What the Bible Says about the Rapture, pt. 3

POST-TRIBULATIONAL VIEWPOINT
The Post-Tribulational viewpoint teaches that the Church will be raptured at the end of the of the Tribulation to meet the Lord and immediately return with Him at His Second Coming. There are problems associated with this view.

Problems with the Post-Tribulational Viewpoint
Those that hold to the Post-Tribulational view deny the dispensational interpretation of the Scriptures. The angel Gabriel declared to Daniel, “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city…” (Daniel 9:24). The problem with the Post-Tribulational viewpoint begins by applying God’s dealing with Israel to the Church. The entire seventy years was, “…determined for your people (Israel) and for your holy city (Jerusalem)…” The reason that the entire world will be affected by the Tribulation is due to the catastrophic nature of the events that will occur during the Tribulation period.

The Tribulation is not God dealing with the Church; the Church has been dealt with in Christ. The Church was a mystery, something that was not visible in the Old Testament. Salvation was promised to the Gentiles through the Jewish Messiah. What was not foreseen was the Church, the body of Christ; that God would gather Jew and Gentile together as one in Christ, Ephesians 3:3-6, “how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.”

Upon the rejection of Jesus as Messiah by Israel, God turned to the Gentile Nations to call out a bride for His Son, Matthew 21:43, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”

The Church age on earth will consummate with the Rapture of the Church. When the witness of the Church on earth is finished, we will be caught up. Then the final dealing of God with the Nation Israel (the last seven years of Daniel’s seventy sevens determined upon Israel) will begin.

That day and that hour no man knows (Matthew 24:36). However, we believe that the day of the Rapture is rapidly coming as we see Israel once again established in the land; as we see God blessing Israel, blossoming and budding forth; and as we see the rise of a European Federation of nations seeking to become a world power. Will the EU be the Ten Toes of Nebuchadnezzar's dream? (Daniel 2). Will they be the final world government that will turn over their authority and kingdoms to the Antichrist? We do not know. But the concept of such a federation of nations seeking to be a world power is there and it is accepted by the European Nations as an inevitable reality.

Those that hold to the Post-Tribulational view deny the scriptural teaching concerning the nature and purpose of the Tribulation. Terms such as wrath, judgment, indignation, trial, trouble, and destruction are used in the Scripture to describe this period.

Jesus spoke to the faithful Church in Philadelphia, “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth,” (Revelation 3:10). This is a promise to the Church. The believer preservers in Jesus Christ. The word dwell used here speaks of permanence. However, the Christian is spoken of in Scripture as a sojourner, dwelling here on earth as a temporary state, II Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” The word dwell in Revelation 3:10 is not a geographical description, but rather a moral classification, speaking of those who love the world system, a system in rebellion to God, I John 2:16, “For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.”

Those that hold to the Post-Tribulational view deny the Scriptural distinctions between the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ. At the Rapture Jesus comes to claim a bride (the Church); at the Second Coming, Jesus comes with His bride (the Church). The Rapture is immanent and can occur at any time; the Second Coming is preceded by a multitude of signs (as seen in the book of Revelation). The Rapture brings a message of comfort, “Therefore comfort one another with these words,” (I Thessalonians 4:18); the Tribulation brings a message of judgment, “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (Revelation 6:17). The Rapture is for the Church, “…the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air…” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17); the Tribulation is for Israel, “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city…” (Daniel 9:24) and, because of it’s catastrophic nature, will affect the entire world.

Those that hold to the Post-Tribulational view deny the doctrine of Imminence. As stated in the Mid-Tribulational view, the church is told to live in the light of the imminent coming of Christ, to be watching, working, and waiting for Jesus to come for His Church at the Rapture, not for signs that would precede the Tribulation.

Jesus has told his followers to live in the light of His imminent coming, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect,” (Luke 12:35-40). Those that teach the Mid-Tribulational and Post-Tribulational viewpoints deny Jesus’ teaching regarding His imminent return.