Up, Up & Away!

Scripture is clear that Jesus is coming for His church. However, there is much debate among believers as to when it will happen.

Some say He will come for us before the Tribulation. Others say no, He will return in the middle of the tribulation, and then some say it will occur at the end of the time of tribulation. We will examine why I believe Scripture teaches the Church will be removed from the earth before the Great Tribulation. We will examine three issues that point toward the pre-tribulation removal of the church from this earth.

The Second Coming Of Jesus

We speak of the second coming of Jesus, because we know that His first coming was His birth on this earth. We will use as a reference point, the millennium (1000 year reign of Christ on earth) the kingdom that is spoken of in Revelation 20.

Pre-millennialism says that there is a literal kingdom, a literal thousand years when the kingdom of the Messiah reigns on the throne of David, in the city of Jerusalem, and the law goes out of Zion. In Revelation 20, Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom on earth.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 says “that this church was waiting for His Son from heaven.” That is our hope, being like Christ. John 14:3a And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to be with Me.

For people to return with Christ to set up the 1000 year reign, they will have to have gone to be with Him prior to the return.

Revelation 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb,and the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

The Church and Israel Are Different

Israel is going to be in the tribulation, so if the church and Israel are the same, then you cannot have a pre-tribulation rapture.

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church.

Jesus said “I will,” future tense. At the time He said this, Israel has been around for several thousand years. Israel had long existed, and Jesus did not say, I will ‘add to’ my church.

Matthew 16:18b “and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

Revelation 13:7: now in the tribulation. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints.”

If Jesus’ word is true, the church cannot be in the tribulation.

Acts 11:15, And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.

He refers to that day of Pentecost. That is when the church began.

1 Corinthians 10:32 Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

He mentions three distinct groups.

The Jews, the Gentiles, and the church are always separate, even though there are believing Jews and believing Gentiles in the church; the church still is not the same as nor interchangeable with Israel. The church is a distinct unit. The church began at Pentecost, ends at the rapture; we’re a parenthesis. God started dealing with Israel, Israel rejected Him, He moved to the Gentiles, called out a group. When He’s finished with them, the fullness of the Gentiles closes it, and then God goes right back to dealing with Israel.

The Jew never conceived of this kind of relationship of the Messiah, Christ, in them. Colossians 1:27b: …which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

No Jew understood this. because in the Old Testament, there was no concept of Messiah indwelling them.

The Nature of the Tribulation

God was dealing with Israel. She was His vehicle to reach the world, but they rejected the Messiah, so they were set aside until a specific time when He would get their attention, and they would respond to Him.

The tribulation is that time of the desolation that Jesus and Daniel spoke of as a time when God would once again use judgment to get their attention.

This judgement time is not a place for His church.

1 Thessalonians 5:9. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain deliverance.”

God has not destined the church for wrath.

There is no point in the church going through the tribulation. All the wrath that God’s judgment could pile on us, has already been piled on Christ at the cross.

Thessalonians 1:10 There are those who will wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, Who delivered us from the wrath to come.

Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it.” Why did He give Himself for the church? 26 “That He might sanctify, cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

The plan for the church is that the church is presented to Christ at the rapture, absolutely chaste, pure, and undefiled, there is no need for it to go through judgment; Christ already purified it.

Matthew 23:39 For I say unto you, you shall not see Me henceforth till ye shall say, ‘Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!’