Will Christians
Enter the Great Tribulation?
Rapture of the
Church
Is the word “rapture” even found in
the Bible? Actually, yes. The word "rapture" is found in the Bible,
if you have the Latin Vulgate produced by Jerome in the early 400s. The Vulgate
was the main Bible of the medieval Western Church until the Reformation. It was
Protestants who introduced the word "rapture" into the English
language from the Latin raeptius. It was Jerome's Vulgate that translated the
original Greek verb harpazo used by Paul, which is usually translated into
English with the phrase "caught up." The leading Greek Lexicon says
that harpazo means "snatch, seize, i.e., take suddenly and
vehemently." This is the same meaning of the Latin word rapio "to seize,
snatch, tear away." An English word was developed from the Latin which we
use today known as "rapture."
There are two
major parallel passages in the New Testament dealing with the rapture of the church.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud
command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are
left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Listen, I tell you a mystery:
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be
raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe
itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the
perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been
swallowed up in victory.” – 1 Corinthians 15:51-54.
The key idea happens at a
moment. The dead in Christ raise first and we then meet him and it all happens
quickly. In the Old Testament, Enoch was translated before the judgment came.
Elijah was also translated and never saw death.
Additional Verses
to Review
For God has not destined us
for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, - 1
Thessalonians 5:9
Because you have kept my word about patient
endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole
world, to try those who dwell on the earth. – Revelation 3:10
Old Testament Verses to Review
Your dead shall
live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for
joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.
Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide
yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by. For behold, the
Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for
their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the bloodshed on it, and will no
more cover its slain. – Isaiah 26:19-21 (Therefore the Lord
is going to come out of his place to punish those for their indignation.)
Seek the Lord,
all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek
humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord. –
Zephaniah 2:3
For he will hide
me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of
his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. – Psalm 27:5
The 70th week (70
weeks of Daniel) is defined by the covenant of this coming world leader. A week
in the Hebrew for this example is 7 years. The Great Tribulation is the last
half of that 70th Week (Half of 7 years 2 is 3 ½ years). This coming world leader
cannot be revealed until after the Rapture. The sequence is the Rapture, the
revealing of the coming world leader and then the Great Tribulation. The church
is not only removed before the Great Tribulation (last half of the seven years)
but is also is removed before the start of the 70th Week.
The distance
between the Rapture and the start of the 70th week could be one day, or could
be 30 years. The rapture does not trigger the 70 weeks of Daniel; it might, but
it does not need to. It’s in that interval between the Rapture and the start of
the 70th week is when
that leader has to emerge publicly and become strong enough to enforce that
treaty.
The Anti-christ Cannot Come to Power until the Church is Raptured
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day
will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is
revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against
every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the
temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I
was still with you I told you these things? And you know
what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who
now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless
one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his
mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. - 2 Thessalonians 2-8.
In other words the forces of darkness are in
the world, but there is a hindering force. What the hindering force? It’s most
likely the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in the church (not the physical
church, but the body of believers). But when
Jesus takes His church out of this earth, then there will be no longer any
restraining power or force and the anti-Christ will at that point take over.
Verse 8 says, and then shall that wicked one be revealed.
The rebellion or
“falling-away” in the KJV suggests a time of apostasy. The sequence of events
is an apostasy, restrainer removed (Holy Spirit and the church), then the man
of sin will be revealed. Therefore the man of sin cannot be revealed until
after the Rapture.
Book of Revelation
There are seven
lampstands that show up in Revelation 1. These seven lampstands represent seven
churches: The seven stars are the
angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
– Revelation 1:20. John is treated to the rapture in Revelation
4:1: After this I looked, and behold, a door
standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me
like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take
place after this.” – Revelation 4:1. From chapter 4 and on, you don’t find the
lampstands (church) on the earth, you find them in heaven when John gets there
in the fifth verse of chapter 4. Revelation
6, details the beginning of the 70 Weeks of Daniel (The Tribulation period) and
the church is already in heaven at this point.
In Christ,
Kevin Parnella
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6
