WHY STUDYING THE RAPTURE MATTERS:

WHY STUDYING THE RAPTURE MATTERS: A serious study of the rapture in Scripture is not a pointless theological debate. It is part of the honor God gives His people. Proverbs 25:2 says: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” God hides truths in His Word, and believers are meant to search them out. Revelation 1:6 says Christ has made us kings and priests. Searching prophecy is part of that calling. Understanding prophecy is not optional. It is protection. Revelation 19:10 says: “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” If we do not understand true prophecy, we will never recognize false prophecy. Peter even warned believers to heed the prophets who spoke before (2 Peter 3:2). Prophecy is meant to prepare, warn, and comfort believers. The pre-tribulation rapture is a biblical doctrine that runs through both Testaments. However, it does not rest on the shallow argument many people repeat: “God would never let His people suffer.” That argument is weak. God’s people have suffered throughout history. Christians are being persecuted and killed in many parts of the world right now. Scripture never promises believers a life free from suffering. But there is something Scripture does distinguish clearly. Tribulation is one thing. The Great Tribulation is something entirely different. The word “tribulation” is used many times in the New Testament to describe the suffering believers face in a fallen world. Jesus said: “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” (John 16:33) Paul spoke of tribulation repeatedly (2 Corinthians 1:4, 1 Thessalonians 3:4, 2 Thessalonians 1:4). John even called himself a “companion in tribulation” (Revelation 1:9). Christians have always faced trials. But Jesus also spoke of a future event called the Great Tribulation. Matthew 24:21 says: “For then shall be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” That means it is not like anything that came before it. It is wrong to compare the persecution of Christians today with what the Bible describes for that future time. Scripture explicitly says this period will be unlike anything in human history. Another key distinction is God’s wrath. Romans 5 teaches that believers are reconciled to God through Christ. Because of that reconciliation we are not appointed to wrath. Paul says the same thing clearly in 1 Thessalonians 5:9: “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” During the tribulation period Scripture repeatedly shows that believers on earth are not protected from persecution. In fact the opposite is stated. Revelation 13:7 says the beast will make war with the saints and overcome them. Daniel saw the same thing centuries earlier. Daniel 7:21 “The same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.” Daniel 7:25 says the saints will be given into his hand. The tribulation saints are not promised protection from the Antichrist. Many will be killed. Revelation 6 even shows the martyrs crying out under the altar during the fifth seal. The only individuals specifically protected during this time are the 144,000 and the two witnesses. Yet even the two witnesses are killed in Revelation 11. So the idea that believers will simply be “kept safe” through the tribulation is extremely difficult to reconcile with what Scripture actually says. Yet Revelation 3:10 gives a very interesting promise: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Notice the wording. Not kept through the trial. Kept from the hour of the trial. This passage also contains another important symbol. The open door. Revelation 3:8 “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” Immediately after this promise in Revelation 3:10 we read in Revelation 4:1: “A door was opened in heaven… and the voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet… saying, Come up hither.” A door opens. A trumpet sounds. A voice calls upward. Those elements mirror the two clearest rapture passages in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “The Lord himself shall descend… with the trump of God.” 1 Corinthians 15:52 “At the last trump… the dead shall be raised.” The trumpet. The call upward. The open door. The pattern is hard to ignore. Even Jesus used the imagery of wedding customs to explain His return. In ancient Jewish weddings the groom would leave to prepare a place for his bride in his father’s house. He could only return when his father declared the chamber ready. That is exactly what Jesus said in John 14: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go… I will come again and receive you unto myself.” The groom returns unexpectedly. The bride is taken to the prepared chamber. Then comes the wedding celebration. Jesus also repeatedly warned believers that His coming would occur at a time no one knows. Matthew 24:36 “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Matthew 25:13 “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.” Yet the end of the tribulation can actually be calculated from the midpoint when the Antichrist reveals himself. Scripture repeatedly gives the same time period: 42 months 1260 days Time, times, and half a time. If the rapture occurred at the end of the tribulation, the timing would no longer be unknown. But Jesus emphasized that His coming would be like a thief in the night. Luke 21:36 gives a direct instruction connected to these events: “Watch therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass.” Not endure them. Escape them. Finally, prophecy itself is meant to comfort believers. Paul says prophecy should bring edification, exhortation, and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). Imagine telling a family the blessed hope is that the Antichrist will rise, the world will collapse into chaos, believers will be hunted, and most Christians will be killed before Jesus returns. That is not the comfort Paul was describing. The Bible absolutely teaches that there will be tribulation saints who come to faith after the rapture. Many of them will be martyred during the reign of the Antichrist. But that does not eliminate the promise of deliverance for the church before that time begins. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly from judgment. 2 Peter 2:9 says: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment.” Prophecy ultimately leads to one conclusion. Be ready. Jesus warned repeatedly that many who expect to be ready will not be. The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 shows that some will be prepared when the bridegroom comes… and some will not. And James gives a sobering reminder to anyone who teaches these things: “Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater judgment.” (James 3:1) Prophecy is not meant to create fear. It is meant to wake people up. Stay watchful. Stay faithful. Stay ready. Because when the trumpet sounds, the door will open. And it will not stay open forever. #MoreJoyMinistries