Watch and Pray – For What?
Be alert and be prepared, for whatever may be on the horizon.
Scripture has always told us to take the Lord seriously by living in holiness, being diligent in His service, and preparing for persecution. We should therefore watch how we live and, in the sense that any of us may die at any time, all believers throughout the generations have lived with the possibility of imminency with regard to facing the Lord in person. Although none of us knows when the Lord Jesus will return, there is a heightened sense of world events accelerating towards alignment with many of the Biblical signs we are told to watch out for. Even in the West, where believers have previously enjoyed great freedom, we now see things getting serious. None who take Bible prophecy seriously can be under any illusion that the last few years leading up to Jesus’ return will be challenging in the extreme, but should we be preparing ourselves to overcome during those days, even to the point of death, or should we expect to be delivered before then – at the rapture?
Entering into the debate concerning the pre-tribulation rapture (PTR) can be a daunting prospect. This is a fierce battleground with serious, committed believers on either side armed to the teeth with the Scriptures they believe unequivocally prove their own position. Being genuinely objective and considerate to all arguments is challenging, perhaps impossible. So, how are those of us who do not consider ourselves “experts” navigate this minefield? It may be helpful to step back and do two things. First, identify those Biblical themes the tribulation debate touches on, and then try to get a sense for the overall thrust of Scripture. Then, choose a particular position on the rapture, such as pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation, pre-wrath or intra-seal, and subject it to rigorous cross-examination to see if it is consistent and in line with the Bible’s perspective. This approach can be immensely rewarding in drawing one more deeply into the Word of God. However, patience is needed. Sometimes the most important thing is simply to ask questions, even if that means leaving them unanswered until the Lord provides revelation in His own good time.
To illustrate this approach, I will use the PTR position to highlight some of the key Biblical themes, and then pose some questions which I believe that those who advocate this should be able to answer in a Biblically satisfactory manner.
Time and sequence
The Bible speaks of the “present age” and the “age to come”, and then to narrower periods of time in this age such as “the last days” and “the day of the Lord” (with numerous other terms referring to the same period). Surprisingly perhaps, the apostles already identified themselves as living in “the last days”, whilst the term “end times” is not even Biblical. The Lord’s covenants arguably provide the backbone of salvation history, and most of these are still concurrently in force. Therefore, with the exception of the New Covenant, they do not apparently provide a set of time divisions in God’s dealings with humanity. We also have the prophecy of Daniel’s 70 weeks, and the as yet unfulfilled final week of 7 years, in which various periods of time are significant – most notably the 42 months. The terms “tribulation”, “testing/temptation” and “wrath” appear throughout Scripture and are particularly relevant to this period. Important questions therefore include:
Does the Bible ever refer to “the church age”, and how should we understand Jesus’ statements that He would be with us until the “end of the age” and that the Gospel would be preached “until the end”?
How does the Bible use the terms tribulation, testing and wrath with respect to the Lord’s return? Are they synony-mous or do they mean different things?
Should we divide the Bible into distinct time phases by interpreting it through the lens of dispensational theology?
Questions regarding the timing of the rapture relate to when it occurs in the sequence of events leading to Jesus’ return. It follows the resurrection, as “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Revelation identifies the “first resurrection” as including martyrs who refused to take the mark of the beast (Revelation 20:4-6). The Gospels repeatedly state that the resurrection will take place “on the last day.”
Jesus’ description of events in the Olivet Discourse and His parables which follow apparently align with 1 and 2 Thessalonians with respect to some 30 specific details and their sequence1 and both passages agree broadly with the sequence of seals in Revelation chapter 6. All three sources describe Jesus coming for His elect after the revelation of the Anti-Christ and at the Lord’s return with wrath. Furthermore, in Revelation, several key passages which could arguably be associated with the rapture occur towards the end. These include the great multitude appearing before the Lord between the 6th and 7th seals, the resurrection and ascension of the two witnesses between the 6th and 7th trumpets (assuming this includes an element of typology relating to the church), the first harvest of the earth before the harvest of wrath, Jesus’ warning between the 6th and 7th bowls that He is coming “like a thief,” and the call for the bride to prepare herself for the wedding, just before Jesus returns to destroy the Anti-Christ’s army. Important questions therefore include:
On how many different occasions will there be a resurrection of believers?
Are the details which are exclusively referred to in either Thessalonians or the Olivet Discourse sufficiently significant to conclude that these passages refer to different sets of events – one for the church, and the other for the Jews respectively?
God’s people
The Jews are God’s covenant people, as are all believers in Jesus, the God of Israel. The New Testament describes the mystery of Messiah’s body, in which Jew and Gentile are reconciled through and in Jesus, describing this as “one new man.” Its ultimate fulfilment will take place when believing Gentiles have been gathered in and the surviving Jewish remnant recognises Jesus as their Messiah. Gentile believers are those who have been “grafted in”, and adopted into citizenship together with the existing Jewish community of faith.
Scripture uses many terms to describe those loyal to God, including “elect”, “called-out ones”, “holy ones” and so on. Most would agree that this “one new man” community is not revealed in the Tanakh (“Old Testament”), although we understand that the “holy ones” who come with the Lord to Jerusalem includes Gentile believers (Zechariah chapter 14).
The very fact that a mystery is revealed therefore implies that something was hidden, just as Jesus reigns in heaven right now but awaits His future unveiling. Similarly, the “sons of God” will also be revealed as such at this time and will reign with Messiah (Romans chapter 8). Important questions flowing from this include:
Daniel chapter 7 refers to the saints being overcome by the Anti-Christ. These same saints then inherit the Kingdom of God. Might these saints therefore include believers going through tribulation?
Revelation 12 describes God’s protection of a Jewish remnant, after which Satan attacks the rest of her offspring who follow Jesus. Who is this second group, if not believers?
Is Scripture’s emphasis on the Lord uniting Jew and Gentile in Him, or dividing believers from Israel and the Jews before He returns?
Does it make sense that Jesus would talk to His disciples as Jews regarding the tribulation, but a few days later, at Passover, address them as the “church” regarding the rapture?
Signs, suffering, rescue and hope
The Bible contains a great deal of prophecy concerning the events leading up to the Lord’s return, but more than that, it explains the reasons for doing so. These include preparing us for persecution, strengthening us to witness for the Lord, giving us courage and hope, ensuring that believers in Jerusalem and parts of Israel escape impending annihilation, and repeatedly warning us against deception.
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus tells His disciples that the Lord will deliberately hasten the end because otherwise none of the elect would survive. This naturally raises the question of what hope means for believers throughout history and during this particular time. The New Testament repeatedly emphasises the importance of the resurrection – to the extent that Paul says that there is no point in Christian faith without it. A couple of these passages also refer to the rapture as a rescue for those left alive at the Lord’s return. However, the resurrection and rapture are not an end in themselves, but the means by which we are transformed for eternity so that we become as the Lord and can know Him in His unveiled glory. Again, this suggests some questions:
Might the Lord have a Gospel purpose in allowing the church to go through tribulation?
If the church is to be raptured before the fulfilment of so much precise Bible prophecy concerning Jesus’ return, whom did the Lord intend these signs for?
How would Peter and Paul, who probably both knew they would die for the Lord, have regarded “the blessed hope”?
The concluding chapter of Daniel speaks of the importance of wisdom and people increasingly gaining understanding of the Lord’s sealed, prophetic word. Rigorously scrutinising all positions concerning the rapture’s timing is therefore a collective responsibility. Regardless of where we believe the truth lies on this matter, let us heed Jesus’ encouragement to prayerfully watch both how we live and for the signs of His blessed and glorious coming.