The Truth About the Tribulation
Every church I have attended has told me, and continues to tell me, that the rapture can happen any minute now. They say that all we are really doing is saving the last few souls we can as we get ready to turn the lights off on our way out the door, leaving the world in darkness and on its prophetic path through the Great Tribulation and God’s wrath. It is very clear that this is what church leadership believes, but is that what scripture says will happen?
What the Bible Says
There are several theories about when the rapture will be, and some even say it won’t happen at all. For now, I will focus on the most prominent two, which lead the rest of the pack in belief by far in terms of number of believers. These are the pre-tribulation rapture, which takes place before the start of the 70th week prophecy of Daniel, and the post-tribulation rapture, which is at the end of the Great Tribulation but before the time of God’s wrath.
The Post-tribulation Rapture
Since the post-tribulation rapture is the easiest to find and reference in scripture, I will start there. In Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13, and Luke chapter 21, you’ll find what’s sometimes called the Olivet Discourse. Here Jesus is asked about the end times and about His second coming, and he gives a step-by-step account of what is supposed to happen. What He says mirrors the seals in the Books of Revelations and the teachings of the Book of Daniel.
Matthew 24:1–44 (NASB 2020)
Signs of Christ’s Return
1 Jesus left the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. 2 But He responded and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
3 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people. 6 And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10 And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. 12 And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. 14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Perilous Times
15 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand—16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. 18 And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. 21 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 25 Behold, I have told you in advance. 26 So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. 27 For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
The Glorious Return
29 “But 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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET BLAST, and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
Parable of the Fig Tree
32 “Now learn the parable from the fig tree: as soon as its branch has become tender and sprouts its leaves, you know that summer is near; 33 so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
36 “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37 For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 At that time there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.
Be Ready for His Coming
42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 For this reason you must be ready as well; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
Everything we need to know is all rolled into one sermon, straight from Jesus Himself. It doesn’t get much easier than that. There is a reason for this. Jesus told us in the beginning of the passage to “See to it that no one misleads you.” He then gives us the means to guard against being misled by giving us all the information that is needed to fulfill that command.
The Pre-tribulationist’s Rebuttals
The two arguments that pre-tribulationists make to rebut the plain reading of Jesus’ words takes two forms: they do not apply to Christians or the passage is not teaching about the rapture at all, but instead teaches of the Second Coming.
The first, which derives from a system of theology commonly called dispensationalism, recognizes the clear references to a rapture. They simply state that when Jesus says, “they will gather together his elect,” and “one will be taken and the other left,” He means the Jewish descendants of Abraham. There is some variance in belief here, as some state that this rapture applies to those descendants regardless of their belief in God or Jesus, some say that it applies to the believers in God but not Jesus, and some say it is only for those who witnessed the first rapture of the church and subsequently came to believe in Jesus. In any case, this doctrine states that the church is already gone, and this second rapture is for the Jews in some manner.
The second ignores the references to a rapture, instead stating that this section applies to the second coming when Jesus descends on the Mount of Olives and the battle of Armageddon starts. Those that read the passage are left wondering why the clear references to the rapture do not mean anything, and why there is no mention of the descent onto the Mount of Olives.
Notice that in both cases, the plain language and audience (in this case Jesus’ disciples) are ignored, and an intended meaning is read into the text, instead of the author’s meaning being derived from the text.
The Pre-tribulation Rapture
Now on to the pre-tribulation rapture. First up is the main verse used to support this view:
2 Thessalonians 2:6–8 (NASB 2020)
6 And you know what restrains him now, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is removed. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
If you cannot see where it says the church will be raptured, don’t fret. It’s not exactly obvious and there are several varieties of interpretations. Basically the most popular line of thinking goes like this:
The restrainer is the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit lives within Christians on Earth.
The Holy Spirit will be taken from the Earth.
Christians will be taken with it.
Some of the other varieties say the church itself is the restrainer, or change some other details, but the core belief stays the same, the church leaves before the Antichrist.
One thing you may notice is that there are some amazing leaps of faith here. First, even if the restrainer is the Holy Spirit, why does He need to leave the Earth to stop restraining the Antichrist? And second, if He is leaving, why must He take Christians with Him?
The answer to both is He doesn’t. But even if we assume that these beliefs are true, the next step is testing these assumptions against scripture, which in this case renders them untenable. Just a few verses earlier, Paul’s words upend these beliefs in the very same letter.
2 Thessalonians 2:1–4 (NASB 2020)
1 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit, or a message, or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Paul’s statement mirrors what Jesus said. As Christians, we won’t be gathered together with Jesus until after the Antichrist is revealed. Therefore, the church cannot be “what restrains” nor be associated with “what restrains” in a manner which puts the rapture of Christians before the Antichrist is revealed.
Keep You From the Hour of Trial
Another verse commonly used to support the pre-tribulation rapture is in Revelation 3.
Revelation 3:10 (NASB 2020)
10 Because you have kept My word of perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of the testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who live on the earth.
At face value, this verse appears to be telling the reader that because they persevered through temptation and trials, they will be rewarded by being kept out of the way of the Hour of Trials. Since the Hour of Trials affects the whole world, and is meant to try all that dwell here, being kept from it means being taken from the world in an early rapture. First, we must recognize that the words “keep you from,” which are key to this position, make up an English phrasal verb. Remember that the Book of Revelation is translated from Koine Greek. That means that if we encounter a translation that can be taken literally and also as a phrasal verb, we need to consult the original language in order to be sure that the phrasal verb also fits the Greek if we wish to understand the text in that way.
First, we must establish that “keep you from” in the proposed context would mean to “prevent one’s participation in.” The Greek word behind “keep” in this case is τηρέω, which means to “keep watch over, guard; keep, hold, reserve, preserve; keep, observe, fulfill, pay attention to.” The BDAG (Perhaps the most prominent Greek-English lexicon for the New Testament) assigns this passage’s usage to the “of being protective” sub-definition of “preserve.” The underlying Greek shows that this is a protective function, not a prevention or a removal like the English phrasal verb would imply. The Greek just does not cross over that way.
One could still make the case that the means God will use to protect Christians from the period of trials is to remove them from Earth. However, there is no indication in the text that this would be the case, and there is some indication that it is not. The biggest indicator lies in the fact that the clause “I also will keep” links this “keep” to the prior “kept” meaning that in the same manner members of the Church of Philadelphia “kept” Gods word of perseverance, God will protect them. This makes the rapture interpretation highly unlikely, especially considering God’s tendency to protect in place. (ex. Daniel in the lion’s den, Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the furnace)
Perhaps the most problematic part of this particular interpretation is that not all Christians get this gift. Only those that are faithful, and love-filled, and not persecuted (and not identifiable with the other churches mentioned as well) will go early and miss the Great Tribulation. The rest must endure. Strangely, in this view it is as if the Holy Spirit is telling the church of Smyrna that even though they’ve been faithful, they’ve also been subjected to prosecution, which means they don’t qualify for an early rapture. In short, even if this did show a rapture, it would not apply to every Christian.
The Church is not Mentioned After Revelation Chapter 3
This line if thinking follows a logical fallacy. Basically, it says that an absence of evidence is evidence for absence. This works in conjunction with the another fallacy that has deemed all the evidence for the church’s existence and persecution outlined in Daniel and the gospels as the result of misinterpretation. In other words, they have dismissed all the evidence and then said that since there is no evidence, the rapture is pre-trib.
John’s Doorway to Heaven
This argument basically states that immediately following the letters to the churches, John sees and goes through a door to heaven in Revelation chapter 4, which is symbolic of the churches going up to heaven before the other events of Revelation take place. Why this is symbolic of the timing of the rapture, instead of just a realization to John so he can compose the book is not answered. This is yet another clear case of eisegesis.
The Rapture can Happen Anytime
This argument is similar to the last in its form. It ignores the events that Jesus said need to happen first in the Olivet Discourse (see above) and then declares nothing else needs to happen before the rapture, which proves the rapture can happen anytime. For scriptural reference, they refer to Matthew 24:36: “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angles of heaven, nor the Son, but the father alone.” Then they equivocate: not knowing the day nor the hour means that it can happen anytime. These constraints are not the same.
We are Not Appointed to Wrath
This argument relies on Paul’s writings in 1st Thessalonians that state we are not appointed to wrath:
1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 (NASB 2020)
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him
In this case, wrath is designated as all of the 70th week of Daniel under the premise that the events within it sound like wrath. And if they sound like wrath, they are. Notice that this means the human reader is the judge of God’s actions and determines His motives. And like many human judgments, this one is wrong as well. In Revelation 6, we are told when the period of wrath begins.
Revelation 6:15–17 (NASB 2020)
15 Then the kings of the earth and the eminent people, and the commanders and the wealthy and the strong, and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
This acknowledgement of the day of wrath follows the sun and the moon going dark, which is the last key marker before the rapture. (See above) This fits with Jesus words in the Olivet Discourse, and then we see the great multitude in the very next chapter. (Rev 7:9-10)
Conclusion
On one hand, we have a direct account of what will happen, direct from Jesus himself. There are no special interpretations needed. No conflicting verses needed to explain away. There is no missing information. It all just fits together, conveying its rather uncomfortable prophecy that the vast majority of us wish was not true.
On the other, we have sketchy scriptural interpretations that require leaps of faith and logic, an array of conflicting verses that say otherwise, which must be explained away or ignored, a lot of missing information, and a prophecy that does not mesh well with the Bible’s teachings. Although, it is a nice and cushy belief that makes us feel good.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think I’m going to believe that Jesus meant what He said. The pre-tribulation crowd has not given me a good reason to doubt anything but the pre-tribulation rapture itself.
For further study, I’ve provided a copy of a scripture map that maps out the post-tribulation timeline well. It’s the best I’ve found so far. The author and artist have said that it’s not under any copyright, but they ask everyone not to alter or sell it.
Post-tribulation scripture map
