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A Pre-Tribulation Rapture? That’s NOT what Jesus said!
Pre-tribulation Rapture? NOPE.
How do we know?
Because JESUS said it! Clearly and plainly!
Do you want to know what JESUS says about this very topic?
Read on!
By Pastor Carl Gallups
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JESUS SAID:
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
(Luke 17:26-30)
Jesus could not have been more concise and more clear in telling us “how it would be” in the very last days. He tells us that just before He returns, the world will be JUST LIKE the days of Noah and the days of Lot. And how were “those days?”
Several striking features of both “the days of Noah and the days of Lot:”
1. They both lived in the MIDST of “great tribulation.” In both cases it was the worst their world or culture had ever seen. The Bible says that Noah’s day was the most evil it had ever been – right up to the flood.
2. They both were “preserved in the midst of” the great tribulation in which they lived. They both were used as witnesses, salt and light, ambassadors, prophets – for “such a time as this,” right up until God poured out His wrath. Sound familiar to Jesus’ teaching?
3. They both lived in cultures where the lost people around them thought that the wickedness in which they lived was “normal, natural, lawful, and politically correct.” (They went about eating and drinking and given in “MARRIAGE” right up until the judgment of God was delivered.) Sound familiar?
4. They both were “raptured out” of their wicked generation – but only just before God poured out His wrath. Noah and his family were “taken up” in the ark – they were lifted “out” of the flood of God’s wrath.
Lot and his family were “taken out” of Sodom by angels who were sent for that purpose. (Compare Matthew 24:31) Lot was taken out just before God’s wrath was poured out. See the pattern?
5. In the account of Noah and the account of Lot – there is no room for a “secret rapture” scenario.
6. The clear pattern: (Jesus said it would be – JUST LIKE THIS)
a. They lived in times of GREAT TRIBULATION.
b. They were there to be witnesses of God’s coming wrath.
c. They were preserved in the midst of the tribulation because they were faithful witnesses of God’s Word.
d. They were “raptured” out just before God’s Wrath was poured out.
e. God’s wrath came and destroyed the unbelievers….but God’s people were gone!
THE PRETRIB ARGUMENT:
Yes, but Jesus said that the “great tribulation” of the very last days will be worse than ANYTHING the world has ever seen, even the days of Noah and Lot … so He couldn’t have meant we will be left in the midst of those days!
MY BIBLICAL ANSWER:
Jesus meant EXACTLY what He said! “It will be JUST LIKE THAT.” Jesus was not speaking to the “intensity” of the tribulation (a relative matter for the ones going through it!). Rather – he was speaking to the eschatological “pattern” we can expect before His return! Of course the last days “tribulation” will be the worst the world has ever seen. But, that was not the point of Jesus statement. He was purposely giving us the PATTERN of events before His return. I have clearly demonstrated that pattern above. the intensity of tribulation had nothing to do with what Jesus said in Luke 17.
Also, it is important to note that both Noah and Lot obviously represent “the people of God” throughout all ages. Before a pretribber accuses me of “spritualizing” the text – remember it was Jesus who gave the pattern – not me.
There is not a SINGLE hint or picture of a “pretrib rapture” or a “secret rapture” in either account. They lived in tribulation right up until the time God poured out His wrath – and then and only then did God rapture out His people.
A SECRET RAPTURE?
The pretribbers speak continually about a “secret rapture.” The problems with that false teaching are immense.
The Word of God was given to the people of God. The New Testament was given to the church and for the church – and it is about the church. There is not a single place in the New Testament where it is plainly stated, taught, or laid out – that there will be a “secret rapture.” Not a single place.
Jesus did not speak of a secret rapture in any direct and clear way. Paul did not either. Neither did Peter, James, John, Jude, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or the writer of Hebrews. It just is not there – other than using a “spiritualization” technique on “cherry picked” verses and an eisegetical (reading into ….) approach to the interpretation of scripture.
Now, I have to ask … if a secret rapture was such a CENTRAL theme to New Testament eschatology (as the pretribbers claim) then WHY did NO ONE who wrote or spoke scripture – clearly, directly and “by name or description” mention it? Why? Because it is NOT a New Testament teaching – plain and simple.
On the other hand – Jesus DID say something VERY directly about eschatology and its clear, historically demonstrated pattern – Jesus said “IT WILL BE JUST LIKE THAT.” There was no “secret rapture” in the days of Noah or the days of Lot.
I will stick to what Jesus plainly said, and not what the fanciful “theologians” of only the last 200 years have said. The vast majority of the first 1800 years of Christian scholarship understood a historic premillenial approach to eschatology. That approach takes the words of Jesus in Luke 17 literally. They took that pattern literally – because Jesus spoke it and meant it to be taken as such. That is what I believe. That is what Jesus taught.
Even some of our modern pretrib “experts” – like David Reagan have had to admit, in writing, that historic premillenialism was the majority view of the early church (you know … many of who actually walked with Jesus, and/or knew the first disciples of Jesus!).
Here is what Reagan says in his book WRATH AND GLORY (pp. 112-113)
” [Historic Premillennialism] was the historic position of the early church. This view is based on a literal interpretation of what the Bible says will happen in the end times … [We] have to admit that [this] viewpoint presents a plain sense summary of the Bible’s teachings about the end times.”
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BOTTOM LINE
So – there you have it. According to Reagan’s analysis, what I believe and teach is “historic,” “literal,” “what the Bible says,” and a “plain sense summary of the Bible’s teaching.” I am not a heretic. I am not unbiblical. I am not teaching “false doctrine.” I am teaching what Jesus clearly and plainly said. I am being historical, literal, plain sense and sticking to what the Bible “says,” not what people read into the text.
Forgive my “naivety” (as some pretribbers accuse). But, I take Jesus at his plain word. I don’t have to try and “invent” clever doctrines that tickle the ears of people who don’t want to go through “tribulation.”
I know what Jesus said about the last days. I know he said it would be JUST LIKE the days of Noah and the days of Lot. I know where to find out from God’s Word about the days of Noah and the days of Lot. I also know that there is no pattern of a “secret rapture” before the days of “great tribulation” in either of those accounts. I am standing where Jesus stands.
If the trumpet sounds and we are raptured out before the antichrist appears and the tribulation begins – wonderful! I will shout for glory with you. But if it doesn’t happen that way – then God’s people and the Church of Jesus had better be prepared. The convergences of last days prophecies that are now before our eyes are astounding. Please don’t be like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and miss the fulfilled prophecies right in front of you! – Thus missing the interpretation of the “days in which you live.”
I pray that this brief study has helped some of God’s people. May the Lord bless you and keep you – until He comes! Maranatha!
Pastor Carl
Source: http://ppsimmons.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-pre-tribulation-rapture-thats-not.html
Isaiah 26:19-21 -19 Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. 20 Come, my people, enter into your rooms and close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course. 21 For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the earth will reveal her bloodshed And will no longer cover her slain.
Check out the time line. You do believe there is an order of things right?
Your dead will rise (implies believers). It is the time of Jacob’s trouble, not the time of the believers trouble.
God tells them to go to their rooms. What rooms? On earth? Their old rooms that they lived in before they died? What if a new family is living there now? Why did Jesus say I go to prepare a place for you in Heaven if we never get to go there?
God says to hide a little while while His wrath is being poured out. It is not the final wrath. How do I know this? Because Revelation 19 clearly shows the believers of Christ coming back on horses with Him to vanquish the enemy. So obviously we cannot be hiding in our rooms when we are supposed to be coming back with Him.
The Lord comes out to punish the earth.