Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The Rapture-Rapture Timing

We do not know the day or hour of the rapture, however, what do we know about the days leading up to the rapture? The answer to this question once again identifies the rapture as a pretribulation event....

Let's take a look at Luke 21:34:

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. "

The bible tells us to be careful that our hearts are not weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life in the days leading up to the rapture. Let's think about this, if the rapture were mid-tribulation or post-tribulation, would the Lord use the kind of language He did in Luke 21:34? It's highly unlikely. At any point of the tribulation period there will be much more going on in the world to weigh our hearts down than dissipation, drunkenness, and the "normal" anxieties of life. Compare the "anxieties of life" mentioned in Luke 21:34 with the events unfolding at any point of the tribulation and you should see a stark contrast.

We are given this exact same picture in Matt 24:38

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.

The Lord has painted clear pictures for us in both Luke 21:34 and Matt 24:38 that life on the earth leading up to the day of the rapture will be taking place as it always has. The words He uses to describe the days leading up to the rapture are absolutely NOT the same words used to describe the days and events taking place during the tribulation.

IF the rapture was to take place either at the midpoint or end of the tribulation we should see some kind of wording, some kind of language to indicate that the days leading up to the rapture are "tribulation days," not "ordinary days." I challenge any pre-wrath or post-trib advocate to argue how the words used in Luke 21:34 or Matt 24:38 give even the slightest hint that they are anything but "ordinary days" indicitive of a pretribulation earth.

If the pre-wrath position was correct would'nt we see some type of language used to describe days leading up to the rapture like this?:

Rev 6:8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. ??????

According to pre-wrath advocates, this ^^^^^ is indicitive of days leading up to the rapture. Now, contrast the events taking place in the days of Rev 6:8 with the events of the days taking place in the days of either Luke 21:34 or Matt 24:38. The contrast is breathtaking. They absolutely cannot be the same days since the events taking place are totally different.

The days leading up to a pre-wrath or post-trib rapture are filled with massive death, famine, plague unlike anything the earth has ever seen, whereas the days leading up to the pre-trib rapture are filled with "people eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage."

It does'nt get any more clear cut than this.

Be ready, time is short-Peace-brother D