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Chapter 8

This passage of Scripture is about a rock that was hewn from a mountainside without human agency, meaning it was an act of God. The rock represents the church. It was hurled at the base of the statue and smashed it into little pieces. This interpretation should not be difficult to grasp, except that we have been erroneously taught for decades that the church will not be here during the last day’s events, because of a misguided pre-tribulation rapture theory. There will be a rapture, but not when most people say it will happen. This all-encompassing belief that people refuse to abandon is obstructing our view of understanding many essential principles of Scripture, and for this reason, we have a flawed scenario of endtime events. God intends to keep His church here to use His bride to destroy the antichrist’s one-world empire by proving that the love of God demonstrated among the members of His body is far more potent than all the evils of Satan, but not in our delirious state of apostasy. We love to play church, but when it’s time to develop a relationship with Jesus we excuse ourselves from the table under the premise that the grace of God will fix everything, but a time is coming when we will need to make a decision between having a personal relationship with God or siding with the antichrist.

People graciously listen to their pastors preach to them every Sunday morning, and by noon most have already forgotten his sermon. Instead of seeking the truth, people seek sources of truth, essentially charging other people with seeking God for them, since they don’t care enough to seek God for themselves. Those whom they allegedly hold responsible for their eternal destiny hardly read the Bible themselves, but read into it what they want to believe, and then preach their own ideas instead of God’s word. Heresy is generated this way, not from heretics who have no idea what they are teaching, but from the multitudes who would listen to them. There is no freethinking in the church today, by evidence that if you are not the pastor of a church or some other authoritative figure you cannot tell anyone anything, and there are hardly any critical thinkers fostering the doctrines that churches embrace. Instead, they accumulate teachers in accordance with their own desires, who satisfy an itch they have for a certain brand of truth they have predetermined in their hearts. It is why so many people know so little about God and have come to believe so many heresies about the Bible, foremost of all the pre-tribulation rapture theory.

People sit at the feet of other popular authorities, radio and TV personalities, whom they claim to have carefully censored, opening their minds to them, but shutting out everyone else. Even when other peoples’ theology is more biblically sound than theirs, when attempting to share their views, they get all but backhanded in the name of protecting the truth from heretics and told to sit down and shut-up. This is the problem – everyone already knows what they know. To sit down and shut-up and listen to them is fruitless, because the church has not grown in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ for centuries. The rapture itself is not a heresy, but the theories behind it are, especially the teachings that predict when it will occur. It would be okay if their inaccuracies were harmless, but very few heresies are harmless, since Satan is usually behind them, and he has no incentive for hatching harmless heresies. At least ninety percent of all Christians believe the church will not be here during the tribulation, which means they don’t think they will have to prepare for hard times. That is going to fester into a very serious problem as we draw closer to the end.

When you think of the unrighteous steward and the strategy he used to make a living, minimizing the debt that people owed his master, the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine follows the same pattern of taking the easy way out. Pastors have been teaching their congregations easy-to-believe pre-tribulation theology to keep the people happy and coming back to their churches and tithing. All false doctrine leads back to money, and Satan needs to reward those who perpetuate his lies, suggesting that people paid for a more appealing rendition of the gospel. ‘O’ boy,’ the people said in their hearts, ‘I don’t have to worry about preparing for the tribulation, because I’m going to be raptured.’ People don’t want to be raptured to heaven so much as they just want to escape from hardship associated with the antichrist coming to power. They are missing the point of being endtime Christians. The privilege is not in being raptured, but in being constituents of a worldwide revival that will win millions of souls to the kingdom of God. What do you think happens to those who try to warn them about God’s merciful intensions of keeping His church here so others might be saved, and so using adversity to cleanse the church in preparation for His millennial kingdom? They are immediately squelched. When you have a large population with itching ears and a lot of teachers who are willing to tell them what they want to hear, you get a spoiled church that embraces a lot of false teachings, and are ill prepared for hard times.

Pre-tribulation theorists rightly believe God will deliver us from the antichrist, but what they fail to realize is that He will deliver some of us as martyrs for Jesus. Most churches today teach that God will spare us from Satan’s wrath. God will indeed deliver us, but it appears that we are only ready to accept the pre-tribulation rapture, even though such theology flies in the face of the word “delay,” which was the term Jesus used to describe His second coming in the parable of the ten virgins (Matt 25:5). God wants to give us an opportunity to mature and serve Him as His dedicated worshipers before He takes us home, but most Christians think it would be evil of God to leave us here. Why should God deliver us from the very problems we have created through our own apostasy?

We are currently living in the age of the ten virgins, which is a parable about apostasy. Both the wise and the foolish fell asleep, but the first of seven trumpets will awaken them. Rev 1:10 says, “On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,” and Rev 4:1 says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this" NIV. We have the first two instances of the word “trumpet” in Revelation sounding like a human voice, so that when the first trumpet of seven sounds at the onset of God’s judgment, it is equivalent to the sound of an angel’s voice. Therefore, in the parable of the ten virgins, when they hear a shout, it represents the first trumpet. This means the ten virgins are going to be asleep during the seals of Satan’s wrath. The great endtime revival will begin when both the wise and the foolish awaken at the first trumpet, but the foolish will not be prepared for revival. God will require them to have a genuine faith in Jesus, rather than a broken-down religious view of Him. When God calls them to trim their lamps, the wise will shine in a darkened world, but the foolish will realize their lamps are fading and will walk away from God on their own volition. When they come back, it doesn’t say they came back with any oil; they just came back. This will happen during the seven trumpets, when God hides His church in the wilderness. At the seventh trumpet the dead will rise first, including the two witnesses who have been killed by their enemies. Then the rapture will occur and the door will be shut. The foolish virgins will knock on the door, asking God to open it for them, and He will tell them, “I never knew you.”

God has the perfect opportunity to fulfill Scripture by leaving us here among our enemies, knowing that difficulties will make us help each other over hardship and inadvertently foster unity, which is all God has ever wanted for His people, and we have yet to realize it. If the rapture doesn’t occur in a timely fashion it sounds like many Christians will get mad at God and quit believing in Him. Remember, God allowed Daniel to be thrown into the lion’s den for continuing to worship his God against the law of the land. Also, Shadrach, Meshach and Aded-nego were thrown into a furnace of fire, refusing to worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar set up (analogous to rejecting the mark of the beast). This is the attitude God wants to instill in His people; listen to their statement of faith,

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."  Dan 3:16-18

Note that God did not deliver Shadrach, Meshach and Aded-nego, or Daniel from their trials, but through them. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that this is God’s plan of deliverance in the last days. We want Him to use His rapture to deliver us from adversity, but God wants to use our adversity as a catalyst for growth, requiring us to trust Him through the coming tribulation. He wants to keep us here, because He has plans on using us to derail the kingdom of antichrist as an opportunity to prove throughout eternity that the goodness of God dressed in the frailty of human flesh triumphs over all the power of evil. This is a lesson He earnestly desires to prove to Satan and to the rest of His creation, that rebellion has no power, and that the attributes of God compose the absolute truth, not just because He said so, but because He proved it… twice, first through the flesh of His Son on the cross, and now through the flesh of His beloved people. God intends to give us the opportunity to prove for the sake of eternity that His ways are true, and that the way of evil is false. Are you ready to defend God’s truth with your life? If not, then maybe God doesn’t think you believe in Him, and if He doesn’t think so, then maybe you don’t.

Had they read their Bibles a little closer, they would have known better than to teach the rapture as God’s tool of deliverance, since God intends to use the very suffering they are trying to avoid as a way of preparing His people for the second coming of Christ. God’s only promise of the rapture was that He would delay, but this is not what the church wants to hear, so they have done what Paul prophesied they would do in the last days according to 2Tim 4:3,4, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” NASB. Now that the church has removed the threat of personally experiencing the horrors of endtime prophecy from their theology, people don’t have to prepare for hardship, so they no longer need to take their faith seriously, freeing them to live anyway they choose. While it is true that God will not judge His people along with the unbelieving world, that doesn’t mean He has to rapture the church, any more than He raptured Abraham’s brother, Lot and his family during the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, or Moses and the Israelites during the plagues of Egypt. Rather, He instructed Lot and his family to flee from the city, hence into the wilderness, and he instructed Moses to do the same.

Why do the vast majority of Christians, particularly the Evangelical community, believe in the pre-tribulation rapture? The Bible does not give them any reason to believe the rapture will occur before the tribulation. Contrary to popular belief, the church will be here to see Satan’s mark of the beast. The mark proves two main points of endtime prophecy and puts them into proper sequence. First, it proves that a massive spiritual revival unlike the world has ever seen will precede the mark (Joel 2:28; Rev 7:9-17) in that the whole purpose of the mark is to expose Christians. Secondly, it proves that the rapture has not yet occurred, since you cannot have a revival without Christians. Many Christians today don’t account for an endtime revival, because they expect an early rapture, but they forget that the church is under the spell of apostasy. God would not rapture a disorderly mob of undisciplined scoffers into His presence. Rather, He intends to present to Himself a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing short of being holy and blameless (Eph 5:27), which necessitates a spiritual revival that will pull together those who presently reside in the church, who are willing to repent of their religious complacency, while adding millions more to their numbers. Those of the church today would tell you that if there were such an endtime revival, it would pertain to those who were left behind from the rapture, but they don’t understand that this scenario is implausible, given that the predicted endtime revival will be on a much grander scale than they are imagining. Those who are left behind, who are saved after the rapture will be a mere drop in the bucket compared to God’s plan of filling up his kingdom at the end of the age. An early rapture cannot account for the following portion of Scripture that predicts a massive influx of souls into the kingdom of God.

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands…. Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Rev 7:9-14  NIV

Do you remember the story of Samson, whose strength was in proportion to the length of his hair? In Old Testament times people attributed greatness with the number of people they killed, but in New Testament times the church attributes greatness with the number of people they lead to Christ. Thinking about it in this way makes the story of Samson an analogy for the endtime revival. As the story goes, the enemies of Samson recruited Delilah to tease the truth from him regarding the source of his strength so they could bind him with fetters, and he finally gave into her seductions and revealed his secret to her, after which she cut off his hair while he was asleep, and the guards who were waiting outside quickly bound him and hauled him to the king’s dungeon. However, Samson’s enemies didn’t notice that over time his hair started to grow long again, and he was starting to get his strength back, but instead of immediately destroying his enemies, Samson waited for their biggest annual feast, which they celebrated in the town cathedral, and when they displayed him as their showpiece, tying him between two pillars, he used his growing strength to pull down the pillars that held him, and the whole building fell on everyone, killing them all, including himself. In this way Samson killed more people in his death than throughout his whole life (Judges 16:30). This is the way it will be with the church in the last days. More people will come to the Lord during the time of the end than throughout all of church history. Samson’s hair represents the anointing.

This throng of people described in Rev 7:9-14 is more than a mere remnant; it is the church itself. There is convincing evidence pinpointing the scheduled sequence of the rapture between the trumpets and the bowls of God’s wrath. The Bible explicitly says that the last trumpet signals the rapture. This is a far cry from the church’s pre-tribulation rapture theory. They are expecting it to occur before the trumpets of God’s judgment and even before the seals of Satan’s wrath. They support their view mostly on a single premise that the church is never mentioned again after Revelation chapter three, but this doesn’t prove anything. They have simply invented a doctrine to escape the tribulation, but our doctrines don’t change the truth; rather, they must coincide with Scripture without violating a single verse, otherwise it makes us look like we know better than God. The last days intend to test our faith, and we better have an accurate depiction of God’s word or we won’t understand why God is not coming for us, and those who predict an early rapture may abandon their faith from frustration and discouragement. Falling away from the faith is the most common consequence of false doctrine; beware of it. When His disciples asked Him to elaborate on His scenario of endtimes, Jesus first and foremost advise was, “See to it that no one misleads you” ( Matt 24:4; NASB). The apostle Paul had the same advise.

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him [the rapture], that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [the day of the Lord] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you remember that while I was with you I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time, he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains him will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to and end by the appearance of his coming.  (2 Thess 2:1-8; NASB; emphasis added)

Pre-trib advocates use this passage as a cornerstone of their theology, sealing their early rapture doctrine in a rock solid foundation, or so they think. If you notice, Paul used the phrases gathering together to Him and day of the Lord in the same context and even within the same sentence, indicating that they are synonymous. They ignore the fact that Paul just alluded to Satan setting up His kingdom before the day of the Lord, meaning that the church will most certainly see the antichrist coming to power. Paul’s discourse was prompted by some of the church members’ concern that the day of the Lord had already come and that they had missed the rapture, but Paul consoled them that the rapture will occur sometime during the days of God’s fiery judgment. Therefore, if the Bible states that our gathering together to Him, which clearly refers to the rapture, comes after the man of lawlessness is revealed, then why do pre-trib believers still lean on this passage to support their early rapture doctrine? The fact that the Thessalonians were concerned that they had missed the day of the Lord was evidence that the apostasy had not yet come. Rather, it is when people stop asking questions and slump into apathy, such as in our own time, when you can expect the day of the Lord to be fast approaching.

Joel 2:30-31 says that the day of the Lord is about “wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" NIV. The Scriptures clarify that the day of the Lord involves a time of punishment and terror. However, the main context of this verse is the great endtime revival. Backing up it says a couple verses earlier, “`And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29 NIV). You can’t have a revival without Christians, so the church will certainly be here to see the moon turn blood red, which is a sign of martyrdom.

The day of the Lord is not a single day, but a time period that lasts years. According to Joel’s description, the day of the Lord involves darkness and billows of smoke. This could easily be referring to the bowls of God’s judgment described in the book of Revelation, which lasts years. So, when does the day of the Lord begin and how long does it last? Since the day of the Lord refers to God’s judgment, we must assume that it incorporates the seals, the trumpets and the bowls of Revelation, which spans the entire era of endtime prophecy. The rapture occurs within this period, which is why Paul equated the rapture with the day of the Lord.

This passage of Scripture never does indicate the identity of the person described as “he,” when it says, “he who now restrains him will do so until he is taken out of the way.” Depending on your Bible translation, the NASB is very meticulous in its use of the word “he.” Whenever it is referring to God, it always capitalizes it, but the word “he” is not capitalized in this passage. Admittedly, that doesn’t prove much. It could have been a mere slip of the pen, or maybe even a passive interpretation by the translators, but nor does it support the pre-tribulation argument. Pre-trib believers assume that “he” is referring to God restraining the antichrist from coming to power, which makes good sense, but is it true? Actually, it couldn’t be true, because the sequence is wrong. Paul just said that the kingdom of Satan must come first, but pre-trib advocates insist that the rapture occurs before the man of lawless is revealed.

More specifically, they claim that “he” refers to the Holy Spirit, and when “he” is taken out of the way, “then that lawless one will be revealed…” Of course the “taken out of the way” part refers to the rapture, so they say that even the Holy Spirit is raptured from the world, but this makes no sense. All pre-trib advocates believe that Jesus would never leave us nor forsake us, according to Heb 13:5 and Matt 28:20, yet here they have the Holy Spirit leaving the world and letting God’s people fend for themselves, who would desire to be saved in the aftermath of the rapture. Pre-trib advocates also believe in an endtime revival, but they claim it will occur after the rapture. In other words, after the Holy Spirit leaves the world with the church, they expect a revival. Their doctrines indicate that God will abandon the endtime revival saints. How can you have a revival without the Holy Spirit? Perhaps they believe this because their own relationship with God does not incorporate the Holy Spirit. They are contradicting themselves again, knowing it is impossible to be saved without the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:16-21; Jn 15:1-11). Then they say that the Holy Spirit will return after the rapture, but there is just no Scripture to support any of these claims. Rather than abandoning their theology that inadequately explains endtime events, invent doctrines that describe God abandoning his own people, which borders on blasphemy!

To attribute the word “he” to the Holy Spirit doesn’t work, because God would never remove the Holy Spirit, especially not while people are being saved. Therefore, the question remains, who is “he?” It would actually be better to attribute “he” to the dragon (Satan), though it may not seem immediately logical until you bring in other verses to show the correlation. The apostle Paul called Satan the “prince of the power of the air” in Eph 2:2, suggesting that he spiritually resides above mankind in authority and power in his ability to influence humanity on a subconscious level. This enables him to see the big picture as god of this world (John 14:30; 2Cor 4:4). The Bible says that in the last days Satan will lose his lofty position through a spiritual battle that will ensue between the angels of God and Satan’s minions, the fate of which will be in the hands of the church. Jesus defeated Satan on a spiritual level at the cross; now it will become an angelic battle to destroy Satan in the world powered by the prayers of the saints with the souls of humanity hanging in the balance.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him… When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.  Rev 12:7-9,13,14 NIV

Then he [an angel] continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."  Dan 10:12-14 NIV

The passages above depict a spiritual battle that transpires beyond our human perception. It is no doubt that Revelation chapter 12 depicts the original battle in heaven long before man was created, but the point in mentioning it in context with the last days is to bring across the idea that a mirror image of this battle will once again evict Satan from heaven; only this time the angels of God will kick him from the heaven that surrounds the earth. The concept of being thrown to the earth is that of being extricated from the spirit realm, suggesting that the moment Satan is expelled, he will be forced to take on human flesh. He will possess the antichrist (the pope), right outside the Jewish temple after being rejected as the Jews’ messiah and removed from their temple, which has not yet been built. This suggests that Satan doesn’t really want to possess the antichrist, because there are certain risks of exposure and limitations associated with possessing human flesh. Demons need to remain in the underworld, hidden from view, suggesting that when Satan possesses the antichrist, it is a sign that God is forcing him into a corner. There is one more verse in the book of Daniel that dovetails with this subject of Satan being evicted from the spirit realm and forced to possess the antichrist.

The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it.  Dan 7:4 NIV

This lion in Daniel’s dream represents Satan’s antichrist, which had the wings of an eagle, enabling him to hold his office as prince of the power of the air. Then his wings were torn from him during the angelic fray and given to the saints, and they became the new prince of the air, after gaining access to the spirit realm through prayer, implying that they wielded tremendous influence on the world through their message of eternal life during the great endtime revival.

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In looking closely at Second Thessalonians we saw that it not only did a lousy job of proving the rapture will occur at the beginning of the tribulation; it actually did a better job proving it will happen closer to the middle of the tribulation, sometime after the seals of God’s judgment that outline the atrocities of Satan coming to power. Moreover, there are other verses that more succinctly place the rapture at the end of the trumpets.

According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words”  1Thess 4:15-18  NIV.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is by far the most specific passage in the Bible about the rapture, so much that if it weren’t for these verses, it would be questionable whether other Bible verses are even describing a rapture. As previously mentioned, a shout from an angel or from the Lord Himself is the very definition of a trumpet blast. 1 Thessalonians says that the rapture will occur after the dead are raised, which happens after a trumpet blast, but which trumpet?

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  1Cor 15:50-53  NIV

Now we know that the rapture will occur after the dead are raised, which occurs after the last trumpet, so now lets go to the book of revelation to the place where it speaks about the seventh and last trumpet and look for evidence of the rapture taking place around that time. The church will be raptured after the last trumpet, indicating that we will be here to witness the trumpets of God’s judgment. If there were a verse in the Bible that speaks about the resurrection of the dead and of the last trumpet in the same context, it would shed more light on the timing of the rapture. There happens to be such a passage that fits this description regarding the two witnesses who will be raised from the dead, and then shortly afterward the seventh and final trumpet will sound. The two witnesses will lead the dead in Christ to victory, in the process of rising from the dead in the presence of their enemies. Before examining the passage of Scripture below there is another verse that sheds further light on the fact that the rapture occurs shortly after the seventh trumpet. Rev 10:7 states, “But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.” NIV The mystery of God is the church in the world. 1Tim 3:16 uses the term “mystery of godliness” to denote the miracle that goodness, righteousness and truth could exist in a world that is under the power of absolute evil. Therefore, Rev 10:7 is alluding to the miracle of the church finishing its purpose in the world and consequently being raptured out of it, and so does Revelation chapter eleven below.

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on. At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon. The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."  Rev 11:11-15  NIV

Within five verses all the key elements of the rapture are annunciated. The two witnesses were raised from the dead depicting the resurrection of the dead in Christ. Then there was a shout saying, “Come up here;” a shout was also present in the parable of the ten virgins, suggesting that the five foolish virgins will miss the rapture; the moment they heard His voice, they turned and ran the other way, after Jesus warned them to be ready (Lk 12:35). They may have had their reasons for running from God, but they will sound like excuses to Him. Then the two witnesses were caught up to God in the presence of their enemies, depicting the rapture of the dead in Christ. Then the seventh and final trumpet sounded and there were loud voices proclaiming the beginning of God’s eternal reign, implying that everyone was present and accounted-for in the kingdom of God, depicting the rapture of those who are alive and remain.

1Corinthians 15 is both more specific and more general in its details about the rapture than the others. It is more specific in that it denotes the trumpet as the last trumpet, indicating that there is more than one, which should open our mind to understand that Paul is referring to Revelation’s seven trumpets of judgment. However, it is more general in that it doesn’t say how long after the dead are raised that the rapture will occur, but then, neither does 1Thessalonians 4, which merely promises it will occur “After that.” Jesus described that moment in this way, “No one knows the day, nor the hour” (Matt 24:36), suggesting that we will know the year, month and possibly even the week. In other words the time of the rapture will become more and more obvious the closer we get to it.

Based on the above verses, the events of the rapture will unfold according to the following sequence:

1) The two witnesses will rise from the dead in the presence of their enemies (Rev 11:7-17)

2) The last trumpet will sound (1Cor 15:50-56)

3) The dead in Christ will be raised imperishable and ascend to heaven following the two witnesses (1Thess 4:15-18)

4) The rapture of the church will occur. (Matt 24:29-31)

Listen to Jesus’ own words about the sequence of endtime events, involving the rapture.

But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then he sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And he will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.  (Matt 24:29-31 NASB)

These verses clearly speak of the rapture, and look when Jesus said it would occur, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days.” It sounds like our Master just said the rapture would occur after the tribulation; in fact, that’s exactly what He said. Unfortunately, we have to put on the breaks here, because pre-trib advocates say that these verses are not referring to the rapture at all, but to a time after that when Jesus comes to establish His millennial kingdom on the earth. They defend their view with other versions of the Bible that use the word “heaven” in place of “sky” in the phrase, “…from one end of heaven to the other” KJV. They say that this passage is referring to Jesus collecting His saints from actual heaven (the abode of God) and bringing them to the earth to set up His millennial kingdom. The problem with this interpretation is that it fits too well in context with the rapture when Paul said in 1Thess 4:17, “…we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” That is exactly what Jesus is saying, so why change it? The pre-trib advocates have to change it, because Jesus prefaced this passage with, “But immediately after the tribulation of those days,” and that doesn’t fit their pre-trib doctrine. My advice to interpreting the Bible is: do as little as possible! The more interpreting you do, the more likely you are trying to jam the Scriptures into your pet doctrines. How are pre-trib advocates are seeking the truth?

The question remains then, when will the rapture occur? The answer is the same: after the last trumpet. There are seven trumpet blasts in the book of Revelation that signal seven judgments from God aimed against the world. The seventh trumpet will signal the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and then shortly afterward the rapture will occur. The bowls of God’s judgment are against the world for martyring His saints, and for choosing the antichrist over the Lord Jesus and His promise of eternal life. The bowls will be so severe that God will have to remove His church from the planet before He can execute His curse against the world’s unbelief, hence the purpose of the rapture.

There will be three major earthquakes to fulfill endtime prophecy: one at the end of the seals, one at the end of the trumpets and one at the end of the bowls. The earthquake at the end of the seals promises to rock the mountains, while the earthquake at the end of the bowls promises to remove them altogether, suggesting that the middle earthquake at the end of the trumpets is between the other two regarding its severity, which fits the pattern of an escalating sequence of judgments from God. However, the quake that happens at the end of the trumpets will be triggered by a giant asteroid that will hit the earth to fulfill prophecy of the second trumpet, triggering also the largest earthquake at the end of the bowls acting as God’s grand finale, shaking the earth with such violence, as Jesus put it, to make the stars appear to fall from the sky. He also said that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. This denotes an ash plume, promising that he will come on the clouds of the sky. The reason an asteroid is necessary to fulfill these prophesies regarding the rapture is that the ash plume of a volcano moves very slowly, taking possibly months to wrap around the earth, whereas the ash plume of an asteroid could easily circle the globe in a matter of hours. It is easy to imagine Jesus coming for His bride on white, puffy, summer clouds, but He was more likely referring to the dark, foreboding kind in keeping with the mood of the day. God has hidden behind such ash plumes in the past, namely when He hid His face from Israel on Mount Sinai after their exile from Egypt.

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.  Ex 19:16-19 NIV

This account of God introducing Himself to the children of Israel even had a trumpet blast. It also had earthquakes, and smoke capable of blocking out the sun, turning the moon blood red, which is by far the most common description of the last days throughout the Old and New Testaments (Isa 13:10; Isa 24:23; Ezek 32:7; Joel 2:10; Joel 2:28-32; Joel 3:14-17; Matt 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; Luke 21:25-28; Acts 2:16-21; Rev 8:12). For this to be mentioned so many times throughout Scripture, in each case having the context of endtime prophecy, makes this ash plum the unquestionable “sign of the Son of Man [that] will appear in the sky” as Jesus put it. An asteroid that strikes the earth so violently that it wraps an ash plume around the earth accounts for many if not all the judgments of the bowls that happen after this event. So, when we hear a heavenly trumpet sound, and see a giant asteroid dashing across the sky and a massive ash plume growing in the horizon, we can know for certain that the moment has come to finally meet the one who loved us and gave His life for us. Little did Israel know that when God introduced Himself for the first time to His people on the top of Mt. Sinai, it stood for a poignant analogy of the second coming of Christ, only instead of hiding from His chosen people behind the clouds of smoke on Mt. Sinai so that the children of Israel could not see His face, He will invite His people behind the veil of clouds that hides His glory from the world in the event of the rapture.

In summary, God is keeping the church here for a few good reasons. First, He is using His people to do battle with the dragon (Satan) to prove that good triumphs over evil, even dressed in the weakness of human flesh. Second, He is keeping the church here as an act of mercy to the world, giving them time, reason and opportunity to repent of those who have not taken the mark, but also if they don’t repent, He will use His mercy as a measuring stick to determine how severely He should punish the world for its unbelief. When you think of all that the world had seen from the hand of God: many Jews have repented from their millennial unbelief 144,000 strong. The gentile church has ended their millennial schisms and finally repented from their disobedience and united around the ministry of the 144,000 Jews. The two witnesses appeared and have sent plagues on the earth in response to the world’s unbelief, then after they were killed, they rose from the dead and ascended to heaven before their very eyes. They will have witnessed the first resurrection of the dead in Christ, rising from their tombs and doing a short walkabout. They have seen entire books of the Bible coming to pass before their very eyes, Satan manifesting in human flesh as a sign they are living in the fulfillment of last day’s prophecy, and still they will not repent, because they can’t. The bowls of God judgment will prove His measuring stick to be very severe.

Had the rapture already occurred before the tribulation, the mark of the beast would not be necessary, since the whole purpose of the mark was to draw out the saints from the wilderness to destroy them. Therefore, the rapture will not occur until the antichrist has had a chance to implement his mark, but the mark will not appear until the two witnesses and the 144,000 are revealed. The mark of the beast will have an inadvertent side-affect of purging the church of false brethren, who would not dare associate with the very people the antichrist has targeted for extermination. These are the ones who know that receiving the mark will condemn their souls to hell, but don’t want a genuine relationship with Christ through His blood sacrifice, but are content with their religion. These are the five foolish virgins. They refused to take the mark of the beast; that’s what made them virgins, but they also refused to have a relationship with Christ; that’s what made them foolish (Matt 25:1-13). God will require every member of His body to have a relationship with Him as a means of surviving this arduous 3 ½ year period of the trumpets, which is what the five foolish virgins lacked. They will leave the true believers in search of the anointing, and many will not find it. Instead, they will find the dragon, who is waiting for lost stragglers wandering from the wilderness, who make their way back to civilization and to the mark of the beast.

Ironically, the majority of these foolish virgins will be pre-tribulation rapture advocates by evidence of how little oil they brought with them, being a measure of their prediction of Christ’s return. They will be awakened by the shout of their master’s voice realizing only then that their relationship with Christ was reduced to a mere flicker with no oil in reserve to keep the flame going. Can it be any clearer that heresies, such as the pre-tribulation rapture, innocent as it may seem, is in fact very damning theology? As the antichrist comes to power and millions of Christians are martyred, there will be a large segment of the contemporary church who claim to believe in Jesus will walk away form their faith, being unwilling to serve a God who would allow His people to suffer. It says that both the wise and the foolish were asleep. Their minds were asleep to the lateness of the hour, for the end of time had come upon them without warning as His voice rustled them from their slumber, for He is coming to receive only those whose lamps are lit.

James R. Wuthrich

jimwuthrich@yahoo.com