Thirteen Scholars Answer Tough Questions about the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming – Program 4

By: Dr. John Walvoord, Hal Lindsey, Dr. Zola Levitt, Peter LaLonde, Dr. David Breese, Dr. Renald Showers, Dr. John Feinberg, Dr. Paul Feinberg, Dr. Earl Radmacher, Dr. Randall Price, Dave Hunt, Dr. Elwood McQuaid, Dr. Jimmy DeYoung; ©1996

Will the rapture happen before the tribulation period begins? Or will Christians have to endure part or all of the tribulation here on earth?

Contents

When Will the Rapture Take Place?

Introduction

Dr. John Ankerberg: As we reach the end of this century, people want to know more about biblical prophecy, especially the sequence of the many important events that the Bible says will occur during the end times. Today and in the weeks to come, you will meet and hear thirteen of the most respected and knowledgeable professors and teachers of biblical prophecy in the United States. They will explain in depth some of the key passages concerning end-time events. My guests will be: Professor Dr. John Walvoord, Dr. Zola Levitt, Dr. David Breese, Dr. Earl Radmacher, Dr. Randall Price, Dr. Elwood McQuaid, Peter Lalonde, Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, Dr. Renald Showers, Dr. Paul Feinberg, Dr. John Feinberg, and best-selling author Dave Hunt. We invite you to join us.

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Ankerberg: Welcome. In this series we are answering your questions on biblical prophecy concerning the Rapture, the Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ. If you’ve just joined us, the Rapture is that event described in the Bible when “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be” raptured, or “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

We are answering your questions, “When does the Rapture happen? Does it take place before, during or after the terrible events of the Tribulation?” Last week we began examining Revelation Chapter 3, verse 10 where Jesus promised the Church, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.” We learned that Jesus made this promise to all Churches and all Christians in every era. How do we know? We know this because three verses later, in verse 10, we read: “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.”

Notice, not just to the Church, singular, at Philadelphia; but to the Churches, plural. This would include all of the Churches that were addressed in the Book of Revelation, as well as the many others that existed across Asia Minor. Since it was applicable to all the Churches and Christians then, it continues to apply to all the Churches and Christians worldwide today.

Second, the Lord made a promise to these faithful Church saints that because they had obediently followed His example while suffering and had patiently held on to the expectation that He could return at any moment, the Lord promises He will keep them from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world.

Now, what is the hour of temptation that He promises to save them from? The Greek word for “temptation,” peirasmos, actually means “a test; a trial.” The New American Standard Bible translates this phrase, “the hour of testing.” The NIV translates this “the hour of trial.” The verb form of this word peirozo literally means “to put to the test to discover what kind of person someone is.” So Jesus promises these Christians that because they had passed the test of patiently following Christ’s example while suffering and had not given up their belief that He would soon return, He will keep these Church saints from a future trial, a future testing that is going to come upon all the world.

This hour of temptation is very clearly defined in the Greek text and Dr. Earl Radmacher, Professor and Chancellor of Western Theological Seminary, explains why:

Radmacher: Now, I am often asked, “What is your greatest argument for the pre-Tribulation Rapture?” and when I give a theological argument, I give the imminency of the Lord’s return. There are no signs preceding His return for His Church. But when I give a textual argument—what single text?—I think that there is no text that is clearer in Scripture than Revelation Chapter 3 and verse 10. Listen to these words: “Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you out of the hour of the trial, the coming one.” The text has three specific, definite articles, so it’s not talking about just keeping them out of trial or out of tribulation, it’s talking about keeping them out of a period of trial. “I will keep you out of the hour of the tribulation, the coming one.” The writer couldn’t have said it more specifically than he said it in those verses. Now, someone could say, “Well, didn’t he say that simply to the church at Philadelphia?” Well, I want you to notice something about these seven little epistles in Revelation 2 and 3. Every one of them concludes with an eschatological statement. By eschatology we mean “the last things,” and so every one of these little epistles goes down to the end time and every one of them is different. If you will look at the end of the epistle to the Ephesians, to Ephesus, in 2:17, you will see that it talks about the end times, “To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Now, each one of those epistles will take you down to a prophetic event of the very end. So, you can conclude that the seven exhortations at the end of those epistles are for the totality of the Church. How do I know that? Well, if you’ll look at the beginning of that verse, it says, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” not just to the church at Ephesus, but to the churches. So he takes the prophetic statement that he has given and makes that applicable to the totality of the churches, something that all of us will participate in. Therefore, I believe that it is legitimate in Revelation 3 when he’s speaking to the church at Philadelphia and he gives this end-time statement about the Tribulation, we may all see our place in the fulfillment ultimately of that passage.

So it’s a specific time period; it’s a specific nature; and it is a specific promise with regard to exemption from that period of time.

Ankerberg: Now, as Dr. Radmacher just said, the Greek article for the word “the” is used three times here. “The hour of the trial, the coming one.” In Greek this is known as an article of previous reference which means Jesus is talking to these people about a coming hour of trial that was well-known to them. He didn’t have to spell it out for them—they already knew all about it. The Christians in all the Churches were well acquainted with all that the Old Testament as well as Jesus had said concerning the hour of trial, the time of Tribulation.

For example, they knew such Scriptures as Isaiah 13:6-13, where among other things the prophet wrote: “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, a cruel day with wrath and fierce anger…I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins….” (NIV). They also had read Jeremiah 30:4-11 where God told him that in the future Israel would be punished along with the nations of the world; but ultimately, Israel would be brought back to repentance and belief in God.

In this passage God says, “How awful that day will be: none will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob; but he will be saved out of it. I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel because your guilt is so great and your sins so many. I will discipline you but only with justice. I will not let you go entirely unpunished.”

They knew what God had told Daniel the prophet in Daniel 9:26 and 27 where He said, “The end will come like a flood. War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He”—talking about the Antichrist—”will confirm a covenant with many”—that’s Israel—”for one seven”—which, in context, meant a seven year period of time. “In the middle of the seven he”—that’s the Antichrist—”will put an end to sacrifice and offering and on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured down on him.”

Further, in Daniel 12:1 he says about this coming hour of trial that will come on all the world, “There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.”

They knew about Zephaniah 3:8 where God told him, “I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms, and to pour out my wrath on them. All my fierce anger on the whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.”

Much more, these Christians knew about Jesus’ own words in Matthew 24:9-31 where He described the events of the Tribulation. In verse 21 Jesus specifically states: “For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be.” So this hour of trial was well-known to these Christians.

And then notice, our Lord says this hour of trial is yet future. It is the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world. In this verse Jesus is not referring to past things these Christians at Philadelphia had already experienced; nor was He referring to history in general where Christians go through trials and tribulations. His words indicate this hour of testing will be distinct, unique, and confined to a limited amount of time. It won’t last forever. It’s the future seventieth week of Daniel 9:27, and as Daniel said, it “will be a time of distress such as never occurred.” So it’s a future test but is still coming.

Then third, I want you to notice that Jesus said this period of testing will affect not just those people who live in the city of Philadelphia, or those who live in the Roman Empire, but it will come upon the whole world. Jesus said, “I will also keep thee from the hour of trial which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.” The word translated “all” means exactly that: whole, entire, complete. The term translated “world” indicates the inhabited earth, the world. Taken together they refer to the whole inhabited world. It is the same expression that is used in Revelation 16:14 which refers to the kings of the whole inhabited earth who gather together to battle at Armageddon. It is the same phrase Jesus used when He said the Gospel is to be preached “in all the world for a witness unto all nations.”

So this future hour of trial is a distinct future period of time that will be uniquely characterized by its intense, concentrated, worldwide scope of testing. This can only be the Tribulation. But what we want to see next is, what kind of protection does Jesus promise these Christians when He says He will keep them from, or out of, the hour of trial that will come upon all the world? In brief, He says, they won’t be there. They won’t experience this final test at all.

This goes back to 1 Thessalonians 4. There, the apostle teaches that Christ Himself will someday catch up all Christians living on planet earth to meet Him in the air. This is the Rapture. And the result will be that the Church will be separated from or exempted from this future time of testing, the seven-year Tribulation time period. The very same event the Thessalonian Christians were waiting for when Paul wrote them in 1 Thessalonians 1:9, “Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” Let me illustrate.

When I was attending college, I remember one semester which was especially tough with many hard courses, and I struggled along. One day the professor came in and told us that all those who had done well on the previous small tests and had done well on the mid-term examination, they would not have to take the final exam. I could hardly believe it. Talk about music to my ears! I had done well enough all along and passed the everyday tests to show that I knew the material. So as a result, I was now exempt, separated from, I didn’t have to take the big final exam. And that’s what Christ promised these faithful Church saints. Because they had patiently endured and lived for Him and never stopped believing in His return, He said they had already passed the test—they wouldn’t have to take the final exam. They would be exempt from the final hour of testing that would come upon the world.

In Revelation 3:10 Jesus specifically used the Greek words tereso ek. The verb tereo means “to keep” or “to guard.” The preposition ek means “out” or “out of. To separate one thing from another.” Jesus promised, “I will keep you out of the hour of trial.” Some believe that Christians will be kept “through” the Tribulation time period. But there’s a Greek word for “through,” dia, but our Lord didn’t use it. Some say the Lord will keep Christians “in” the Tribulation. But again, there’s a Greek word for “in,” en, and He didn’t use that word. So our Lord used the word ek, “out from.” So our Lord didn’t say: I will keep you during or through the hour of testing, or in the hour of testing, but “I will keep you out of the hour of testing.” That’s why this is a special promise. Dr. John Walvoord, Professor and Chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary, clearly explains what Jesus said:

Walvoord: Now, how could he have made that promise if he was a post-tribulationist? See, by the nature of the case he had to be a pre-tribulationist. Now, notice also the expression here “to keep you from.” Now, this is both a verb which means “to keep” but it also has the Greek preposition ek which means “from.” Now, the post-tribulationists don’t have any strength here at all but they try to refute it by saying, “keeps them through” the Great Tribulation. Well, if he was going to say “through” he should have used the Greek dia with the accusative which means to keep through. He had an alternative if that’s what he wanted to say, but he said instead, “keep from this.”

Ankerberg: Now still there are some Christians who, after reading the promise on Revelation 3:10, do not believe that Christ will come and keep Christians totally from the hour of trial via Rapture because of a parallel verse in the Gospel of John Chapter 17, verse 15. In that passage the same Apostle John who wrote Revelation 3:10 also writes and uses the same phrase found in Revelation 3:10. Jesus is praying to the Father and the verse reads, “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one.” The word ek is found in “out of the world” and then the same phrase, “keep them,” tereso ek, “keep them out” or “keep them from” the evil one. As a result, some folks look at this and argue that Jesus clearly asked the Father not to remove Christians from out of the world. Rather, He only asked that Christians be protected ek, from the devil, while living in the world. They see the use of ek in Revelation 3:10 saying the same thing; namely that Christians will be kept through the time of trial by God’s special providence, not by their being raptured out of the world before the hour of trial.

Now, I personally believe there are three reasons why their views are wrong and this is not what the Scripture teaches. First, in the Gospel of John, protection is from the devil and his harmful power while Christians live in the world. But in Revelation 3:10, protection is from a time period, the hour of trial.

Second, the hour of trial in Revelation 3:10 is a judgment of God on the rebellious inhabitants of the earth called “earthdwellers.” Whereas God has promised faithful Christians, “God hath not appointed us to wrath,” 1 Thessalonians 5:9, and according to 1 Thessalonians 1:10, we are “waiting for God’s Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus who rescues from the coming wrath.” In Philippians 3:20 the Apostle Paul tells Christians, “For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” We will return to that word “earthdwellers” and show why the testing will come on them and has been exempted from faithful Christians.

Third, I believe the Lord’s promise here is that He will rapture the Church saints before the hour of trial, the seven-year Tribulation time period, ever begins. Because it’s impossible to say that the saints of the Tribulation time period are going to be protected while they’re going through it.

All one needs to do is to look through the Book of Revelation to see that Christians are not preserved but they’re martyred during this time. Then, what kind of promise would it be if Jesus said to these faithful Christians, “Because you have passed the test of faithfully and obediently living for me, I want to promise you that in the future you will go through the final terrible test that will come on all those who have lived ungodly all of their lives.” That wouldn’t be any promise at all. The real promise is that they will be exempt from this final period of testing. They’ll be separated from it. They won’t go through any part of it. But this test will come on all of the earth to see what kind of people they are. The Bible says some will repent and believe, and others will reject God, blaspheme His name and be damned. For example, Revelation 6:9 and 11 says, “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God.” They had heard the Gospel. “And the testimony they had maintained.” They had persevered. Each of them was given a white robe and they were told to wait a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. Here, these Christians had repented and believed and were living faithfully—but they were martyred. They weren’t protected.

Look at Revelation 7:14. There it tells us, “These are the ones who came who came out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Notice, they died during the Great Tribulation, which would be at least the last three and a half years of the seven-year period of Daniel’s Seventieth Week. The words, “they who came out of the great tribulation” is a translation of a present tense participle. A. T. Robertson, the Greek scholar, says, “This participle leads to the idea of continued repetition,” that is, the people of the great multitude who were coming out of the great tribulation, were doing so individually, one by one. They were continuously doing so through death, mainly death by martyrdom.

So, again, in Revelation 7:14 the believing saints who are martyred are still arriving. It hardly seems from these verses that the saints during the Tribulation time period are being protected by God from the hour of trial. But this hour of trial or testing comes to reveal the kind of people that fall under the judgment of God. Those who do not repent—and they’ll have every chance to do so—will be brought into judgment. Revelation 9:20 is just one of many places where this is stated: “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues”—these judgments—”still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood; idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, their thefts.”

When the two witnesses that God sends to preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth are killed, the earthdwellers gloat over them and actually celebrate by sending each other gifts. It almost becomes a holiday for them. Why? Because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. In the fourth bowl judgment the Bible says the people on earth were “seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God who had control over these plagues.” In other words, they realized these plagues had come from God; but they refused to repent and glorify Him. The fifth bowl judgment, “Men gnawed their tongues in agony, but they cursed the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores. But they refused to repent of what they had done.”

Let me say something else about these earthdwellers mentioned in Revelation 3:10. Remember it says, “I will keep thee from the hour of trial which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth,” the earthdwellers. The Greek word here is not just oikeo, a resident or dweller, but katoikeo, those who have permanently identified themselves with the world and settled down upon the earth. This phrase, “those who live upon the earth”—the earthdwellers—is repeated seven times in the Book of Revelation. Never once does “earthdwellers” refer to believers; it always refers to unbelievers. These people hate God, are unrepentant and are persecutors against the saints. For example, in Revelation 6:10 the earthdwellers are the persecutors against whom the martyrs plead for vengeance. In Revelation 8:13 an angel pronounces a threefold woe upon the earthdwellers which will come on then during the last three trumpet judgments. In Revelation 11:10 the earthdwellers are those who gloat over the death of the two witnesses who preach the Gospel. In Revelation 13:8 the earthdwellers worship the beast, the Antichrist. In Revelation 13:14 the earthdwellers are deceived by the Antichrist and make an image of him to worship. In Revelation 17:8 they gaze in wonder at the beast; and in Revelation 13:8 and 17:8 the Bible states categorically that these earthdwellers are people “whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world.”

So the earthdwellers are unsaved people who will never repent. That’s why the hour of trial is going to come upon the whole world to test the earthdwellers, that is, those who live on the earth. The Greek words indicate through this test and through the judgments of the Tribulation time period God will reveal that these people deserve His eternal judgment. For example, in Revelation 6:12-15, when God causes the cosmic disturbances of the sixth seal, the earthdwellers are said to be terrified. They recognize that these judgments are the expressions of God’s wrath. But instead of repenting and believing in God, the Bible says, “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand?'” Again, instead of repenting, they called for the mountains and rocks to fall on them, to hide them from God.

So in light of all this, let me draw four conclusions: First, Revelation 3:10 shows that because the Church saints had already passed their test to endure patiently for Christ, Christ promised to keep or separate them from the future period of testing. Second, this future period of testing can only be identified as unique, terrible, and a limited time of the seven-year Tribulation time, the seventieth week of Daniel.

Third, God’s means of testing those dwelling on the earth during this future Tribulation time period will be a worldwide outpouring of His judgments.

Fourth, Christ says He will keep or protect the Church saints not just from specific testing during the hour, but, rather, He will keep Christians from “the hour” or “time period” in which the testing takes place. Christ will separate them from it.

In what sense will He separate them from the period of testing? Again, not by shielding them from the testing while they live within the period of testing similar to the Israelites who lived in Egypt when God sent the ten plagues on the land. No, if He did that, Christ would only be separating the Church saints from the testing itself but not from “the time period” of the testing. This is contrary to the promise of Christ in this verse. Another way of saying this is, if people live within a time period, then they are not separated from it. Christ promises to separate us from the whole time period.

Fifth, those who say the Church saints will be shielded from the testing of God’s wrath during the Tribulation, can’t explain why the saints seem to be martyred all through the Tribulation. The passages in Revelation contradict the notion that the saints are protected in or through that period of testing.

Sixth, those who say that Christ will separate the Church saints from the period of testing after they have been in it for some length of time, their response must also be rejected. Why? Because their response has Christ separating the Church saints from only part of the period of testing, when Christ promised to separate Church saints from the entire period of testing that will come upon the whole world. Jesus does not promise that Christians will be removed after part of the hour of trial has run its course, but the whole hour of trial. If people live within even a part of the time period, they are not separated or kept from that time period. The only view that fits this verse is that Christ will separate the Church saints from the entire period of testing by removing them from the earth by the Rapture before that time period begins. This is what is described in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. Next week, we will look at the biblical evidence that shows the Rapture and Second Coming are two separate events, divided by the seven-year Tribulation time period.

Read Part 5