Given all that we're seeing in the world today, I suspect that at least some Christians are wondering if we're in the Tribulation: the period of seven years characterized by many divinely-sent disasters upon the Earth before Jesus returns to set up his Millennial kingdom.

My answer is no, we're not yet in the Tribulation. And the reason we know we're not in the Tribulation is because the Church (i.e., all true Christians) will be suddenly removed from this world and taken to heaven at some point before the Tribulation begins.

This sudden event is often called "the Rapture" among English-speaking Christians.

One frequent but lazy objection to this doctrine is that the word "Rapture" isn't found in the Bible. That's because the term comes from the Latin word rapere meaning "caught up" as it's translated in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.1 The original Greek word here is derived from the verb harpazo, also meaning "to catch up".2 Specifically, the verb harpazo has the nuance of "to snatch" in the sense of "a forceful or violent seizing".3

Unfortunately, the idea of the Rapture is disputed and sometimes even mocked by some Christians.

So in this article I want to present my top five reasons for why I believe the doctrine of the pre-Tribulation Rapture is correct, and why Christians should be comforted by this hope as we consider where the world seems to be rapidly headed, as I have here and here.

Reason 1: Jesus Returns for His Church When Life is Normal

Jesus teaches his disciples that when he returns, life will be going on mostly like normal for most people in the world, and the people left behind on earth after the Rapture will be surprised and caught off guard by the sudden arrival of God's judgment:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming (Matthew 24:36-42).

A similar passage is found in Luke:

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30).

If you read the stories of Noah in Genesis 7 and Lot in Genesis 19, you'll see that in both cases, Noah's and Lot's societies were going on just like normal until Noah entered the ark and rain started to fall, or until Lot was dragged out of Sodom by the angels.

There is debate over whether these verses in Matthew and Luke are talking about the Rapture or not. However, I'm convinced they must refer to the Rapture which leads to the beginning of the Tribulation. This is because I can't accept that the description of "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage" or working in fields, milling grain, planting, building, etc. will be happening on a worldwide scale at the end of the Tribulation.

Just take a quick skim through Revelation chapters 6 to 19, and you'll clearly see that life will be anything but 'normal' for people living on earth during the Tribulation.

For starters, in the Second Seal judgment there is worldwide war or violence (Revelation 6:4), and in the Third Seal judgment there is some sort of economic crisis that makes the basic food staples cost an entire day's wages (Revelation 6:5-6). Next, twenty-five percent of the world's population dies in the Fourth Seal judgment (Revelation 6:8).

In the Sixth Seal judgment something happens that reminds me of those asteroid-impact movies that came out back in the 1990s:

The sun goes dark, the moon turns red, and the stars fall to earth (meteorites?). There's an earthquake that moves every island and mountain from their places, and then

the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:15-17).

And it only gets worse from there.

Later judgments burn up a third of the earth and all grass (Revelation 8:7), turn the sea to blood and kill sea creatures (Revelation 8:8-9, 16:3), and poison a large portion of the world's fresh water (Revelation 8:10-11, 16:4). Another third of the surviving population are killed by angels released from the Euphrates river (Revelation 9:15). Many large earthquakes and other judgments will happen on top of the deadly persecution unleashed by the Antichrist against those who believe in Jesus during the Tribulation period (Revelation 13:7, 13:15).

Jesus says that the Tribulation will be the most awful time that humanity has ever experienced:

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short (Matthew 24:21-22, also Mark 13:19-20).

So can we really imagine that after all of that, at Jesus' second coming in Revelation 19:11-16, life will be going on as usual? Buying, selling, planting, marrying? Probably not so much. It will probably be more like those post-apocalyptic movies where people are just trying to dodge one disaster after another (Amos 5:18-19).

In fact, if we examine Revelation chapter 18, it says that at the judgment of the end-times entity called "Babylon," the merchants of the world will weep because there is no one who can buy their goods (Revelation 18:11-13), and there won't be anyone playing music, or building, or milling grain, or getting married (Revelation 18:21-24). This is before Jesus returns at the Second Coming in Revelation 19.

But if Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30 refer to the Rapture which happens before the Tribulation, then these verses are much more compatible with the detailed outline of future events given in the book of Revelation.

The Rapture happening before the Tribulation also matches with a shorter chronological outline of the end times given by Paul. He says:

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:21-26).

See how Christ is resurrected first, and when Christ comes (at the Rapture) Christians are resurrected. Then the 'end' comes (the Tribulation), which results in the destruction of the Antichrist and all rebellious people who oppose Jesus (Revelation 19:19-21), and finally, death itself is destroyed (Revelation 20:14).

Elsewhere, Jesus also warns that the Tribulation will come on the world like a "snare" or "trap" (Luke 21:34-35), so it will be sudden, without warning or most people being able to see it or avoid it.

Paul repeats this warning and adds details:

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6).

So even if the world won't see the Rapture and the start of the Tribulation coming, and it will be a sudden, surprising event to them, Christians who are paying attention should be able to know when the Rapture is getting close, even if we won't be able to pinpoint the exact day or hour.

Reason 2: The Freaked-Out Thessalonians

Considering the details about the Tribulation that I've just described above, the doctrine of the Rapture is really, really good news to Christians living today.

It's not as good of news as Jesus' offer of eternal life to anyone who believes in him (John 3:16), but the Rapture is definitely some of the best news we're given in the Bible. Titus even calls it the "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13). Because who in their right mind would want to endure all of the judgments in the book of Revelation if there were a way to avoid them?

We just have to look at how the Thessalonian Christians reacted when someone misled them into thinking they had entered the Tribulation (a.k.a. the Day of the Lord).

Paul writes to them and says:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).

Paul is trying to reassure these Christians that they didn't miss the Rapture ("the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him" in v.1), and so they are not in the Tribulation. He does this by reminding them that there's certain signs they would have seen if indeed they were in the Tribulation.

The main sign is that the Antichrist will be revealed. Many commentators argue this is the figure on the white horse seen in the First Seal judgment (Revelation 6:2). Halfway through the Tribulation the Antichrist will enter the rebuilt Jewish temple and declare himself to be God (Matthew 24:15-16, Mark 13:14, Daniel 9:27), and will demand that everyone worship him as God or be killed (Revelation 13:5, 13:15, Daniel 7:21). Since the Antichrist had not yet been revealed, the Thessalonians were not in the Tribulation.

Another sign Paul mentions is that "the rebellion" comes before the Antichrist appears. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 the original Greek word apostasia is translated often into English as "rebellion," "falling away," or "apostasy".4

Some argue that the "rebellion" or "apostasy" is some sort of widespread falling away from Christianity. Unfortunately, it's hard to say if such a falling away has already happened, is happening, or is still in the future.

If Paul is just describing what he goes on to say in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 that God will bring delusion on people who have refused to believe the truth, so that they will believe the Antichrist's deception, I don't see how this is helpful for the Thessalonians. The Antichrist has to be around before he can deceive people to make them fall away from faith, but then the apostasy would happen after the Antichrist appears, not before it.

It is true that we are told that in the "later times" some people will fall away from faith and believe the "teachings of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1). Specifically, these false teachers will forbid marriage and prohibit the eating of certain foods/meats (1 Timothy 4:3). But there's no mention of the Antichrist in this verse, or the deception of false Christs that Jesus warns about in relation to the Tribulation (Matthew 24:23-27).

Forbidding marriage and prohibiting eating certain foods are not teachings that the Bible associates with the Antichrist, but they were problems in the early church. The issue of whether Christians should eat meat was dealt with by Paul in Romans 14, and the question of whether Christians should marry or not was addressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:8-9. So I'm not convinced that 1 Timothy 4:1 is referring to some general falling away from Christian faith before the Rapture.

Alternatively, a few scholars have argued that the term apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 can be translated as "the departure".5 If so, this would be an explicit statement by Paul that the Rapture happens before the Antichrist is revealed. And the Antichrist will be revealed at the very start of the Tribulation (Revelation 6:2) when he confirms some sort of covenant/agreement with "many" which is supposed to last for seven years (Daniel 9:27).

If apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 does mean "the departure" (of Christians to heaven where we'll wait out the seven-year Tribulation), then Paul's teaching to the Thessalonians would line up exactly with what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24 and Luke 17, as we looked at already, and it would be a much more identifiable event than some undefined falling away from Christian faith. To me, this is the most convincing reason why I'd opt to translate apostasia as "the departure," in which case, this verse would mean that Paul is clearly reminding the Thessalonians to not worry because they will be raptured before the Tribulation begins.

But even if this particular verse does not teach the Rapture, in an earlier letter, Paul reminded the Thessalonians to serve God and "to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10). To me, this sounds like the Rapture. If so, then we can say for sure that Paul did teach the Thessalonians about the Rapture, and it can explain why the Thessalonians were so concerned that they had missed the Rapture and were going to face God's worldwide outpouring of wrath in the Tribulation.

We can reach the same conclusion that Paul was reminding the Thessalonians that they were not yet in the Tribulation in another way.

Let's imagine that Paul had never taught the Thessalonians about the Rapture, and instead he had told them to watch for the appearance of the Antichrist and had taught them they would have to endure through the Tribulation. If this were true, then why would they be alarmed? Shouldn't they have been excited, if they knew that those things had to happen before Jesus returned?6

Therefore, I think the most plausible reason that the Thessalonians were freaked-out when they falsely heard that the Tribulation had begun was because they were expecting to be raptured beforehand, as Paul had taught them.

Reason 3: The Rapture is A Comforting Doctrine

Building on these earlier two reasons, we can see that the Rapture is meant to be a comforting, encouraging doctrine. This is confirmed in one of the major passages that describes the Rapture:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Paul specifically says that this teaching should be encouraging. I don't believe the Rapture would be as encouraging if Christians had to endure all the terrible things that will happen in the Tribulation beforehand.

Elsewhere, Paul repeats that the Rapture will involve the resurrection of all deceased Christians, and then the bodies of all Christians who are currently alive will be instantly changed from mortal to immortal:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).

Combining these two passages gives us the clearest understanding of what happens at the Rapture: all Christians who have died since the time of the early church will be instantly resurrected, followed shortly or even instantly by the transformation of all living Christians' bodies into our glorified eternal ones. All of us will then be "caught up" to be with Jesus forever.

If this isn't enough, there's a third similar passage:

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).

Note that in this verse "awake" means "alive" and "asleep" means "dead", similar to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 above.

So when it happens, all Christians, whether dead or alive, will be raptured and given their final immortal glorified bodies, escaping the wrath of God that falls on the world during the Tribulation, and will be united with Jesus forever. That's definitely an encouraging, comforting promise.

Reason 4: God Promises to Protect Faithful People From His Wrath

But we don't have to look just at these passages to trust that God will rapture us before the Tribulation. We can also look at how God acted in the past. There is good precedent for the Rapture in how we see that historically, God always removes his faithful people before he brings his judgment or wrath on a society.

We've already seen in Reason 1 how Jesus refers to both Noah and Lot as examples of what it will be like when Jesus returns at the Rapture. Noah was considered righteous (Genesis 6:9, 7:1) and so he and his family were spared the judgment that fell on everyone else.

When Abraham bargains with God over the fate of Sodom, Abraham bases it on the fact that God doesn't destroy the righteous along with the wicked (Genesis 18:25). Unfortunately, Lot and his family were the only ones rescued.

In other incidents in the Old Testament, God also protects faithful believers from God's widespread judgment (e.g. Exodus 9:5-7, 9:25-26, 10:22-23, 12:12-13, Joshua 6:25, Ezekiel 9:4-6).

We've also mentioned Paul's statement that Jesus will return from heaven to deliver Christians from the "wrath to come" (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

Jesus himself promises the Philadelphian church that

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth (Revelation 3:10).

We're not just kept from the wrath or judgments that will come on the world during the Tribulation, but from the entire time of the Tribulation.

So where will the Philadelphian church (along with all other Christians) be during the Tribulation?

Jesus told his disciples:

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:1-3).

This promise matches well with Paul's descriptions of the Rapture discussed in Reason 3. It also fits better with the description of Rapture than with the description of Jesus' second-coming at the end of the Tribulation. This is because in this verse Jesus says he'll take us to where he is (the Father's house, i.e. heaven) where he has been preparing places for us, not that he will come to where we are (earth) and only then prepare places for us. And again, Jesus says this promise should keep his disciples' hearts from being troubled.

Reason 5: The Difference Between the Church and the Tribulation Saints

If the Tribulation comes on the entire world, this also implies that the Church can't be on earth when the Tribulation happens.

Confirmation of this is seen in how throughout the book of Revelation chapters 6 to 19, there is not a single instance of the word "church". There are saints, but the term "church" is used only in chapters 1-3. If the Church were on earth during the Tribulation, why wouldn't we be mentioned throughout chapters 6 to 19 also?

I think the answer is that the Christians of the Tribulation period are not the same group as the Christians who have made up the Church for the last 2000 years. This fact seems confirmed when we note that Jesus promises that the gates of hell won't overcome the Church (Matthew 16:18), but Satan will overcome the saints who are on earth during the Tribulation (Revelation 13:7).

When Jesus returns for the battle of Armageddon, he comes with the "armies of heaven" who are on white horses (Revelation 19:14). As Jude notes, "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, 'Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness'" (Jude 1:14-15). This army will include the raptured, resurrected Christians who have been in heaven for the previous seven years of the Tribulation.

Why? Because Paul says once we're raptured, "so we will always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). If Jesus is coming back to earth to set up his Millennial kingdom, we'll be with him.

In contrast, these Tribulation saints who were beheaded for not taking the Mark of the Beast are resurrected only after the battle of Armageddon and are rewarded with ruling privileges during the Millennium (Revelation 20:4). The differences between these two groups shows that the saints who are killed during the Tribulation are not the same as the Christians who were raptured before the Tribulation.

More evidence can be found if we look at John as a 'type' of Christians who will be raptured. After the seven letters to the churches in Revelation chapters 2-3, John suddenly sees a "door" open in heaven, a voice like a trumpet that says "come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this" (Revelation 4:1). This seems very similar to Paul's description of the Rapture that happens with a shout and a trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and it happens in the right place in the book of Revelation in terms of chronology (i.e., the Rapture happens at the end of the Church age and the start of the Tribulation).

Instantly, John is in heaven, and he sees twenty-four thrones with elders sitting on them, wearing white robes and crowns. Angels are never described as wearing crowns or sitting on thrones, so these elders can't be angels. But it would make sense that, if John saw a preview of the Rapture, the next thing he would see is a vision of the Church, made up of all Christians whose works have been judged by Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11-15), and rewarded with the ruling privileges that Christ has promised to faithful Christians (Luke 19:17, 2 Timothy 2:11-12, 1 Corinthians 6:3, Revelation 2:26-27, etc.).

So there are clearly two different groups of saints who rule and reign with Christ:

1. The Church, made up of Christians beginning from the early church until the Rapture. After we're raptured we'll be rewarded, and will wait out the Tribulation in heaven, in the 'rooms' that Christ is preparing for us, and will return with Jesus in the clouds at the battle of Armageddon to help rule in the Millennial kingdom.
2. Tribulation saints who are Christians who convert after the Rapture, who remain on earth during the Tribulation, and many of whom will be killed by the Antichrist for not taking the Mark of the Beast. They will be resurrected and rewarded after the battle of Armageddon, and will also help rule in the Millennial kingdom.

If you're reading this before the Rapture happens, and you believe that Jesus died for your sins so that you can have eternal life, then congratulations, you're part of group #1. You can have the peace and comfort of knowing that no matter how bad things get now, you won't have to experience the Tribulation. No matter what persecution we might face before the Rapture happens, it's not the wrath of God, and we can look forward to Jesus returning soon to take us to be with him forever.

If you're reading this after millions of people all around the world have suddenly disappeared, and out of this chaos some person has risen to sudden prominence and power who seems to have all the answers, who confirms a covenant with "many", and who is supported by a powerful religious leader, then if you believe that Jesus died for your sins so you can have eternal life, you're potentially part of group #2. Hold on to your faith, don't take the Mark of the Beast, and if you're beheaded for refusing to worship the Antichrist as God, you can look forward to being resurrected and rewarded after Jesus returns.

Conclusion

So there you have it: my top five reasons why I'm convinced the Rapture has to happen before the Tribulation. Hopefully this has been an encouraging plunge into pre-millennial eschatology.

Of course, there are many other websites out there that have articles about the Rapture and the Tribulation. Some are good, some are misleading, and some try to refute the idea altogether. Even on the good sites, there will be a mixed bag of truth and more questionable ideas. Maybe I've even gotten some things wrong here. I hope not, and I've tried to be careful, but if you're interested in the topic and want even more details and arguments for the pre-Tribulation Rapture and pre-Millennial return of Christ, I would recommend that you read:

• John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979).
• John F. Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959).

Footnotes:

• 1. John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 12.
• 2. The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition (Stuttgart: Deutche Bibegesellschaft, 1993/2001), 536.
• 3. William D. Mounce, Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 100.
• 4. The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition (Stuttgart: Deutche Bibegesellschaft, 1993/2001), 539.
• 5. John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 239-240.
• 6. John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 240-241, 244.