The Rapture

The Rapture is understood as “a secret coming in the sense that Jesus is not visible in this coming; he merely gathers together or snatches away Christians from the earth.” (1) The rapture, or second coming of Jesus Christ is broken down into three positions: pre, mid and post. The pre-tribulation position believes that Jesus will return before the tribulation begins. There will be a secret coming of Jesus that raptures the church and there will be a public coming of Jesus at the end of the tribulation. I Corinthians 15:23-26 states: “But here is the order of events. Christ is the first of those who rise from the dead. When he comes back, those who belong to him will be raised. Then the end will come after Christ destroys all rule, authority, and power. Then he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. Christ must rule until he has put all his enemies under his control. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” (2) 1 Thessalonians 4:17: “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with [the dead in Christ] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord forever.” (3) Two verses that pre-tribulations believers use to defend their belief. People with this position believe in three resurrections: 1. Resurrection of the dead who believed in Christ. 2. The resurrection of the church (pre-trib) and 3. The resurrection of the unbelievers at the end of the millennium. There is nothing that leads up to the rapture, so as the church, we need to be ready for His coming. The second position is mid-tribulation. Believers of this position believe that the church has endured persecution, but in the end will not endure God’s wrath. The rapture will occur in the middle of the tribulation. The first 3 ½ years sets the stage for the last 3 ½ years where God’s wrath will be spewed out believing that after the first 3 ½ years, that is when the second coming of Jesus will take place because as Christians, we won’t receive God’s wrath. The third position is post-tribulation. Post-tribulation position believes that there is a final, visible, glorious return at the end of the great tribulation. Believers believe that it isn’t God’s wrath poured out upon the nations, but it is the wrath of Satan, the Anti-Christ, and the evilness of man that believers and un-believers endure. So, the church will be present and experience the tribulation. Post-tribulation also doesn’t use the word rapture since that word isn’t used in the Scriptures. Posttribulationism believes in only one second coming of Christ, and so they only believe in two resurrections: 1. The resurrection of believers after the tribulation and the beginning of the millennium and 2. Resurrection of the ungodly at the end of the millennium. Chapter 5 of Can We Still Believe in the Rapture ? the authors Hindson and Hitchcock, write in lengths about different scholars from 120 AD- 1830’s AD who believed in the facts that there will be a rapture, the imminent return of Christ, most of them were premillennial, and many believed in pretribulation. (4) (1) Gabriel Etzel and R. N. Small, Everyday Theology: Exploring the Christian Faith , ed. Ben Gutierrez and Gabriel Etzel (B&H Academic, 2016), 260. (2) I Corinthians 15 NIRV - - Bible Gateway . Accessed May 4, 2023. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/? search=I%2Bcorinthians%2B15&version=NIRV. (3) Millard J. Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine , ed. Arnold L. Hustad, Third Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), 462. (4) Mark Hitchcock and Ed Hindson, Can We Still Believe in the Rapture? (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2018), 82.