Mission Venture Ministries

One of the problems with rapture denial, or with the mid or pre-wrath rapture, is it puts the church inside the 70th week of Daniel.

Daniel 9:24 states that: “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city.”

The Hebrew word translated “determined” means “to be determined, be decreed, be settled, be marked out.” In other words, the 70 weeks of Daniel are specific to Daniel’s people, the Jews, and to the holy city, Jerusalem. All of them are marked out for God’s interaction with the Jews and the land of Israel.

Zechariah 12:8-9 affirms that: “In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the LORD before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

Chapters 12 thru 14 of Zechariah is a prophecy related to the 70th week of Daniel. There is no mention of the church or of God defending the Bride of Christ, only the Jews are mentioned. 

The primary Scripture passage on the rapture (the snatching away of the church) is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. It states that all living believers, along with all believers who have died since Pentecost, will meet the Lord Jesus in the air and will be with Him forever. The rapture is God’s removing of the bride of Christ from the earth. A few verses later, in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul says, “For God did not appoint us (the believer) to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The book of Revelation, which deals primarily with the time period of the tribulation, is a prophetic message of how God will pour out His wrath upon the earth during the tribulation. It seems inconsistent for God to promise believers that they will not suffer wrath and then leave them on the earth to suffer through the wrath of the tribulation. The fact that God promises to deliver Christians from wrath shortly after promising to remove His people from the earth seems to link those two events together.

Another crucial passage on the timing of the rapture is Revelation 3:10, in which Christ promises to deliver believers from the “hour of trial,” that is going to come upon the earth. This could mean two things. Either Christ will protect believers in the midst of the trials, or He will deliver believers out of the trials. Both are valid meanings of the Greek word translated “from.” However, it is important to recognize what believers are promised to be kept from. It is not just the trial, but the “hour” of trial. Christ is promising to keep believers from the very time period that contains the trials, namely the tribulation.

The purpose of the tribulation, the purpose of the rapture, the meaning of 1 Thessalonians 5:9, and the interpretation of Revelation 3:10 all give clear support to the pre-tribulational position. If the Bible is interpreted literally and consistently, the pre-tribulational position is the most biblically-based interpretation.

Philippians 3:20-21 affirms that: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

When Daniel gave us the last week, that prophetic week was made of seven lunar years. Seven lunar years are made of 84 months – that’s 84 months of 360 days because a lunar year is 360, that’s a total of 2520 days. And so when the Bible talks about 1,260 days that Israel was in the desert (three and a half years half of the tribulation period), it fits exactly the latter part of the Tribulation.

We know the number of days, the weeks, the months, the years. Now, why is that so important? Because if you believe in a mid-tribulation or a post-tribulation rapture; the imminency of the Lord’s appearing is removed from the picture. Jesus is going to appear at an hour we do not expect. Look what He said, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. . . So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:42, 44).

And Luke 12:40 tells us, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” This is exactly the point. If you are ready at all times, if you are eagerly waiting for Him to come, you don’t need to know exactly the hour. Do you? You don’t set an alarm clock or program your phone for – “12:45 – Rapture.”

The fact that we don’t know the day keeps us pure, keeps us holy, keeps us waiting, and keeps us holy. Paul explained for whom the last trumpet is all about. “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).

Paul is talking about those who passed away and those who are still alive. This is not for the unbeliever or the world. It is for the church, the true believer, the bride of Christ.

Come quickly – Maranatha Lord Jesus!

******