SEVEN QUICK POINTS:

1. There is no scripture in the entire Bible that directly states there will be a pre - trib type of rapture.

2. There are scriptures that directly contradict the pre - trib rapture theory.

3. The early apostles and disciples did not believe in a pre - trib type of rapture.

4. The vast majority (if not all) of the church did not believe in a pre - trib type of rapture for the first 1850 years or so of its existence.

5. Jesus never mentions anything about a pre - trib rapture in His very detailed chronologies of the end - times given in the synoptic gospels.

6. Nobody would believe in a pre - trib type of rapture if they just stuck by a plain reading of the Bible. The vast majority of people who hold to this theory do so because they have read about it in books and have been taught to believe it by teachers of the pre - trib rapture theory.

7. This theory can easily lead to heretical beliefs.


It has almost become the accepted view in many areas of Christendom that the church will be snatched away or raptured seven years before Christ appears and sets up His Kingdom. We call this the Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory or 'pre - trib' for short, as people holding this view believe the church will be raptured before or pre the Great Tribulation spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 24 verses 9 to 28. People who teach this relatively new doctrine say that we are not to look solely to Christ's second coming because He is actually coming two more times, once in secret for His church and then seven years later openly where everybody sees Him. This of course means that the church avoids the Great Tribulation that they say will occur during these last seven years; those of us who are raptured will be in heaven during this time of trouble on the earth and will return with Christ when He descends to the earth in full view of all to finally set up His Kingdom.

Of course if we read what the angels told the disciples as they watched Jesus ascend through the clouds into heaven that He would return in exactly the same way (Acts1:11) we would dismiss this teaching out of hand. Why would the angels say such a thing to people who would obviously have been raptured seven years previously assuming the return of Christ had happened in their lifetime? Why would the angels indicate that this is what we are to be looking for if we're actually going to be secretly raptured seven years before Jesus comes again in the clouds of heaven? Indeed Jesus Himself plainly stated that we were not to look for so-called mysterious or hidden comings (Matt.24:23 - 27) but to look for the sign of the Son of Man appearing in the sky, an event that will be seen by all.

"For just as the lightening comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be....But immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other (detailing the rapture or gathering of the church)," Matt.24:27 - 31.

In my opinion a pre - trib rapture does not make sense because there is no secret rapture spoken of in scripture. The day of the Lord will certainly come as a, "Thief in the night," (I Thess.5:2), but this is speaking in relation to the fact that this day will steal up on people and they will not be prepared for it. It does not mean that Jesus will sneak into our world, secretly rapture His people away and nobody will realise what has happened for the next seven years apart from the fact that Christians are missing everywhere. No! In the very next verse of I Thessalonians chapter 5 the apostle Paul explains that while people are saying, "Peace and safety!" destruction comes upon them suddenly like labour pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape (I Thess.5:3). This does not sound anything like a secret rapture that people try and put forward today in support of the pre - trib rapture. The day itself will sneak up on them like a thief in the night, but what happens on that day will be very public indeed, just as Jesus and His apostles said it would be. Jesus will return exactly as He went into heaven as the angels said and exactly as Jesus Himself said He would in Matt.24:27 - 31, Mk.13:24 - 27 and in Lk. 21:27 - 28, that is AFTER a period of great tribulation. This is when He raptures or snatches the church away, precisely as Jesus said He would in the gospel accounts just listed, an event that will be earth shatteringly public and visible to all!

Unfortunately due to its strong marketing and popularisation by various high profile authors in these days, some denominations have even put a pre - trib rapture as one of their articles of faith to which they subscribe. I too, used to hold to this line of thinking (because I read it in my prophesy books) and would attempt to show people the chronology of end time events I had read in these books. The only problem was, every now and again as I read the Bible, I would come across a verse that inferred this was not the case and even directly contradicted it! This troubled me very much; what I would normally do is go straight to my prophesy books and allow them to set my mind right on the subject. Then there came a day when the thought occurred to me, "Why don't I actually accept what the Bible seems to be saying, and take the risk that it may change what I'd previously believed?" This was a novel thought and one that has changed the whole direction of my life and ministry.

In a sense I am hesitant about even talking about this subject as there are people who hold to this doctrine so passionately that if they see someone does not agree with their cherished viewpoint they completely ignore anything else they have to say as well. I have unfortunately seen this happen; if the beliefs we hold are so shallow and tenuous they cannot be challenged I would suggest those beliefs are worth little. Perhaps some believe in a pre - trib rapture due to the overwhelming number of ministries, books, CDs and DVDs that actively promote this teaching in these days. Sometimes it is because they have a strong viewpoint on the place of the nation of Israel in the end times, and they mistakenly believe that a pre - tribulation position is the only one that will accommodate this view. I can say categorically that it is not. I felt ignoring this subject would not be helpful to those people who like me, used to be confused about this issue. Additionally whilst holding a pre - tribulation view on the surface of things may not seem to cause too much of a problem, the doctrines and expectations that are aroused by and that logically flow from such a view become a serious problem, even to the point of denying the centrality of the cross of Jesus Christ, a majorly serious issue indeed!

Many people will think, "Well what's the big deal anyway whether you believe pre, mid, post or even some other type of trib! When Jesus comes back we'll find out anyway so what does it matter?" I can completely understand why some people feel this way, especially after personally wrestling with the pre - trib viewpoint which in my experience hugely over - complicates the whole area flying in the face of the most obvious and plain rendering of the texts involved. It would be so much easier to just allow the Bible to speak for itself without having to look to others all the time to explain it to us. In a sense one could argue what does it matter whether someone believes in a pre - trib rapture? In some ways I'm sure there will be those people who passively hold to this view and it really doesn't make any difference to their faith walk with the Lord. For them it really doesn't matter whether they believe pre, mid or post trib! However the problem arises when we start seeing everything THROUGH the pre - trib viewpoint and we then start interpreting the Bible according to what this model tells us. This can have devastating consequences to how we read and apply the Bible to our ordinary lives. In this context, how we see the coming of Jesus matters a great deal because believing in a pre - tribulation rapture causes your understanding of scripture to be coloured into viewing everything through 'pre - trib glasses.' Everything you read has to fit into the pre - trib scenario or model and this causes verses to be taken out of context or even ignored as we surmise that, "Oh that doesn't apply to me because I won't be around during any tribulation," or, "These verses only apply to people unfortunate enough to find themselves in the Great Tribulation so I can just ignore them as I won't be there," or even, "The Kingdom parables don't apply to us because we'll be raptured up into heaven already." It also matters because the logical outworking of this theory results in heretical beliefs and also because it is a foundational truth of the faith (Heb.6:2 - the, "Resurrection of the dead") that cannot and should not be misrepresented.

I have the feeling that when Jesus said, "At that time many will fall away," (Matt.24:10) speaking as He was of a time at the end when His people are persecuted by all nations, this may well include many pre - trib believers. Having been told they will be, "On the first train out of there," (as I have heard the rapture being described by some modern preachers today) before any persecution arises, they are highly likely to be offended and caused to stumble as they still find themselves on terra firma when this tribulation takes place. I will try and tackle this whole issue in brief, as to properly address the subject would probably take another book! It is interesting (and quite scary) to note that the apostle Paul had harsh words to say about individuals who gave a different time frame to the resurrection than that clearly given in scripture, saying they had, "Gone astray from the truth," and that their teaching would, "Spread like gangrene," (II Tim.2:16-18). The resurrection from the dead (and by implication the rapture of God's people that happens at the same time as clearly stated in these scriptures: I Thess.4:15 - 17, Lk.21:25 - 28, I Cor.15:51 - 52 etc) is a foundational teaching of the Christian faith (Heb.6:1 - 2) and we mess with it at our peril.

Do you realise that not one scripture in the entire Bible directly says there will be a pre - tribulation rapture? It is all based on indirect scriptures and an assumption that God cannot deal with Israel whilst the church is still around. This did not seem to be too much of a problem for our Lord in the days of the early church when God's grace was poured out upon both Jew and gentile (Acts 2:5 - 41, Acts 10:44 - 48, Acts 11:19 - 21) but for some reason becomes a problem in the end times for some people. There is a truth that the gentiles must be taken out of the way before grace will once more be given to the Jews en - masse and I will talk about this later; however this is not the same as saying the church has to be raptured seven years before this grace will be poured out upon Israel. Believing that God has to take the church out of the way before He can deal again with the Jews as He did under the Old Covenant, leads in effect to a denial of the completed work of Christ on the cross. This is because proponents say that the people of Israel have to go back to keeping the Law of Moses again during this seven year period as the 'church age is now finished'. They say because the age of grace is now finished, God reverts back to acting as He did in the Old Testament and the Jews will have to keep the Law of Moses again in order to be acceptable to God or even 'saved.' This inherent flaw in the pre-tribulation theory is often overlooked by people who believe in this theory and skirted around by those who promote it. By putting forward this viewpoint they conveniently ignore verses such as Christ's sacrifice being, "Once for all," (Heb.7:27), that the former commandments were, "Weak and useless," and, "Made nothing perfect," (Heb.7:18 - 19), and those who try and keep the Law have been, "Severed from Christ...have fallen from grace," (Gal.5:4). The Bible says very clearly that the faith we hold, "Was once for all handed down to the saints," (not 'once for all until the rapture occurs,' Jude 3), and now that faith has come, "We are no longer under a tutor," (i.e. the Mosaic Law, Gal.3:25) and that, "As many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse," (Gal.3:10). This strict dispensational view of things flies in the face of the whole gospel message and would have been abhorrent to the apostles.

For sure Israel will be brought in once again in the last days, but this must be through faith in their Messiah, not in the empty rituals and works of the Law that can save nobody. Does not the scripture say this plainly enough in Romans chapter 3 and verse 30, that God will justify the circumcised (the Jews) and the uncircumcised (the gentiles) through faith, not through the works of the Law. People who infer otherwise are badly mistaken!

Not one scripture clearly speaks of the 'pre - tribulation' rapture; however there are verses that directly contradict it. II Thess. 1:6 - 10 shows that there is coming a day in which the Lord will afflict those who persecute His people and give relief to those who suffer for the sake of the Kingdom of God, as it says in verses 6 to 10:

"For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well WHEN THE LORD JESUS WILL BE REVEALED FROM HEAVEN WITH HIS MIGHTY ANGELS IN FLAMING FIRE, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus...when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marvelled at among all who have believed."

The apostle Paul says that when the Lord Jesus is revealed in glory with His mighty angels in flaming fire (without doubt His second coming in the sky visible to all), He will punish His enemies and give relief to those like the apostle Paul and the church at Thessaloniki, who were undergoing persecution for their faith. Paul phrases the sentence as if this momentous event would include him and the believers at Thessalonica if they were still alive at that time. He says it would happen on THE DAY (singular) when Jesus comes to be glorified in His saints and marvelled at among all true believers. Surely if Paul believed in a pre - tribulation rapture, he would have made it clear that the relief he is talking about here actually happened seven years prior to this event taking place. He did not, because he did not believe in a pre - tribulation rapture. He believed God would give them relief and punish His enemies on the same day, the day when the Lord Jesus was revealed from heaven and not before. It could not be clearer.

Similarly in II Thess.2:1 - 3 the apostle Paul says plainly that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him will not happen before the great falling away or apostasy occurs first (prophesied by Jesus in Matt.24:10 - 13) and the antichrist is revealed (again prophesied by Jesus in Matt.24:15). Our gathering together to Him is the rapture and resurrection, and these verses show that this will occur at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and after the apostasy and the antichrist is revealed. This would put the rapture and resurrection as happening after the apostasy described in Matt.24:10 - 13, in fact exactly as it is plainly laid out in the chronology of events given by Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 and Mark chapter 13. Also as almost all commentators say the antichrist will be revealed at the beginning of the 3½ year period called the Great Tribulation, how can the rapture have occurred before this point? According to the scriptures it cannot.

Some people say, "God would never allow His church to go through the great tribulation. That's like making your bride go through the Vietnam War before marrying them!" I've actually heard preachers say this. Such people have no idea of church history and how many believers down the centuries have been persecuted even to death, starting from the early church right up to the present time in places like China, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. My own wife went through the communist persecution in Bulgaria and I can say true believers have always been and will always be persecuted. Jesus said it would happen (John 15:20 & 16:33) and history teaches us that this is so. Not that we particularly look for it or have a strange death wish; however it is coming and just because we don't currently experience it in our comfortable Western societies does not mean it is not going to arrive and does not alter the fact that many of our brothers and sisters around the world are experiencing it on a daily basis. The Lord Jesus, "Rescues us from the wrath to come," (I Thess.1:10), but there is a huge difference between experiencing demonically inspired persecution, the hatred of evil men, and the effects of God's judgement living as we do in a fallen world under God's curse, with the wrath of God that will be poured out upon sinful men at the time of the end. The scriptures say that the Lord will allow the antichrist to, "Make war with the saints and to overcome them," (Rev.13:7), "Overpowering them, until the Ancient of Days came and judgement was passed in favour of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the Kingdom," (Dan.7:21 - 22). We all experience God's judgements to some extent because we live in an ungodly world that is under the curse of God. All true believers will know the wrath of Satan directed against them in some way; however this is nothing compared with the furious wrath of God that one day will be poured out full measure upon sinful man.

We could go on with so many other points such as the fact that Jesus repeats four times in John chapter 6 that the resurrection will take place on the, "Last day," (Jn.6:39,40,44,54), not seven years before the last day, a point then reiterated by Martha in John 11:24. Or we could mention that the apostle Paul tells us exactly when the rapture and resurrection will take place in I Cor.15:52 namely, "At the last trumpet," (i.e. not before the first one as the pre - trib teachers would have us believe). This last trumpet is blown in Revelation 11:15 and its sounding prompts loud voices in heaven to say,

"The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (when? - at the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet of course!); and He will reign forever and ever....You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth," Rev.11:15 - 18.

Surely it could not be any clearer could it? The rapture and resurrection happen at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the time when Christ receives His rightful Kingdom; He judges the dead, rewards His servants and punishes the evildoers, all at His one and only coming. There are no two or even three comings as some suggest; there is only one.

In the previous chapter of Revelation, a mighty angel comes down from heaven and declares,

"In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the MYSTERY of God is finished, as He preached (literally: 'preached the gospel') to His servants the prophets," Rev.10:7.

What the angel is saying is that when the seventh angel sounds the last trumpet, the mystery of God as has been preached in the gospel given to us, will be finished or completed. What is this mystery? In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 27 the scripture says this:

"To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this MYSTERY among the gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The mystery Paul is talking about is the amazing 'hope of glory' everyone who is joined to Christ has, the hope of the resurrection from the dead (or rapture if we are still alive) of putting off the body we live in or the corpse rotting in the ground, and being given an immortal body of power and glory that we will live in forever. Death will not be able to hold us, as it was unable to hold onto Christ who went before us. When the mighty angel announces the mystery of God will be finished at the seventh trumpet, he is indicating that our glorious hope of being raptured or resurrected from the dead will happen at the sounding of this last trumpet, exactly as the apostle Paul says it will in I Cor.15:52. We will leave our old mortal bodies behind with all their weaknesses and limitations and will be given a new body of power, clothed with glorious immortality. This happens at the last trumpet, when the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven for all to see. What a tremendous hope we have!

The apostle Paul also speaks of this mystery that gets finished at the seventh trumpet in Ephesians 5 verses 31 and 32:

"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This MYSTERY is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church."

Paul likens the coming together of a husband and wife in sexual union on their marriage day as a picture of how the mystery of God is going to come about and be revealed. What is the Lord Jesus coming to do at His glorious appearing? He is coming to take His bride who has made herself spotless, holy and blameless (Eph.5:27), ready for Him. He is coming to consummate the marriage and make His bride fruitful; He is coming to be joined to her forever - the marriage of the Lamb has come, the joining of Christ with His bride the church. And when does this mystery get fulfilled or 'finished'? At the seventh and last trumpet when the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of Christ, the dead are raised imperishable and those who are still alive are snatched away in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, all happening on the same day. In no way can all these events happen on two days separated by an interval of seven years. The Bible clearly shows they happen together on the same day.

I have never met a person who came to believe in a pre - tribulation viewpoint from reading the Bible alone and I guarantee you have not either. Yet I have met many who came to believe it (including myself) from reading other people's books or listening to their preaching. What does this tell us? Quite simply that the Holy Spirit is NOT leading people to such a conclusion; we are getting it from men and their ideas, thoughts and opinions. This is the wrong way round!

For all the points raised above (and more not mentioned for the sake of brevity) I now do not believe in this pre - tribulation rapture. That is not to say that I cannot fellowship with or even learn things from people who hold this view. Nor does it mean I do not believe in the rapture. The snatching away or gathering of God's people will certainly occur; however as the early apostles believed it would happen after a period of tribulation and concurrent with the Lord's glorious appearing (I Cor.15:23, I Cor.15:51 - 52, I Thess.3:3 - 4, I Thess.4:15 - 17 [note the word 'we' used by Paul], I Thess.5:2 - 4, II Thess.1:4 - 10, Dan.7:21 - 22), and indeed Jesus Himself said the same thing in His Olivet discourse (Matt.24:9 - 31, Mk.13:9 - 27), I have also come to the same conclusion.


Excerpt from the book, "The Gospel of the Kingdom," by Alex Tinson