Why pre-trib. rapture is correct: Edited 4/15/20.
I am not one for omitting any verses when it comes to Scriptural doctrines. Many in cult movements specialize in lifting the rug and sweeping certain verses under it, this to hid their lies.
Whether we believe in the pre-mid-or post tribulation, we all agree there will be seven years of tribulation that will come upon the world from God. The phrase, “God’s wrath,” and the idea of “tribulation,” are interwoven throughout the Scriptures.
So the question is, will God leave His bride on the earth when the four horsemen of the apocalypse are released to begin and finish the work of God’s execution of vengeance? Personally I would find this hard to believe that a loving God would leave His future bride in harms way, but let’s check it out.
The wrath of God is not the vengeance of God. We have two Greek words having two very different meanings. They are never seen together as a single phrase in the Scriptures.
Wrath is a, past particle, expresses completed action. Concerning this article, it’s the seat of the will, desire, emotions and passions of God. Generally, and in N.T., passion, as in violent commotion of mind, indignation, anger, wrath.
Therefore, WRATH is the completed action of the emotions, indignation, and anger of God on the wicked. God will execute this wrath through His vengeance and by His angels. See Revelation 6-7 etc.
Vengeance is the EXECUTION OF, right and justice, meaning the execution of God’s emotions, anger and indignation on those who live in darkness, to avenge, as in penal retribution. Penal means the ENACTING of punishment as according to God’s law.
The work and result of the four horsemen is an action taken and completed. The people of the earth will be conquered, they will kill one another, food will be in short supply, and death will follow.
2 Thessalonians 1:7-8-9, “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance (revealing His form of justice) on them that know not God. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power”
The word “revealed,” Is in the sense of appearance, and spoken of Christ’s appearance from heaven, first to gather His church, then 7 years later with the armies of heaven following, Jesus will tread down the winepress of His fury and anger. The blood of His enemies shall be upon His garments. Revelation 19:13, Isaiah 63:3.
But, the Lord’s first appearance will occur when He reveals Himself with His angels to rapture the church, as in,
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.”
Matthew 24:30-31, “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth morn, and they (the people of the earth) shall see the Son of man coning in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
Verse 31, “And He (Jesus) shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
So here we have the Son of man coming from heaven as lightening comes from the east. Men will look up into the skies and see the Lord. The angels of God will gather the church, then the Lord and His bride will return to heaven.
The Lamb then takes the book from His Father’s hand, Revelation 5:7, and will reveal its contents. The four horsemen will be loosed, and the flood of God’s vengeance shall begin to rain down upon mankind.
Soon after the rapture of the church, the anti-christ will be revealed, and the heart and power of Satan will be manifest in this man.
Let’s look at a third word, “Reward for punishment or Retribution.”
This is the repayment, the reward given by God to the wicked. This retribution will begin on the first day of the 7 years of tribulation.
So, lets sum it up, we have God’s mind -set (WRATH) A judicial proclamation (VENGEANCE) determining the form of punishment, meaning (RETRUBITATION) that will be sent from heaven upon a wicked people.
Luke 21:22, “These be the days of vengeance.”
Romans 12:19, “It is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Hosea 9:7, “The days of visitation are come.” Visitation, in the sense of vindictive justice, punishment,
Micah 5:15. “I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard (obeyed.)”
Question, Will God leave His future bride in harms way?
Romans 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by His (Jesus) blood, we (the church) shall be saved from WRATH through Him.”
1 Thessalonians 1:10, “Wait for His Son from heaven, whom He (the Father) raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God hath not appointed us (the Christian church) to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3-4, “But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.” Ver. 3, “For when they (unbelievers) shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”
The Gentile nations as well as Jews who reject Christ as their Messiah will travail like a woman in labor. Christians will not be in labor. Destruction will follow when the cup of God’s indignation is full and running over.
Verse 4, “But ye brethren (Christians,) are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you (Christians) as a thief.”
1 Thessalonians 5:10, Jesus Christ, “Who died for us, that, whether we wake (alive) or sleep (are dead,” we should live together with Him (Jesus.)”
The dead are raised first, than both the living and dead shall be caught up in the air to be with the Lord. Compare with,
1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Behold, I shew you (Christians) a mystery; We shall not all sleep (be dead,) but we shall all be changed.” Ver.52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
What about the works of sinners, what does their future hold?
Galatians 5:19-20. “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife seditions, heresies, etc. — and the like — they which do such things shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God.”
What is in store for unbelievers? Sinners SHALL NOT inherit the kingdom of God. Well, if they cannot enter heaven, there is only one other place for them, hell.
Revelation 15:1, “I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.”
Filled is the same as, It is finished, ended, complete, accomplished.
Romans 2:8-9, “Unto them that are contentious (self-seeking) and do NOT obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that DOETH EVIL, of the (unbelieving) Jews first, and also to the Gentile.”
The Church is not mentioned, only those who do evil. Therefore the church has no part in God’s wrath and vengeance upon the nations. For the unbelievers, the direst, furious judgments of God await them.
Compare the above with the following.
Jeremiah 36:7, “For great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people (the Jews.)”
Ezekiel 5:13. “Thus shall mine (God’s) anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted = (avenged:) and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.”
By the Hebrew prophets, Jehovah is represented as giving to the nations in His wrath an cup of intoxication, so that they reel and stagger to destruction;
Keep in mind that, wrath is the completed action of the emotions, indignation, and anger of God on the wicked.
Revelation 14:10, “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and He (the nations, not the church) shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”
Indignation in Revelation 14:10, is the same word as “Wrath,” in the Greek.
Revelation 16:19, “And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His (God’s) wrath.”
Revelation 14:8, “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Revelation 18:3, “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies (luxury.)”
Wrath implied.
Revelation 15:7, “And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.”
Revelation 16:1, “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour the vile of the wrath of God upon the earth.”
Compare, Revelation 16:1, with,
Jeremiah 25:15, “For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine of thy fury (wrath) at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.” Compare with,
Isaiah 51:17, “Awake, Awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury (wrath;) thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung (drained) them out.” Compare with,
Job.21:19-20, “God layeth up His iniquity for His children (unbelieving Israel:) — His (the children) shall see His destruction, and he (the children) shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” Compare with,
Ezekiel 23:31-32-33, “Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. Thus saith the Lord God; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large (wide:) thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.”
The land and the people of Israel are meant here. Samaria is the territory occupied by the ten tribes. One sister consists of, Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Issachar, Manasseh, Zebulun, Gad, Ephraim, Reuben, Simeon. The other sister consists of Judah, Benjamine, and the Levites.
Wrath, by a similar figure,
Revelation 14:19, “And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”
Revelaton 19:15, “And out of His (Jesus) mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations (Gentiles:) and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He (Jesus) treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of God,”
Isaiah 63:3, “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.”
Tribulation upon the earth comes in the form of God’s fury, this upon disobedient Jews and the Gentiles.
Tribulation meaning pressure, compression, strait-ness. In N.T. as a metaphor, pressure from evils, afflictions, distress. These evil are sent by God, and orchestrated and implemented by the anti-christ and his disciples. Example. When Satan was given permission by God to afflict Job, only then could Satan act. See Job 1:12 thru 22.
Winepress of the wrath of God, in allusion to, the punitive wrath of God, the Divine judgments to be inflicted upon the wicked, as in,
Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”
Romans 2:5, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
Rev.6:17, “For the great day of His (God’s) wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Luke 21:23, “There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon THIS (the Jews) people.”
John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall NOT see life; but the wrath of God abideth (remains) ON him.”
Romans 3:5, “Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?”
Romans 9:22, “What if God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.”
Ephesians 5:6, “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.”
Revelation 6:16, “Hide us from the face of Him (the Father) that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”
Revelation 11:18, “The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the DEAD, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto the servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”
I would like to cover one more area, it is two words from 1 Thessalonians 5:3, where it speaks of, “Then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” This is to be the destruction of those who sit in darkness.
Sudden, in the Greek is, aiphnidios. It means, unforeseen, Unawares, sudden, here it has the force of an adverb. Sudden meaning to come upon without being expected or seen, unexpected.
Destruction, in the Greek is, olothros. It means, ruin, death. This sudden destruction is not instantaneous it’s a process (7 years.) Following are examples of how the word is used in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 5:5, “To deliver such an one (fornicator) unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit (of the fornicator) may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com