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The opinions are divided

The idea of the rapture of the church keeps us busy, right? At least it keeps me busy! Especially now that we see all the developments around Israel, this topic becomes very relevant for many Christians. Are we in a march towards the one world order as we can read in Revelation? I think we are indeed living in very special times. But then, what does this mean for us Christians? For many, these events in the Middle East simply means that the rapture can happen in a few days, while others are a bit more reluctant and say that it comes close but not yet. Well, as you can imagine, opinions still seem to be divided at times.

I suspect that the vast majority of the Evangelical world, in the West, believes in the rapture of the church before the great tribulation. But strangely enough, many of our brothers and sisters in, say, African or Asian countries seem to believe in a post-trib rapture, or the rapture after the great tribulation.

My Hopes

Like you, of course, I sincerely hope that the Lord will take us away before all this misery erupts.

So my intention is absolutely not to take away your hopes for the rapture before the tribulations. Again, with you, I sincerely hope so. Also, we should keep in mind that the rapture is not a saving doctrine. In other words, we may disagree with each other on this subject, that does not make one or the other a false teacher, nor do we lose our salvation if we disagree with each other.

Still, I think it is good to hear how our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world view these issues. How do these African and Asian Christians, including many very smart theologians, think they will ever get through the great tribulation in one piece? Can we even speak of a hopeful prospect then?

How do They Explain the Famous Texts?

First, let us see how the so-called post-trib believers explain the famous texts. I am not going to cover all the texts but I will just grab the most famous ones.

Text 1

1 Thessalonians 4:17

then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

While the pre-trib believers focus on the word ‘caught up,’ the others focus more on the word ‘meet.’ We see the word ‘meet’ (apentesin) twice in Matthew 25:6 and Acts 28:15.

In these two passage, it refers to a gathering where people go out to meet an important person—there you have that word—to then escort him back to where they came from.

Matthew 25:6 even talks about a parable of the second coming. Post-tribbers find this a strong argument for the idea that believers—both living and dead—in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 meet the Lord in the air and then welcome Him as King on earth.

Text 2

2 Thessalonians 1:5-7

which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

This text shows that Paul had the expectation that he will not get rest from tribulation until the moment God will punish the oppressors. That moment will be when Jesus, along with the angels, appears. This text speaks of Jesus’ second coming. In other words, here Paul does not seem to assume that we will receive rest seven years before Jesus’ appearance. Revenge on unbelievers and rest for the persecuted church come on the same day in the same event.

Text 3

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition

Verses 1 and 2 suggest that the ‘ gathering together unto him’ is the same as ‘the day of Christ.’ Paul tells them not to be confused about that. In other words, the meeting, or the rapture and the day of Christ speaks of the glorious second coming. They seem to be one event.

Paul goes on to tell the believers in Thessalonica not to think that the day of the Lord has already arrived because the apostasy and the son of perdition have not yet appeared. So even though we do not know when Jesus will return, we can assume, according to this text, that we will see the anti-Christ.

Text 4

Revelations 3:10

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

This text is often cited to defend the pre-trib position. But post-tribbers are perfectly capable of explaining this text to their advantage without detracting from the other scriptures. To ‘keep thee from the hour of temptation’ does not simply mean that we have to be taken away to be spared from suffering.

In Galatians 1:4 we read

who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father

And in John 17:15 Jesus prays

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

We see that ‘deliver’ or ‘keep them from the evil’ does not necessarily mean physical removal. And what of the souls of the martyrs under the altar in Revelations 6:9-11?

The promise is to be guarded ‘from the hour of temptation,’ in the sense of being guarded from the demoralising forces of that hour. Or in other words. We are protected in our thinking so that we will not fall.

Looking Forward to His coming

Several pre-tribbers have said they look forward to the coming of Jesus with a great hope. If the coming of Jesus means that we must first go through a great tribulation, many would loose that hope. After all, longing for the coming of Jesus would mean going through a lot of calamity first—and be honest, who in his right mind would like that?

The post-tribbers in countries where Islam rules seem to be strangely surprised by this. Many of our brothers and sisters are already experiencing unspeakable misery. Murder, rape, torture and mutilation are not unknown to them. Christians in yet other regions are ostracised and not allowed to buy or sell anything anywhere. They live with their whole families in rubbish dumps and even there they are chased away. Every day, they look forward to the coming of Jesus! They long for that day with all their soul.

Both groups long and hope for a quick return of Jesus. One group longs for it because they have the hope that they will be spared from misery while the other looks forward to Jesus’ coming because they know that they will then be delivered from the horrors. In both cases, we speak of a tremendous hope.

The Wrath of God

A strong point of the pre-tribbers, in my view, is the fact that Christians are saved from God’s wrath. In particular, the second part of the tribulation speaks of God pouring out His wrath on the earth. Well, surely Christians cannot be subjected to that, right? Some also believe the first period of the great tribulation is part of God’s vengeance because He leaves mankind to their fate—or rather He leaves their fate to the cruelties of Satan.

The post-tribbers do not seem so impressed by this argument. They cite Noah who trusted God. He was not taken away from the earth but was protected in the midst of the flood. Noah went right through the flood! The flood was God’s judgement for the world but Noah was found righteous and found God’s protection.

They then quote 2 Peter 2:5, 9 to substantiate this

and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly […] the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished

The joke, of course, is that Matthew 24:38-39 supports this idea:

For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

But this will not be accepted by some pre-tribbers because they say these verses are mainly about Israel. This has to do with how they view history. I will come back to that in a moment.

The post-tribbers also look at the history of the people of Israel when they still lived in Egypt. God sent ten plagues. Israel suffered only the first three but was spared the other seven plagues. The fact that they did have to endure the first three plagues had to do with the fact that this was not a punishment but an overthrow of the Egyptians’ deity, the Nile. Similarly, the second plague, frogs, was linked to the Nile, from which the frogs sprang. And as for the lice, the Bible shows how Pharaoh’s magicians were unable to reproduce that plague, proving that these plagues were an act of God, not magic produced by Moses and Aaron. After these three plagues, subsequent plagues were meant to punish Egypt. The plagues were severe and the Israelites were in the midst of them without being affected themselves.

Dispensationalism

Back for a moment to how both groups look at history and the future. Many look at biblical history through a lens of the so-called dispensational doctrine.

The dispensational doctrine is still sometimes cited as the major difference between pre and post-tribbers. This doctrine insists on a literal interpretation of the Bible as the best hermeneutical method. The literal interpretation gives each word the meaning it would have in everyday usage, but of course symbols, figures of speech and types are taken into account. So for example, when the Bible speaks of ‘a thousand years’ in Revelation 20, dispensationalists interpret this as a literal period of 1,000 years (the dispensation of the Messianic Kingdom of Peace), simply because there is no necessary reason to interpret it otherwise.

The doctrine of the rapture before the great tribulation often goes hand in hand with the dispensational doctrine—yes, I said ‘often’ because this is not always the case.

The classical dispensational doctrine states that there are seven dispensations of a particular period in God’s work counted from creation. The last two dispensations deal with grace and the Messianic Kingdom of Peace. The dispensation of grace runs from the resurrection to the return of Christ. According to classical teaching, this is the dispensation we are in now. The dispensation of the Messianic Kingdom of Peace or the millennial kingdom runs from the Second Coming to the final judgement.

Many pre-tribbers who adhere to classical dispensational doctrine say that the church is a kind of interlude in terms of God’s dealings with Israel. It is as if God was writing a sentence and placed an in between comma’s it that has a brief focus on the church and then continues with the earlier topic namely Israel. So, the next part of that sentence is then about the great tribulation and the 1000-year kingdom focusing on the future of ethnic and national Israel. In the book of Revelation, the term ‘church’ (ekklēsia) does not appear after Revelation 4:1 to 22:15. The adherents of classical dispensationalism conclude that the reason for this is that God removes the church or before the great tribulation so that He can begin to actively deal with Israel.

This, then, is immediately the reason why the aforementioned passage from Matthew 24 is interpreted differently. Where pre-tribbers are often inclined to see these texts as foreshadowing God’s dealings with Israel, many post-tribbers say it is also meant for us Christians. Remember, post-tribbers may also adhere to the dispensational doctrine but thus often argue that God does not deal with Israel and the church at separate times.

Still others, but this is an absolute minority within the evangelical world, even believe that the church has definitely taken Israel’s place. In other words, this group believes that Israel no longer a role to play.

For many, especially non-Western believers, dispensationalism is a fairly unfamiliar concept. They look at Israel as the people to whom we, the church, are grafted and who are treated no differently, but do play a different role in this and the world to come.

In short, both pre and post-tribbers can use the doctrine of dispensation when explaining the Bible—albeit somewhat differently on details. Still, it is useful to know that the doctrine of dispensation is quite dominant in the evangelical world in particular while our Reformed brothers and sisters are much less concerned with it. It is therefore not surprising that the rapture is mainly taught within evangelical circles.

Cleavage?

You see the teaching on the rapture is not as common as we might think. Many of us in the West—and especially in Evangelical circles—have been taught this doctrine. Especially if you don’t go outside your own circle that much, you won’t hear anything else either.

That why some can be genuinely surprised that certain things can be taught differently. I think it is good to realise that this is not a doctrinal issue that should divide Christians. As "Iron sharpeneth iron; So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” (Proverbs 27:17), so we should listen to each other as we consider the prophecies overall, and especially the prophecies about the end of the age.

The rapture of the church is a so-called secondary teaching within Christianity. Yes indeed! It is important to look forward longingly to the coming of Jesus but when the time comes, He will not reject us because we have misunderstood the teachings about the end times.

Our foundation is the Lord Jesus who died for us and rose again on the third day! That is what we confess together. So when I break bread and drink the wine, it does not matter whether my brother or sister believes in the rapture before, halfway or after the tribulation.

Just hear how Paul articulated this in

Ephesians 3:14-19

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

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