Pre-Tribulation Rapture Argument

1 Thess 4:13-18 (NIV) 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. 14 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. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.


• What is he referring to when he says "those who fall asleep?"  Dead
• Is there any corroborating information in the text?
• Grieve (why, unless dead); still alive (in contrast to sleeping), dead in Christ (in context, mentions the dead rising first)
• Verse 17, "caught up" is where we get the word "rapture."  The Greek work is harpazo, our word is from the Latin equivalent
• The rapture is imminent but the Great Tribulation is not -- what does that mean?
• It is a theological distinction.  There are specific events related to the Tribulation which must occur first, whereas the rapture can happen at any moment
• What do we know about the rapture from scripture?
• John 14:1-3 (NIV) "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
• No details, but some basic truth -- what do you see?
• Promise to take us to where he is going
• Where is he going? to Heaven
• This is counter to the post-tribulation view, where Jesus meets us in the air at his second coming and takes us with him down to the earth.  Which is why pre-tribulation makes more sense.  We are met in the air by the Lord and taken to Heaven.  At the end of the tribulation we come back with Christ to earth
• In the 1 Thessalonian verses read earlier, we learn that the dead will not miss out, and we also get a chronological sequence, what do you see?
• The Lord descends from Heaven
• With a shout (probably a command for resurrection and translation)
• WIth the voice of the archangel (probably Michael repeats Jesus' command, much as you would see in many military units)
• With a trumpet of God (trumpet used for battle and worship; in this case it triggers the rapture itself and sets the plan in motion)
• The dead in Christ will rise first (this is limited to Church saints only; the bodies of OT saints will be resurrected at a later time)
• Then, we who are alive, shall be caught up (this is when living saints are removed from the earth)
• Meet the Lord in the air (so we return to heaven)


1 Cor 15:50-56 (NIV) I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 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. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 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."


55 "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" 


56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.


• Verse 50 explains the necessity of the rapture:  our bodies are corrupt.  This leads to a very long discussion on the intermediate state between death and resurrection (will be included in a later input -- a quick summary: our souls rise and are with Christ in heaven at death, but our bodies are not resurrected and changed into new bodies until the rapture)
• Gen 2:17 (NIV) but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
• When Adam ate of from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he corrupted the body which God had given him.  Because the body is now perishable, it cannot enter heaven.  Therefore, we need a new body
• How will the change occur?  Instantly
• When will it occur?  At the last trumpet
• Here is where people try to place the rapture in the tribulation, they interpret it to be the seventh trumpet
• At the time Paul wrote this passage, John had not written Revelation, so no one would have interpreted it in that context  (Fruchtenbaum, 2003).  More likely, it refers to the Feast of the Trumpets, where there are a series of trumpet blasts followed by one long trumpet blast.  When you look at the Jewish feasts, . . .
• There is a line of reasoning that suggests that the seven feasts of Israel have prophetic significance  (Fruchtenbaum, 2003)
• The first four occur in the Spring and are fulfilled in the FIRST coming
• Feast of Passover - Jesus was our Passover lamb
• Feast of unleavened bread - absence of leaven where leaven is a symbol of sin in the OT; the power of sin is the law and represents the beginning of a new covenant not based on law
• Feast of First Fruits - Jesus' resurrection is called the first fruit (twice)
• Feast of Weeks - Pentecost (beginning of the church and the age of grace (or New Covenant), also occurs on the same day (and therefore contrasts to) as the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, which represents the age of the Law (or Old Covenant)
• Four month gap between the feasts
• Jesus said that there are four months until the harvest
• The church age is fulfilling that now
• The second three feasts occur in the fall and will be fulfilled in the SECOND coming
• Feast of Trumpets - Rapture of the church
• The day of Atonement - tribulation period
• The Feast of Tabernacles (booths; ingathering) - time of rejoicing after the tribulation
• The timing of the rapture
• Book of Revelation
• The church is mentioned in chapters 1 to 3, events prior to the tribulation, and in chapters 19-22, events after the tribulation
• The church is not mentioned in chapters 6-18, the tribulation period.  Therefore the church is not in the tribulation (tribulation saints, individuals who come to Christ during the tribulation are present)
• Luke 21:34-36 (NIV) "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man." 
• The only way to escape is to be able to stand before the Son of Man, and the only way to stand before the Son of Man is to be a believer (Fruchtenbaum, 2003)
• 1 Thess 1:9-10 (NIV) for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. 
• The Thessalonians were waiting for Jesus' return
• Jesus will return for the believer and will rescue us from the coming wrath, the tribulation
• 1 Thess 5:1-11 (NIV) Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. // 4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 
• God has not appointed us to suffer wrath
• Salvation is physical here and not just soteriological
• Rev 3:10 (NIV) Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. 
• There is a distinction between Church saints and Tribulation saints in Revelation
• This statement is to Church saints
• Discussion on Matt 24:31 (taken from Fruchtenbaum's book "Footsteps of the Messiah," page 644. This follows a discussion of the sign of the second coming (Matt 24:29-30)
I. The Regathering of Israel – Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27
    Since the Jewish prophets had predicted in great detail the worldwide regathering of Israel, Jesus did not spend much time with this, but only specified that it will occur after His Second Coming. The Matthew account reads:
    And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
    The Mark passage reads:
    And then shall he send forth the angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
    Following the Second Coming, the Messiah will send his angels all over the world to regather every Jew and bring them back into their Land. The background to the Matthew passage is Isaiah 27:12-13, which prophesied that the final restoration of Israel will be signaled by the sound of a great trumpet. The background to the Mark passage is Deuteronomy 30:4, which also emphasizes that the final restoration will come from two localities: earth and Heaven. Those who are gathered from the uttermost parts of the earth will be living in Israel, the one-third Remnant that survives the Tribulation. Those who are gathered from the uttermost part of heaven will be the resurrected Old Testament saints. This part of the Olivet Discourse summarizes many Old Testament prophecies (e.g., Is. 11:11-12:6; 43:5-7; Jer. 23:5-8; 31:7-14; Ezek. 11:16-21; 20:40-42; 36:22-31, et. al.), specifying that the final worldwide restoration will come only after the Second Coming, and not before