Disputation of the Rapture Teaching as Escapism

¹⁵My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

The lost are the taken - to the firey pit until the judgement.

We are changed by Jesus in a twinkling of an eye and given new bodies when he returns on the Last Day of this Age.
We then return with him in his triumph, as he establishes his rule, and reign with Jesus 1000 years.

Jesus Returns Twice or Once, On the Last Day?

Jesus never said He was coming back more than once, but stated His return would be on the last day:

John 6:39 [NASB]
39"This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

John 6 [NASB]
⁴⁰ "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

John 6 [CEV]
⁴⁴No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me makes them want to come. But if they do come, I will raise them to life on the last day.

John 6 [CEV]
⁵⁴But if you do eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have eternal life, and I will raise you to life on the last day.

Four times He said He would do the raising. He has not said there would be more than one such moment and implies the reverse in stating He would do so on the Last Day.

Note the point that on His return Jesus will raise up the righteous dead. This sequence of raising events was clarified further by Paul:

1 Thessalonians 4 [NKJV]
¹⁵For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

First we see the sequence indicates that the dead in Christ are those who are raised first. As the previous words of Jesus show, this day is the Last Day. And Paul makes clear we who are alive at Christ's return do not precede these dead.
The other point about the sequence is this, but I find this may only be conjecture: We who are alive? We are left? This implies to me that everyone else is dead or gone! But gone where?

As in the Days of Noah and Lot

Several references are made by Jesus as to the method used by God to remove the lost from the earth being sudden and also that they are the ones taken. Those who had been taken in Noah's day and in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which Lot avoided, were taken either by water or flames to their destruction - and the second death. Some have interpreted Jesus to mean that He would come only suddenly., but that is not how the verses read and is not their context:

Luke 17 [WE]
²⁸   "It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
²⁹   but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
³⁰   "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

Here we see the same theme: they knew the warning, did not believe as those in Noah's day, the judgment came suddenly, due to their not looking for it due to unbelief, and they were taken to their deaths.

As a Thief in the Night

There are many remarks by Christ of His return being seen by all and not hidden, and as sudden "as a thief".
Some have thought this verse meant "like lightening" or quickly, but not how it could mean "very visibly", as lightening is when crossing the entire sky (have you ever seen "heat lightening?).

1 Thessalonians 5 [NKJV]
² For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
³ While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.

Sudden destruction of whom? Those who would escape from Jesus when He returns. Those who did NOT want to face Him.

There is also suggestion that this indicates Jesus would "slip in" like a thief - or that His return would be surreptitious. But, just as Matthew 24:27 and Revelation 1:7 states, the sight will be a spectacle all will see:

Matthew 24 [NKJV]
²⁷ "For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Revelation 1 [NKJV]
⁷ BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.

The Wheat and the Tares Parable - Who is left behind?

Jesus speaks very clearly describing what His returns will be Like. He even explained what He meant afterwards:

Matthew 13
²⁴Another parable He set forth before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
²⁵But while he was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed also darnel (weeds resembling wheat) among the wheat, and went on his way.
²⁶So when the plants sprouted and formed grain, the darnel (weeds) appeared also.
²⁷And the servants of the owner came to him and said, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then how does it have darnel shoots in it?
²⁸He replied to them, An enemy has done this. The servants said to him, Then do you want us to go and weed them out?
²⁹But he said, No, lest in gathering the wild wheat (weeds resembling wheat), you root up the [true] wheat along with it.
³⁰Let them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather the darnel first and bind it in bundles to be burned,
but gather the wheat into my granary.

And then later Jesus explained the parable when asked by the disciples what He meant:

Matthew 13 [NKJV]
³⁶Then He left the throngs and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him saying, Explain to us the parable of the darnel in the field.
³⁷He answered, He Who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
³⁸The field is the world, and the good seed means the children of the kingdom; the darnel is the children of the evil one,
³⁹And the enemy who sowed it is the devil. The harvest is the close and consummation of the age, and the reapers are angels.
⁴⁰Just as the darnel (weeds resembling wheat) is gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the close of the age.
⁴¹The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of offense [persons by whom others are drawn into error or sin] and all who do iniquity and act wickedly,
⁴²And will cast them into the furnace of fire; there will be weeping and wailing and grinding of teeth.
⁴³Then will the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God) shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let him who has ears [to hear] be listening, and let him consider and perceive and understand by hearing.

This following verse is the best proof of no "pre-trib" Rapture I have seen to date comprised in a single sentence.

Matthew 13:29-30 (New International Version) " 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: *First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "

*The "weeds" are the Lost and Jesus said they will be gathered first. They will be taken and we, the wheat, will be "left behind" (for this all happens on the Last Day, at the Last Trump and at the End of Days).

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Enduring until the ___?

There are also scriptures that make references to enduring, persevering and, with patience, waiting for Jesus to return. Why would they have to endure if there was a Rapture to remove them?

Job 14:14[NKJV]
If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my hard service I will wait,
Till my change comes.
(And what a change that will be too!)

Psalm 37:9 [NKJV]
For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the LORD,
They shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 10:22 [NKJV]
And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

Matthew 24:13 [NKJV]
But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Mark 13:13 [NKJV]
And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

For Jack Van Impe:

John 17:15 (Young's Literal Translation)

Matthew 24:9 [WE]
Then people will trouble you and kill you. All nations will hate you because you are true to me.

John 15 I do not ask that Thou mayest take them out of the world, but that Thou mayest keep them out of the evil.

(Jack, Lord bless you, I know you want to escape the trials, but be ready to be in them. Why should we escape when so many have not? I would rather you were right, but that is not what scripture shows. Take a look here to see why you need to submit to God's will in this, unless you want your testing to get worse.
God requires our unconditional trust, without requiring our understanding. You and Rexella are wonderful people and I care about you very much, so please stop teaching the "pre-trib" Rapture to justify this escapism theology. And don't let yourself teach, or use this yourself, to quantify your faith in God. God can be trusted my friends.)

Some wonderfully astute points of a friend:

"I want to post something which has come to my attention recently while going over Matthew 24. Now, I know that there are many brethren out there that refuse to believe that the sequence of events spoken of, by the very Lord we are waiting for, are not in chronological order, but why wouldn't they be? This matches perfectly with what the prophets are saying would happen on the day of Jehovah or Yom Jehovah, and with the book of Revelation:

Mat 24:29 And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of Jehovah.

Amo 5:20 Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

Zep 1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and ruin, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

Isa 13:10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations shall not give light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not reflect its light.

Rev 6:12 And when He had opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.

This is what every eye will see, in an awesome display of glory and power, the unsaved will mourn, time has run out.
Mat 24:30 And then the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heavens. And then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the heaven with power and great glory.

Then the rapture will occur, which has been simply written in this verse for 2000 years, yet many are unable to see.
Mat 24:31 And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

There is no confusion between Jews and Christians or what some are referring to the Church, the Jews will also be saved when the fullness of the Gentiles is reached.

Some say the church in not mentioned after Chapter 4 of Revelation, they are overconfident to say that the Holy Spirit is no longer on earth, yet there are Christians being martyred left and right and the mention of those without the seal of God on their foreheads must mean that their are those who do have seal of God on their foreheads or it wouldn't make sense to even mention such a fact. The claim that the Elders in heaven are the Church is just another presupposed theory, we can not build a doctrine based on circumstantial evidence.

Since there is an abundance of verses which point to saints, elect, servants and martyrs, I will leave these out unless someone would like to see them posted.
I will include one which not only confirms that the saint will be afflicted and persecuted in the end times but also give the time range of the tribulation.

Dan 7:25 And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High ; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.

We could ignore this all we want, but it will not change the outcome of the final days.
The only rapture which can be found in the Bible similar to Mat 24:31 which removes any shadow of doubt is found in Rev 14:12-20. There is no other to compare with, any other proposed rapture would have to be measured side by side with this one and will immediately fall short. Then how is it possible for anyone to argue that the Bible says that the first resurrection is right before the 1000 year period (Rev 20:4-6).
The rapture requires a resurrection of the dead in Christ, so if this is the first resurrection, then there is none before this, and the Pre-trib rapture does not exist by default or evaporates by process of self elimination.

In Christ,
FredT

Ezek 33:8 When I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die; if you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand."

edited by me for grammar. punctuation and consistency of content for the teaching
(Thanks for the addition Fred!)

Conclusion

In closing we should remark on the one passage that all Pre-Tribulation "Rapture" theologians use to justify their belief (which is not sound hermeneutical proofing):

American Standard Version (ASV)
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
¹⁶ 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;

¹⁷ then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Doesn't this even say "we who are left"? This actually supports there not being a pre-trib rapture as it uses the words "who are left", which implies everyone else is gone.
My friends, these verses seems to indicate to many that we shall be kept from the wrath that shall come upon the earth in those days, but, as Jesus asked the Father to do, in John 17:15, scripture shows we shall be kept in (or through, or protected during) the pouring out of the Wrath of God on the earth. Another example is 1 Thessalonians 1:10, "and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." Again this is clear in that the wrath we are to be delivered from is God's wrath on Judgment Day, not the bowls of wrath during the tribulation. When read in the context and taken with the many other scriptural references to the exact same moment, we can reach only the following conclusions:

Recently I was asked why we would reign 1000 years. If there are unbelievers there what are they there for, if they cannot be rescued? I have since understood this 1000 years will be OUR time with Jesus alone - no unbelievers will be there. Some will reign over others as the leaders will be those rewarded for their work in this life.

Revelation has an interesting verse, which I believe should be given special mention as it has caused me some hesitation, until the error was evidenced in other versions of the scripture:

Revelation 3:10-12 [NKJV]
¹⁰Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you *from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.¹¹Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.¹²He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

Even it's own context shows the truth - verse 12 states "He who overcomes" !
Notice the corrected translation for the WE Bible which makes the Christ's intent clear:

Revelation 3:10-12 [WE]
¹⁰   You have obeyed my word and been patient. So I will keep you safe *in the time of trouble which will come all over the world. It will test the people who live on earth.
¹¹   I am coming again soon! Hold on to the faith which you have, so that no one will stop you receiving your reward in heaven.
¹²   I will make the person who wins become a strong post in the temple of my God. I will keep him strong. He will never leave it again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of my God's city. This city is the new Jerusalem. It comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write my new name on him."

If those verses can be taken plainly, as I believe they should be, there is no reason to believe we shall be relieved of the tribulation. No, we shall not only not be able to avoid the tribulation, but we shall be sorely tested.

And also 1 Thessalonians 5:9 does not say "from" either. Once again the language is clear this means "protected during":

1 Thessalonians 5:9
"For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,"
This does not mean an escape but rather is that Jesus is our protection during the time of trial as the ark was for Noah and his family. And if this refers to any specific event the context is clear it refers to the Judgment Wrath of God.

Matthew 28:20 [WE]
Teach them to do all the things I have told you to do. I am with you always, even to the end of time.'

1 Corinthians 16:13 [CEV]
Keep alert. Be firm in your faith. Stay brave and strong.

2 Peter
3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness. 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Yeshua the Messiah. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 [CEV
But the Lord can be trusted to make you strong and protect you from harm.

Colossians 1:11 [CEV]
His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy.

I know this upsets those who want a Rapture because we have to now realize we will be sorely tried, but if you are his and living in his daily provision then there is nothing to be afraid of. The only terror that may result is for those who have been playing some religious game.

Disputation of the "Rapture" Teaching