Why We Believe with Certainty the Premillennial View (Part 2)

The Rapture is Real
So, what do you come up with from the scripture? Is there a Rapture of those who believe? Taking the text given in Part 1, we see that God will at some time, that we do not know, take the church out. The world is headed towards a definite end that God has laid out as the one who creates and defines history from the beginning to the end.

Have you ever thought about the fact that the nation of Israel still exist? You might think that is a useless question, but let us just consider this for a moment. From the scripture, and also from secular history, the nation of Israel is an ancient people group. Biblical history tells us that they have roots that go all the way back to Abraham, 2000 years before Christ, or over 4000 years from the present. We also know from history that these people have been conquered by the Babylonians, Meds & Persians, Greeks, Romans, and dispersed to the ends of the earth. They have in modern times gone through continued persecution, with just one being the holocaust under Hitler, but yet we can still find this people group. This in itself demonstrates that God has always been preserving this people. All of this is a fulfillment of prophecies given in the scriptures 700 years before Christ, and

God’s prophecies concerning this people are yet to be all fulfilled.
The thing that will set in motion the fulfillment of God’s history with his elect nation is this thing we call the Rapture of the church. In the Revelation you see the church on earth in Chapters 2 and 3 giving a look at the present age. In chapter 4 everything changes and you no longer see the church on the earth but it is in heaven. The Rapture is not mentioned in the text but the variation in the location of the church gives us a picture of the result of this historically imminent event called the future Rapture. We see the church worshiping in heaven in chapters 4 and 5, and then in chapter 6 immediately we see the Tribulation begin and run all the way through chapter 18. Nothing really needs to happen for the Rapture to occur, in fact, scripture demonstrates to us that the apostles lived and wrote of its occurrence as if it could occur any day.

How can we be certain of this event? Notice that in everything I have shared that I place the occurrence of this Rapture prior to the Tribulation. If you look at the scripture shared in Part 1 you can see that the event is a reality, but when it occurs is not so clear. So why do I place it prior to the Tribulation? This is a little more difficult but still clear, once we consider the full counsel of the scripture. Let’s consider the following:

1. First, as we have already looked at, the church is not mentioned in Revelation during that portion that describes the Tribulation, chapters 6-18.

2. 1 Thess. 4:13-18 demands that the Rapture of the church be Pre-Tribulational.

a. There are not any definitive time indicators in this text,

b. But, if Paul had taught a post-tribulation rapture he would have been teaching something different and the way those reading would have received it would have been significantly different. The believers there would have not had any question about their friends who had already passed. They would not be concerned about their will being because those who had already passed would be blessed not to have to go through the Tribulation. Instead they were grieving over the death of their loved ones. We would also expect them to be fearful about their own impending trials. Paul gives no instruction relative to a tribulation.

3. The sequence of events of Christ post-tribulational second coming requires a pre-tribulational rapture of the church. Why?

a. Matt. 24 presents the post-tribulational coming of Christ, not the rapture of the church and 1 Thess. 4 gives the rapture account.

b. These two differ significantly.

c. In 1 Thess. 4 the believers are snatched up to go with Jesus, but the opposite occurs in Matt. 24.

i. Jesus sends his angels to the four winds.

ii. In Matt 24:39 we see that those who are taken away are those who are lost, not those who are saved.

d. Also, in Matt. 13:41-42 and 49-50 we see the lost being removed from the saved.

e. Therefore, the rapture cannot occur at the end of the tribulation, because at the end of the Tribulation, as taught by Jesus, the saints remain and the lost are removed. Who are the saints? They are those who are saved during the tribulation, which will be all the Jews who survive and many Gentiles. These are those who populate the earth for the coming Kingdom age. (Rev. 7:4-14)

4. Does Revelation 3:10 prove a Pre-Trib. Rapture? No. Not explicitly, but with everything else mentioned it adds a weighty part. The key to this verse is the praise, “I will keep you from.” In the Greek this is tereo ek. It can mean both, “I will keep you in” or “I will keep you out.”

a. One word sometimes can make all the difference, especially when you are dealing with words that are inspired by God. Does this phrase mean that the church is kept in the tribulation or out of it?

b. In the Greek the prepositions give the key to the meaning. In this case the preposition is “ek”. Had the Lord been intending to convey that the church would be preserved in the tribulation, He would have used a different preposition, which he did in other passages. In Acts 12:5 we see that “Peter was kept in the prison.” The preposition used here is very different and means to keep in, not out. Other text that demonstrate this is 1 Peter 1:4, Jude 21, and Acts 24:4.

c. John 17:15 is the only other place in the scripture that this word with this prepositional structure, tereo ek, is used and it is clearly a reference to being taken out.

d. Therefore, Revelation 3:10 literally means that the church, those who are truly saved, will be kept out of the time of Tribulation that the whole world will experience.

I believe that Revelation 3:10 is a strong case for believing that the Rapture will happen before the Tribulation, but putting it together with everything else I think you can consider this a Biblical reality with Certainty.