WHEN WILL THE RAPTURE TAKE PLACE?

There are many different ideas as regards when the Rapture will take place. There are three theories to this effect:

i)                 The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: Many people teach that the Rapture will happen before the final seven years begins.

ii)                The Mid-Tribulation Rapture: Some teach that it will happen before the Great Tribulation, somewhere in the middle of the final seven years.

iii)               The Post-Tribulation Rapture: Some teach that the rapture will take place at the end of the Tribulation when Jesus Christ returns at the battle of Armageddon.

Today, we want to attempt to locate the very time the Rapture will take place. To establish a point of reference we first of all need to know if the church will go through the Tribulation or not.

Many Christians ask, “Shall we ascend before the tribulation, or shall we have to go through it?”

Here is the truth: the Tribulation is not for the Church. The Tribulation is God’s wrath upon the unbelieving world, and not for those who are saved – the church. There is a special time (just like the Flood) set apart, called the Tribulation (the Day of the Lord), for God’s wrath.

Again and again, the Scriptures state that the Church is not meant to experience God’s wrath:

1. The Apostle Paul himself taught a pre-tribulation “rapture” (1 Thess. 4:13-18).

2. Because we are in Christ, we cannot be judged a second time because we have already been judged in Christ. Our sins were judged on the cross of Calvary borne by the sinless Saviour. By offering His own body as a sacrifice, He justified and perfected all who believe in Him.

The tribulation is a period of 7 years of the most dreadful nature that will come upon the wicked people in this world who rebelled against God and forsook the path of faith. It is really the time of an unspeakable trouble and suffering like the world has never previously witnessed.

God’s wrath involves the whole 7-Year Tribulation. Realize that the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15 is blown for believers whereas the seven trumpets of Revelation 8, 9 and 11 are sounded for unbelievers. The trumpets spoken of in the book of Revelation therefore, do not have any relevance to the Church.

These judgments are initiated by Jesus Himself at the beginning of the Tribulation, the whole Tribulation must be God’s wrath, which the Church is exempt from.

So, if the church were to go through the tribulation, we would undergo a second judgment, as if Jesus’ sacrifice was not sufficient to justify us, and that’s impossible. Therefore, the Holy Spirit must translate the church before the tribulation.

3. The Old Testament and the book of Revelation leave the Church out of the Tribulation. The focus of the Tribulation — (1) to pour out God’s wrath on the earth just like the Flood (Isa. 24:22; Zeph. 3:8; 1 Thess. 5:3; 2 Thess. 2:12) and (2) to bring the Jewish people to accept Jesus as Messiah (Matt. 23:39; Lk. 13:35) — is addressed by the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation to the unbelievers and the Jewish people. In any biblical content concerning the Tribulation, the Church cannot be found.

The whole concept of the Church was a mystery to the Old Testament prophets. They focused on the nation of Israel. The Book of Matthew is written to the Jewish people, whom Jesus is addressing in Matthew 24.

In the Book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3 cover the Church Age, but then there is no mention of the Church until after the Tribulation (chapters 6-18).

In Chapter 19, the Church returns to the texts and can be found, not suffering, but celebrating with Christ at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and preparing to return with Jesus to earth.

4. The Church is busy elsewhere during the Tribulation. While the 7-year Tribulation is occurring, the Bible records that the Church will be busy with three events. None of the three has to do with suffering in a world being destroyed.

i) The first event the raptured Church will participate in is a judgment by God — the Judgment of the Righteous. This judgment on works is not to determine your eternal destiny, but to determine the degrees of reward due to you (2 Cor. 5:10).

ii) The second event is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This feast celebrates the spiritual marriage of Christ’s Bride — the Church — to her Savior.

Revelation 19:7-9 shares this wonderful celebration, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints). Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.'”

iii) The third event that follows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is the Church’s preparation to follow the King of kings to the Battle of Armageddon at the conclusion of the Tribulation.

This very event is called the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Zech. 14:1-21; Matt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27; Lk. 21:25-27; Rev. 19:11-21).

Revelation 19:14 identifies the Church in their “fine linen, white and clean,” which was given to them during the first event — the Judgment of the Just.

The Church and the angelic forces will follow the King of kings in His Second Coming to the earth, but only Jesus Himself will engage in battle, and with mere words He will defeat the nations in their siege against Jerusalem.

5. There ought to be sheep to separate from the goats. If the Church is raptured at the end of the Tribulation, receives their glorified bodies, and then immediately returns to earth with Christ for the Second Coming as the Post-Tribulation Rapture view holds, then which believer in Christ will be available for the Sheep and Goats Judgment of Matthew 25:31-46?

The only people left on earth at this time would be unbelievers, called goats. No believer — sheep — would be available for God to put into the sheep category.

Since those who are in glorified bodies will be like the angels in that they aren’t given in marriage or reproduce (Matt. 22:30; Mk. 12:25), then a believing, unglorified, human remnant must make it into the sheep category and go on to produce the nations during the Millennial reign of Christ (Ezek. 43:13-27; Isa. 19:21; Isa. 65:20-22; Rev. 20:7-10).

This would mean that people would need to come to Christ during the Tribulation yet after the Rapture to produce this millennial population.

6. The Bible shows that God rescues the righteous from His wrath. Being a Christian involves having to endure suffering and trials at the hand of man (Jn. 16:33; Phil. 1:27; 1 Thess. 3:3; 1 Pet. 4:12-13).

7. We have the promise of Jesus in Luke 21:34-36.

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”

Jesus promised that the saved will be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass. Which things? Those of Matthew 24:4-26, Luke 21:4-19, and Revelations 6-18.

8. We have the promise of God in 1 Thessalonians 5:9. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation [deliverance] by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”

9. Another promise of God is found in 1 Thessalonians 1:10. “And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

10. Look at the promise of God to true believers represented by the Church of Philadelphia. Jesus also said to the Philadelphia church, “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” (Rev. 3:10).

11. The rapture MUST precede the revelation of the Anti-Christ. Tribulation will start only after the Anti-Christ has been revealed (2 Thess. 2:6-8).

12. The fact that the church is mentioned often in Revelations 1-3, but not once in Revelations 4-19, also suggests that the church will not pass through the tribulation. The words “saints” found in these chapters may refer to the people who became Christians after the rapture.

Examples of those who put their faith in God and were exempted from God’s wrath abound in the Scriptures. For instance:

a) Noah and family: In Matthew 24:37 Jesus said, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

God let Noah and his family escape the flood by taking refuge in the ark before He judged the world. How much more will He make a way of escape from the tribulation for those whom Jesus Christ bought with a prize of His own precious blood and sealed with the Holy Spirit?

It will be contrary to God’s nature to make no distinction between the saints and the rest of the wicked, perverse, stiff-necked world, judging us the same way as He judges them.

b) Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:15-29). Though Lot lived there by his own free will, yet God knowing him to be a righteous man, spared his life and that of his family before He judged Sodom and Gomorrah. Not until angels have led them safely away from that wicked city did God rain fire and brimstone on the city.

c) Rahab and family: In Joshua 6, God removed Rahab and family before He destroyed the city of Jericho (Josh. 6:17, 23-25).

When then will the Rapture take place? Since the church will not go through the Tribulation, it implies that the Rapture must take place before the Tribulation begins.

John says, “After this (the church age) I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me (John); which said, Come up hither [here], and I will show thee things which MUST be hereafter [i.e. and I will show you things that must take place after the church age]” (Rev. 4:1).

What John viewed (the vision) had changed from earth to Heaven. Shortly before, Jesus stood in the midst of the 7 candle sticks and spoke to the seven churches. That very scene disappeared, and then an awesome gate flung open in Heaven, a voice like a trumpet said, “Come up here!” This reveals the terrifying events that will occur in the future.

“Come up here” is also a command given to the two witnesses in Revelations 11:11 which says, “And they heard a loud voice from Heaven saying, “Come up here.” The breath of life from God entered them and they stood on their feet...

This command may also refer to the Rapture of the church before the tribulation. When Jesus said in Revelations 4:1, “Come up here,” we will go up in a twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52).

What is the twinkling of an eye? The twinkling of an eye is 1100’s of a seconds. Therefore, when Jesus says, “Come up hither,” we are going to shoot through 187 trillion billion miles in eleven hundredth of a second, and we will instantly be with the LORD.

What is the significance of John’s ascending into Heaven? John’s ascending into heaven pictures the church at the end of the church age that has prepared oil, being filled with the Holy Spirit (Matt. 25:1-13).

Again, the Greek phrase “meta tura” meaning “after these things,” is used at the beginning and at the end of Revelations 4:1 thus: “After these things [after writing the things concerning the church in Revelations 2-3], I looked up…….. a door was opened in Heaven, and the first voice said, “Come up here,” and I will show you things which must be after these things, that is, after the church age.

This confirms and settles the question as to the time of the fulfillment of all the events of Revelations 4-22. They must be after these things of the churches, after the Rapture of the church.

The church is no longer on earth when the events of Revelations 4-22 take place. Note that Christ said that the events of Revelations 4-22 must be hereafter, that is, after the church has been taken to Heaven as proved by Revelations 1:19.

Revelations 1:19 says, “Write (1) the things which thou hast seen [that is, the visions of Christ in the midst of the seven candle sticks – Rev. 1:7], and (2) the things which are [i.e. the things concerning the churches – Rev. 2-3], and (3) the things which shall be hereafter [i.e. the events which must be after the church age – Rev. 4:1-22:5].”

Therefore, the church MUST be raptured between the things which are (Rev. 2-3), and the things which must be hereafter, i.e. after the church age (Rev. 4-22:5).

But before we zap to Heaven, our vile body will be instantly changed to be like that of Jesus (Phil. 3:21; 1 Cor. 15:50-53).

Question: Are you ready for this glorious departure that is about to take place?

Time is running out (Prov. 27:1). Hurry beloved! Don’t be caught unprepared when the trumpet sounds because Christ is the only One that can bring you to Heaven (Acts 4:12; 1 Tim. 2:5; Jn. 14:6). So hurry and make peace with God right now!

Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)