SEMESTER 6
194 – The Pre-tribulation Rapture of the Saints
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: THEOLOGY VI LESSON # 94
ESCHATOLOGY – THE KINGDOM OF GOD – THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS
Read: I Thes. 5:1-11
INTRODUCTION:
1. In this lesson, I want to state and try to explain why I hold to a pre-tribulation rapture.
2. I know I will not convince everyone that I am right.
3. I know that I will not even be fairly heard or read by many pre-trib critics.
4. I know I will not present any new or exceptional arguments.
5. Rather, I hope to reduce my argument to the simplest Bible presentation.
I. SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS
1. I do not hold this doctrine to be of equal importance or clarity with the pre-mil view.
2. I do not consider those who disagree with me on this, less spiritual or studious than myself.
3. I do not consider the pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib issue, one which should separate brethren.
4. I do not think God intends this to be a battleground as some make it today.
5. I feel it is the pre-trib position which is under attack, not on the offensive.
II. REASONS I HOLD THE PRE-TRIB POSITION
1. Because of particular texts of Scripture which imply it.
i. 1 Thessalonians 5:9: The context here is not regeneration.
ii. 2 Thessalonians 2:7: This seems to speak of the Holy Spirit.
iii. Revelation 4:1: I do not hold the dispensational theory of the 7 churches, but Revelation 4:5 looks very much like the rapture and judgment seat.
2. Because the book of Revelation does not mix the church with the tribulation events.
3. Because the seventieth week of Daniel, as a unit, is determined upon Israel. (Dan. 9:24)
4. Because of the relationship between the activity of II Thessalonians 2:7 and II Thessalonians 2:9-11.
i. This seems a clear-cut change of the predominance of the Holy Spirit and the antichrist.
5. Because the rapture, as a whole biblical truth, seems to be held forth as preferable to death. (I Thes. 4:15)
6. Christians are not to prepare for this particular time, but to expect deliverance. (I Thes. 5:1-9)
III. IF WE ARE WRONG
No wise student of the rapture question can dismiss the possibility of being wrong. Obviously, it is not one of the clearest and most unquestionable issues revealed in Scripture. What should our recourse be if we are wrong?
1. No Christian’s life should be one of presumption nor escapism.
2. No Christian should accustom himself to fleeing the fires of tribulation.
3. We should not prepare to “flee to the mountains,” or “fight the antichrist force.”
4. We are clearly told what to do in Matthew 28:19-20, and Luke 19:13: Occupy till I come.
5. Our occupation is to be positive and negative whether in tribulation or jubilation.
6. If I am wrong, may I yet go into the tribulation determined not to be violently dispatched for anything, but preaching the Gospel.
7. If I am right, may you be raptured doing the same, and in either case may we look for Him, not the sensations of eschatology.