01.04. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture
IV. THE PRE‑TRIBULATION RAPTURE.
There are two principal views upon the matters here considered: one, that the Parousia will commence prior to the Times of the End, and that at its inception all believers of the heavenly calling, dead and living, will be taken to the presence of the Lord in the air; the other, that the Parousia will occur at the close of the Great Tribulation, until when no believers will be raised or changed. The one view says that no believers will go into the End Times, the other that none then living will escape them. The one involves that the utmost measure of unfaithfulness or carnality in a believer puts him in no peril of forfeiting the supreme honour of rapture or of having to endure the dread End Days: the other view involves that no degree of faithfulness or of holiness will enable a saint to escape those Days. As regards this matter, godliness and unfaithfulness seem immaterial on either view; which raises a doubt of both views. Our study thus far has shown that the former view is unfounded: we have now to see that the latter is partly right and partly wrong. It is right in asserting that the Parousia will commence at the close of the Great Tribulation, but wrong in declaring that no saints living as the End Times near will escape that awful period.
1. For our Lord Jesus Christ has declared distinctly that escape is possible. In Luke 21:1-38 is a record of instruction given by Him to four apostles on the Mount of Olives. It is a parallel report to Matthew 24:1-51 and Matthew 25:1-46 and Mark 13:1-37, and it deals specifically with the Times of the End and His Parousia. He foretold great international wars, accompanied with earthquakes, famines, and pestilences, to be followed by terrors and great signs from heaven (vv. 10, 11: comp. Seals 1 ‑ 4, Revelation 6:1-17). These things are to be preceded by a general persecution of His followers (ver. 12), which will be the first indication that the End Days are at hand. Then Jerusalem is to be trodden down by the Gentiles right on until the Times of the Gentiles run out (ver. 24: comp. Revelation 11:2. where the same term “trodden down” is used, and Zechariah 14:1-5). This shows that it is the End‑times of which Christ is speaking, as is further shown by His earlier statement that at that time of vengeance “all things that are written” shall be fulfilled. All things that are written in the prophets concerning Jerusalem, Israel, and the Gentiles were not by any means fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Then He mentions the disturbances in nature and the fears of mankind that are grouped under seal 6 in Revelation 6:12-17, and adds explicitly that “then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory,” and that when these things begin His disciples may know that their redemption draweth nigh (ver. 27, 28). In concluding this outline of the period of the Beast the Lord then uttered this exhortation and promise: “But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” This declares distinctly: (1) That escape is possible from all those things of which Christ had been speaking, that is, from the whole End‑times. (2) That that day of testing will be universal, and inevadable by any then on the earth, which involves the removal from the earth of any who are to escape it. (3) That those who are to escape will be taken to where He, the Son of Man, will then be, that is, at the throne of the Father in the heavens. They will stand before Him there. (4) That there is a fearful peril of disciples becoming worldly of heart and so being enmeshed in that last period. (5) That hence it is needful to watch, and to pray ceaselessly, that so we may prevail over all obstacles and dangers and thus escape that era. This most important and unequivocal statement by our Lord sets aside the opinion that all Christians will escape irrespective of their moral state, and also negatives the notion that no escape is possible. There is a door of escape; but as with all doors, only those who are awake will see it, and only those who are in earnest will reach it ere the storm bursts. In every place in the New Testament the word “escape” has its natural force ‑ ekpheugo, to flee out of a place or trouble and be quite clear thereof.* It never means to endure the trial successfully. In this very discourse of the Lord it is in contrast with the statement, “He that endureth (hupomeno) to the end [of these things] the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). One escapes, another endures.
[* It comes only at Luke 21:36; Acts 16:27; Acts 19:16; Romans 2:3; 2 Corinthians 11:33; Hebrews 2:3; Hebrews 12:25. In comparison with Romans 2:3, see its use in the LXX in the interpolated passage after Esther 8:13 : “they suppose that they shall escape the sin‑hating vengeance of the ever‑seeing God”; also Judges 6:11
2. In harmony with this utterance of our Lord is His further statement to the church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:10): “Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from (ek) the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole inhabited earth, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Here also are declared: (a) The universality of that hour of trial, so that any escape from it must involve removal; (b) the promise of being kept from it, (c) the intimation that such preservation is the consequence of a certain moral condition: “Because thou didst keep ... I also will keep.” As this is addressed to a church no question of a “Jewish” application can arise. Nor do known facts or the Scriptures allow of the supposition that every Christian keeps the word of Christ’s patience (Matthew 24:12; Revelation 2:5
3. Of this escape and preservation there are two pictures as there are two promises. In Revelation 12:1-17 is a vision of (a) a woman; (b) a man‑child whom she bears; (c) the rest of her family. Light on this complex figure may be gained from Hosea 4:1-19 and Isaiah 49:17-21; Isaiah 50:1. Israel and Zion, viewed as corporate systems in continuity, are a “woman,” a “mother”; individual Israelites at any one time are the “children.” This usage is the same as when an individual Romanist calls the church his “mother.” The “mother” is that system continuing through the centuries; yet in one sense, the woman at a given hour is composed of her children. As to this “woman” the dominant fact is that at one and the same time she is seen in heaven arrayed with heavenly glory and on earth in sorrow and pain. This simultaneous and contradictory experience is true of the church of God only (comp. Ephesians 2:6 with Ephesians 3:13 and Ephesians 6:10-13; and 1 Peter 1:3-5 with 1 Peter 1:6-7). In Scripture Israel corporately has no standing in the heavens: her destiny and glory are earthly. The national divisions of earth do not continue in heaven. As to the Man‑child, his birth and rapture, as with the whole of this book from c. 4:1, pointed to events which the angel distinctly said were future to the time of the visions. There is no exception to this, and therefore there is no possible reference to the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Nor, in the fact, did our Lord at His birth escape from Satan by rapture to the throne of God: on the contrary, the Dragon slew Him in manhood and only thereafter did He ascend to heaven. Nor at the ascension of Christ was Satan cast out of heaven. Thirty years later, when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he and his servants were still there (Ephesians 6:12), and another thirty years later again, when John saw the visions, his ejection was still future (Revelation 12:1-17). The identity of this Man‑child is indicated by the statement that he “is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,” for this is a repetition of the promise (Revelation 2:26-27), “And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end [comp. the keeping the word of My patience, as above], to him will I give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.” This promise is given only to Christ and the overcomers of the churches. As it cannot here (Revelation 12:1-17) apply to Him it can only apply to them. This removal of the Man‑child cannot be the event foretold in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, for those there in view will be taken up only as far as to the air around this earth when the Lord descends thereto from heaven, but this removal takes the Man‑child to the throne of God, which is where Christ now is, in the upper heavens. This fulfils the promise that such as prevail to escape shall “stand before the Son of Man.” As we have seen, the Lord does not descend from heaven till the close of the Great Tribulation, not before Satan is cast down. Moreover, this one child can be only a part of the whole family, not the completed church in view in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 * and 1 Corinthians 15:1-58. The “woman” out of whom he is born remains on earth, and after his ascent the “rest of her seed” are persecuted by the Beast; but his removal is before the Beast is even on the scene or Satan is cast out of heaven. Thus those who will form this company escape all things that will occur in the End‑times, as Christ promised; and the identification with the overcomers declares that they had lived that watchful, prayerful, victorious life, upon which, as the Lord said, that escape will depend.
[* In 1 Thessalonians 4:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:17 the word perileipo, “that are left,” deserves notice. It is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but the force may be seen in the LXX of Amos 5:15, and of the verb (in some editions) at 2 Chronicles 34:21; Haggai 2:3. In each case it means, to be left after others are gone. So the lexicons also, and they are confirmed by The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. In this place it seems redundant save on our view that the rapture there in question is at the close of the Tribulation and that some saints will not have been left on earth until that event, but will have been removed alive earlier; for to have marked the contrast with those that had died it would have been enough to have said “we that are alive,” without twice repeating this unusual word.]
Consequent upon this removal of the watchful, Satan is cast out of heaven, and presently brings up the Beast, who persecutes the rest of the woman’s family (Revelation 12:17-18; Revelation 13:7-10). So that one section of the family escapes the End‑times by being rapt to heaven, and the rest, the more numerous portion, as the term indicates, go into the Great Tribulation. These latter are such as “keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus” (ver. 17). In Revelation 14:12, such are termed “the saints,” which in New Testament times, was the term regularly used by Christians of one another; and among their number John had already included himself (Revelation 1:2, Revelation 1:9). It covers therefore the church of God, of which he was a leader.
4. The second picture of this pre‑Tribulation rapture is given in Revelation 14:1-20. In this chapter there are six scenes: ‑
1. “First‑fruits” with the Lamb on the Mount Zion (Revelation 14:1-6).
2. The hour of judgment commences (Revelation 14:6-7).
3. “Babylon” is announced as having fallen (Revelation 14:8).
4. The Beast period is present and persecution is in progress (Revelation 14:9-13).
5. The Son of Man on a white cloud reaps His “harvest” (Revelation 14:14-16).
6. The “vintage” of the earth is gathered, and is trodden in the winepress on earth (Revelation 14:17-20). The agricultural figure wrought into this chapter by the Holy Spirit is the key to its teaching. In the early summer the Jew was to gather a sheaf of corn as soon as enough was ripe, and this was to be presented to God in the temple at Jerusalem as “first‑fruits” (Leviticus 23:9-14). After some time (Leviticus 23:15) the whole of the fields would be ripened by the great summer heat and the whole harvest would be reaped. But this, though removed indeed from the fields where it had grown, would not be taken so far as to the temple, but only to the granary on the farm. Then the season closed with the vintage, and the clusters were not taken away from where they had grown, the winepress being in the vineyard and the grapes being crushed therein. Thus the “first‑fruits” are shown as on Mount Zion with the Lamb, the “harvest” is taken only as far as to the clouds, which accords with 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18; and the vintage is trodden outside the city of Jerusalem, where the armies of Antichrist are camped. The last scene is the destruction of the Beast by the Lord at His descent to Jerusalem (Revelation 19:15). Next prior to that event is the removal of the elect to the clouds: immediately before this is the period of the Tribulation: preceding that is the destruction of the harlot system of Revelation 17:1-18 (see Revelation 17:16-18): this event follows first upon the striking of the hour of divine judgment: but before any of those things of the End commence the First‑fruits are seen with the Lamb in heaven, as He promised (Luke 21:36). The First‑fruits cannot be a picture of the whole of the redeemed as they will finally appear at the end of the drama of those days, for first‑fruits cannot be more than a portion of the whole harvest, neither can first‑fruits describe the final ingathering. It were a contradiction to speak thus. Firstfruits must be gathered first, before the reaping of the remainder. The number 144,000 need not be taken literally. In the Apocalypse numbers are sometimes literal, but sometimes figurative. As has been noted above, these had been purchased out of the earth, which shows that they were not then on earth, and they learn the song of the heavenly choir. Nor can this Mount Zion be at Jerusalem, but must be that in the heavens, for the Lord will not descend to the earthly Zion till after the Tribulation, not before it, as this scene is placed. The 144,000 of Revelation 7:1-17 are a different company. They are the godly Remnant of Israel seen on earth after the Appearing and the gathering of the elect to the clouds, and are sealed (comp. Ezekiel 9:1-11) so as to be untouched by the wrath of the Lamb now to be poured upon the godless (Zephaniah 2:3; Isaiah 26:20-21). The identity of these First‑fruits is revealed by a similar means to that which reveals the identity of the Man‑child. These persons are shown as connected with the Father, the Lamb, and the Mount Zion, which also refers back to the promises to the overcomers, and shows that the First‑fruits will be a portion of the company of the victors, who, it is promised, will be marked as connected with the Father, the Son, and the New Jerusalem (Revelation 3:12). These three marks of identification come together in these two passages only. Now the moral features attributed to these First‑fruits show that they had lived just that pure, faithful Christian life which necessarily results from watchfulness, prayerfulness, and patient obedience to the words of Christ, as inculcated in the corresponding passages quoted. As the Man‑child and the rest of the woman’s seed were but one family, only removed in two portions, one before the Beast and the other after his persecutions, so first‑fruits and harvest were grown from one sowing in one field, only they were reaped in two portions, one before the hour of judgment and the other after the Beast had persecuted. We have remarked above that these latter are termed “saints,” and that this was the regular title that Christians gave to one another; that it is amplified by the double description “they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” and that in this description John had before twice included himself; so that the terms mean that company in which John had membership, the church of God. Moreover, as the Jewish remnant will not have owned Jesus during the period in view the terms can apply only to Christians.
Finally, as between the gathering of the sheaf of first‑fruits and the ingathering of the harvest there came the intensest summer heat, so between the removal of the First‑fruits and the reaping of the Harvest there is placed (ver. 9 ‑ 13) the Great Tribulation, that final persecution which while, like all persecution, it will wither the unrooted stalk (Matthew 13:21), ripens the matured grain. It is ripeness, not the calendar or the clock, that determines the time of reaping (Mark 4:29). The Heavenly Husbandman reaps no unripe grain: hence, “the hour to reap is come” when the harvest is “dried up” (Revelation 14:15), for the dryness of the kernel in the husk is its fitness for the gamer and for use. Thus the Great Tribulation will be a true mercy to the Lord’s people by fully developing and sanctifying them for their heavenly destiny and glory.
It thus appears that the foretold order of events will be: ‑
1. The removal of such as prevail to escape the Times of the End. These will be taken up to God and to His throne on the Mount Zion, not to the air. Nor does the Lord come for them; they are simply taken, like Enoch or Elijah: taken to stand before Him and His throne. Nor is a resurrection announced for this moment. The dead, because dead, will have escaped the End‑times, which escape is the announced object of this rapture.
2. The Beast arises and persecutes.
3. The Lord descends to the clouds and gathers together His elect (Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; Titus 2:13; Revelation 14:14-16). At this time there will be the first resurrection. Each who shall be accounted worthy of the coming age will “arise into his lot at the end of the days,” not sooner, certainly not before the End days have commenced (Daniel 12:13). Nor may we assume of the Firstfruits that they will have priority in the Kingdom over equally faithful saints of earlier times.
4. After an interval the Lord descends to the Mount of Olives, destroys the Beast and his armies, and establishes the Kingdom of the heavens on the earth.
It is therefore our wisdom to give earnest, unremitting attention to our Lord’s most solemn exhortation “take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness [that is, fleshly indulgence], and cares of this life [that is, its burdens through either poverty or riches], and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:34-36).
Oh, dare and sufler all things!
Yet but a stretch of road, Then wondrous words of welcome, And then ‑ the FACE OF GOD!
Many of the perplexities felt as to these themes are caused by misconceptions upon three subjects ‑ the constitution of man, the place and state of the dead, the judgment of the Lord upon His people. Some discussion of these matters follows.
S0UL OR SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE MAN?