Nail #6

Evidence and proof negating the Pre-tribulation Rapture

To set up this “nail” I’ve got to mention some basics.  I hope you agree with the Bible that Daniel’s 70th week is not 7 years of God’s Wrath, but that it’s divided into three time periods:

   1)  The “Beginning of Sorrows” (Matthew 24:3-8) which will be 3.5 years (42 months);

   2) The “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:9-29) which is Satan’s wrath (Revelation 6:8-15, Revelation 12:12); followed by

   3) The “Wrath of God” (Revelation 6:16-17) which is the Day of the Lord.

I want to bring to light a comparison that Jesus Himself made regarding His return (parousia).

Matthew 24:37-41

37  But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming [parousia] of the Son of man be.

38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

40  Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

41  Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

There are similar Words from Christ in Luke WITH the addition of the example of Lot

Luke 17:26-30

26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

28  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

29  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

30  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

One of the things that is common with both Noah and Lot is that the day they were placed into safety, that same day God’s wrath came.  You can’t deny Jesus was saying that the way it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so shall it be at my return (parousia).  The day the church is delivered, raptured, placed into safety; that same day the wrath of God will start.  God’s wrath is the Trumpet and Bowl Judgments, NOT the Seals that were broken by the Lamb of God in Revelation 6 and the 7th Seal in Revelation 8:1.

Now - here is one of the ways those that believe the rapture occurs prior to Daniel’s 70th Week base their errant hypothesis: they misread the verses of Genesis and say that Noah entered the ark and then 7 days later, the flood started (Genesis 7) - hence the idea of the rapture happening 7 YEARS before the end... This is WRONG...  Read it again: 

Genesis 7:6-13

6  Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.

7  And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

8  Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,

9  male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.

10  And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

11  In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month -- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

12  And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13  On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

Verses 6 and 7 are “generally speaking,” then verses 8-10, all the animals came to Noah and he loaded them up, then 7 days later God sent the flood.  Noah had 7 days to do the final preparations, because starting with verse 11 it is VERY specific to the DAY when the flood started, verse 12 tells how long it rained, then verse 13 is also very specific - that same DAY they entered the ark.  What day?  It is referring back to verse 11.  And of course this is the same thing Jesus said in Matthew 24:38-39, Luke 17:27, and in context, the same with Lot in Luke 17:29.  The Great Noahic Flood began on the 17th DAY of the second month (v11) which was the same DAY Noah and his family entered the Ark (v13).

Bottom Line for Nail #6 and I’ve said it before - The “Beginning of Sorrows” is not God’s Wrath; the “Great Tribulation” is not God’s wrath; God’s wrath commences with the 7 trumpets in Revelation 8 and concludes with the 7 vials in Revelation 16.  Even the lost men on the earth recognized it for they too have seen the signs.  They went through the Beginning of Sorrows, they were going through the Great Tribulation, but then they knew something much worse was about to begin, the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:15-17).  

God’s Elect will be “raptured” the same DAY that the wrath of God commences, which will be at some point AFTER the mid-point of Daniel’s 70th Week (the mid-point is when the “Great Tribulation” started).  The RAPTURE is how God will cut short the Great Tribulation for the Elect (Matthew 24:22, Mark 13:20).