Pre-tribulation Rapture!

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The pre-tribulation rapture which will occur very soon marking the end of the church age and the beginning of the seventieth week (seven-year period) for Israel, prophesied in Daniel chapter nine.

Raptured Church

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

(1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 KJV)

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

(1 Corinthians 15:51-54)

The church birth time and place was when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost to the disciples at Jerusalem. When the church age is over the Holy Spirit will go up and take the church with Him. Then will be the time of the reign of Antichrist. God will give the world over to the Antichrist because they don’t want His Spirit, nor His Christ. This will be a time of great judgment upon the earth, but God’s children who do want Him will be rescued and spared.

We see clearly that someone is taken out of the way on the eve of the seven years known as Daniel seventieth week, also referred to as the seven-year tribulation period by Bible prophecy students:

“And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”

(2 Thessalonians 2:6-8)

Those that believe that the Holy Spirit is taken up but not the church, are saying that the Holy Spirit will abandon the church at the most crucial hour: that the Holy Spirit birthed the church, and has watched over it for two thousand years and will abandon it at the last second. This would go against the very nature of God and the Scriptures. God does not abandon His children, Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, and ever since the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit and the church have been inseparable. Jesus said,

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

(John 14:16-18)

Where it says “comfortless” the Greek word is orphanos, where we get the word orphans. God will not abandon His church and leave them as orphans because He is a good parent who watches over His children. However, people will still be able to overcome by the blood of the Lamb during the tribulation period, resist the Antichrist, be martyred, and make it to heaven. They will come back with Jesus as part of the resurrected saints:

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

(Revelation 20:4-6)

There will also be righteous people on earth when Jesus comes back and sets up His throne. Jesus will separate the sheep and the goats and the judgment in Matthew 25:

“And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

(Matthew 25:33-34)

Please note that the sheep are not raptured, nor are they resurrected saints, nor do they go to heaven, but they gain entrance to Christ’s Kingdom on earth as natural people. During Christ’s reign on earth, people will still be able to bear children and so on, they will die, but live much longer than they live now on earth (Isaiah 65:20).

So, if the tribulation saints are martyred, and there are righteous people still on earth when Jesus returns, then where is the church mentioned? The church has already gone and has come back with Jesus to this earth as resurrected saints to rule and reign with Him.

Israel Not the Church

The final seven-year period tribulation of Daniel’s seventieth week is a time for Israel not the church.

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”

(Daniel 9:24)

God has got some unfinished business with Israel: things will get pretty bad for a while but turn out good in the end for Israel, when they embrace the true messiah Jesus Christ upon His triumphant return to this world.

The prophetic spotlight will be taken of the church at this point and be put on Israel. God still loves Israel, and they are still God’s chosen people according to the flesh. They are not saved now but one day soon they will be when Christ returns. To deny these facts is to deny Scripture:

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. . .

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

(Romans 11:1-2, 25-26)

The seven-year tribulation period is a time where God will deal with Israel. It is also a time of wrath for the world where God will pour out the judgments of the book of Revelation.