Chapter 8 – THE RAPTURE

Duration: Instant 
Timing: At the return of Christ during God’s Wrath, following and in conjunction with the resurrection 
Key Scriptures: 1 Thes. 4; 2 Thes. 2; 1 Cor. 15; Mt. 24:31

Let’s now look at the rapture. 

There are 5 main views on the timing of the Rapture:

1. Pretrib – It happens before the tribulation.
2. Midtrib – It happens at the transition into the Great Tribulation (midway through the tribulation).
3. Prewrath – It happens before the Wrath of God.
4. Posttrib – It happens after the Tribulation.
5. No Rapture – There is no Rapture.

IF any of these views is correct, only one can be the truth. Since truth matters, we should take this very seriously and rightly divide the Word of God. 

With all of these conflicting views, a lot of believers simply give up on trying to understand this issue. Others take a stand based on who teaches it. Unfortunately, some are very militant about it and refuse to fellowship with others who see things differently. But we should NOT give up on understanding this, because it can be understood. We should not blindly follow ANY teacher, especially if that person’s teaching contradicts the Bible. And we should NEVER deny fellowship to any believer based on a different view on a position that does not really matter in the long run. This subject has nothing to do with our salvation or the nature of God and should therefore not be divisive.   

My own position is what I call “Mid Wrath” – that it happens after the tribulation (posttrib), while Jesus is still executing His great wrath upon the earth (prior to setting foot on the Mount of Olives). As we saw in Chapter 5 on THE WRATH OF GOD, His wrath could very well last for at least five months. I believe that He will remain in the air for the duration of His wrath events (which are numerous) and that He will call His faithful to himself just before the great earthquake that levels mountains (see Rev. 6:12, 11:16, 16:18; Eze. 38:19). I do not mean that it will be exactly mid-way into his wrath, but that it will be during His wrath. It could be toward the beginning, middle or end. 

The following passage is the clearest teaching known to man about the thing we call the rapture. Notice how Paul is very pointedly putting this whole thing together for us. 

1st Thessalonians 4:¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Now, you might be thinking that you did not read the word “rapture” there. If so, you’d be right. Rapture is the name of the event (the doctrine), not how it’s printed on the pages of our Bibles. Here’s how the word “rapture” came to be used for this doctrinal event (as far as I understand it). 

In verse 17, Paul’s word is translated as “will be caught up” in most English versions. He says the living believers will be caught up to meet the just resurrected believers in the air with the Lord. Since Paul wrote in Greek, we look to the Greek version to see what word he used. 

When we go to a Greek Interlinear Bible (and everyone should have one), we see this Greek word: ἁρπαγησόμεθα, which is transliterated (sounded out) as harpagēsometha. Then we go to a concordance (which everyone should have also) and look up that Greek word. When we do, we see that the root word is ἁρπάζω, which is transliterated as harpazó. Harpazo is a verb, which means to seize, catch up, or snatch away. In our verse, it is in the future tense. So it speaks to a sudden act of grabbing all believers who are still alive on earth at Christ’s return. 

The way we came to this word has a few steps:

Greek (original) = Harpazó
Latin Vulgate = Rapiemur (root word Raptus)
Middle French = Rapture
English = Rapture

Since English and French are based on Latin, the word Rapture has stuck and became the word used for the doctrine. Now it is widely accepted to identify this. 

When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in his first letter, he described the transformation that must occur to both living and dead believers at the return of Christ:

1^st Corinthians 15:⁵⁰ I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ 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 imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 

So putting these together we see that the rapture involves changing our mortal flesh into immortal flesh, and that it happens very quickly, as we are being “caught up” into the sky (the physical atmosphere of earth) to join with Jesus as He returns to us. And this happens at His return, which is after the tribulation (see Mt 24:29-31).

Matthew 24:29-31

²⁹ “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, 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. ³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Going back to 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 15 is quite emphatic.

We who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have died.

The same is true for verses 16 and 17. Here’s what he is saying: 

• The Lord returns
• The dead in Christ are resurrected, receiving their new glorified bodies.
• Immediately and concurrently, the living are transformed and join the lord and the others in the air (literally, the atmosphere). 

Here’s how the Lord put it:

Matthew 24:³¹ And he [Jesus] will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Earlier (chronologically), Jesus said it this way:

John 6:⁴⁰ “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Paul told the Corinthians that this will happen at the last trumpet (7^th Trumpet), and that the transformation will be instant. Again, he has the dead raised first and then the living. We saw earlier that the seventh (and last) trumpet accompanies the Lord’s return.

These verses make a pretribulational, mid-tribulational, or pre-wrath rapture absolutely impossible (as well as the belief that there is no rapture).

1st Corinthians 15:⁵¹ Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep [die], 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 imperishable, and we shall be changed.

To think that there will be a rapture prior to the resurrection of the dead in Christ (which includes some believers killed in the great tribulation) denies what Paul taught about the rapture. Namely, that the dead in Christ MUST be raised first (the resurrection), and then the living must be raised (caught up) and transformed as well (the rapture).

Not only does the Bible NOT show that the rapture occurs before the tribulation, it shows that it occurs AFTER the tribulation. This is why it occurs POSTtrib (after) the tribulation. 

To hold to a PREtrib view is also inconsistent with many other revelations in scripture (such as the unity of the Church, for one).

We know that there is only one Church, one Bride of Christ, and that she is awaiting her Groom to come and be with her. So when we read that some (actually a huge number of) believers are killed in the Great Tribulation, we can know for certain that the resurrection of those dead will be after the Great Tribulation. 

There is no biblical reference for splitting the Church into different groups, where some are on earth and others are not. Therefore, the term and notion of “Tribulation Saints” should be vigorously denied. It has no biblical foundation at all. 

Objections to the Posttrib View Regarding the Rapture

Rosh Hashanah Portrays the Rapture 

This argument is fairly complicated to explain, only because there is much detail in the symbology associated with the Seven Jewish Feasts. So, I’ll begin with a very quick overview of these seven feasts.

In the Bible, seven feasts are decreed to take place throughout the year. These are God-ordained feasts for the Jews. The first four feasts take place in the spring; the last three take place in the fall. The first four portray the First Advent of Christ (when He first came to earth); the last three portray His Second Advent (when He comes again at the end of the age). 

Here are the names, dates and meanings of these feasts:

1. Passover (Pesach) – Nisan 15 – pictures the death of Jesus Christ (Exodus 12)
2. Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot) – Nisan 15-22 – pictures the burial of Jesus Christ (Exodus 12)
3. Feast of First Fruits (Reishit Katzir) –Nisan 17– pictures the resurrection of Christ (Leviticus 23)
4. Pentecost (Shavuot) – Sivan 6 – pictures the descent of the Holy Spirit & the birth of the Church
5. Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teru’ah) – Tishri 1-2 – awakening to judgment; God’s Wrath; Jewish New Year
6. Feast of Atonement (Yom Kippur)  – Tishri 10 – Second coming, Israel’s national salvation, judgment
7. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) – Tishri 15-22 – restored fellowship with the Lord

(Due to the differences in the Jewish and Gregorian (the one we now use worldwide) calendars, the Gregorian dates are different each year.)

Since the first four feasts are not contended and do not address the End Times, let’s just look at the last three feasts. This will be a very brief overview. For more on these, personal study is encouraged. However, as you do so, it is important to not overlook the totality of revelation on the end times, and always remember that the Word of God is always consistent. 

A. Rosh Hashanah

(Literally, “the Head of the Year”)

Leviticus 23:²⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.”

Falling on the first two days of Tishri (usually in September or October), it is to be 10 days of prayer, self-examination and repentance. These 10 days are called “the days of awe” (Yamim Norai’m). It also commemorates the creation of the universe.

The reference to the trumpets shows an apparent connection to the wrath of God, which is heralded by the trumpets in Revelation. Therefore, the Feast of Trumpets could be tied prophetically to the Wrath of God. The Jewish customs of prayer, reflection, and repentance during this time are appropriate habits to form in preparation for the difficulty that will be forced upon us during the future time of testing and approval. This is also a good practice to prepare us for such fierce trial as we will see in the tribulation, which immediately precedes God’s Wrath. That these days are called “the days of awe” is most telling of the display of God’s awesome power in His plagues of wrath. 

To attempt to explain this feast as foreshadowing the rapture (prior to the tribulation) shows a misunderstanding of the meaning of the symbology portrayed in its practice.  The trumpets’ heralding, the call to repentance and solemnity, and the “awe” of it all should be obvious references to the events of God’s final outpouring of calamity and suffering, which is designed to call sinners to repentance.  I can see no correlation to a snatching away from peril in these symbolic descriptions. Yom Kippur and Sukkot, however, speak volumes to our union with Christ.

B. Yom Kippur

(Literally, “the Day of Atonement”)

Leviticus 23:²⁷ “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. ²⁸ And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. ²⁹ For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰ And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. ³¹ You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. ³² It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

Held on the tenth day of Tishri, this feast symbolizes the second coming of Messiah; the restoration of Israel; and judgment of the world; on the heals (or in conjunction), by the way, of the wrath of God.

It represents a day of deliverance and salvation, eternally delivered from the hands of our enemies. It marks the climax of Rosh Hashanah.

On Yom Kippur, everyone’s fate will be sealed (no more chance of salvation if not already received), at least until the final judgment.

It’s the holiest day of the year.

This will be the day that our salvation is realized. It will be the actual redemption of our eternal souls; the day we finally put on incorruption and the glory of our Lord and Savior. So much of scripture refers to this blessed event it would be a tall order to find all of the references to it. However, in keeping with the timeline of this thesis, we can simply look to 1^st Peter 4 and see it in light of Leviticus 23.

Leviticus 23:²⁹ For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people.

1 Peter 4:¹² Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. ¹³ Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

And when is Christ’s glory revealed to the world? Upon His return. And I’ll remind you again what Paul said about this glorious day:

1st Thessalonians 4:¹⁵ For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

How can Paul say, “we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord”, if we are removed BEFORE the coming of the Lord? 

C. Sukkot

(The Feast of Tabernacles)

Leviticus 23:³⁴ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord.”

Observed from the 15^th to the 22^nd of Tishri.

Commemorates the huts that the Israelites lived in during the 40-year sojourn in the desert.

This prophetically foreshadows the time when the Lord will once again tabernacle (dwell) with His people here on earth during His millennial reign and after that in the New Earth.

As you can see, the last three feasts portray the second coming of Christ in harmony with the teaching of Jesus, Paul, and John on the timing of the rapture of the Church, along with all of the other End Time topics.

Nothing about these three feasts speaks of a pretribulational rapture of the Church.

Questions to Ponder

1. In light of scriptures that depict believers in the tribulation (Rev 7:9-17; 12:17; 20:4), how can believers have been raptured prior to the tribulation?
2. In light of Paul’s teaching that the Church is a single body (Gal 3:28; Eph 4:4; 1 Cor 12:12; Rom12:4-5) how can the Church (Bride of Christ) be on Earth (suffering persecution) and also in heaven (being honored) at the same time?
3. What passage of scripture is the clearest teaching on what we now call the “rapture”?

Answers

1. They can’t. To say so is illogical and unscriptural.
2. It can’t. To say so is illogical and unscriptural.
3. 1st Thessalonians 4:15-17

PREVIOUS | NEXT

Preface/Introduction
Ch 1: Ezekiel’s War
Ch 2: The Tribulation
Ch 3: 3rd Temple Built
Ch 4: The Great Tribulation
Ch 5: The Wrath of God
Ch 6: The Return of Christ
Ch 7: The Resurrection of the Dead in Christ
Ch 8: The Rapture
Ch 9: Armageddon
Ch 10: The Millennium
Ch 11: The Judgment
Ch 12: The New Creation
Ch 13: Conclusion
Ch 14: Summary
Glossary