Common Reasons For and Questions About The Pre-Tribulation Rapture

Overview:

Most who believe in a rapture of believers, will point to I Thessalonians 4:14-18 as the key passage explaining this event.  It's when this event and its sequence is considered in relation to the other events of the last days that there is disagreement. This post is to lay out some of the key points for the rapture occurring before the 7 year period known as "the tribulation" or "Daniel's 70th week" begins and then ask some questions about those points.  There could probably be twice this many listed, but here are 10 common reasons typically given on the teaching that the rapture happens before the tribulation.  What follows these 10 points are questions about these points.

1. God has not appointed us (Christians) to wrath, I Thessalonians 5:9
2. Noah was taken into the ark before the flood came, Genesis 7 and Lot was take out of Sodom before God destroyed it, Genesis 19
3. The Holy Spirit must be taken out of the way before the antichrist is revealed, II Thessalonians 2:7,8 and since believers have the Holy Spirit living inside them, they can’t remain behind either. I Cor 3:16
4. The tribulation period is a 7-year period known as Jacob’s trouble and since Jacob refers to Israel, therefore Christians are not going to be part of it. Jeremiah 30:7 
5. Believers are the bride of Christ and no man would want to let his bride get abused. Ephesians 5:25, therefore the rapture must come before the time of Jacob’s trouble.
6. Since the church is no longer mentioned after Revelation ch 3, and John is told to "come up hither" in Revelation 4:1, the rapture must come before the tribulation spoke of in chapters 5 & 6 and elsewhere that covers the period known as Daniel’s 70th week.
7. Matthew 24 is mostly talking to the nation of Israel, the rapture can be seen in verses 40,41 but the earlier part of the chapter is directed to the Jews and the nation of Israel.
8. Paul was the first to reveal the rapture, as he said he was revealing a mystery that had not been known till then. I Corinthians 15:51 and therefore the first part of Matthew 24 does not concern the rapture, but rather Israel.
9. Daniel’s 70th week, which is the time period the tribulation covers, is for Israel, not the church and Michael the archangel will stand up for Daniel’s people (the Jews).  Daniel 12:1
10. No man knows the day or the hour, Matthew 24:36 therefore Christians have to be removed before the time of the tribulation.  If we were present, we would know the day of His 2nd coming since we would witness the antichrist make the covenant with Israel (Daniel 9:24-27) and start the countdown.

Now for the questions. 

Lets consider each of the 10 points above, and see if they make sense or is there more to study and understand.

Questions on points 1, 2 & 5

It’s true that God will not pour His wrath down on believers.  However, does the entire 70th week involve God pouring out His wrath, or does God’s wrath only begin somewhere during this time period?  Tribulation seems to be what the world (and the prince of this world, the devil) does to believers, but wrath is something that God pours out on the world, starting with the 6th seal of Revelation ch 6. Between the 5th and 6th seal we read about those that have been martyred for the cause of Christ ask in Rev 6:10 “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”  Finally, the day of God’s wrath arrives and begins, in Rev 6:17. So doesn’t it seem that all of this 7 year period is not God pouring out His wrath, only part of this time period, with the first part being tribulation, followed by God's wrath?

Questions on point 3

Nowhere is the Holy Spirit mentioned.  Isn’t it a leap to say that since believers have the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and if the Holy Spirit is taken away, then believers must be taken away and before the tribulation starts?  However, since the man of sin is revealed at what’s known as the abomination of desolation (Daniel 9:27) which is in the middle of this time period (Revelation 13), this idea that II Thess 2:7 referring to the Holy Spirit can’t really tell us the sequence of the rapture happening before this 7 year period even begins, can it? Just who is this “he” referring to in II Thessalonians ch 2, that is being taken out of the way?  The Bible isn’t specific in naming the he. Also, how would anyone get saved during this 7 year period if the Holy Spirit is removed?   Could this he that is being referenced in verse 7 be very closely tied to the same he that is being talked about just a few verses earlier, which concerns the antichrist.   Something or someone is preventing the antichrist from being revealed. In Revelation 13 we see an image of a beast, the rise of a world government and how one of the heads of this government gets a deadly wound.  In Revelation 17 there is more about this, when we read in verse 8 “when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” which seems to say that one of these kings is taken out of the way (killed) and yet he still is. It is this individual that becomes the beast, or rather the beast becomes him, and the beast which gets its power from the dragon, the devil. In Rev 13:4 and Rev 17:8 we see that this beast ascends out of the bottomless pit (hell). Finally, could this individual “he who now letteth will let” in II Thess 2:7 be referring to one of the kings that make up the world government, mentioned in Revelation 13 & 17, who is killed but somehow is seen to be alive but really isn't. Who, then the world wonders after him and just a few verses earlier in II Thess 2:4 he sits in the temple claiming that he is God.

Question on points 4,7 & 9

Daniel (ch 9:2) had been reading the book of Jeremiah, so he knew full well what Jeremiah had written.  The book of Daniel is very important when studying the book of Revelation. In Daniel 12, the things he was told he didn’t understand (12:8) and was told in 12:9 “for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” and it’s with the revelation given to John in the book of Revelation, that we can understand the things told to Daniel.  In the first verse (12:1), Daniel is told Michael will stand up for “thy people”, which, since Daniel was a Jew would seem to imply that, here again as in Jeremiah 30:7, this time period is only going to be for Jews. The key to me, starts at 12:2, which is the resurrection. Since we know the rapture (I Thess 4 & I Cor 15) involves the bodily resurrection of believers, this passage must be dealing with the same events. Otherwise this doesn’t make sense.   Finally, in verses 10-13 we see the same time period that was mentioned in Daniel 9, which mentions him having already read Jeremiah, and concerns this final 70th week. Daniel is told he is going to rest (die) but will stand in his lot at the end of the days, which to me is obviously referring to the resurrection at the rapture. Also, why is Daniel told in verse 12:12 that he will have to wait 1335 days? This time period seems odd but close to the same segments of this 70th week as mentioned elsewhere in Daniel 12:9 and Revelation (11:2, 12:6).  If Daniel is going to wait 1335 days, when would this period start since it’s obviously not the full 7 years? If this is only for the Jews, then why do we read in Daniel 12:1 “thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”? How does one get their name in the book? Is this not the book of life mentioned in Revelation 20:12?

Further, Paul tells us in Galatians 3:28,29 that there is no Jew nor Greek concerning salvation, and that if we put our faith and trust in Jesus, then we too are heirs to the promise given to Abraham, just like Daniel.   Otherwise, is Daniel going to be resurrected separately?

Just who is Jesus addressing in Matthew 24?  Isn’t it his closest followers? Is he addressing them as His followers or as the earthly, physical nation who will reject Him? Who are the elect mentioned in Matt 24:22,24.   Do a search on the word “elect” in the New Testament - who is being referenced? Is it the Jews, or believers, those that have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? This is clear to me that this entire passage is Jesus addressing those who are his followers and have trusted Him, not to some earthly, physical nation or a specific ethnic group.  In Mark 4, Jesus explains that the parables are given broadly to those who do not yet believe, but the parables are only actually explained to His followers and those that put their faith in Him. Finally, Paul tells us in I Cor 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Question point 6

Just because the churches mentioned earlier are no longer being addressed after ch 3, does that require they are now gone and the rapture to have occurred?

This is something that tended to sort of make sense until I really started to study Matthew 24 with Revelation 6, as they are the same events.  However, if Jesus is addressing those who are following Him in Matthew 24, this poses a problem for this idea of the church being raptured after Revelation 3 (or beginning of ch4 which John is told come up hither).  

Question on point 8

Does the use of the word mystery here in I Corinthians 15 require that the rapture, which Paul is talking about, had never been mentioned or revealed before?  It is true that God chooses not to reveal some things at a given time, but only later. Take the case of Daniel, who was told things about the last days, but instead of explaining these things, he was told to seal up the book until the end. If in fact the first part of Matthew 24 is addressing those who have believed on Jesus, then it can’t be right to say that Paul is teaching something new, for Jesus had already spoken about it.  Also, since Jesus refers to Daniel’s prophecy in Matthew 24, then the things Daniel was told surely also deal with this same event among others of the last days? See also Mark 13 and Luke 21. If we let the Bible define itself, and look elsewhere the word mystery is used, it seems clear that the meaning is not something that was not known before, but rather is something that is not easy to understand.

Question on point 10

No so sure about this one either.  Since a deal could get made in the back room of some government office somewhere, nobody would yet know when to “start the clock”.  The issues raised so far really come down to deciding who Jesus is speaking to in Matthew 24 and who is being discussed in Daniel when concerning the 70th week.  If however, Jesus is speaking to those who believe on Him, it still doesn’t allow one to know the day or the hour, because He is speaking about the things that they will see in the last days.