The Pre-Wrath Rapture!
For many years it has been popular among the evangelical community to speak of the Rapture in its relation to the 7-year Tribulation period, referred to in the Bible as the Seventieth Week (Dan. 9:27). We have become so accustomed to relating the Rapture to that time-period that many times its hard to see that it could be viewed in an entirely different light and that possibly all three of these ideas may be untrue.
God's Wrath: The Entire 7-Years?
It has always been accepted that the entire 7-year period is what is referred to in the Old Testament as the Day of the Lord, or "God's Wrath." Thus, the debate has centered around whether Christians will be here to endure God's wrath or whether they will be raptured beforehand. Pre-Tribulationists point to verses such as 1 Thes. 5:9, where Paul says, "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ", to prove that we must not go through the 7-year Tribulation period. Post-Tribulationists, on the other hand, point to numerous verses alluding to Christians enduring the trials and tribulations of the Antichrist as proof that the Rapture must occur after the Tribulation. For instance, consider Rev. 7:9, where John sees a great multitude in heaven that is considered by most scholars ,Pre- and Post- Trib. alike, to be the Raptured saints in their glorified bodies. When John asks who these people are, he is told, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev.7:14). So, on the one side we have verses which make it clear that we are not to endure God's wrath, but at the same time seem to imply that we will endure the great tribulation under the Antichrist. Can these discrepancies be resolved?
Pre-Wrath: The Key to Untangling the Web.
In recent years, a new idea has come about that is known as the Pre-Wrath Rapture, an idea that takes these discrepancies and resolves them. According to the Pre-Wrath concept, the entire 7-years is not God's wrath and is not stated as such anywhere in the Bible. In fact, according to Jesus, the Rapture would not occur until after the Great Tribulation, which begins at the mid-point of the 7-years, when the Antichrist desecrates the future Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. According to Jesus:
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days [the great tribulation] the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken....And [the Son of Man] will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other"(Matt. 24: 29,31). Here Jesus places the Rapture concurrent with the darkening of the sun and moon, which we see in Revelation 6:12-17 is the Sixth Seal. We also see in Revelation that this occurs before the opening of the Seventh Seal which is the only part of the Tribulation period that is referred to as God's wrath (Rev. 6:17). So what will occur then is that we as Christians will enter into the Tribulation period, enduring the great tribulation which begins at the mid-point of the 7-year period, and then will be cut short by Christ with the opening of the Sixth Seal, where all the saints will be raptured before the opening of the Seventh Seal, which will begin God's wrath and finish the 7-year period. This fulfills the requirements that we will not endure God's wrath, but at the same time will go through the great tribulation. This is a sobering concept, because it makes us aware that we must prepare ourselves to be ready for the onslaught of the Antichrist in the great tribulation, a time when many Christians will be put to death. This should compel us to strengthen our daily walk with Christ, and draw closer to Him for the spiritual nourishment and grace that we will need to sustain us through that period.
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Shawn Astels
©Copyright 1998 Shawn Astels