Welcome back to All About the Rapture. Up until now, we’ve looked at the rapture through the eyes of the New Testament, but any study of the rapture would be incomplete without also examining the Old Testament. Although people generally like to focus on the New Testament when studying the rapture, the Old Testament is just as important. Like the New Testament, it has a lot to teach us about the rapture it just does it in a different way: the New Testament does it through verses that talk about it directly, while the Old Testament does it through symbolic stories. These stories tell of times in the past when people became evil and God destroyed them. Since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, by studying these stories of past destruction, we can learn how God will act in the end times when people once again descend into evil and God destroys them. And one thing we learn is that before He destroys them, He removes His people from harms way. But he doesn’t remove them far in advance of the destruction, instead, He removes them immediately before it begins. When you combine that knowledge with the knowledge that, in the end times, the Tribulation Period is not a prolonged period of time when God is slowly destroying evil, but that evil is actually destroyed rather quickly at the end of the Tribulation Period at Jesus’ Return, you can clearly see that that is when the rapture will take place – at the end of the Tribulation Period.
Today, we are going to examine the Old Testament stories of Noah and Lot and take a closer look at these principles and how they relate to the rapture. In both stories, we find situations where people had become so evil that God had to destroy them. But before he did, he removed his own people from harms way. I’m sure that most of you are familiar with these stories, but in case you’re not, here’s a detailed review:
The story of Noah is found in Genesis 6 – 9. The Bible tells us that in those days, the world had become exceedingly wicked. Chapter 6, verse 11 says that the earth was “filled with violence” (NKJV), that the only intent of every heart was evil all the time. The world had become so bad that God had to destroy it. God decided that He would send a great flood upon the earth that would destroy all life.
And yet, despite all the evil, there was one man who remained true to God. That man was Noah. And even though God was determined to destroy the evil world, He would not destroy Noah or his family. God would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked, therefore He would spare Noah and his family from destruction. So, before God sent the flood, He spoke to Noah. He told him that He would soon destroy the world, and gave him instructions to build a large boat so that he and his family could stay inside the boat and be safe. He also instructed him to take two of every living creature into the boat so that after the flood they could replenish the earth.
Noah was obedient and built the ark. Once built, God told Noah to take his family and the animals and get inside. Once inside, Verse 6 says that God sealed them in. Then, that same day, the flood began. Rain came down from the sky, the crevasses in the deep were opened, and water rushed over the earth from every direction. After forty days and nights of rain, the world was completely submerged and all life on earth was destroyed. All life, that is, except Noah, his family, and the animals that God had preserved in the ark.
That’s the story of Noah. Now we will look at Lot. The story of Lot is found in Genesis 18 and 19 and is very similar to that of Noah. In Genesis 18, we find that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had become incredibly wicked. In verse 20, the Lord says, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” (NSAB1995) The cities and their surrounding areas had, in fact, become overtaken with evil. They were so evil that God had to destroy them.
But He wouldn’t do it until Lot had been removed. Lot was the one righteous person in the entire land of Sodom and Gomorrah, and God would not destroy him along with the wicked. So, the evening before God destroyed the cities, he sent two angels to remove Lot. When the angels arrived at Lot’s home, the men of the city surrounded Lot’s home and demanded that he send the two men (the angels) out to them. When Lot refused, the men of the city started banging on the door and tried to break in. The angels opened the front door and struck the men with blindness so that they couldn’t succeed in their attempt to break into the home. The angels then told Lot that God was going to destroy the cities, so he must leave. They told him to take his wife, his daughters, and any other relatives he had in town and get out immediately because they were in danger of getting caught up in the destruction. Lot rushed out to gather his sons-in-law and his married daughters, telling them that they were in imminent danger and had to leave, but they didn’t believe him.
Disheartened, Lot returned home. But he didn’t leave. Then, as the dawn broke, the angels insisted that he leave. But he hesitated. So the angels grabbed him by the hand, along with his wife and the two unmarried daughters who resided at the home, and had to practically drag them out of the city. The angels told them to keep moving, to flee to the mountains and not to look back. Lot, however, was somewhat disobedient: instead of complying, he panicked and told the angels that he was afraid of going to the mountains, that he thought he would die there. He begged them for permission to flee, instead, to a little nearby town. The angels relented and gave him permission to flee to the town. Once they arrived at the little town of Zoar, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by raining down fire and brimstone from Heaven. While at Zoar, Lot and his daughters obeyed the angels and didn’t look back, but Lot’s wife disobeyed: she looked back at the destruction of the cities and was turned into a pillar of salt. Meanwhile, by the time the sun had risen overhead, Sodom, Gomorrah, and their surrounding areas were completely destroyed, but Lot and his two daughters were safe.
The stories of Noah and Lot have a lot to teach us about the end times and the rapture because they deal with people becoming evil and God destroying them. In Noah’s day, He destroyed the world. In Lot’s day, He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And in both cases, He removed His people immediately before the destruction. The same day, in fact. With Noah, the Bible says that God sealed him and his family in the ark and the same day the waters fell. With Lot, the angels removed him and his family and then mere hours later, fire and brimstone fell. In these stories, we find not only the principle that God will not destroy the righteous along with the wicked, but that before He destroys evil, He will actually remove His people and lead them to safely. He doesn’t just work around them. He could leave them where they are and destroy the evil from around them, but He doesn’t. He actually removes His people from the area before destroying the wicked. And that is how it will be in the end times. In the end times, when people once again become so wicked that God has to destroy them, He will remove his people first. He removed Noah by way of an ark; He removed Lot by having angels escort him out of the city; and He will remove His church by way of the rapture.
Now that we have established that God will remove His people before He destroys evil, let’s see how that helps us understand when the rapture will take place. To do that, we must answer two central questions: 1. In the end times, when does God destroy evil? Does he do it during the Tribulation Period or at the end of the Tribulation Period? And, 2. What is the evil that God is going to destroy? In other words, who exactly is He going to destroy?
Before we answer those questions, we first need to understand what the Tribulation Period is. Pre-Tribulationists say that the Tribulation Period is a seven-year period when God is going to slowly judge the earth and destroy everyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Savior. But that is not correct. That is not what the Tribulation Period is. The Tribulation Period is not the designated time when God judges the earth and destroys the unsaved. Instead, the Tribulation Period is exactly what it says it is: tribulation. It is a time of tribulation that comes upon the world. And while there will be death, destruction, and suffering, it is not a seven-year period where God slowly, systematically judges and destroys the world or destroys the unsaved.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Aside from being a time of death, fear, and sorrow, the Tribulation Period is actually a time of mercy because during that time, people can still be saved. Despite everything that will happening, people will still have the right to come to God (through Jesus), repent, and be saved. And both pre- and post-Tribulations agree about that. That is not a point of debate among Christians.
So, back to the questions: 1. When does God destroy evil? And, 2. What exactly is the evil that He is destroying? Here are the answers: Jesus destroys evil when He returns at the very end of the Tribulation Period at His Second Coming. And, the evil that He is destroying is the anti-Christ and his followers.
The Bible shows us that evil is destroyed when Jesus returns. Satan/the anti-Christ are given power over the inhabitants of the earth for a certain amount of time during the Tribulation Period. At the end of that time, Jesus returns in what is known as His Second Coming. He returns not only to save the Jews and rescue His church, but to destroy the evil that is the anti-Christ and his kingdom. He doesn’t return to destroy the world as a whole. He doesn’t return to destroy the unsaved. He returns to destroy the anti-Christ and his followers. And it is that event that is on par with the great flood of Noah. That is the event that is the equivalent to the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And it is that event from which God will save us. The stories of Noah and Lot teach us that God removes His people from harm’s way immediately before He destroys evil. Jesus is the One who destroys evil and He destroys it at the end of the Tribulation Period, and that is when the rapture will be.
The rapture of the church will not happen at the beginning of the Tribulation Period because the Tribulation Period is not God destroying evil. The Tribulation Period is a time of great distress that comes upon the inhabitants of the earth, and it is a time of great mercy that is shown to the unsaved, but it is not a time when God specifically sets out to destroy evil. Evil is destroyed at the very end of the Tribulation Period by Jesus at His Second Coming when He defeats the anti-Christ and his followers. And right before that happens, Jesus will remove His church. He will appear in the sky and, with a shout, He will call His church to His side (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18). And once we are caught up into the clouds (aka raptured) and are safely by His side, He will defeat the anti-Christ and his followers. He will then proceed to establish His earthly kingdom where He will rule and reign for one thousand years. All of this happens very suddenly, very quickly, and it happens at the very end of the Tribulation Period. Noah was removed, and the same day the waters fell. Lot was removed, and the same day fire and brimstone fell. We, the church, will be removed, and immediately the anti-Christ and his followers will be destroyed. That is not to say that it will be the same day, but it will be immediate. And once we are removed, there will be no more time for repentance, no more time for salvation. We will be removed, and then destruction will fall. And it all happens at the very end of the Tribulation Period.
That’s all for today. See you next time!
Julie
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (NKJV)
New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. (NSAB1995)
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