Nail #4

Evidence and proof negating the Pre-tribulation Rapture

The single word I want to show you now without the other 10 nails would mean almost nothing to someone who hasn’t studied this - or who has studied it and has done more twisting and spinning than a Chinese acrobat to TRY to make God’s Word say “Pre-Trib.” But based on everything else I’ve written thus far, I hope the reader will understand why it is easy to believe what I’m about to point out.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16  For 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:
17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I would first like to point out that the word “coming” in verse 15 is the Greek word parousia, which is a noun and means “event” - the event of the Lord’s return which will encompass more than one day.

Now for the point of this post. Have you ever wondered about the seemingly double emphasis in the English version in verse 15 - “alive and remain”?  And then again in verse 17??

Based on what the Bible says (which I’ve shown you - so far) about the conditions of what’s taking place on earth immediately preceding the rapture, “remain” is a poor translation of the Greek word perileipo. It is Strong’s #4035 and it is better translated in this context as survive. You can even look at the word and guess what English word we take from it - peril. In context of the Lord’s parousia (the event of the Lord’s return), the word perileipo connotes the idea of withstanding great hardship or persecution (in this case), surviving. This word is used only twice in the New Testament - both times in this passage.

If you’re a passenger on an airliner that crashes, then you climb out of the wreckage with a few others, you don’t call your family and say that you’re alive and remain after the crash, you say you’ve survived it. You WERE at great peril.

As my pastor would say, the Bible we use is a transliteration of the Greek, meaning the structure of the sentence is changed so that it can be easily read in English. The Greek Bible I possess has the actual English translation of v17 as follows - then we the [ones] living - surviving, together with them shall be seized in clouds to a meeting of the Lord in air; ...

Like I said, this nail by itself is almost meaningless to someone who was raised a certain way and refuses to see the Truth. But in context of all eschatological passages the preponderance of the Truth should overwhelm all Christians, even those with a traditional belief based on a lie, amen?