CHILDREN AND THE RAPTURE

CHILDREN AND THE RAPTURE: Will they go through the Tribulation? If the Rapture is real, and Scripture teaches that it is, then we must ask the question honestly.. What happens to children? The primary Rapture passage is 1 Thessalonians 4:16 to 17. Paul writes that the Lord will descend, the dead in Christ will rise first, and we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds. The phrase caught up is the Greek word ἁρπάζω harpazō. It means to seize suddenly, to snatch away, to take by force. It is decisive. Immediate. But who is taken Verse 16 specifies the dead in Christ. Verse 17 says we who are alive and remain. The qualifier is in Christ. So the real issue becomes this. Are children in Christ? Scripture consistently shows that God does not hold those morally incapable of understanding accountable in the same way as those who knowingly reject Him. In Deuteronomy 1:39, when Israel rebelled, God judged the unbelieving adults but said of their children that they had no knowledge between good and evil and would enter the land. The accountable generation died in the wilderness. The children inherited the promise. In 2 Samuel 12:23, after David’s infant son died, David said, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. David expected reunion, not judgment. Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, Allow little children to come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Christ did not treat children as objects of wrath. He treated them as recipients of grace. The Tribulation is described as a period of divine wrath in Revelation 6 through 19. Scripture is clear that believers are not appointed to wrath, 1 Thessalonians 5:9. If children are under God’s mercy prior to moral accountability, and if the Church is removed before wrath, then it is consistent with God’s character that children would be taken as well. This is not sentiment. It is theological consistency. The Rapture is not about age. It is about standing before God. Those covered by grace are not objects of wrath. The Tribulation is the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27, the seventieth week decreed upon Israel. It is a time of judgment upon a Christ rejecting world. It is not a season designed to punish those incapable of moral rebellion. When God prepared to judge Nineveh, He specifically mentioned the children who did not know their right hand from their left, Jonah 4:11. God distinguishes between willful rebellion and childlike ignorance. His nature has not changed. The question is not whether God is just. The question is whether we trust His justice and His mercy. The consistent reading of Scripture supports this conclusion. Children who have not reached moral accountability are not appointed to wrath. If the Church is caught up, they are not left behind. And that should sober every parent. Because the greater question is not whether children will be taken. It is whether you are. - More Joy Ministries - Tony Campbell #MoreJoyMinistries