Chapter 1: Introduction
The “rapture” of the Church refers to the New Testament’s teaching that Christ will someday return for His Church, resurrecting the dead and the transforming the living, and calling His Church out of this world and into Heaven—an event that is to be nearly instantaneous and without warning or signs. While the Bible does not tell us when this event will occur, it does indicate that it is imminent (i.e., that it could happen at any moment), and that it will occur before “the great and terrible day of the LORD”—the coming time during which God will judge the earth and its inhabitants and pave the way for the establishment His promised kingdom on earth.
In recent times the most popular viewpoint on the timing of the rapture has been “pretribulationism”—the view that the rapture must occur before the beginning of the seven-year period often referred to as “the tribulation” prophesied in Daniel 9:27, and elsewhere in both the Old and New Testaments (Psa. 110:1-7; Isa. 2:10-11; 13:6-16; 24:1-23; 26:20-21; 34:1-15; 63:1-6; 66:4-6, 14b-18; Jer. 25:30-38; 30:4-7, 23-24; Ezek. 38:1-39:24; Dan. 2:1-45; 7:1-28; 9:27; 12:1,5-12; Joel 2:1-11; 3:1-16; Amos 5:18-20; Mic. 5:10-15; Zeph. 1:2-3:11; Matt. 24:4-31; Mk. 13:1-37; Lk. 17:20-37; 21:34-35; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Heb. 12:25-26; Jude 14-15; Rev. 4:1-20:3). There have been other viewpoints, both within “dispensationalism” (the interpretive frame of reference that recognizes the Church as a distinct entity), and within “covenant theology” (which make no distinction between the Church and believers of other eras).
We will begin with a survey of how we got to where we are with the various viewpoints currently in circulation. From there we will briefly examine all of the major positions and their arguments, culminating with pretribulationism. Finally, we will attempt to answer the question: “If we strictly limit ourselves to biblically supported facts concerning the timing of the rapture, what would such a view look like?” The answer—as we will see—does not lead to any of the classic views, including pretribulationism, but to a much simpler view we will refer to as “the imminent pre-wrath rapture” of the Church. [This position views the rapture as imminent and pre-wrath, yet without the necessity that it absolutely must occur before the tribulation begins. This view represents a new understanding of the timing of the rapture that was put forth by the author in the original edition of this booklet in 2003.]
Prior to the popular revival of premillennialism, which began in earnest in the late nineteenth century and continued in the twentieth century, most Christians simply believed that at some time Christ would return and there would be a general judgment, with the righteous inheriting eternal life and the unrighteous inheriting eternal punishment. This view, referred to as either “amillennialism,” or “postmillennialism,” depending upon how literally one took the prophecies of the millennium, had the appeal of simplicity—if not strict biblical accuracy. However, premillennialism with its face-value interpretation of future prophecy, envisions a future literal reign of Christ upon the earth in fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, and to his descendants. Needless to say, premillennialism’s view of the future is far more complex in terms of sorting out what will happen. For example, assuming premillennialism to be true, one must deal with the question of whether the tribulation (the seven-year period immediately preceding the millennium, spoken of prophetically in both the Old and New Testaments) is past or future, as this has everything to do with one’s view of the rapture of the Church. If one happens to hold, as some premillenialists do, that the tribulation prophecies were fulfilled in the first century destruction of Jerusalem or the early persecution of the Church, then one must necessarily hold to a “posttribulational” view of the rapture—with the rapture occurring after the conclusion of tribulation. On the other hand there are premillenialists who believe the Bible to teach a literal future tribulation, and yet still believe in a posttribulational rapture. (All covenant theologians, regardless of their view of the millennium, view the rapture as occurring at the time of the second coming of Christ.) However, most premillennialists believe that the Church will be raptured well in advance of the second coming, prior to the outpouring of divine wrath during the tribulation period. The most widely accepted of these views is “pretribulationism”—the belief that the Church will be gathered to Christ before the seven-year tribulation period begins. In the middle to late twentieth century several variations sprang out of the pretribulational view, they are: midtribulationism, pre-wrath rapturism, and partial rapturism. “Midtribulationism” places the rapture at the midpoint of the tribulation, but still prior to the outpouring of divine wrath, since it views only the second half of the tribulation as divine wrath. Rosenthal’s version of “pre-wrath rapturism” is an updated form of midtribulationism that places the rapture about three-quarters of the way through the tribulation; it holds that only about the last quarter of the period is divine wrath. “Partial rapturism” belongs in a category by itself, since it combines pretribulational concepts with semi-Pelagianism (free-will/Arminian) theology. Partial rapturism holds that there will be a pretribulational rapture, but only those believers who are prepared will be raptured; the rest will be raptured later, or at the end of the period at the second coming. Of course, the partial rapture view makes participation in the rapture “works” oriented.
Both partial rapturism and midtribulationism were poorly supported, and neither received wide acceptance. Prior to the nineteen-nineties, if one were dispensational and premillennial, they probably subscribed to pretribulationism. Since the 1970s, pretribulationism has become almost a test of orthodoxy in some circles, and it is not uncommon to find pretribulationism written into the doctrinal statements of some churches. It wasn’t until the nineteen-nineties that pretribulationism faced it’s first major challenge from within. Marvin Rosenthal, former International Director of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, a conservative and pretribulational missionary organization, broke ranks with pretribulationists and published, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church. This book was widely read, and some pretribulationists began to gravitate toward Rosenthal’s view. As will be demonstrated, the arguments Rosenthal used in support of his particular pre-wrath position do not hold up under scrutiny; nevertheless, they appealed to midtribulationists and to some pretribulationists who were beginning to take note of serious problems in the key pretribulational arguments.
It’s unfortunate that Rosenthal’s view has been broadly labeled as “pre-wrath rapturism,” since both pretribulationism and mid-tribulationism are also pre-wrath views of sorts—they simply disagree on how much of the tribulation period is actually divine wrath. Because of the almost certain confusion that might otherwise result from the use of the term “pre-wrath,” I will be referring to Rosenthal’s view as “Rosenthal’s pre-wrath view” to distinguish it from pre-wrath positions in general (i.e., any view that places the rapture prior to the manifestation of divine wrath at the day of the LORD).
Another significant terminological problem is the use of the word “tribulation.” In pretribulational parlance, the term “tribulation,” when used in relation to future prophecy has become synonymous with divine wrath. Since pretribulationists believe the entire seven-year tribulation period to be divine wrath, it’s easy to see how this terminological fusion has arisen. Nevertheless, it is critically important to note that the Bible nowhere uses the term “tribulation”[Gr. thlipsis, a general term meaning “affliction,” or “severe hardship”] as a technical label for the entire seven-year period immediately preceding the millennial kingdom, or as a technical term indicating divine wrath. As a label, the word “tribulation” has simply become a convenient term to use. The problem with labeling the seven-year period in this way is that the distinction between the various components can be obscured. The seven-year period leading up to the second coming of Christ is certainly going to be a time of tribulation (severe hardship), but at least a portion of that period is also characterized prophetically as a time of divine wrath, and these two components (“hardship” and “divine wrath”) are not identical, nor are they necessarily co-extensive (having the same starting and ending points). If we refer to the entire period as “the tribulation,” and then subsume the meaning of “divine wrath” into “tribulation,” we have—without providing any biblical or theological support—defined the entire seven-year period as a time of divine wrath, and that results in an unsupported premise (i.e., that the entire tribulation period is divine wrath) being used in the formulation of arguments about the timing of the rapture. As we will see, this simple logical fault is the Achilles’ heel of pretribulationism.
Chapter One, taken from: The Imminent Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church
Copyright 2004, 2006 by Sam A. Smith
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