REVELATION: A Clearer View
Some also assume that the Church will be raptured around Rev. 4:1 but there is no mention of the Church there in the text. The rapture has to be later because there will be saints on earth after that. 7:14; 13:7 Some people assume a rapture that will be secret and signless, ideas totally foreign to Matthew 24. Some claim that Matthew 24 does not concern the Church, But the chapter is about the parousia of Jesus, and Paul wrote that the Church will be caught up at the parousia. Anyone who reads Matthew 24 without preexisting bias will see that it is about the rapture.
Careful examination of the Scripture reveals passages that require that the rapture of the Church will follow the Great Tribulation, and claims of a secret rapture are false. These scriptures show that the Great Tribulation is not the final Wrath of God.
If everyone accepts the idea of a secret rapture before the Great Tribulation, there seems to be no need to prove it. But the Bible says, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." People who fail to do this will gladly accept false prophetic teaching, but when this command is obeyed, one finds that the Bible gives a clear order of future events.
The LEFT BEHIND series of books has sold perhaps over sixty million copies, and the world assumes its message is biblical. But the Bible gives an order of future events which disagrees with the order assumed by them. They also assume that the Great Tribulation is identical with the final Wrath of God. My book, The Rapture Examined, disproves that idea.
Before you read this commentary on the book of Revelation, here is the order of future events as revealed in the Bible.
First will come the Great Tribulation when Satan will try to eliminate all the people of God, both Jew and Christian. I think it will not last more than three and a half years. A huge number of Christians will be martyred.
Then will come the resurrection of the righteous and the rapture of the church. This will be the time of fulfilment of I Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
Then the Wrath of God in Revelation 16 will fall on earth's dwellers. Satan will be removed from influence on earth. In chapter 20 Christ's kingdom will be set up on earth and redeemed men will reign with Christ. It will last about a thousand years.
There will be another rebellion by those living on earth. It will be put down. Satan will be cast into the lake of fire. All who had not been raised from the dead previously will be raised for the general judgment at the "great white throne." The unconverted will go into the lake of fire. A new earth will appear, and the New Jerusalem will physically descend to that earth. Then God will live among men.
This 300 page book is a classical premillennial commentary on the book of Revelation and follows John's development of future events, starting with Jesus' revelation of His oversight of the seven churches in the first century. Then comes a timeless scene in heaven, then an outline of future world history.
The events of this future world history follow the order given in Matthew 24 and in Old Testament prophecies where the resurrection of the righteous is mentioned. This order is clearly presented in another book by John E. Young, "The Rapture Examined." This order is so clear in the common sense meaning of the words of Matthew 24 that one must wonder what kind spirit leads men to distort it.
Because Jesus said no man knows the day nor the hour when He will return, some folks mistakenly assume that He can return at any moment. That would mean that there is nothing predicted in the Bible that must happen before He comes that is still unfulfilled. That is pure assumption. Common sense tells us that some things may be planned that are not written. But a careful search of Revelation and the rest of the Bible tells us of things that must happen first. Folks would have to change their view if they knew the Bible better.
The first four seals of Revelation parallel Matthew 24 and are largely past. Seal # 1 with the white horse speaks of the progress of the gospel over the earth, as given in Matthew 24:14 and has been wonderously fulfilled. Seals 2, 3, & 4 speak of wars, famines, and pestilence that were to mark the age. "But the end is not yet." The fifth seal has special reference to the time of the Great Tribulation. This time of trouble is seen in progress in 7:14. The sixth seal is the time of Matthew 24:29 & 30, before the return of Jesus, the parousia. The seventh seal, which includes the seven trumpets, is still in the future.
The seven trumpets reveal conditions immediately before the rapture of the Church. Trumpets are used to gain attention for a stupendous event about to follow. Various proofs show that the rapture of the Church comes at Revelation 11:15. This is is the time of the last trumpet of 1 Cor. 15:52. This is the parousia of Jesus.
The rapture of the church is also the time of the resurrection and rapture of the Two Witnesses at Rev. 11:12
Then follows in chapter 16 the outpouring of God's Wrath on the earth, with special attention to the destruction of the government of the beast. Jesus Christ will then take over and install His kingdom on this earth. After one thousand years, the heavenly city descends to the new earth, and God dwells visibly with His people.
Chapters 17 and 18 deal with the harlot, Babylon, that is Rome, whose government will be destroyed by Christ's coming. Ancient Babylon will never be rebuilt, according to Isaiah 13:20. Excavation of the ruins is hindered by a high water table.
THE PRETRIB MISTAKE
A major opponent of the biblical order of future events is dispensational theology that claims to be based on the Bible yet is ignorant of parts of it. Less than 200 years ago there appeared in England among Plymouth Brethren the idea of a secret pretribulation rapture. Not all Brethren accepted it, but it was spread by John Nelson Darby, who had been an Anglican peacher. He knew it was a new idea. It was popularized in the Scofield Reference Bible and was widely accepted by Christians, so that today it is thought by some to be one of the fundamentals of the faith.
We regret the failure of the pretrib brethren to accept the common sense teaching of the Bible, but we appreciate the fact that they think the subject is important.
In the last half century a major advocate of the pretrib rapture view was Dr. John Walvoord. He stated that one's eschatology is determined by his ecclesiolgy. That is, one's idea of prophecy is determined by his view of the Church. This is an admission that the Bible alone does not actually teach a pretrib rapture. So Dr. Walvoord deformed the doctrine of the Church in order to support the pretrib rapture view.
There is no scripture that can reasonably be taken to mean a pretribulation rapture. This seems incredible, that men who claim to be students of the Bible work so hard to pursuade others of the pretrib rapture theory when they cannot find even one verse in the Bible that teaches that view. The words of Jesus and of St. Paul in the Bible, when taken in their normal sense, teach a post tribulation rapture.
The student of the Bible who starts with the assumption that the pretrib rapture theory is correct is not likely to notice those relevant passages that teach otherwise.
Those who teach the pretribulation rapture often refer to the Great Tribulation as if it were the final wrath of God upon the ungodly inhabitants of the world. This failure to identify properly the Great Tribulation invalidates in large measure their expositions of Scripture.
The Great Tribulation is the wrath of Satan. He claims that Christians follow Christ only for what they can get, not for love of God. He says that if Christians suffer, they will curse God. In the Tribulation, some Christians will fall away.
Pretrib theorists quote the Bible, but they cannot find any verse or group of verses that require a rapture before the Great Tribulation. Instead, their support for the view depends on the Bible statement that the time of the rapture is not known. The next question should be, "What does the Bible say will happen before He returns for the Church?" The answer to this requires more careful study of the Bible than most Christians are willing to give. An any moment rapture is a pleasant idea. But it requires ignorance of parts of the Bible.
Do not trust a description by a pretribber of the classical premillennial view. If he understood it, he would believe it. When he reads my words, he may suppose the view in our books is that of amillennialists. It is not.
THE MISTAKE OF HAROLD CAMPING
Another error in prophecy is called replacement theology. This is common among reformed thinkers. It says the Church is the heir to all promises given to Israel. But in Romans 11 we are told the Church will share with, not replace, Israel.
God has not cast away Israel permanently. "Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD." Jer. 31:37
The tendency to spiritualize what one cannot accept is an error. Harold Camping of Family Radio assumes that God is finished with Israel in spite of Jeremiah 31:37. He says rightly that any spiritualization of a historical statement in the Bible must agree with the rest of the Bible. But because of his prejudice toward Israel, he reads the name Jerusalem in Luke 21 and he decides that it must mean the Church. So now he says believers should get out of the churches. He also says we are now in the Great Tribulation and the end of the world will come in 2011. He was wrong about 1994. He is wrong again.
The tendency to spiritualise prophecy is not consistent with the New Testament treatment of prophecy from the Old Testament. Prophecies of Messiah's birth in Bethlehem, His ministry, His suffering and death, and His resurrecction were literally fulfilled. To spiritualise prophecies for the future may be a sign of disbelief in the Bible.
In Matthew 24, Jesus warned that believers, whom He called the elect, would be in danger of being misled in understanding prophecy. This is happening now. Harold Camping makes certain wrong assumptions which invalidate much of his teaching.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH USA
Recently this church in its governing body voted overwhelmingly to divest itself of business in Israel and criticised Israel for construction of a security barrier which has been proved to save lives. This church, PCUSA, is out of step with God who is Himself a Zionist.
Other mainline denominations are considering divestment from Israel as an expression of hatred for Israel. They are out of step with God, as are many nations of the world.
THE PRE-WRATH VIEW
Marvin Rosenthal provided a valuable insight in his pre-wrath view of the rapture. He helps to explain the difference between the Great Tribulation and the final Wrath of God. The rapture will come after the Tribulation but before the wrath of God is poured out on earth.
He had difficulty in locating the point in Revelation when the rapture will occur. Actually, the future coming of Jesus has two parts. First is the parousia around Rev. 11:15 when Jesus will gather up the Church, remove them from earth, and reward prophets and saints. Then Jesus will appear again to destroy His enemies on the earth as shown in Revelation 19.
To help find the true and biblical order of future events one must locate in the Bible references to the resurrection of saints. That is the time of the rapture, according to 1 Thess. 4:15-17. This order is found in Isaiah 26:18-21; Jeremiah 30:6-9; Daniel 12:1-3; Hosea 13:13,14; Matthew 24:21-31; and the book of Revelation.
At the end of this commentary there is a consideration of amillennial theology, preterist theory, and the pretribulation rapture scheme, which is based on wishful thinking. This commentary recognizes a post-tribulation rapture, which is consistent with Matthew 24 when taken in its natural sense. The posttribulation teaching of reformed theology is mistaken if it sees only one future coming of Jesus or if it supposes that the resurrection of all men will happen at the same time.
The biblical order of events at the time of the rapture is first the Great Tribulation, then the rapture when Jesus will gather His Church, and then the Wrath of God when Jesus will appear on earth to visibly confront the armies of earth gathered against Him.
Preterism, an idea that says Matthew 24 was fulfilled in the first century, is wide spread but it is refuted in my book, Jesus Did Not Return in A. D. 70.
The Bible tells of things that must happen before Jesus returns for His Church. Elijah must return. The temple must be rebuilt. The Great Tribulation must pass.
My commentary, Revelation: A Clearer View, is available for fifteen dollars from WinePress Publ. at P. O. Box 428, Enumclaw, WA 98022 or may be ordered by phone at 1-877-421-7323
Questions are welcomed by the author of this commentary. This work is motivated by love for Bible truth. Donations marked for "Publications Fund" will go for advertising and will not be used for any other purpose.
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