Gary responds to a clip on Facebook that claims to “prove” the Rapture with two Bible verses.
If Revelation 3:10 is the passage that teaches that Christians won’t go through a future seven-year tribulation period, then it needs to be studied carefully. Can it be shown that John being told to “Come up here…” (4:1) is a type of rapture that supports the claim that the Church will be raptured sometime in the future?
I don’t see how this can be the case because John “was in the Spirit” (4:2), and nothing is said about a physical “rapture” of John or the Church in Revelation 3:10 or any other place in the book of Revelation. If the rapture is designed so the Church will not go through the Tribulation, then why does John write that he is a “fellow-partaker in the tribulation,” a tribulation that was taking place in his day? (1:9).
Moreover, Jesus says that He will “keep them from the hour of testing.” Pre-tribulationalists claim that this “hour of testing” refers to the post-rapture tribulation period that is still in our future. But there is no promise to be kept from tribulation or to be removed from earth to avoid tribulation or persecution. Paul wrote that God delivered him from “persecutions” and “sufferings” (2 Tim. 3:11), but He did not take him to heaven so he could avoid them. In fact, Paul made it clear that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (3:12). Nothing is said about being “raptured.”
Adversity and affliction are often sent by God to “test or prove one’s faith, holiness, character” (e.g., Luke 22:28; Acts 20:19; James 1:2–3; 1 Peter 1:6–7; 4:12). In a near parallel to Revelation 3:10, Jesus said the following to his disciples: “Behold, an hour is coming, and has come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:32–33).
In His prayer for His disciples, Jesus asked His Father, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil” (John 17:15; also 12:27). Jesus was speaking about the future. But how far in the future? Is Jesus describing a “yet future period of worldwide wrath”? The book of Revelation begins with the startling fact that the things written therein “must shortly take place” because “the time is near” (1:1, 3; also 22:10). Jesus is addressing the first-century church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:10, not a distant future church in general.
The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation
For decades Christians have been enticed with the belief that they would be taken to heaven before a coming tribulation period in an event called the “rapture.” Since the national reestablishment of Israel in 1948, countless books and pamphlets have been written defending the doctrine assuring readers that it could happen at any moment. Some even claimed it would take place before 1988. We are far removed from that date. Where are we in God’s prophetic timetable?
Buy NowGary responds to a clip on Facebook that claims to “prove” the Rapture with two Bible verses. Revelation 3:10 and 1 Thessalonians 1:10 are the verses and Gary digs into the Greek and some of the translation and interpretation issues involved. Also, outside of the language issues, there is the larger problem of the historical context and the time indicators.