Welcome back to All About the Rapture! If this is your first time visiting this site, I’d like to encourage you to go back and read my first post. In it, you’ll find a quick review of basic end-time Bible prophecy, a definition of the rapture, the pre-Tribulation rapture view, and the post-Tribulation rapture view.
Today, we are going to look at the post-Tribulation rapture belief. As I mentioned in the previous post, I am a post-Tribulationist. I was raised in a church that taught the pre-Tribulation rapture, but it never quite made sense. As an adult, I did my own study on the issue to try to tie up some loose ends only to find that the Bible actually seems to teach that the rapture will happen at the end of the Tribulation Period, at the Second Coming. I’ve created this website to share with you what I found.
As we discussed last time, there are two main theories regarding the rapture: the pre-Tribulation theory and the post-Tribulation theory. The pre-Tribulation theory teaches that the rapture and the Second Coming are two separate events, that the rapture happens before the Tribulation Period begins, and the second coming happens seven years later, at the end of the Tribulation Period. The post-Tribulation theory says that the rapture and the Second Coming happen at the same time, that instead of being a separate event, the rapture is part of the Second Coming. The reason post-Tribulations believe this is quite simple. They believe this because the Biblical descriptions of the Second Coming and the rapture are very similar. They are so similar, in fact, that post-Tribulationists believe that they are the same event. Now let’s look at what the Bible teaches about the Second Coming and compare it to what it teaches about the rapture and see how similar they are.
There are many passages in the Bible that deal with the Second Coming. Today, we will focus on Matthew 24:30-31 and Mark 13:26-27. In these passages, Jesus Himself is talking to His disciples and describing His return.
In Matthew 24:30-31 (NKJV), He says:
30. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
In Mark 13:26-27 (NKJV), Jesus says:
26. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
27. And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.
These passages clearly show that, at the Second Coming, Jesus will come in the clouds, the tribes of the earth (those who are not His people) will mourn, and, at the sounding of a trumpet, His people will be gathered together. That is the basic description of the Second Coming.
Now let’s compare it to the rapture. As we learned last time, the rapture is the event where Jesus calls the living church together and they meet Him in the air. According to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, at the rapture, Jesus will appear in the sky, there will be the sounding of a trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise and meet Jesus in the air first, and then the living church will be caught up (aka, raptured) in the clouds and meet Jesus in the air, as well. The passage reads:
16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (NKJV)
As you can see, Paul’s description of the rapture is nearly identical to Jesus’ description of the Second Coming. Slightly different words are used, but the idea is the same. Both foretell a time when Jesus will appear in the clouds, a trumpet will sound, and God’s people will be gathered together. To the post-Tribulationist, the fact that these passages are so similar means that they are talking about the same event. Since it is an undisputed, absolute fact that Jesus is talking about the Second Coming, that means that Paul is talking about the Second Coming, too, which means that the rapture is not a separate event, but that it is part of the Second Coming. And since the Second Coming happens at the end of the Tribulation Period, that means that the rapture happens at the end of the Tribulation Period, making it a post-Tribulation rapture.
So, that is the post-Tribulation view. It is simple and straightforward. Of course, there’s more to it than that, and we will examine the other reasons for their belief in the months to come, but the similarities between Jesus’ description of the Second Coming and Paul’s description of the rapture are a very important, fundamental part of why post-Tribulationists believe as they do. And again, I want to state that it is the concept of the aforementioned passages that is important. Please don’t get confused because Jesus’ words and Paul’s words are not an exact match. They don’t have to be. They are conceptually the same, each telling of a time when Jesus will appear in the sky, a trumpet will sound, and God’s people will be gathered together. The concepts match, and the information given is enough to show that they are describing the same event.
That’s all for this month! Next time, we will examine the pre-Tribulationist opinion regarding this issue, because while pre-Tribulationists agree that Matthew 24, Mark 13, and 1 Thessalonians 4 are, indeed, similar, they do not believe that they are describing the same event. I hope you enjoyed today’s post. Thanks for reading!
Julie J
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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