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Chapter 10 POST-TRIBULATION RAPTURE (Tribulation of the Saints) While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. Daniel 2-34,35 NIV The majority of the church today believes in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, because they can't believe in a God who will make them go through the tribulation. "Conglomerate" is a type of rock that is composed of smaller rocks cemented together by fossilized sediment. Peter wrote about living stones being built into a spiritual house. The rock that was hurled at the base of the statue and smashed it into little pieces was composed of many smaller rocks that made up the one big rock, who is Christ. This should not be hard to understand, but 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 occur. This all-encompassing belief of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture that people refuse to abandon obscures our view of understanding many crucial principles of Scripture regarding endtime prophecy, and for this reason, we have a flawed scenario of those events. Chapter List The Pre-Tribulation Rapture makes sense; it wraps up nicely; it makes us feel good, but does it stand up to Scripture? God intends to keep His Church here longer than most people anticipate, because He wants to use His bride to destroy the antichrist’s one-world empire, but not in our delirious state of apostasy. Heresy is generated 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. It is why so many people know so little about God and have come to believe so many heresies about the Bible. It would be okay if their inaccuracies were harmless, but few heresies are harmless, since Satan is usually behind them, and he has no interest in hatching harmless heresies. It seems 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. This is going to fester into a very serious problem as we draw closer to the end! When we think of the unrighteous steward and the strategy he used to make a living, minimizing the debt that people owed his master; Lk 16,1-13), the Pre-Tribulation Rapture follows this pattern. Pastors teach this easy-to-believe Pre-Tribulation Rapture theology to keep the people happy and coming back to their churches and tithing. All false doctrine leads back to money in that Satan needs to reward those who perpetuate his lies, suggesting that the people literally bought a more appealing rendition of the gospel. 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 happens to those who try to warn people about God’s merciful intensions of keeping us here so others may be saved, and using adversity to cleanse the Church in preparation to receive His glorious kingdom? They are suppressed and silently persecuted! One defense of the Pre-tribulation Rapture theory is found in 1The 5-9, "For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." I couldn't agree more! However, most churches teach that God will spare us from Satan’s wrath, 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 (Mat 25-5). What is true is that God will not make us go though His judgments against the world in the Trumpets, but that doesn't mean He has to rapture us, since the Trumpet judgments affect only one third of the earth, giving two thirds of the earth for God will hide His people. God wants to give us an opportunity to mature and serve Him as His dedicated worshipers before He takes us home. Unfortunately, that doesn't keep most Christians thinking it would be evil of God to leave us here, but why should He deliver us from the very problems we have caused by our own apostasy? They rightly believe God will deliver us from the antichrist, but what they can't believe is that He will deliver some of us as martyrs for Jesus. We are in fact 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 trumpet (of seven) 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.” Then 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 voice, so when the first trumpet sounds, it is tantamount to the sound of an angel’s voice. Therefore, in the parable of the Ten Virgins, when they hear a shout, it refers to the first trumpet. This means the Ten Virgins are spiritually asleep during the Seals of Satan’s wrath. Chapter List Shortly after the first seal is broken a Jewish endtime revival will begin to fulfill Scripture, as it is written, "For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob." At the same time the gentile Church will struggle to unite because of all the bogus theology they have collected throughout the age of grace, and because of all the denominations of Christianity that conflict with each other. God will raise up His Two Witnesses who raise up the 144,000, who will lead the gentile Church into one true faith, and lead them into a wilderness experience in victory over Satan. Both the wise and the foolish will 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 that exceeds a broken-down representation of faith in their many religious denominations. 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 by their own volition. This will happen during the trumpet judgments, as God hides His Church in the wilderness. This parable means two things: (1) the foolish virgins will fail to participate in the endtime revival; (2) they will also fail to participate in the Rapture. At the seventh and last trumpet the dead in Christ will rise first, starting with the Two Witnesses who have been killed by their enemies, and then the Rapture will occur. The foolish virgins will come banging on the door crying for God to open up for them, and He will talk to them behind the door, saying, “I never knew you.” A time is coming when we will need to have a personal relationship with God or we will side with the antichrist. We want God to use His Rapture to deliver us from adversity, but God wants to use 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 for the sake of eternity that the goodness of God dressed in the frailty of human flesh triumphs over all the power of evil. The lesson He earnestly desires to prove to Satan and to His creation is that rebellion is a bad choice, and that the attributes of God encapsulate 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. Are you ready to defend God’s truth with your life? Unity 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 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 and refusing to worship his image). 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, or Moses from their trials, but through them. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us that this is God’s plan of deliverance for the last days. Had they read the Bible a little closer, they would have known better than to teach the Rapture as God’s tool of deliverance, for God intends to use suffering as a way of escape. 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 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. As a result, they no longer take their faith seriously, freeing them to live anyway they want. 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 into the wilderness, and he instructed Moses to remain in the land of Goshen. Chapter List Contrary to popular belief, the Church will be here to see Satan’s Mark of the Beast, which proves two things: (1) a massive spiritual revival unlike the world has ever seen will occur in the last days (see: Joel 2-28; Rev 7,9-17), in that the whole purpose of the mark is to expose Christians for the purpose of rounding them up for execution. (2) The Mark of the Beast also proves that the Rapture has not yet occurred, since you cannot have the antichrist rounding up Christians that don’t exist. God would not Rapture a disorderly mob of undisciplined scoffers, nor would Satan be concerned about them. Instead, God intends to present to Himself a Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing short of being holy and blameless (Eph 5-27). This requires a spiritual revival that will pull together those who presently reside in the Church, who love the Lord and are willing to repent of their religious complacency, while adding millions more to their numbers. There are those who would tell us 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 the magnitude of this revival, that it is far greater than a mere remnant. 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 (see Luke chapter 14). An early Rapture cannot account for the following passage that predicts a massive influx of souls into the kingdom. 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 Chapter List This throng of people described in Rev 7,9-14 is more than a remnant; it is the entire Church at the end of the age. There is convincing evidence pinpointing the scheduled sequence of the Rapture between the trumpets and the bowls of God’s wrath, in that the Bible explicitly says that the Last Trumpet signals the Rapture. In contrast, pre-trib rapture theorists expect it to occur before the Seals of Satan’s wrath. They support their view mostly on the premise that the Church is never mentioned again after Revelation chapter three, but this is false; and even if it were true, it wouldn't prove anything. Those who predict an early Rapture are at risk of abandoning their faith from frustration and discouragement, because they didn't prepare their heart to go through the tribulation. Falling away from the faith is the most common consequence of false doctrine; we should avoid it like the plague. When His disciples asked Him to elaborate on the scenario of endtimes, Jesus' first and foremost advice was, “See to it that no one misleads you” (Mat 24-4 NASB). The apostle Paul had the same advice: 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. (2The 2,1-8; NASB; emphasis added) Some define the apostasy as the appearing of Satan in the flesh, while others define it as the Church falling away from the faith; while still others attribute “the Day of the Lord” to mean God's fiery judgment. In fact, these all refer to the same time thing. Pre-trib advocates use 2The 2,1-8 as a cornerstone of their theology, sealing their early Rapture beliefs in solid rock, so they think. However, we should notice that Paul used the phrases "gathering together to Him" and "Day of the Lord" in the same context, even within the same sentence, indicating that the Day of the Lord and the Rapture are synonymous. Therefore, since the Bible states that our gathering together to Him clearly refers to the Rapture, and that it 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? Scripture clarifies that the Day of the Lord involves a time of punishment and terror, and it is also equated with the Great Endtime Revival. It says, “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). This is the revival; then he continues in Joel 2,30-32, “I will show 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. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” According to Joel, we can’t have the Day of the Lord without a Great Endtime Revival, so the Church will certainly be here to see the moon turn blood red, which epitomizes the last days. Rev 6,12-14 also speaks of this, “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” Some say that the Day of the Lord is marked by the sixth Seal, which refers to a great earthquake, but 1Cor 15-52 says the First Resurrection will occur at the Last Trumpet. Chapter List The key that unlocks the knowledge of the Seals, the Trumpets and the Bowls is to understand how they pertain to the Day of the Lord and what they are intended to accomplish. The Seals pertain to Satan’s wrath against mankind and especially against the Church. The Trumpets will follow the Seals as punishment for martyring the saints. The Trumpets will affect one third of the earth, meaning there will be ample space to hide the Church from the unbelieving world that has rejected Christ after presenting signs, wonders and miracles throughout the Great Endtime Revival. When the world refuses to repent, the bowls will ensue, which will blanket the earth in a bloodbath with no place to hide the saints, thus the reason for the Rapture. In Second Thessalonians chapter two the Bible never indicates 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.” The NASB is very meticulous in its use of the word “he”; whenever it is referring to God, "He" is always capitalized, but the word “he” is not capitalized in this passage. Admittedly, that doesn’t prove much. It could have been a typo, or maybe even a passive interpretation by the translators, but neither does it support the pre-tribulation argument. Pre-trib believers assume that “he” is referring to the Holy Spirit restraining the antichrist from coming to power, which makes good sense, but is it true? Not really, the sequence is wrong! Paul said the man of lawlessness must come first, but pre-trib advocates insist that the Rapture comes first. Pre-trib advocates also say when “he” (the Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way, “then that lawless one will be revealed…” Of course they say that “taken out of the way” refers to the Rapture, so according to them the Holy Spirit is taken from the world. That's right, they have the Holy Spirit leaving the world when they say a revival should be taking place. All pre-trib believers know that Jesus would never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13-5 and Mat 28-20), and they know that no one can be saved without the Holy Spirit (Jn 14,16-21; Jn 15,1-11), yet they have the Holy Spirit leaving the world and letting God’s people fend for themselves who are "left behind". After the Holy Spirit leaves the world with the Church, how can they expect a revival? How can you have people getting saved without the Holy Spirit? They say that the Holy Spirit will return after the Rapture, but there is no Scriptural support for any of these claims! 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 ascribe “he” to the dragon (Satan), though it may not seem immediately intuitive until you bring in other verses. 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 against the angels of God, the fate of which will be in the prayers 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 Chapter List This statement about Satan being “hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” is in reference to being “taken out of the way” (2The 2-7). The passages above depict a spiritual battle that transpires beyond our human perception. Revelation chapter 12 describes the original battle in heaven long before man was created, but it is mentioned in context with the last days, bringing across the point that a mirror image of evicting Satan from his lofty position in heaven will once again occur; only this time he will be removed from the heavens surrounding the earth, symbolic of social consciousness. 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. This suggests that Satan doesn’t really want to possess the antichrist, and since it is far more effective to rule the world as Satan, the dragon prefers to remain in the spirit, until this option is taken from him by God’s angelic supremacy. There are certain risks of exposure and limitations associated with possessing human flesh. Demons need to remain in the underworld, hidden from view to be truly effective, suggesting that when Satan possesses the antichrist, it is a sign that he is on the run! There is one more verse in the book of Daniel that dovetails with the subject of Satan being pushed into a corner, 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, who became the princess of the power of the air, after gaining access to the spirit realm through prayer, implying that they wielded tremendous influence during the great endtime revival through their message of faith in Jesus Christ and the hope of eternal life. * * * * * * Looking closely at Second Thessalonians chapter two, we saw that it not only did a lousy job proving a Pre-Tribulation Rapture; it actually proved the opposite, that the Rapture will happen closer to the end of the tribulation. The bowls of God’s judgment are thus not part of the tribulation, for the Tribulation inherently involves the saints. This means the bowls are poured on the earth after the Rapture and are therefore technically not part of the tribulation. Moreover, there are other verses that more succinctly place the Rapture at the end of the trumpets and before the bowls. 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” 1The 4,15-18 NIV. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is by far the most specific passage in the Bible about the Rapture. As previously mentioned, a shout from an angel or from the Lord Himself is tantamount to a trumpet blast. First Thessalonians chapter four 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 emphasis added) The First Resurrection/Rapture will occur at the last trumpet. That's not too hard to understand. In fact, some say it is too easy, in that Jesus warned that no one knows the day nor the hour. However, although we know that the Rapture occurs at the Last Trumpet, we still don't know the day or the hour. Chapter List All we have to do now is find in Revelation where it speaks of the seventh and last trumpet and look for evidence of a Rapture. If there is a verse in the Bible that speaks about the resurrection of the dead in conjunction with the Last Trumpet, we would be well on our way to understanding God’s plan for the Church in the last days. There happens to be a passage that fits this description regarding the Two Witnesses who were killed and then raised from the dead just prior to the Last Trumpet, suggesting that these Two Witnesses were not the only ones to be resurrected at that time, but were first fruits of the First Resurrection (Rev 14-4). The Two Witnesses will lead the Church in victory over death, rising first in the presence of their enemies, preceding the Rapture of the saints. Before examining the passage below there is another verse that sheds 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 (Eph 3,3-7 & 1Tim 3-9). Therefore, Rev 10-7 alludes to the mystery of the Church finishing its purpose in the world and consequently being Raptured. The following passage proves it. 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 [trumpet judgments]; the third woe [the bowls] 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 three key elements of the Rapture were mentioned: (1) There was a shout saying, “Come up here” (Jn 5-28,29). (2) The Two Witnesses were raised from the dead denoting the First Resurrection. (3) The Last Trumpet sounded and there were loud voices proclaiming the beginning of God’s eternal reign, meaning everyone was present and accounted-for in the kingdom of God, thus depicting the Rapture. 1Corinthians 15 is both more specific and more general in its details about the Rapture than 1The 4,13-18. It is specific in that it specifies the Last Trumpet, indicating that there is more than one, which should open our mind to understand that Paul was referring to the trumpets of Revelation. However, it is general in that it doesn’t say how long after the dead are raised that the Rapture occurs, but then, neither does 1Thessalonians 4, which merely promises it will occur “After that.” Jesus described the moment in this way, “No one knows the day, nor the hour” (Mat 24-36), suggesting that we will know the year and possibly even the month, meaning that the time of the Rapture will become 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 (1The 4,15-18) 4) The Rapture of the Church will occur. (Mat 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 the 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. (Mat 24,29-31 NASB) Chapter List These verses clearly speak of the Rapture, and look when Jesus said it would happen, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days.” It sounded 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-tribers say 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 translations 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 and bringing them to the earth to set up His millennial kingdom. We need to ask ourselves a question here: who is interpreting this passage and who is simply reading what it says? Solid advice to interpreting the Bible is: don’t! The more we jam Scripture into our pet doctrines, the more we stray from the truth. There will be many earthquakes in the last days, but there will be two major ones to fulfill endtime prophecy: one at the end of the seals and one at the end of the bowls. What happens at the end of the Trumpets? This period is the most mysterious time of all endtime prophecy; the Bible is intentionally silent about what happens, why? Rev 10-4 says, "When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from the sky saying, 'Seal up the things which the seven thunders said, and don’t write them.'" Daniel was about to write and was stopped, and the mystery was revealed to John, and he wrote the Book of Revelation, but there was a mystery that John was not allowed to write. What was it? God knew that people would invent a Pre-Tribulation Rapture hoax to avoid feeling the need to prepare for endtimes. The Lord's attitude about this is, if they don't want to prepare for His second coming, then He will let them concoct their own theology that excuses them from the Lord's table (Lk 14,16-24). Rev 10-10 says, "I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. When I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter." The truth always tastes good to those who know the truth, but the meaning of it made John sick, knowing that many Pre-trib believers would lose their souls to the Mark of the Beast, because they never prepared their hearts for the great war against Satan that would ensue at the end of the age. 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 and fill all the valleys in preparation of the Millennium, so something happens at the end of the Trumpets that is of midrange severity, fitting the pattern of escalating judgments. A great asteroid will hit the earth (about six miles in diameter), triggering the earthquake that occurs at the end of the Bowls acting as God’s grand finale. Jesus said that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, an ash plume. Jesus promised to come on the clouds, but He did specify what kind of clouds. 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, because of the extreme energy behind it. It is fun to imagine Jesus coming for His bride on white, puffy 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 clouds in the past, namely on Mount Sinai after Israel's 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 is an account of God introducing Himself to the children of Israel, and it 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; Mat 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” (Mat 24-30). 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 enveloping 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 Mount Sinai, it stood as a poignant analogy of the second coming of Christ, only instead of hiding from His chosen people behind a cloud of smoke as on Mount Sinai so that the children of Israel could not see His face, He will invite His people behind the veil that hides His glory from the world. Chapter List 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 sinful flesh. Second, He is keeping the Church here as an act of mercy, giving the world time and opportunity to repent for those who have not taken the Mark of the Beast. The Two Witnesses raised up the 144,000 Jews, and the gentiles will have ended their millennial religious schisms and finally repented of their disobedience and united around the ministry of the 144,000 Jews to become part of the Great Endtime Revival. The two witnesses have sent plagues on the earth in response to the world’s unbelief, and after they were killed, God raised them from the dead, and they ascended to heaven before the eyes of all the world, which will witness the First Resurrection of the dead in Christ, rising from their tombs. They have seen entire books of the Bible coming to pass; still they will not repent. The bowls of God judgment will prove His measuring rod to be very severe. There is a definite sequence of endtime events: Global economic collapse > Persecution > Revival > Mark of the Beast > Rapture. 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 either. They are the five foolish virgins. They refused to take the Mark of the Beast; that is what made them virgins, but they also refused a relationship with Christ; that is what made them foolish (Mat 25,1-13). God will require every member of His body to have a relationship with Him, expressed as God's seal on their foreheads (Rev 7-3), as a means of surviving the Great Tribulation, which is what the five foolish virgins lacked. They will leave the true believers in search of oil for their lamps; instead, they will find the dragon, who is searching for stragglers wandering from God. Jesus prophesied in the parable of the Ten Virgins that half the contemporary Church (the five foolish virgins) will be "left behind". According to the parable of the Ten Virgins, ironically and sadly, the majority of the foolish virgins will be Pre-Tribulation Rapture believers, by evidence of how little oil they brought with them, as 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 burning. Can it be any clearer that the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine is heresy? As the antichrist comes to power and millions of Christians are martyred, a large segment of the contemporary Church claiming to believe in Jesus will walk away form the faith. It says that both the wise and the foolish were spiritually asleep; what separates the wise from the foolish? They were asleep to the lateness of the hour, for the end of the age had come upon them without warning as God's voice rustled them from their slumber, for He is coming to receive only those whose lamps are lit. Chapter List James R. Wuthrich www.jeansbiblestudy.com The 7th Trumpet Post-Trib Rapture proved in Four Easy Steps Mystery of Iniquity 4 Reasons We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture We Will be Radiant and Ready, Not Raptured and Removed How can we defend Earth against asteroids? Review other websites with similar Post-Tribulation Rapture views For further study on the Post-tribulation Rapture see commentary on this website: Mat 24,29-31 1Cor 15,50-58 1The 4,13-18 Rev 11,11-15