A Closer Look At The Pre-Wrath Rapture

1st Thessalonians 4:13-18, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

This helpful writing in defense of a PreTribulation Rapture is authored by by Joshua Toupos:

PRE-WRATH RAPTURE PRINCIPALITY DECALOG

10 Reasons Pre-Wrath Rapture doesn’t Work:

1. The Rapture is no longer a surprise event. It sets up a false construct that certain signs and events must precede the Rapture which collides with Jesus saying the timing of this nanosecond event, is known only by the Father.

2. We become the thief stealing Immanency from the Lord. Just like if the law, then no longer grace, rendering it null and void, then if Antichrist must come first, then no longer Immanence and no need to be watchful, rendering immanence null and void.

3. It’s no longer as in the days of Noah (was Noah rescued mid-40 days? Did even one drop of rainfall on him?). We tend to emphasize that wicked state of mankind on the earth in this Scripture. But there is something else that is very profound going on. Noah built the Ark, but he did not determine the timing, nor was it even him who shut the door and sealed it (Genesis 7:16). It was God alone. But it is a perfect Scripture to use it to defend the Immanent Pre-tribulation Rapture as in the days of Noah when God decides the timing and he shuts the door of the Rapture Ark to keep he and his family safe from judgment on all the earth for 40 days and nights that it rained and 150 days that the Flood remained on the earth! But Noah and his family were also safe from all of the wicked mankind on the earth while it was raining up to the point the Flood waters drown them all. Remember, the Ark sat there for 7 days before even one drop of rain began to fall! And note further that the Lord gives precise days and time frames, just like he tells us he will do in the Tribulation. He is consistent.

4. They redefine Tribulation and/or its duration “Day of the Lord” and “wrath of God” and “one week” of years. Prewrath divides the Tribulation into 3 parts vs. only two reminds me of false teachers like Carl Jung who turn the Trinity into Quaternity, and Roman Catholicism doing the same by adding Mary as a Co-Redemptrix. Two halves is what Scripture describes. Three-thirds is found nowhere in Daniel or Revelation…a pure invention and vain imagination private interpretation on the part of Marvin Rosenthal and Robert Van Kampen. Isn’t that vain strongholds of imagination, myth, so-called science, and numerology condemned in Scripture?

Pre-Wrath disciples hang their hat on 2 Thess 2:3 that the Rapture can’t happen until first the man of lawlessness is revealed. But what struck me like lightning was Daniel’s 9:27: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week…” This is SEISMIC because a week is the entire 7 years. So this means that the Antichrist is already revealed by the very first day at the very beginning of the 7 Years of Tribulation. The Antichrist signs the peace treaty at the very beginning of the Tribulation (the very beginning of the 70th week) according to Daniel 9:27. A week is the entire 7 years. The Antichrist was already revealed before the beginning of the 70th week. It’s like Biden was known (revealed) long before he even ran for President. It’s just that the beginning of the 70th week is when he signs the peace treaty with Israel. And peace treaties don’t just pop instantly out of thin air, they require weeks if not years to negotiate and plan. The signing is to just confirm it and launch it. But even if the Rapture can’t happen until after the beginning of the 70th week, it would logically follow that the Rapture could happen right after the signing and not have to wait for 3/4 of the Tribulation! Prewrath followers have redefined the Day of the Lord confined to a period supported nowhere in Scripture. Peter described that Day of the Lord as a day and time when a new heavens and earth are created in 2 Peter 3:10. But that does not occur until the end of the Millennium, a thousand years after the entire 7 years of Tribulation. So are we then going to say there was never any Day of the Lord prior to that? On top of that if you follow Rosenthal’s reasoning the Day of the Lord is confined only to a brief period after the Great Tribulation (in his mind) of the first half of the second half the entire Tribulation 70th Week of Daniel. And if this is what Peter means, Pretribulationalist couldn’t be right either, because using that logic (like there was no other “first resurrection,” because the day of the Lord could not cover any of the seven years of Tribulation because the Day of the Lord couldn’t have happened until the New Heavens and earth are created. But of course, we know that the Day of the Lord covers both the entire Tribulation period as well as the Lord creating a New Heavens and Earth!

5. Apostasia means departure and Paul defines it as an event, not a process. Yes, it can mean both a physical and spiritual departure. But the Day of the Lord is distinct from Last Days which is plural for the meaning of spiritual apostasy. But the context in 2 Thess. 2:3 is a singular day that launches the Day of the Lord which is 7 years of days or approximately 7 times 360 days. So Prewrath Rapture dictates and confines Christ the Groom to 630 days out of two thousand years without authority to do so! Instant means it begins as a physical departure and is instantaneous (twinkling of an eye). When was Paul was abandoned there was both physical departure and spiritual departure. Falling away is a process not just during the Tribulation, but the entire two thousand years of the church. There is no surprise in that.

6. Marvin Rosenthal calls Michael the Archangel the Restrainer. This too is highly improbable if not impossible because Jude tells us that he would not even contest with Satan over the body of Moses. Note in the passage in the passage in Jude, that it was not just over the body of Moses that Michael would not get entangled with Satan, where it states: “he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment against Satan.” But this a more generalized statement proving where not even angels dare to tread! What to do with the body of Moses pales in comparison to an all-out war with Satan. So don’t you think if Michael is named in such relatively insignificant matter as what to do with Moses’s body that something as cataclysmic and apocalyptic as the Global final world war that Michael’s name would be named? And wouldn’t go to war with him and his Antichrist on earth be engaging in a judgment in which most of the entire Book of Revelation is pronouncing judgments? And Yes God does send other angels to exercise judgment, but if this were Michael, wouldn’t he be named (and not presumed that it is him)? And note it is not war against Satan or judgment on Satan, but only judgments on men that angels conduct. And note who it is that ultimately does judge the Antichrist and Satan? The Lord himself! Yes Michael fought Satan in Heaven where Satan lost, and he will again defend Israel in the Tribulation, but there is no Scripture to support his fighting for the Church on earth, or for that matter even fighting to defend Gentiles who become saints. Michael’s defined actions are only defensive (not offensive) and protecting, similar to the cherubim guarding the Garden of Eden from the entrance with a sword! Plus Jesus said in Mark 13:32 and Matthew 24:36, that this time not known by ANYONE, not even the Angels even in Heaven. But if even Michael is clueless, and is the restrainer, how will he even know when to initiate his restraint on the earth? And don’t forget that this restraint has been going on since Creation. So we are left with whom do I believe Rosenthal or Jesus? I think I will take Jesus!

7. Renders Satan’s wrath greater than the wrath of God. Impossible because Satan is not omniscient or omnipotent which God alone is. No contest. The notion that Satan’s wrath could trump God’s wrath is farcical and mocks God, who will not be mocked as well as a reproach on Christ’s own words!

8. The Rapture is when Christ the Groom will snatch up his Bride to be (now his fiancé who is the Church to whom he is betrothed). I wrestled and agonized the last few days because I love my brothers in Christ who subscribe to Prewrath Rapture, and the pain is spiritually excruciating that we are not in unity on this. Part of me even doubted I was right. Then a Providential event happened that sealed the deal for me, which became a living parable. A real-life recent parable: A daughter’s boyfriend of five years came to the father and asked him if he, as the father would give permission to him to ask her for her hand in marriage and become engaged whom he said he loved. They are both Christians and the father considered him a potential son-in-law of the ages and already like a member of the family. So of course the father said yes! But it was ultimately his decision as the groom when to ask her and when they mutually set the date of their marriage. We don’t know the day or the hour when he will literally ask her. The father would never dream of tampering with or forcing the marriage or the time of the marriage. But then it struck me, that this is precisely what Rosenthal and Pre-Wrath Rapture disciples are doing with the timing of when Christ the Groom can take up his Bride, virtually handcuffing the time frame when Christ is allowing to take up his Bride in the two thousand year history of the church. We champion Immanency for Christ’s Return. It is also Immanency for the Day of the Lord and simultaneous! But it is immanency in one more colossal way, and that it is the Immanency of Christ the Groom taking up his Purchased Bride (who purchased the Bride, alone decides when to obtain her)!!! Is this timing today the Lord’s or what? I know that Paul’s command to not let the marriage be defiled is talking about a literal husband and wife marriage. But I think one could argue that we can’t defile the Marriage Supper of the Lamb either by dictating to Christ the Groom when he must get married and barring it anytime before the Tribulation.

I was also just struck like lightning with one more thing regarding the Bridegroom Christ and Bride of Christ (the Church) and that is the Bridegroom Parable as the irrefutable proof that Pre-Wrath = The Foolish Virgins! If Mid-Trib or PreWrath Rapture has any logic or credibility, they would have to think there is no reason to be watchful for Pre-Trib because they think Immanence is impossible. If they are not watchful at all they could simply wait it out until all of the signs and at least half of the 7 year Tribulation has already taken place. If they are here during the first half of the Tribulation they think they can fill their lamps anytime up to ¾ of the Tribulation, thinking they have plenty of time to fill their lamps because Rosenthal says Christ the Groom can’t come any day or hour. Therefore, if I had any doubts that Prewrath Rapture is fraudulent, they are now vaporized! “The Bridegroom does not consummate the Marriage until the Bridegroom decides!” 

Here is the Bridegroom Parable in Scripture:◄ Matthew 25 ► The Parable of the Ten Virgins

1“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Matthew 25:1-13 ESV

9. Peace and Safety precedes the entire Tribulation, not the first 3/4 of the Tribulation. Surely the biblical detailed description of the first half or first 3/4 of the 7 years of the Tribulation can’t be the whole earth is living in peace and safety.

10. Equating Revelation 20 First Resurrection with Rapture would then have to mean Christ was not the First Resurrection. Also, the true Rapture requires the inclusion of we who are alive. Prewrath Rapture could not include the martyrs in the Tribulation because none of them were resurrected until the END of the entire 7 years (week of Daniel). But if that’s true then Post Tribulation Rapture would have to be the correct view and sequence, not Prewrath Rapture. The First Resurrection in Rev. 20 therefore cannot be the very first resurrection in history. John is using “first” to contrast it with the last (or second) resurrection of the wicked, otherwise, it makes no sense! It is first (collectively of all the righteous) in a sequence of two in that grand scale of history. It is first and last in sequence, the second resurrection being collectively all of the wicked. We are part of the first resurrection by because the second death has no power over us.

Dr. Andy Woods captures it well with this statement:

“I will just add three little things.

First, the first resurrection concerns only the dead. Look at the language carefully in Revelation 20:4–5 and Daniel 12:2. The rapture, by contrast, doesn’t just concern the dead in Christ but also those that are alive on the earth at the time (1 Thess. 4:17).

Second, if the first resurrection is the first resurrection ever not only could there have not been a pre-trib. rapture but neither could there be a pre-wrath, mid trib., or post trib. rapture either. Beyond that, there couldn’t even have been a resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which is obviously problematic in light of 1 Cor. 15: 14.

Third, the number “first” in first resurrection (Rev. 20:4-5) is simply distinguishing that resurrection from the resurrection of the unsaved at the end of the thousand years. It’s not talking about the first one ever in human history. If so, then Christ has not been raised!”

I would just add that the Tribulation Martyrs and the OT Saints were not part of the Church and therefore not part of the Rapture. However, they became included (fellow participants) in the totality of the First Resurrection when God raised them up to reign with us for the entire Millennium.

Here are two of the best refutations I have ever heard and seen in 50 years on Pre-Wrath Rapture by Pastor Andy Woods. The first video is:

Rapture or Apostasy in II Thessalonians 2

The second video is:

Explaining & Refuting Pre-Wrath, Daniel 9:2

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