The more I think about the Pre-Tribulation Rapture the more problems I have with it. And I cewrtainly wish I didin't because I'd like to think it's going to come very very soon. So I hope I'm wrong but I haven't been able to make sense of the idea of two separate bodies of Christ or brides of Christ, and that's what seems to be the case if some of us leave in the Rapture but others have to stay through the Tribulation to get saved. And again, two sets of martyrs is a subset of that problem. How could the martyrs of the Caesars and then of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, and those all over the world in our time, all come in the Rapture but there also be a large group of martyrs to be made during the Tribulation to join them later? I can't make this compute.
And then there is the problem of "the last trumpet" which is clearly given in 1 Corinthians 15:52 as the point at which the Rapture occurs. The only "last trumpet" in scripture is the one in the Book of Revelation, the seventh trumpet under the seventh seal, in which angels pour out from bows or vials the last great plagues of the wrath of God onto the Earth. I don't see any way to rationalize this clear last trumpet to be anything but the last trumpet, or to make something else be that last trumpet in order for the Rapture to occur earlier.
I've been accepting the Pre-Tribulation Rapture for a while now, and it makes sense thinking in terms of the whole seventith Week of Daniel as God's wrath which the Lord has promised the Church we will escape. And there is no doubt that what we see in the seven seals is God's wrath. HOWEVER, it's not as if the Chruch through the ages has escaped from God's judgments, and they have certainly come on many nations over the centuries. Destructive natural disasters are God's wrath after all and the world has had many of those, earthquakes, hurricanes we are seeing right now that are devasting. Famines, plagues or pestilences, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, wildfires, what am I missing? Al are God's wrath and the Church has gone through all of them.
But the wrath that comes in the seven vials or bowls after the sounding of the last trumpet is in fact specifically CALLED "God's wrath" and nothing else in Revelation is called by that name. That makes it a strong possibility that it is this outpouring of wrath we are promised we will be spared.
As I've been rereading and pondering the Book of Revelation I THINK this occurs at the midpoint of the Great Tribulation, because of the many references to the three and a half years for various events that follow. The woman of Revelation 12 will flee to the wilderness where she will be fed for 1260 days, the two witnesses will prophesy for that same period of time, the Antichrist will be given power over the saints for that same period of time, and I forget what else at the moment. The same period of time is variously referred to as "time, times and half a time" or "forty-two months" or 1260 days or "three and a half years." There is no doubt about the precision of this time period, it has been stated enough different ways to leave no room for allegorizing it away. [By the way, this number is always computed based on a 360-day year, which I think is how ancient Israel computed it, adding leap time according to some rule I've forgotten]
It is only too easy to misunderstandd the timing of the Book of Revelation, the order of events, because alrthough the opening of the seals and the unfolding of the trumpets and bowls is clearly in order, the events described along the way aren't clearly designated for any particular time that looks certain to me. But it does seem that this three and a half years must all refer to the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel.
I haven't studied other eschatologies to know how, for instance, the Mid-Trib scenario is argued, but I seem to be veering in that direction. I'm still pondering Revelation and listening to sermons about it so I may change my view again. Meanwhile I don't see how to get around the "last Trumpet" as the main signal for the Rap[ture. In fact as I've been thinking about all this that part of Handel's Messiah has been going through my head so I'm going to post it here. In fact I'm going to post two versions of it::
That's the Czech orchestra with Vaclav Luks. Here's King's College Cambridge also. I couldn't find the older King's College performance i like better than this one but oh well:
Seeking God again
7 years ago
