Rapture Right or Wrong? Are You A Pretribber?

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Eschatology Today Three

this is part one of a three part follow-up series to interpretive articles, “Interpreting the Rules of Revelation” and “The Rapture”. I recommend that you select and read them both if you haven’t already. Then read “Hunting for Key Words the Inductive Way” before continuing with this rapture critique. The hermeneutic principles contained in all three articles will equip you to better understand this and every other study article posted for your interpretive critique.

Anyone who dedicates the time to engage a systematic study of the doctrine of the Rapture will come away from the text mentally challenged by the event.

Why?

That God would choose to reconstruct a spirit based body like Christ’s for the disembodied spirits of His righteous dead and raise them heavenward, while at the same time snatching and changing immortal His embodied church, is mind-boggling.

Hear about it in the congregation or some other teaching venue and we say, “I believe it. Let it come.” But take the time to actually study the prophetic event, and the concept so transcends our mortal understanding that it rattles around the brain pan before sliding down into the spirit where the miraculous makes sense.

Nevertheless, the mind-boggling event will happen. Just as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, someday the born-again Christian church will be resurrected and raptured when the Father says, “Come.”

But just exactly when and why it will happen has provoked a three-way debate over its timing and theology for years. Will it happen because of the Great Tribulation’s deliverance, or as its reward? Who will be here? And, when, and why, will the Rapture trump blow?

In Interpreting the Rules of Revelation, and Hunting for Key Words the Inductive Way, we examine the basic principles of hermeneutics key word connection. and literal intent. If you’ve studied both of these articles, you should be well equipped to take on this first rapture position through the eyes of God’s observable, literal intent.

Could you be a pretribber? You decide.

RAPTURE: from the Latin word: RAPIO: to “seize or be carried away in one’s spirit.”
New Testament Greek: HARPAZO: to be “caught up. ”

From Left Behind by Peter & Patti Lalonde, p. 14:

“There will be many people remaining in the world who call themselves Christians. In the last days leading up to this mass disappearance, known to us as, “the Rapture,” many claimed to be true disciples of Christ. But only those who by faith and with all their heart truly believed that Jesus was the only son of God and was the only way to salvation [will be] taken away in this rapture.”

1 Corinthians 15:55
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Pretribulationalism
From: Rapture Get Right or Get Left, and God’s Master Performance by Hilton Sutton, pp. 55; 65, 66.

If you search for a single verse of Scripture which states specifically that the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and the catching up of the Church is prior to the Tribulation, your search will be in vain. There is no such verse. But by studying the whole of God’s Word (which you should do), you will discover that the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ is a certainty. The taking up of the Church to meet Him in the air is for sure, and it very definitely comes before the Tribulation Period can begin.

“In Revelation 1 we read that John, when in the Spirit, heard a Voice from behind which sounded like a trumpet. He turned to discover Jesus, from Whom the Voice had come.

“In Revelation 4:1 we read of a second encounter. Again John hears a Voice which sounds like a trumpet. When it speaks, he is immediately in the Spirit and in heaven at God’s throne.

“Although John was not taken bodily to heaven in the same manner described in Second Corinthians 12:2, his spiritual experience began with the same event awaiting all believers: a rapture. John’s experience parallels the Rapture of the Church described by Paul in First Thessalonians 4:16,17.

“Notice that John, according to Revelation 4:1, was looking or watching, and the Voice which he heard commanded him, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. The things he would later witness could only take place after his arrival in heaven, again showing wonderful agreement with Luke 21:36: (‘But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man’).”

04 The Open Door to Heaven

Revelation 4:1-2
1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”
2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.

Other chapter 4 revelation applied in support of this view includes the pretribulationalist belief that the twenty-four throneroom elders seen by John in Revelation 4:4 were representative of an already raptured church.

Revelation 4:4
4 And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.

Proponents believe their white garments and crowns represent the overcomer’s rewards promised the raptured church. And that once John arrives in the throneroom, he witnesses with them Revelation’s remaining events.

The position’s foundational belief in the church’s absence during Revelation’s eschatological events is further supported by interpreting the “kept” Philadelphia church as symbolic of the last days Body of Christ.

Revelation 3:10
10 ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing (lit. tempting) that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.

Pretribulationalists believe the coming temptation from which the symbolic last days Philadelphia church is yet to be “kept,” will be the coming Antichrist’s Great Tribulation. Christ’s “keeping” is believed to be our removal by rapture.

Jesus
Messianic eschatology applied to the position consists mainly of His closing prophetic admonition contained in Luke 21:36:

“But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Paul
Pretrib Pauline eschatology includes the apostle’s warning regarding the coming of the Antichrist and his restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8:
6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
8 And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming?

The church is the Antichrist’s restrainer, this position maintains, and must be taken out of the way by rapture before he can be revealed to the world.

Finally, believing the church will be gone during Revelation’s eschatological events, the pretib position applies Paul’s statements in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 and Romans 5:9 as indicative of our absence when it comes.

1 Thessalonians 5:9
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:9
9 Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

This position applies by far the most free interpretations. So let’s take it apart.

Does the Pretrib Position Have an Eschatological Trumpet?
Possibly. In reference to John’s command to “come up here,” the angel’s voice that spoke it in verse 1 is likened unto a trumpet. But could it be the last trumpet? Not if you count them chronologically in Revelation. In a sequence of the text, this one, would be first.

Was John Literally Raptured in Revelation 4?
Possibly. The Rapture will be bodily, and verse 2 says:
…immediately I was in spirit and behold a throne was standing in heaven.

John was literally commanded to come up from where he was to God’s heavenly throneroom. Also, the Greek text in this verse reads without a definite article (the), reading literally, “in Spirit.” It is therefore possible to freely associate this statement with the change of a bodily rapture. But because the Rapture isn’t literally defined, there are some other “in Spirit” options to consider.

Key Word Searching “in Spirit”
The stream of revelation through which John experienced and recorded his prophetic record, “in Spirit,” is recorded four times in Revelation.

Considering the context and events in every Revelation instance these key words are used leaves open the possibility that John’s 4:2 raptured state is possible. But it is just as possible in a consistent inter-pretation that both John’s body and spirit remained residentially on Patmos as Jesus by the Spirit (through prophetic revelation) disclosed the future to him. Here’s the hermeneutic why:

Of the four times John’s “in Spirit” experience is disclosed in Revelation, he first sees a prophetic vision of Jesus and the book’s seven churches while receiving his commission to write (1:10). The second time he is commanded to “come up” and sees God’s heavenly throneroom (4:2). His third and fourth “in Spirit” experience include the key phrase”and He carried me away in the Spirit.” In one of these “in Spirit” experiences, he sees the great harlot church persecutor of the Eschaton (17:3). In the other he views the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven (21:10).

In everyone of these key word searches, it is evident that John sees something. Whether or not his second “in Spirit” experience consisted of a bodily rapture is a literal unknown. It is possible, particularly in light of his command to “come up here.” But because the Word of God isn’t literally bound to the pretrib Revelation 4:1 rapture position, it is a free interpretation and must be regarded as such. What is literally bound in a scientific observation of the text are four individual “in Spirit” revelations that John saw and recorded in his book.

So if John was raptured bodily in this throne room instance, it is implied, and possible, but not a literal fact.

05 The Emerald Throne
Was John’s Vision of the Twenty-four Elders in Revelation 4
A Glimpse of the Raptured Church?

It is possible. It is just as possible, however, that the robed, crowned saints viewed by John were the disembodied spirits of the elders inside God’s heavenly throneroom because the New Covenant blood of Jesus had opened God’s holy of holies (Heb. 10:19). An elder (Strong’s 4245, Arnt and Gingrich 699D presbuteros) is “an individual person older of two, a senior member or ‘first one’ of the church.” In this simplest literal assessment, they could have been a mix of Old and New Covenant leaders from the earliest times of the church.

Are Their Crowns and Thrones Indicative of an Already Raptured Church?
Possibly. Both 2 Timothy 4:8 and 1 Peter 5:4 describe a future crowning of the saints that will occur when Jesus Christ returns.

Paul speaks of an eschatological crown of righteousness in 2 Timothy 4:7-8:

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Peter speaks of an eschatological crown of glory:

1 Peter 5:4
4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

James speaks of a crown of life for those who persevere under trial:

James 1:12
12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Revelation 2:10 speaks of a crown of life apparently awarded to the overcoming church at the point of a Christian’s tested approval and death:

10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

It is probable that Paul’s reference to “that day” on which the crown of righteousness will be bestowed relates to the Bema Seat of reward. Peter’s reference to the Chief Shepherd’s appearing (Stong’s 5319, Arnt and Gingrigh 852D phanero: “to make actual and visible, be revealed”) could also refer to eschatology’s post-rapture day of reward.

James’ crown of life, however, has no key word connections to that eschatological event. So it is just as possible that the elders’ crowns (Strong’s 4735, Arnt & Gingrich 676A stephanos: “a mark of royal or exalted rank”) seen by John were bestowed at their individual judgments when they ascended to heaven at the time of physical death (Heb. 9:27; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). Old Testament priests wore them (Ex. 29:6). So do kings (2 Kings 11:12). And since the church is identified as both priests and kings in Revelation’s text (Rev. 1:6, KJV), it would only be natural to see them on the church elders in God’s throne room.

Revelation 1:6
6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Therefore, to presume the crowns seen by John on the twenty-four elders in God’s throne room could only be on a raptured church is a free interpretation and must be regarded as such.

Do the White Garments Worn by the Elders Speak of the Last Days Raptured Church?
Not necessarily. Typical of the “righteous acts of the saints,” white robes are given to the Tribulation saints in Revelation 6:11 (Strong’s 4749, Arnt & Gingrich 769C stole: “long-fitting gown, robe, as a mark of dignity”). They’re also promised the Sardinian and Laodicean church for overcoming in Revelation 3:5 and 3:18 (Strong’s 2440, Arnt & Gingrich 376B himiation: raiment, robe, vesture).

There is a bestowal of robes that occurs just before the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19. If the “fine clean and white linen” (Strong’s 1039, Arnt and Gingrich 148D bussinos: “fine linen for prominent people”) viewed by John on the elders are those spoken of in this passage, the principle of Chronological Ascent could confirm this pretrib assertion.

Revelation 19:7-9
7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”
8 And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”

But the language is different and would presume that no saint in heaven at the moment wears a righteous robe of white. You decide.

Does the Philadelphia Admonition in Revelation 3:10 Apply to the Eschatological Church?

Revelation 3:10
10 “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.”

Applying the hermeneutc principal of General and local Truth to this pretrib interpretation, the answer to this question, is, probably, NO.

Revelation’s Local Historic Truth
The seven Asia Minor churches addressed by Jesus in John’s revelation were seven literal local churches under the apostle’s care. Each church has an actual location. As for their history, Revelation’s seven letters provides each with its own as addressed. Any claim stating the church in general passed through periods symbolic of the seven is unverified by history. All had pressing matters that were stifling God’s earthly affairs. So Jesus addressed them prophetically.

History teaches the Roman Emperor Nero’s persecution of 64 to 67 A.D. took the lives of the apostles Peter and Paul. (Foxe, John, “Foxes Book of Martyrs,” Old Tappan, Spire Books, 1978, p.13.)

At the time of Revelation’s writing in 96 A.D. the church was under-going another intense persecution. This time, by the Roman Emperor Domitian, beginning in 95 A.D.

Like his predecessor, Nero, Domitian’s persecution was infused by tyrannical rage and would remain in full swing for two years beyond Revelation’s writing. (Hurlbut Jesee, D.D., “The Story of the Christian Church,” Nashville: Zondervan, 1970, p. 44.)

Church tradition teaches Domition tried to kill John in boiling oil but that the apostle was supernaturally protected. So the Emperor exiled him to Patmos where John received his revelation. (“Foxes Book of Martyrs,” p. 13; Halley, H.H, “Halley’s Bible Handbook,” Nashville: Zondervan, 1965, p.761.)

Thousands of other Christians lost their lives during this period. The hermeneutic principle of local truth would therefore maintain that the “coming hour of temptation” from which Jesus would “keep” His faithful 96 A.D. Philadelphia church would not come from the Antichrist figure some two thousand years after John’s writing. It would come, in all probability, from the Emperor Domitian 96 – 98 A.D.

12 The 144000 Sealed

Keeping by Rapture?

Revelation 3:10
10 “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.”

In accordance with a literal, local interpretation, the keeping Jesus promised the Philadelphia church;”Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth”… was not by miraculous rapture. Tereo is the Greek translation of “keep” used in this passage, meaning “to watch over, to guard from loss of injury by keeping an eye on, to be preserved, to attend to carefully” (Strong’s 5083, Arnt & Gingrich 814D). So the context and implication of its use in Revelation 3:10 lends itself more to the Philidelphian’s covenant preservation in the midst of their coming trial, not their physical removal.

Is the Antichrist’s Restrainer Revealed in 2 Thessalonians 2 the Holy Spirit Indwelt Church?
And Will We First Have to Be Removed Before the Antichrist’s Public Appearance?

2 Thessalonians 2:8-10
8 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed.
9 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
10 And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming…

Because the restraining “he” acknowledged in this passage isn’t literally identified, any interpretation of just exactly who or what “he” is must be acknowledged as a free interpretation of the text.

Us? or Him?
But there is an important theological question that needs ad-dressing when assessing the pretrib position’s belief that the church is Satan’s ultimate restrainer.

Scripture is indisputable in revealing that Christ’s body has received His command to bind Satan on earth and continue God’s work of salvation in the authority of Jesus’ name (Matt. 16:19; Mark 16:17). But, ultimately, it is Jesus Himself Who is Satan’s restrainer in heaven and earth.

Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Church history also begs the question: If the church is Satan’s ultimate restraint, what was lacking in the first-century church headed by Peter, James, and John that allowed Satan to exterminate it? What lack of authority did they suffer that our twentieth-first century church doesn’t? And what of our brethren in modern gospel-unfriendly countries who have been martyred for their faith? Why couldn’t their faith restrain the scourge of their antichrist?

These are simple local truth history questions that must be taken into account when building a rapture doctrine on the basis of the church’s antichrist restraint.

The study of systematic theology, ecclesiology, and history disclose more accurately that it will be Jesus Christ’s own “authorization” in the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan that will make room for the Antichrist’s reign of terror. Short-lived though it will be.
Because Jesus is upholding all things by the Word of His power (Heb. 1:3), He will simply release the Word of His power in stepping out of Satan’s way. The effects will be as if a police force were to go on strike in a high crime area, permitting the event.

Revelation 13:7
7 And there was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies; and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.

Adding to its church restraint position, pretribulational rapture proponents claim that once the church is raptured, the Holy Spirit will leave the earth with us to stay completely out of world affairs. This assertion is not only arrogant, it is contradicted by the fact that the tribulation saints who lose their life in the midst of the Tribulation era will need the Holy Spirit’s presence to be saved once the Tribulation begins.

Therefore, even if His own Tribulation authorization would include the rapture of His church, it is hermeneutically evident that it is God, in response to, and independently of His praying church, that restrains Satan’s work in the world.

13 Seven Angels, Seven Trumpets

A Different “Last” Trumpet?
In defense of the pretrib position’s Revelation 4:3 “first” not “last” trumpet timing ingredient, position proponent Hilton Sutton asserts that the trumpet of God prophesied by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and the last trumpet blown by the angel in Revelation 11 are not one in the same. He applies a key word search in his hermeneutic position so it deserves objective consideration.

Sutton writes:
From Rapture; Get Right or Get Left, p. 67.

“All seven trumpets in the Book of Revelation are angelic trumpets which release some part of God’s wrath or bring about events involving the Tribulation Period. (The Church will not have any part in the Tribulation Period, as a study of the whole of God’s Word bears out).

“In 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul is talking about the trumpet of God. Trumpet calls are mentioned a number of times in the Scriptures. In these references, God uses His trumpet as part of the welcome for the conquering and overcoming church. What a glorious event that will be!”

If the trumpet of God and the seven angelic trumpets are in fact different revealed trumpets, Sutton could be right. In line with this key word search, though, there must also be provision for interpreting the “great trumpet” that will blow after the Tribulation. This, after all, is what hermeneutics is all about. You decide.

Eschatology Today Conclusions
In support of this most popular of the three rapture position’s Revelation 4:1 snatching up of the church, an allegorical mix of nonliteral interpretations are applied to its discerning of the text. The position is dependent upon a belief in the symbolic nature of John’s prophetic revelation in general, including his chapter 4 throne room visit in reference to the Rapture of the church.

Is a Revelation 4:1 Church Rapture Possible?
Revelation 4:1
1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

Yes. But the weight of a completely literal interpretation of “last trumpets” in Paul’s 1 Corinthians 15:52 prophecy provides as a timing ingredient fights against the principle of Chronological Ascent. In a sequence of trumpets in the text the angel’s voice that sounds like a trumpet in Revelation 4:1 sounds as the first.

Could the Twenty-four Elders Viewed by John in God’s Throne Room
Be Symbolic of the Eschaton’s Raptured Church?

Revelation 4:4
4 And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.

Yes. They could be the crowned saints wearing the robes of righteousness awarded in Revelation 19 at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

But in the simplest literal assessment of John’s view, they could have been a mix of Old and New Covenant leaders from the earliest times of the church. An elder (Strong’s 4245, Arnt and Gingrich 699D presbuteros) is “an individual person older of two, a senior member or ‘first one’ of the church.”

James’ crown of life “for the one who preservers under trial, once he has been approved” (1:12), and the white garments the Sardinian and Laodicean church were promised in Revelation 3:5 and 18 could be awarded before the Bema Seat.

Also, crowns and robes are worn by priests and kings (Ex. 29:6; 2 Kings 11:12). And since the church is identified as both in Revelation 1:6 (KJV), it would only be natural to see them on the church elders in God’s throneroom. So to interpret the twenty-four as the post-raptured church is a free interpretation and must be considered as such.

Is the Philadelphia Church Promise of “Keeping” from their
Hour of Testing a General Rapture Promise to the Church?
Probably not. The hermeneutic principle of local truth reveals the “coming hour of temptation” from which Jesus would “keep” His faithful 96 A.D. Philadelphia church would not come from the Antichrist figure some two thousand years after John’s writing. It would, in all probability, come from the Emperor Domitian 96 – 98 A.D.

Is the Antichrist’s Restrainer Revealed in 2 Thessalonians 2:8
the Holy Spirit Indwelt Church?

2 Thessalonians 2:8
8 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed.

The Scripture is indisputable in revealing that Christ’s body has received His command to bind Satan on earth and continue God’s work of salvation in the authority of Jesus’ name (Matt. 16:19; Mark 16:17). But, ultimately, it is Jesus Himself Who is Satan’s restrainer in heaven and earth.

Church history also begs the question: If the church is Satan’s ultimate restraint, what was lacking in the first-century church headed by Peter, James, and John that allowed Satan to exterminate it? What lack of authority did they suffer that our twentieth-first century church doesn’t? These are simple local truth history questions that must be taken into account when building a rapture doctrine on the basis of the church’s antichrist restraint.

Even if the Church Is Raptured in Revelation 4:1, Will the Holy Spirit Be Removed with Us

During the Great Tribulation Period?
No. This assertion is not only arrogant, it is contradicted by the fact that the tribulation saints who lose their life in the midst of the Tribulation era will need the Holy Spirit’s presence to be saved once the Great Tribulation begins.

Danielscribe

Where the Word of God Is Bound, So Are We
Where It’s Not, We Are Free

So, what do you think? Could you be a pretribber? This most popular of the three rapture positions applies by far the most free interpretations. But as you will discover when assessing the other positions, all three, because of a lack of conclusive evidence are simply theories. Apocalypse (and other stuff) Now! leaves the evidence that points toward one or another in your hands. You decide.

Now, take a break. Then when you’re ready, take your Bible and look over each of the pretribulational rapture position’s hermeneutic assertions again to divide the literal from the nonliteral to develop your own conclusions. Don’t take our word for it. Study. This is what Apocalypse (and other stuff) Now! is all about.

If you believe in a Revelation 4:1 rapture, be ready to defend it in Scripture. Knock off that bit when someone asks you to explain it: “…Well, uh, er, because that’s what Ed Eschaton believes. And you know as well as I that he really knows this stuff!” Come on…knock it off!

Then when you’re ready, move on to our next position critique, “Rapture Right or Wrong: Are You a Midtribber?”
Eschatology Today Publisher, Mark Norris, MA

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