The Watchman’s Call

Dr. Andy Woods: Howdy everybody, all of our listeners to the Watchman's Call broadcast. I want to welcome you back to a new series that we're going to start today. And it has to do with the subject of the rapture, which we've talked about on prior shows, but this mini-series that we're going to do here is related to when is the rapture, the timing of the rapture.

Now, don't think by me saying that that I'm going to give you a date for the rapture because obviously, I can't do that, because the Bible doesn't provide a date. I'd be going outside the Bible to give you something like that. But what I mean by when is the rapture is probably for the last 100, 150 years, somewhere in that vicinity, there's been a very strong and somewhat heated debate within Christianity concerning when does the rapture take place relative to the coming seven-year tribulation period.

The viewpoint that I represent is what's called pre-tribulationism, meaning that the church will be raptured or taken to heaven before the tribulation period even starts. But my view is not the only view out there. There's something called mid-tribulationism, the idea that the church will be raptured, you know, halfway through the tribulation period, meaning we're going to be here for the first 42 months of the tribulation.

There's another view called post-tribulationism, which kind of puts the rapture at the very end of the tribulation period, almost concurrent with the second advent of Christ. And there's a new kid on the block, something called pre-wrath raptureism, which is a confusing title because it really doesn't tell you what their view is on this timing question.

But by pre-wrath, basically, what they mean is the wrath of God is not going to start until somewhere in the second half of the tribulation period. Everything prior to that is the wrath of man or the wrath of Satan, but they don't think the wrath of God starts until somewhere in the second half, and the church will be raptured to heaven before that wrath starts. So the church will be here for roughly three-quarters of the tribulation period.

And then if all of that weren't confusing enough, there's another view out there called partial raptureism, which is the idea that when the rapture happens, Jesus is only coming back for the Christians that are sanctified and living a godly life and looking for his return. Christians that are immature or Christians that are carnal, or Christians that are in a backslidden state will be left behind when the rapture occurs.

They will go into the tribulation period itself, and the tribulation period is designed to sort of straighten out, if you will, these backslidden and wayward Christians. And as they get straightened out, one by one in the tribulation period, then they're raptured at different times as individuals. So that's sort of the lay of the land.

And as I mentioned at the top of the show, I'm a proponent, I'm an advocate of the pre-tribulational rapture perspective. And I want to explain to you in this series why I believe that, why I've developed certainty on the subject, why I believe that the pre-tribulational rapture is true, the church will be raptured to heaven, it won't see a millimeter, a nanosecond of the seven-year tribulation period.

You know, when I got saved at the ripe old age of 16, I got very interested in the end times teachings, the kind of teachings we do here on the Watchman's Call. I asked some people at the time that were older in the Lord than me, what's the deal with this rapture and when is the rapture going to happen? And they basically told me to pray for pre, but plan for post.

Pray you'll escape the wrath of God, but just in case, you know, you have to go into it, then, you know, you want to have some, you know, extra food around. You want to invest in a weapon, you know, this kind of mindset. And so I learned very fast that many Christians, based on that answer, really don't have a lot of certainty on this subject. It's kind of something that they can't be sure of.

But the more I've studied this, the more I've moved in the direction of pre-tribulationism, and it's something that you can hold with certainty. Of all of the views that are out there today, there is a growing attack against the pre-tribulational rapture position. Let me read you some quotes from people. These are people that I respect in a lot of different areas, but for whatever reason, they have an animosity, animus, hostility towards pre-tribulationism.

And I don't share these quotes with you to try to, you know, make people look bad. These are things they've actually said, it's not hearsay. It's their either printed material or spoken material. But again, these are people that you might respect in certain areas within even evangelical Christianity, but they sure don't like this doctrine of the pre-tribulational rapture. Here's some words from apologist William Lane Craig.

He says, "This doctrine," pre-tribulationism, "is not found in the book of Revelation. If you read the book of Revelation, you won't find any mention of the rapture there. The idea comes from a misinterpretation of First and Second Thessalonians, where Paul is describing the coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead, which will occur at his coming." Stopping for just a minute there, it looks like he is a post-tribulationist.

He goes on and he says, "If you compare what Paul says there to what Jesus says about the end times, Paul uses the same vocabulary, the same phraseology. I think it's very plausible that Paul is talking about the same event that Jesus predicted, namely the visible coming of the Son of Man at the end of human history to usher in the kingdom."

"But proponents of the rapture view," and again, stopping for a minute here, when he says the rapture view, he's aiming this criticism against pre-tribulationism. "But proponents of the rapture view say that Paul is not at all talking about the second coming of Christ there. What he's really talking about is the invisible, preliminary, secret return of Christ to catch believers out of the world before the great tribulation occurs. I think there is no textual warrant for that at all," he says.

"And many good, Bible-believing Christians absorb this view as their mother's milk, as it were, and have never thought to question its biblical credentials. It could be maybe good fiction, it could be, say, like reading science fiction or a fantasy novel, like The Lord of the Rings." Close quote. So if you believe in pre-tribulationism, according to William Lane Craig, you know, you're no different than someone that just reads something out of a fictional book, you know, Jack and the Beanstalk or whatever, and believes it.

Craig goes on and he says, "Just so long as you're not deceived into thinking that that represents biblical eschatology. It's astonishing, if I'm correct about this, American evangelicalism is very widely misled, that it has departed from the historic Christian position about the second coming of Christ. That's really rather sobering because if we're wrong about this, what other things might have been misinterpreted?"

Here's another quote from someone that evangelical scholars love, an individual named NT Wright. And notice what NT Wright says about the pre-tribulational rapture. He says, quote, "When Paul wrote First Thessalonians, people were worried that Jesus returned, those who were dead would stay dead and miss out on the new day. Some people have taken these verses that followed them literally, but the problem is that this is not what this verse is about. Paul is awfully good at mixed metaphors. When Jesus comes back, it's not to snatch people away from the earth, but rather to transform the earth with the life of heaven and to transform us as well. He doesn't come back to take us away, but to heal the world and to heal and transform people." Close quote.

Here is someone else that's somewhat popular in the area of Christian apologetics, particularly on Christian media. He has his own sort of Bible Answer Man show. This is Hank Hanegraaff. And here's what a caller called into his show and asked. Quote, "What I'm trying to understand is where do they get the teaching that the church will be raptured out and will not have to go through the tribulation? Where is that found at?"

And here is Hanegraaff's answer, quote, "It's not found. That's the whole point. The point is it's something that is imposed on the Scripture. The notion is a very new notion in church history. It's a 19th-century notion that was popularized by John Nelson Darby. And it comes with the presupposition that God has two distinct people and therefore he has two distinct plans for these two distinct people. And he has two distinct phases of the second coming and two distinct destinies. This, however, is an imposition on the Scripture because the truth of it is God has only always had one chosen people, one covenant community beautifully connected by the cross and illustrated by a cultivative olive tree in Paul's letter to the Romans. So the point here is that all those who are followers of Jesus are the one chosen people. And this is prior to the cross as well because all that look forward to Christ prior to the cross are God's covenant chosen people. And the covenant chosen people are made up of people from every tongue, language, nation, and people. You are not a son of Abraham because of some genealogical construction. You are a son of Abraham because you believe in the God of Abraham." Close quote.

So you listen to enough of these scholars and you would think, my goodness, there must be no support for the pre-tribulational rapture. And the only reason someone would ever believe it is they read a fictional book, or, you know, perhaps they were taught it as a youth and never challenged the presupposition of it. Well, I'm here to tell you folks, that I was never taught it as a youth. In fact, I grew up in a Christian tradition, Episcopalianism, that never taught the end times.

I was raised what you would call a-millennial, meaning the kingdom is now, as Jesus is reigning in our hearts. I was never taught anything about the rapture. So why is it that I believe in it today? Well, it doesn't have to do with the fact that I was taught a certain way. In fact, what I decided to do is look at the Bible and ask myself, what saith the Scripture? And the more I've studied the Scripture on this issue, the more I've moved in the camp of pre-tribulationism.

So what I'd like to show you in this series are the seven reasons why I today am a pre-tribulationist. Now, these seven reasons or seven arguments, I'm not sure any one of them by themselves seals the deal. But when you consider all of them together, when you consider all of them cumulatively, a positive and very powerful case emerges that we are, in fact, going as members of the church to be taken out of this world in the form of the rapture before the tribulation period of seven years as described in Daniel, as described in the book of Revelation ever transpires.

So with that foundation being laid, I hope you're ready now for our study. Let's see if we can venture into reason number one, why we believe that pre-tribulationism is true. By the way, at the end of these seven reasons, I'll be circling back and interacting with some of the other views and why I think those views are, in fact, the true imposition upon the Scripture, rather than pre-tribulationism.

My first reason is the purpose of the tribulation period concerns the nation of Israel, rather than the church. As you study the passages predicting a tribulation period, you start to learn that it's all about Israel and has nothing to do with the church. Notice Jeremiah chapter 30. And notice, if you will, verse 7, describing the tribulation period. It says, "Alas, for that day is great. There is none like it, and it is a time, watch this now, of Jacob's distress. But he, that's Jacob, will be saved from it."

So what is the tribulation period? It's not a time for the church. It's a time for Jacob. And the church is not Jacob. The church is Israel. In fact, there are two times in the book of Genesis where Jacob's name is announced as being changed to Israel. You'll find those references in Genesis 32:8 and Genesis chapter 35, verse 10. But you can see here that the whole purpose is to bring unbelieving Israel to saving faith.

Notice, if you will, Daniel chapter 9, verse 24. That's the amazing Scripture that gives Israel a 490-year clock. When you study this out, you learn that 483 of the 490 years have already elapsed, leaving seven future years. But it's all part of a giant stopwatch or clock given to Daniel in Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 through 27.

And the final seven years of that package is the seven-year tribulation period. But notice who this whole package is for. Who is this whole stopwatch for? Well, we find the answer to that in Daniel chapter 9, verse 24. It says, "There's 70 weeks." That's 70 sevens, or 490 years, of which the remaining seven years is a part. It says, "70 weeks have been decreed," watch this language very carefully, "for your people and your holy city, to finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place."

So when God gave to Gabriel this stopwatch to be given to Daniel, he was very clear at the beginning that this whole package is for your people and your city. Now, Daniel was Jewish. So his people were the Hebrews, the Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the holy city is your holy city, which is an obvious reference to Jerusalem.

And the rest of those six clauses that are discussed there is talking about how God is going to put Israel at the end of this completed time period, bring her to faith. In other words, by the time that this clock finishes running, and there's seven years still left on the clock, Israel will be in a state not just of political restoration, but spiritual restoration. And you can see from this very clearly that the whole thing revolves around the nation of Israel.

In fact, the church of Jesus Christ didn't even exist yet when this prophecy was given. The church was at that time what we might call a mystery, a mystērion, if you will, something unknown, yet to be unveiled. And so the church is not contemplated at all in this time period of which seven years remain.

One of the things to understand is the whole relationship between Israel and the church. God has separate programs for Israel and the church. And they are two trains on two different railroad tracks entirely. And that means that God uses Israel and the church on a mutually exclusive basis. And when he announced his program for the seven-year tribulation period, it was to bring wayward Israel, currently in unbelief, to faith.

For example, over in the book of Daniel chapter 12 and verse 7, it talks there about the final three and a half years of that time period and how it's to break down the pride, if you will, of the holy people. That's over in Daniel chapter 12, verse 7. I mean, the whole purpose of this time period is to bring Israel to faith. So it's very logical that Israel, as an unbelieving nation, would go into this time period. The church, by contrast, would not go into this time period because you don't need to bring the church to faith. The church is already in faith.

You can't be a member of the church unless you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, a member of the universal church. First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13. And so there's really no need for the church to be there. And that becomes my first of seven reasons why I am a pre-tribulationist. It concerns the purpose of the tribulation period, which is all about Israel, rather than the church.

Let me sneak in, and I'll probably just be able to start this one. A second reason why I am a pre-tribulationist and it has to do with this, number two. There is no biblical reference to the church on Earth during the tribulation period as described in the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation has a three-part structure. And we find that three-part structure in Revelation chapter 1, verse 19.

John was told very clearly there, "Therefore write the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things," which is a translation of the Greek phrase, metatauta. Now, in the process, what we have here is an outline of the book of Revelation. "Write down the things that you have seen." Well, that's the image of the glorified Christ that John saw on the island of Patmos at the end of the first century, about 95 AD, where Jesus showed up on Patmos where John was marooned, exiled by Domitian, and he saw Jesus in his glorified state. And he records it in chapter 1. That's part one of the book.

Then John is told to write down the things that are. Now that would be part two of the book, chapters 2 and 3, where John as Jesus tells him what to write writes seven letters to seven churches that were functioning there in the Asia Minor area at the time of John, modern-day Turkey. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. Each of those churches gets its own letter, its own epistle, if you will. And so that would be the second section of the book of Revelation. "Write down the things that are."

And then you get to the third part of the book of Revelation, "Write down the things that will take place after these things." Metatauta. Well, that section begins in Revelation chapter 4, verse 1. It says this, "After these things," metatauta, there's our clue that we're moving into part three. "After these things I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, and he said, 'Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things.'" Notice how after these things is repeated, that's metatauta again.

So that tells us that we're now into the third major section of the book of Revelation. That's the part of it that's still futuristic from our time period. That's the part of it that's yet to come. That's the amplification of the seven years, the part of Daniel's clock that has not elapsed yet, Daniel chapter 9, verse 27. It's just the book of Revelation comes along and gives us a lot more details about that time period. Things like the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, the golden bowl of wrath judgments.

And then it goes on and it talks about the second coming, Revelation 19. It talks about what's going to happen after the second coming, which would be things like the kingdom age, Revelation 20, the great white throne judgment, Revelation 20, verses 11 through 15, and the eternal state, Revelation 21 and 22. Now, this whole time period is part of that third section, after these things. It starts in chapter 4, verse 1 and goes all the way through chapter 22.

Now, what does all of this have to do with the pre-tribulational rapture? Well, here is the bottom line. The word church, the Greek word ekklēsia is used 19 times in the first three chapters of the book. It's not used a single time, that word, in the futuristic section. And in fact, there's an interesting expression that's used in Revelation 2 and 3 to each of the seven churches, "To him who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." That expression disappears in the futuristic section of the book.

Beyond that, the whole concept, Body of Christ concept being on the Earth during that time period, disappears in that section of the book. And so the silence speaks volumes. I mean, where is the church? Where did it go? Answer, it got snatched and taken into heaven, supporting pre-tribulationism. More on this when we come back in our second installment together. God bless you.

Dr. Andy Woods: You've been listening to The Watchman's Call, exploring the intersection of prophecy and culture. This program is a ministry of Sugarland Bible Church, a place where the Bible is taught and the times are discerned. Visit this Sunday in person or connect with them anytime at SLBC.org. That's SLBC.org. Until next time, may the Lord give you a spirit of discernment in the week ahead.