What is the rapture? Rapture is not a word you will find in the Bible. It is, rather, a theological term that describes an event taught to us by the Bible. One primary text that teaches this is 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17,
"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."
The rapture is the event when Christ returns part of the way back to the earth and catches up the church to himself. The questions we are now to ask is when this will happen (in relation to the great tribulation period), which is a large part of what establishes one's view on what happens after the rapture.
There are three main views:
Pretribulationalism- This view is probably the most popular view in America right now, mostly because of the greater interest many of its proponents give toward the subject which means more is written on it than the other views. Pretribulationalism can be complicated and not all of the people who hold to this view could be put in the same boat.
Basically the idea is that right now we are in the "church age" and we have been for 2,000 years. Most pretribulationists hold to a sharp distinction between God's dealing with the church and His dealing with the nation of Israel. Right now the nation of Israel is under a hardening (see Romans 11:7) this does not mean that no Jewish people will be saved, only that there will not be any great revivals among the Jewish people during this time. At some future time God will rapture the church marking the start of the great tribulation. It will be during this seven year period that God will once again deal with Israel and there will be a great remnant saved during the tribulation. After the seven year period Christ will return to the earth with the whole of believers and then we will see the millennial reign.
This view is well marked by its distinction of the church and Israel (known as Dispensationalism). Some key texts that are used for this view are Revelation 3:10, 1 Thess. 1:10, as well as the fact that the church isn't mentioned in Revelation after chapter 3. This is by no means an exhaustive or even a fair amount of the text given by pretribulationalists but I must move on.
Midtribulationalism- This view is very similar to the pretrib position. The big difference, as you might imagine, is that the church will not be raptured until about three and a half years into the tribulation. This is because midtribulationalists say that the first half of the tribulation is the wrath of man while the second half is the wrath of God.
Posttribulationalism- It seems that posttribulationalism is the oldest of the three views. Many pretrib and midtrib proponants agree with this but say that this is an example of an increase of knowledge (see Daniel 12:4). For this reason the other name for this view is Historic Premillennialism. Their view is pretty simple, we are currently in the church age, at some future time the great tribluation will begin and last about seven years (I use the word about intentionally in this case because posttrib people are usually less stingy about exact timing). At the end of the tribulation Christ will return part of the way, catch up believers, and they will continue all the way back to earth. This sounds a little odd but John Piper gives a helpful picture of a dignitary being escorted (this link is a very helpful survey of all of these views). At this point the views look pretty similar because they all agree that Christ will return with the church.
To some of you I have not given nearly a good enough survey and I'm ok with that. To others I am talking about meaningless things and you just don't care. The important thing to see is the one common thread of all the millennial and rapture views, Christ is coming back. That is one thing you can bank on. Will you have to endure a great seven year tribulation? I don't know but the Bible does affirm that you will suffer for Christ. Could you be raptured at any moment with out any sign to help you get ready? Maybe, maybe not, but you could also die at any moment without any sign to help you get ready. Will the time before Christ's return see a mass increase, making the world a much better place under the rule of Christ from heaven? I don't know but we are still called to proclaim the gospel.
So what was this study of categories and different views about then anyway? It was about Luke 24:45 and understanding the Scriptures better. With that said, I'm starting Irresistible Grace next week.
Grace and Peace,
Stephen
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