of the light, who are able to discern the hour of history they live in. The comfort Paul offers is our hope in Christ. When the eschatological prophesies begin unfolding before our eyes, “birth pains” and the revealing of “the Man of Lawlessness,” we know undoubtedly, the return of Jesus, our blessed hope, is soon. George Eldon Ladd elaborates, conveying:
“If the question of the rapture and the Tribulation is to be settled on this issue alone, the only alternative is a pretribulation Rapture, for the Church will never suffer God’s wrath. However, this admission does not lead to pretribulationism, for the verse in question says nothing about either the Rapture or the Tribulation. All it asserts is that the Church will not fall under God’s wrath. The wrath in question may not refer to the Tribulation at all, but to God’s wrath in the final judgment (Rom. 2:5). However, if it does include the Great Tribulation, the verse neither asserts nor suggests that the Church will be removed from the world; it is only promised deliverance” (Ladd. 84).
Simply put, the context of this verse is bathed in the same language of Matthew 24 (1 Thess. 4:13-18). This means the context itself supports the rapture being synonymous with the coming of the Lord. All this suggests is deliverance. To assume this deliverance is a pretribulation rapture is to infer upon the text.
REVELATION 3:10
Revelation 3:10 parallels Revelation 4:1,’ “A door standing open in heaven.” This verse, in my experience is hard to undue in the minds of pretribulationists. I have witnessed and been part of hours-long conversations which fall to this one verse. When all other justifications of pretribulation theory seem to fall, pretribulationists refuse to let this one go. Which means as the theory falls apart the refusal to let go of this particular verse reduces the strength of their argument to a single, isolated Scripture. Again, the first point here is context and correlation to Biblical eschatology as a whole. Regardless of what we do with this verse, as we have seen, the weight of the timing of the rapture cannot be reduced to a single Scripture. Ladd points readers to John 17 to help understand an alternative assertion. John 17:14-19, which reads, “’I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” In first-world America, where freedom of individual autonomy exists, and the philosophical structure abhors failure, sickness, submission, and death-the Biblical doctrine of suffering is languishing as a whole. It is understandable to the extent of experience how the Great Tribulation is a foreign concept; however, at the end of the day, the Word of God, not experience, is the anchor by which the Church gages truth. While Revelation 3:10, “appears at first sight to teach pretribulation” (Ladd. 85), an inference to support the pretribulation rapture theory upon the text does not contextually suffice. Thereby, Revelation 3:10 does not teach a pretribulation rapture theory.
LUKE 21:36
While Matthew twenty-four goes into more explicit detail of the events and pressures the time of the end and the coming of Anti-Christ, and of the day of the Lord, Luke chapter twenty-one gives the reader a little more detail for positioning their heart during these final days. Verses 5-9 foretell the coming destruction of the Judaic temple, and of the future destruction of a third temple. Verses 10-19 encourage believers how to live amidst the final wars and great persecution of the Great Tribulation. Verses 20-24 teach of the gentile armies of the earth surrounding Jerusalem for a final destruction of the city. Verses 25-28 mention natural and cosmic disasters which precede the coming of the Lord. Verses 29-33 inform us to take courage at these signs, it means the day of the Lord is soon. And verses 34-36 encourages the Church to not give in to the pressures of these days, to stay awake, to stay sober. Summarily, chapter twenty-one prepares the Church to stand firm throughout the Great Tribulation, it is not a teaching of escapism. Pretribulationists infer verse thirty-six supportive of their cause: “’But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’” Foremost, as with many of these “supportive” Scriptures, context matters. Why would the teaching instruct the Church to prepare to stand amidst a “fear stricken” (p. 87) humanity, and then suddenly detract to an escapists rapture theory? Either the author contradicts himself, or verse thirty-six has an alternative point.
Important to the pretribulation rapture theory is the phrase, “all these things.” Ladd writes, “Many teachers assume that “all these things” refers to everything which will occur during the period of the Great Tribulation” (p. 86). However, given the construct of context, “all these things” is not an assertion of a “secret rapture.” Rather, as Ladd contends, “The antecedent of “all these things” which the watchful will escape is found in verse 26, “the things which are coming on the world” which strike fear to the hearts of man-the divine judgments which will be inflicted at the return of Christ. The world is to fear the judgments of God’s wrath which will accompany “that day,” but the watching believer need not fear them. It is indeed these judgments which those who are spiritually awake will escape…Those who are spiritually asleep will suffer judgment; but those who are “watching,” that is, who are spiritually awake, will escape judgment and will stand before the Son of Man” (Pp. 87, 88). As with 1 Thessalonians 5:9 and Revelation 3:10, Luke 21:36 fails contextual exegesis. And therefore, cannot be supportive of the pretribulation rapture theory.
MATTHEW 24:40-41
If you have had a discussion about eschatology you may have likely heard or entertained Matthew 24:40-41 concerning the pretribulation rapture theory. Verses 40-41 read, “Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.” These set of passages are hallmark pretribulationists proof-text. Nonetheless, exegetical context renders useless in support to their theory. Verses 40-41 are dead-center to verses 36-44. Jesus is teaching His’ disciples how the Great Tribulation relates to the days of Noah. Jesus describes those days, as with the days of Noah, the Church will be building its proverbial ark, yet the surrounding world will go on in a business as usual posture. Meaning, “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (vs. 38). While the immediate scenario is to “stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (vs. 42), the overarching context, notwithstanding the context of the whole chapter, is a warning to be aware of the hour you are living in, so as not to be swept away as in the days of Noah. The issue of verses 40-41 is the issue of judgment. Rather than arguing the one taken as a signal for pretribulation rapture theory, a better read within the contextual lens suggests the one taken is taken parallel to the subsequent judgments of the hour. The analogy illustrates, though we do not know the exact day the Lord will return, those who are spiritually awake may know the season they live in. On a further note, Amos 3:7 reads, “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” Noah is a shining example of this, and in the final hour of history, many servants and prophets will look to these Scriptures as the proverbial waters rage, preaching the glorious Gospel of truth, and warning of the nearness of the day of the Lord.
CONCLUSION
In considering the pretribulation rapture theory, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Revelation 3:10, Luke 21:36, and Matthew 24:40, 41 certainly have their appeal. These Scriptures isolated on their own may be stronger in appeal than Scriptures dealing directly with the day of the Lord and those events which must precede Jesus’ second coming. Nonetheless, the appeal to isolate Scripture from its surrounding and overarching Biblical context makes these inferences fantasy at best. The fundamental issue with pretribulationism, beyond lack of Scriptural support, in my opinion, is a foundational resolve to eliminate suffering from the picture of the Church’s experience. And as noted throughout this series, the American Evangelical allusion which imagines an escapism mentality from the Great Tribulation, in many ways is disconnected from the overwhelming suffering of tribulation experienced by the global Church already. Americans are not accustomed to suffering marginalizing injustice, persecution, or martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel of Christ. The pretribulation rapture theory is a Western pipe-dream.
Rather than an escapists theory supported poorly by fringe isolated Scripture, Jesus Himself prayed, “’I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one’” (Jn. 17:15). Revelation 9:4, again, emphasizes God’s ability to protect the Church from His’ wrath without the necessity of removing the Church: “They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do NOT have the seal of God on their foreheads.” As Satan and humankind’s rage boils over upon the beloved of God in those days, God will lead the Church well. Yes, persecution and martyrdom will accompany this hour of history, however, the Church itself will be delivered, or protected from God’s wrath and judgment poured out upon the unbelieving communities of the earth. Ladd rightly directs our attention to an example of what divine protection may look like; i.e., the Israelites in Egypt. He writes, saying, “The Israelites were in Egypt during the visitation of the plague upon the Egyptians but they were sheltered from the worse of these plagues which befell the Egyptians. In a similar way it is possible that the Church may find herself on earth during the period of the Tribulation but will by divine protection be sheltered from the sufferings entailed by the outpouring of the bowls of wrath and thus be delivered from the wrath to come” (p.84). The Exodus story depicting Israel’s departure from Egypt is one of the great demonstrations of God’s strength and power. The Church should expect similar experiences during the Great Tribulation. God’s salvation and deliverance have never been with an escapists mentality. Thereby, suffering the loss of rights by persecution, and the loss of these temporal bodies by martyrdom is not akin to the wrath of God poured out on the unrighteous. A pretribulation rapture theory is not only a forced assertion upon Scripture, its escapists mentality is not inconsistent with the Word of God and the experience of many persons in the global Church today, and throughout history.
Works Cited
ESV. English Standard Version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2001. Print.
Ladd, George Eldon. The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture.
Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1956. Print.