Biblical Forensics©


“Deliverance before Judgment”

Part 32


This segment concludes with the last of thirteen reasons why we can trust the Pre-Tribulation Rapture.

  1. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture must clearly fit the flow of the book of Revelation. Revelation 4:1-2 by itself never could unlock the mystery of the Rapture, but since that event is revealed in other passages like 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1st Corinthians 15:50-58; and John 14:1-3, one may appropriately identify John’s call up to heaven as a rapture event that unfolds before the Tribulation period of Daniel’s 70th week. These references provide the substance for Revelation 4:1-2. The absence of the Church after Revelation 4:2 is a subtle, but yet definitive message, that God has taken the Church home.

  2. The Pre-Tribulation view explains why the Church is NOT mentioned from Revelation 4:3-18:24. There must be a reason why the Church is so central in the first three chapters of Revelation but then virtually disappears until the Glorious Appearing (Second Coming). The Pre-Tribulation view notes the Rapture of the Church has occurred before the events of this passage of Revelation. Mid-Tribulationists and Post-Tribulationists argue that the Church is in the Tribulation even though she is not even mentioned once in Revelation 4-18. Likewise, the Pre-Wrath view only offers further confusion on this.

  3. The Pre-Tribulation position preserves the credibility of Christ Jesus’ word that Christians will be kept from the Tribulation. The Pre-Tribulation view is the only one that resolves the contrasting difficulties of Revelation 3:10 and 7:14. Take note especially of this: if Christians will be among the martyrs of Revelation, chapters 7-14, then they are killed during the Tribulation. This would mean then that the Lord will not have kept His Word in Revelation 3:10, thus making God out to be a liar, which is completely inconsistent with the Word of God. Ask yourself this: Can God lie? Pre-Tribulation scholars explain that there will be no person from the Church on the earth during the Tribulation. The Church will be Raptured before the Tribulation begins – fulfilling the Lord’s promise.

  4. The Pre-Tribulation view explains why there is NO Bible instruction on preparation for the Tribulation. Is it not strange that although the Bible advises Christians how to face every day ordinary troubles, it submits absolutely NO instruction related to the worst time in all of history that the world will face, a period filled with the most frightening of events imaginable that have never come close to being fulfilled? If Christians are to face Daniel’s 70th Week, or any portion of it, we would have received specific instructions on how to prepare for and weather that event, especially because of what the Bible tells is to come. Nowhere do we find a chapter in the New Testament encouraging believers to become “preppers”, to stock up on survival supplies or do anything else in preparation for what is coming. Considering circumstances related to the world’s current events which point to the very near future – a time frame of within a year from now or thereabouts, we might ask ourselves the question: Where does it say in the Bible, particularly the New Testament that believers in Jesus Christ go through the Tribulation? Restating the question, “Where does it say in the Bible that “born-again” believers in Christ will go through the Tribulation, or any portion of the seven year period of Daniel’s 70th Week?” Absolutely Nowhere!

During 2014 and 2015, I conducted an exhaustive study of the entire Bible on this very issue. I have a half-dozen computer software programs, for Bible study and research. All are seminary or graduate level programs possessing comprehensive handling capabilities of the Biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew. Further, I employed various algorithm searches combining every combination of key words possible and running searches on nearly sixty different sets of parameters that would have dealt with any aspect of the Bride (Church) going through the Tribulation. Various levels from the most simplistic to extremely complex methods were employed for this study.

A group of so-called pseudo, self-proclaimed Bible experts over the past twenty-years have come along as a result of the growth of the internet. They have written books, set up web sites, and attacked the Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching. What they lack in Biblical and theological studies, principles of critical thinking and analysis, they have made up in behaving like the “Energizer” bunny continually beating out a continual message of attacks on the Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching. Composed mostly of people who are anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, or they simply fail to see that God has dealt with humanity through a series of different dispensations. Unfortunately, they are unable to appreciate that the Mosaic Covenant ended at the Cross with the death of Christ. Those espousing a negative view of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine are unable to recognize God’s dealing through Grace. After reading their materials and discovering their religious background, I found one common denominator among them: nearly all of them were raised Roman Catholic, which is rooted in false satanic church doctrines, all based on fear of God that was drilled into them in Catholic schools, or Catholic homes where fear, shame and guilt were used as powerful motivators. Some of these folks today resemble Adolf Hitler’s propaganda czar Joseph Goebbels.(1) He used Hitler’s basic principles and tactics for brainwashing people.

When confronted with the facts, the evidence, and the logic, they simply beat their drums a little louder and a little longer and more frequently. It is impossible to rationalize with them, or engage them in a debate by presenting Biblical evidence or facts.

Having formal seminary training in the study and interpretation of Scripture has afforded me with critical thinking skills that help by applying a “Devil’s Advocate” approach to the analysis of Scripture when I am engaged in my own personal study and research. Frankly, I cannot find a single verse of Scripture that teaches that the “born-again” Bible-believing Christian will go through part or all of the Tribulation, which refers to Daniel’s 70th Week in Daniel 9:24-27. The evidence simply does not exist. God did not put a single verse in His Word that would cause discomfort to “believers” by thinking they would go through Daniel’s 70th Week - not seven years, not seven months, not seven weeks, not seven days, nor seven hours, and not even seven minutes!

Aside from the daily tribulation we might all experience either routinely or occasionally in our daily walk, none of us need any of what the Bible has in store for a disobedient and disbelieving world. We do not need any of the tribulation that God has in store for those who scoff at God or reject His Word as Truth. The five most important passages of the Bible from which we derive the Pre-Tribulation Doctrine have previously been noted, but let’s take a look at what we define as secondary passages that are often overlooked but still significant for our belief: 1st Thessalonians 1:10 reads: “And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come”. In relating this text, there are some observations worthy of noting here.

I trust that this series will bless you during the perilous days that are building before us. God wants believers in Christ Jesus to place their concerns upon Him, with all confidence that He will save us!


Pastor Bob


Notes:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels

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