What is Pretribulation Rapture of the church?
The word “Rapture” does not occur in the Bible. The concept of the Rapture, though, is clearly taught in Scripture. The Pretribulation Rapture of the church is the event in which God removes all believers from the earth in order to make way for His righteous judgment to be poured out on the earth during the Tribulation period which may be called as “the Day of the Lord”. The Rapture is described primarily in the Bible verses quoted below:
- Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
- We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
- According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
- For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
- After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
- Therefore encourage each other with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV)
- I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
- Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–
- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
- For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
- When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
1 Corinthians 15:50-54 (NIV)
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 describes the Rapture as God resurrecting all believers who have died, giving them glorified bodies, and then departing from the earth with those believers who are still alive, and who have also been given glorified bodies.
1 Corinthians 15:50-54 focuses on the instantaneous nature of the Rapture and on the glorified bodies which the Lord’s people will receive. As Apostle Paul says it is a mystery. The Pretribulation Rapture is the glorious event for which the Lord’s people are longing for since ages and that is what we all should be longing for. All those who are taken in the pretribulation rapture will escape the dreaded 7-year tribulation to be unleashed in the reign of the Anti-Christ. That is the great hope we have in the Lord today. We will finally be free from sin and will be in God’s presence forever. This will happen at “the day of the Lord”.
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The pretribulation Rapture is an argument from silence. Since you realize that the Day of The Lord begins at the Rapture, you must then explain how it is that so many other things must happen before the Day of the Lord. Some of these clearly seem to be within the 7-year period. For example, God says in Malachi that He will send Elijah before the Day of the Lord. Joel says the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the Day of the Lord. But when we read Matthew 24 Jesus indicates that will happen after the midpoint, or the abomination of desolation. So how can the Rapture happen before the last 7 years? It must take place after the midpoint.
Barnabas, thanks for your feedback. Keep watching this space for my follow up article on “The Case For Pre-tribulation Rapture”