Before, During, or After

A book titled “Fearless In The Face Of…Today” should have as its mission statement something along the lines of Paul’s encouragement to the church at Thessalonica: “Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” What are these words? And what is the goal of comfort? Is it not to alleviate or eliminate fear or worry? Consider a mother trying to calm a baby. Or a commander of an army explaining how they have superior weaponry and tactics. Or God giving His family something to cling to in an evil, ungodly world. More on these words ahead.

This is the last post of this book.

So I thought I’d address a topic that is one of my passions and try to mitigate the fires of fear and angst fanned by the devil on this subject: the rapture of Christ’s church. I know this is a hotly disputed event among Christians, with no clear-cut statement as to its timing. There are Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, and Post-Tribulation adherents and we all believe Scripture supports our position. We can’t all be right. As the Highlander used to say, “There can be only one.”

Full disclosure, I am solidly in the Pre-Trib camp and will present my case from that position. The one thing we all agree on is that there will be a rapture, when Christ calls His church home. At that point, only those who have trusted Christ’s work on the cross to cover their debt of sin that we could never pay, will be united with Him forever. This includes saints who have died as well as those alive when the trumpet blows (1 Thess. 4:16) – Not to be confused with the judgment trumpets in Revelation.

I believe the difference

in the three positions stems from misunderstanding the events described in John, 1 Thessalonians, and Revelation. The Day of the Lord, which is often assumed to be the rapture, is not. The Day of the Lord is when Christ returns to earth after the Tribulation, with the glorified saints, in judgment and to set up His earthly millennial kingdom (Rev. 19:11-14). In the rapture, believers are united with Christ in the air, not on earth (1 Thess. 4:17). And they go to heaven with Christ for the marriage supper of the lamb (Rev. 19:7-10) and to receive their rewards (1 Cor.3:10-15;4:5).

Let’s look at some of the key differences in scope and timing between the rapture (pre-trib) and the second coming (post-trib; The Day of The Lord).

1.Pre-Tribulation (PT)        2. Second Coming (SC) (Post-Trib)

a1 (PT) Christ gathers His own in the air  I Thess. 4:16

a2 (SC) Angels gather the elect on earth Mt.24:31

b1 (PT) Resurrection is prominent 1 Thess. 4:16

b2 (SC) No mention of resurrection

c1 (PT) Christ comes to reward believers – Rev. 22:12           

c2 (SC) Christ comes to judge the earth Ezek. 30:3; Joel 1:25; Lam.2:22

d1 (PT) The Lord snatches true believers from the earth

d2 (SC) Christ takes away unbelievers

e1 (PT) Unbelievers are left on earth to suffer Tribulation

e2(SC) Believers remain on earth during the tribulation and to populate millennial kingdom after the Tribulation.

f1 (PT) No mention of Christ’s earthly kingdom

f2 (SC) Christ sets up His kingdom

g1 (PT)  Believers receive glorified bodies I Cor. 15:51-53

g2 (SC)  No one receives a glorified body until 1,000 years later

I promised more on these words. “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” I Thess. 4:16-18.

I believe there is more comfort and less fear and angst in the Pre-Trib position. What comfort could possibly come from anticipating going through seven years of the worst catastrophic events in history? To refresh your mind as to the severity, read Revelation chapters 6-19.

I hope this has been informative. The best thing about this type of discussion is that regardless of what we believe about the timing of the rapture, as long as we believe that Jesus died for our sins as the only way we get in the book of life, we’ll all know someday which position was the right one. No bragging rights for being right. No demerits for not. Hope to see you on the upward trip. Thanks for reading.