The reason I believe in a tribulation rapture is not because this is what the Bible simply and plainly teaches. It is neither simple nor plain. In reality, it is difficult.

But regardless of the difficulty, I believe with all my heart that the rapture comes before the tribulation. Why? Because it is the view with the fewest difficulties (the same principle you might apply when voting for a President).

But this gives birth to another question: If the timing of the rapture is not a simple matter, nor so important that one’s view of its timing determines his or her salvation, why do churches put it in their doctrinal statement?

Because they believe it is what the Bible teaches. It is important to note that good men embrace different views on the timing of the rapture. John Piper believes in a rapture that occurs after the tribulation, but this does not change the fact that I love reading and listening to him. God has use John Piper in my life just as He has used MacArthur, yet both men hold opposite views on the timing of the rapture.

It is equally important to remind ourselves that when Paul wrote to Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15), he did not say, parts of the word of truth, or the simple and plain parts of the word of truth.

Well, who am I to judge? I’m not going to be arrogant and say this is what it says.

That is not the excuse of a diligent workman but an excuse for negligence in one’s own personal study of the Word of God.

Every page of Scripture was written for you to read, and study and learn. God does not talk about the end times to fill our Bibles with mysterious ideas made to mystify the mind, nor to leave it to a select few to interpret for the rest. Every word He wrote, He intended for you and me to study and strive to understand to our best ability, so that when Christ does come back—in the rapture!—we will not be ashamed.

I hold more respect for the man who disagrees with my view yet can give reasons from the Word why he believes he is correct, than the man who agrees with me simply because that’s what our doctrinal statement says.¹

Those who squander precious time and brain cells wrangling with fellow Christians over different views on these matters are not honoring God. The only hill worth dying on is the hill that cheapens, adds to, or takes away from the gospel of Jesus Christ: who He is and what He did. Take careful note that this is the only doctrine Paul was willing to live and die for (see Gal 1:8-9; Phil 3:2). But in the meantime, study the Word diligently so that you can come to a conviction on what it teaches and be able to defend your position with the Scriptures.

Following are eleven reasons I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. Admittedly, many of these only explain why post-tribulationism doesn’t work but do not defeat the other non-pre-trib views of the rapture. But if taken accumulatively, the argument for a pre-trib rapture is very strong.

Reason #1: Distinction: Because the Bible makes a clear distinction between Israel and the church.

One’s position on end times will inevitably be determined by his view of Israel and the church. A pre-tribulation rapture is pointless if the church replaces Israel (replacement theology) or has become the new Israel. However, if the two entities are distinct, then the pre-tribulation rapture makes perfect sense.

At His first coming, Jesus offered the kingdom to the Jews. They rejected it (Mat 21:33-46) and even invited a curse upon themselves (Mat 27:25). So Christ took the kingdom from them and is now offering it to the Gentiles, even as the Old Testament prophets predicted (Isa 9:1-2; Isa 42:1; Isa 42:6; Isa 49:6). From the time of Christ’s ascension to the rapture is the time of the Gentiles (also called the church age), a time where God has temporarily set Israel aside and brought salvation to the Gentiles to make the Jews jealous (Rom 11:11). Today we live in that era, the time of the Gentiles. Although a few Jews come to Christ today, the numbers are very small.

Jesus predicted the rejection of Israel. He told the parable of the landowner who built a vineyard and rented it out. When he sent his slaves to harvest the produce, the vine-growers beat and murdered his slaves. These slaves represent God’s prophets sent to Israel. The land owner reasoned, “They will respect my son.” So he sent his son, but the vine-growers killed his son too. In the same way, Israel’s leaders would reject and murder God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Having told the parable, Christ asked the chief priests and elders, “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” They replied, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” Then Christ came out with the clincher: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it” (Matt 21:33-46). Those people are none other than the Gentiles.

Now if that’s the end of Israel, and the church has replaced Israel as the “new” Israel, then a rapture before the tribulation would be pointless. If the purpose of the tribulation is to bring “Israel” to repentance (Joel 3:1-17; Zech 3; 13:8-14:5; Rom 11:32), then taking her out of the way makes this impossible. You can see now why one’s view of Israel and the church cannot but influence his interpretation of many end times passages. But Paul emphatically affirms that God is not done with Israel (Ro 11:1-2, 11, 25-26, 32), nor does her disobedience nullify His promise. God said through Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name: "If this fixed order departs from before Me," declares the Lord, "then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever." Thus says the Lord, "If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done," declares the Lord (Jer 31:35-37).

The church age ends (Rom 11:25) when Christ raptures His church into heaven (1 Thess 4:13-18) and uses seven years of tribulation to punish the ungodly (Rev 6-18) and to bring Israel to repentance (Joel 3:1-17; Zech 3; 13:8-14:5). At the end of the tribulation, Christ returns to earth with His church (Rev 19), punishes the ungodly (Rev 19:19-21), delivers Israel from total annihilation (Zech 13:8-14:5), and sets up His 1,000 year reign on earth (Rev 20:1-6).  

Reason #2: Imminence: Because the Bible teaches that Christ could return at any moment.

If seven years or three and a half years of tribulation precede the rapture, then the rapture is not imminent at all. But the authors of the New Testament letters continually exhort their readers to be ready for Christ to return any moment (Rom 13:11-12; 1 Cor 10:11; 1 Cor 15:51-52; 1 Thess 1:10; Titus 2:13).

You may know what it’s like for your Dad to get drafted into battle and not see him for years. Imagine one day you receive a telegram that he’s returning home next Friday at 2 p.m. You wouldn’t go stand by the window on Thursday, looking at your watch, wondering when he’s going to come back. You already know he doesn’t return until Friday at 2 p.m., so you’re going to focus on other things until he arrives. But if the telegram says he’ll return any time within the next week, every day you’re going to be glancing out that window wondering, “Will it be today?” You’ll always be ready because you don’t know when he’s going to pull into the driveway.

Christ could come back tomorrow morning. Christ could come back tonight while you’re sleeping. Christ could come back right….now! Right…now!

Reason #3: Promise: Because God promises to deliver His church from the hour of testing.

Immediately after explaining the horrifying events of the day of the Lord (i.e. the end of the tribulation), Paul tells the church in Thessalonica,

For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 5:9).

Shortly before unfolding the devastations of the tribulation, Christ tells the church in Philadelphia:

Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth (Rev 3:10).

If you search the Scriptures, you will find that God has a habit of pulling His people out of the way before bringing judgment upon the ungodly.

He did this by providing an ark for Noah before flooding the world (Gen 6), by warning Lot before raining fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19), and by protecting Israel from the last eight plagues brought upon Egypt (Ex 8:22; 9:26). This does not mean that the righteous never suffer with the wicked, for in the same vein, the wicked enjoy rain and good food along with the righteous (Acts 14:17). But the general pattern of God falls in line with Abraham’s words, “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" (Gen 18:25).

If God refused to let even ten righteous people suffer along with Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18:32), it’s hard to imagine that He’d let His entire church suffer His blistering wrath in the tribulation.

Moses told the godly Israelites to get back from the tents of the sons of Korah before the earth swallowed up the ungodly (Num 16); and he had the righteous Levites separate themselves from the golden calf-worshipping Israelites before having them slaughter the idol-worshippers (Ex 32:25-29).

A post-tribulationist might object by saying, “But God warns His church that she will suffer persecution and trials” (John 15:18-23; 1 John 3:13). True. But there is a definite distinction between trials and persecution from the world, and the outpouring of God’s wrath upon the earth. Noah suffered persecution when he built the ark. But God did not allow Noah to suffer the wrath of God.

Reason #4: Purpose: Because the Bible makes a clear distinction between the purpose of the rapture and the purpose of Christ’s return to earth.

The Bible gives two reasons for the rapture: 1) To resurrect our bodies, making them perfect and immortal (1 Cor 15:50-57; Philipp 3:20-21; 1 Thess 4:13-18, 2 Cor 5:1-5 and 1 John 3:2) and to be delivered from the wrath of God during the great tribulation (1 Thess 5:9-10; Rev 3:10). In contrast, the purpose of Christ’s return is 1) punishment upon the enemies of Israel (Zech 14:3; Rev 19:21) and 2) the deliverance of Israel (Zech 14:4-9).

Daniel says that Christ’s return will focus on Israel, not the church. When he prophesies of the great tribulation called the “seventieth week”, he states that this time has “been decreed for your people” (Dan 9:24), referring to Daniel’s people, the Israelites (Dan 9:24-27).

The purpose of the rapture is to save the church before trouble comes. The purpose of Christ’s return is to save Israel after she’s already in trouble. Rapture passages never mention anything about the punishment or God’s wrath (1 Thess 4:13-18; 1 Cor 15:51-52; Phil 3:20-21), whereas passages that speak of Christ’s return do (Matt 13:36-43; 24:29-44; Rev 19:11-21).

A post-tribulation rapture renders the rapture entirely purposeless. What is the point of catching up all believers to heaven just to bring them back to earth again?

In addition to this, if post-tribulationism is true, then why does Christ need to separate the sheep from the goats (Matt 25:31-33), since that was already accomplished when Christ caught up His church in the air?  

Reason #5: Silence: Because there is no mention of the church in Christ’s return to earth nor in the tribulation.

Revelation 6-18 describes the seven year tribulation on earth, without ever once mentioning the church. Although the absence of evidence does not mean the evidence of absence, it does seem strange that after mentioning the church nineteen times in Revelation 1-3, as well as a total of ninety-two times in the rest of the New Testament, that John would fail to mention Christ’s church at all in Revelation 6-18 if she really was on earth during that period. And it is even stranger that this silence would be broken in Revelation 22:16, after the tribulation is over.

And here’s another question that must be posted to a post-tribulationist: “If the rapture and Christ’s Return are the same event, why does Revelation 19, one of the most detailed explanations of Christ’s return to earth, never mention the church going up to meet Christ in the clouds before coming down to earth?” Instead, John, the author of Revelation, sees “heaven opened and behold a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True…and the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses” (Rev 19:11, see vs 14). The context of verse eight reveals that these “armies” are the saints. Thus, the saints do not come up into the clouds to meet Christ, but come down from heaven with Christ.

Reason #6: Propagation: Because the rapture must come before the tribulation in order for people to be able to propagate during the millennium.

For a moment, follow the path of a post-tribulationist who believes in a 1,000 year reign of Christ:

• There is a time of increased tribulation on earth (not necessarily an exact seven years).
• At the heightened moment of Israel’s final hour, Christ returns, raptures all saints into resurrected bodies into the clouds, and then comes down with them on earth to make war upon His enemies.
• All unbelievers are cast into the lake of fire along with the antichrist and false prophet, Satan is cast into a bottomless pit, and Christ reigns on earth from Jerusalem for one thousand years. 
• At the close of the one thousand years, Satan is released from the bottomless pit, deceives millions of people to turn against Christ, and the final battle ensues (Rev 20:7-10).

But we have a problem: if the post-trib position outlined above is accurate, then when Christ sets up His millennial kingdom, every person alive is not only a Christian, but a resurrected Christian, since at the return of Christ, everyone is resurrected and every unbeliever is killed. So at the end of those 1,000 years, who on earth are these people that Satan deceives?

I know. Some of the believers turn away from Christ during the millennium.

But that doesn’t work. Every believer is living in a resurrected body which means they cannot sin (1 John 3:2).

Oh, I know. They must be the children of those resurrected believers.

But this presents another difficulty. Christ said,

The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection (Luke 22:34-36; see Mat 22:30).

If we are interpreting this correctly, a resurrected believer cannot marry and have children.

So where on earth (a deliberate pun!) do these deceived people come from? The pre-tribulation position answers the question: they come from the believers who became saved during the tribulation, survived the tribulation, and lived on into the millennial kingdom. During the millennial kingdom, these saved but non-glorified mortals marry and bear children. These children grow up with an inherited sin nature, some never get saved, and by the time Satan is unleashed, they are full blown adults waiting for the right leader to let them turn against Christ and live the way their nature desires. Isaiah 65:19-25 affirms that mortals will live during the millennium.

Reason #7: Mansions: Because John 14:1-3 indicates that when Christ returns again, He will take His believers directly into heaven, not back to earth as a post-tribulationist would propose.

Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:1-3).

Where is Christ? In heaven. This leaves no room for a return to earth as a post-tribulationist would assert.

Reason #8: Differences: Because of the differences between the rapture and Christ’s return to earth. Now granted, these two events are similar, something post-tribers will be quick to point out.

Both talk about: Christ coming back, a trumpet sound, the angels, and being gathered together with Christ. But just like comparing Toasty O’s to real Cheerios, similar does not mean the same.

The parable of the dragnet illustrates this last distinction lucidly:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 13:47-50).

But there is an irony. Many who embrace a pre-tribulation rapture position, confuse passages featuring Christ’s return to earth with rapture passages. For example, in the old “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” song, the lyrics say,

A man and wife asleep in bed
She hears a noise and turns her head, he’s gone
I wish we’d all been ready

Two men walking up a hill
One disappears and one’s left standing still
I wise we’d all been ready

These lyrics come from Christ’s Olivet Discourse, when He explains His return to earth:

For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left (Mat 24:37-41).

Just as the ungodly in Noah’s day were “taken away” in judgment by the flood, so the ungodly on earth at Christ’s return will be “taken away” in judgment by the word of Christ’s mouth (Rev 19:21). Matthew 24-25 was not written directly to the church but to Israel, predicting her future.

In 1972, Donald W. Thomspon directed the first of a new film series called, “A Thief in the Night.” As a child, this movie scared me half to death. The series revolves around a pre-tribulation view of the end times. Oddly, however, the series title is based on a misunderstanding of how Christ used the term “thief.” The term “thief” is never used to depict the rapture:

For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2).

The “day of the Lord” refers to God’s time of judgment during the tribulation, thus, the thief analogy is one of punishment, not salvation.

But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into (Mat 24:43).

The context of this passage is the end of the great tribulation (Matt 24:36-41), not the rapture.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up (2 Pet 3:10)

This points to the final day of the Lord when Christ destroys the universe and remanufactures it into a new heavens and earth (Rev 21:1; 2 Pet 3:12-13; Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22).

So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you (Rev 3:3).

Notice the conditional, “if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief”. If this is talking about the rapture, then Christ is saying, “If you don’t get you’re your life right, I’m going to rapture you.” But that makes no sense at all. The rapture is not conditional (all believers get raptured), nor is it punishment for those sinning but a reward for those who are saved. Christ is warning that those who fail to repent and demonstrate the fruit of a saved heart will end up being judged at Christ’s return instead of getting raptured before the tribulation.

Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame (Rev 16:15).

Christ makes this statement long after the tribulation has begun, so clearly, He cannot be talking about a rapture before the tribulation, but rather His coming after the tribulation. Again, the term “thief” is used in connection with Christ’s return to earth, not His rapture of the church. 

Reason #9: Warning: Because the Scriptures never warn the church of a worldwide time of judgment and suffering.

Since the Scriptures do warn the church of persecution for their faith (John 15:18-25), false teachers (Acts 20:28-30), false prophets (2 Pet 2; Jude), apostasy (1 Tim 4:1-3), and of increased wickedness (2 Tim 3:1-9), it is unthinkable that the Holy Spirit would not also have warned His church of a worldwide tribulation they would have to endure.

Endnotes

1. Those who spend their time battling fellow Christians who hold different views on these matters are not honoring God. The only hill worth dying on is the hill that lessens, cheapens, adds to, or takes away from the gospel of Jesus Christ: who He is and what He did. But in the meantime, study the Word diligently so that you can come to a conviction on what it teaches and be able to defend your position with the Scriptures.