Our blessed hope or our consolation prize?

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 New Living Translation). This will happen before a time Jesus called the Great Tribulation. "For the tribulation will be unparalleled—hardships of a magnitude that has not been seen since creation and that will not be seen again" (Matthew 24:21 The Voice). Jesus gave a promise that he meant as a comfort to his disciples when he said it. It is the first reference to the Rapture in the New Testament. "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:1-3 New King James Version). If the Rapture happens before the Tribulation, we will have plenty of time to enjoy Heaven as Jesus promised before we return with him during his millennial reign (Revelation 20). If the Rapture does not occur until the middle or end of the Tribulation, our hearts have great reason to be troubled.

One of the false attacks against the Rapture is that it is some new doctrine that is only a few centuries old. Critics of the pre-Tribulation Rapture claim that the philosophy did not exist until a man named John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) invented it and spread it throughout his home country of England, eventually causing it to catch on here in North America. Going way back to the early church, records of a pre-Tribulation Rapture being taught both inside and outside the Bible as future posts on this topic will discuss in greater detail. Also, there are examples of it being taught in America in 1784, 16 years before Darby was born. Again, this will be discussed in future posts on the subject.

However, the pre-Tribulation Rapture view is not the only view of the end times that exist. Others believe the church will not be raptured until the middle of the Tribulation, and still, others feel the church will not be raptured until the end of the Tribulation. Then there is another doctrine out there called the pre-wrath Rapture view. Beyond that, some adopt the tenets of preterism and amillennialism. To a person who hasn't spent as long studying these terms and views, this can all seem very confusing and overwhelming. Unfortunately, this has caused many people to proverbially shrug their shoulders and give up on the study of eschatology altogether because it is "too hard to understand" or too controversial. How sad this is when Jesus told us to not let our hearts be troubled in connection with the Rapture (John 14:1), and the Apostle Paul wrote that we should "comfort and encourage one another with these words [concerning our reunion with believers who have died]" (1 Thessalonians 4:18 Amplified Bible). God says of the Tribulation: "In all history, there has never been such a time of terror. It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel. Yet, in the end, they will be saved" (Jeremiah 30:7 New Living Translation)! This, and other passages, indicate that national Israel will go through the Tribulation, eventually leading them to finally recognize their Messiah. The church already recognizes its Messiah and is not under God's wrath.

The world is racing toward that which is described by the prophets immediately preceding the return of Christ. That Tribulation Earth will be controlled by the Antichrist. "Let no man deceive you by any means. For the Lord comes not unless there come a departing first and that sinful man be revealed – the son of perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3 New Matthew Bible). However, sound teaching on Bible prophecy and the end times should not fill anyone with doom and gloom. It should spur us toward more significant evangelism and expectation. The Rapture is called our "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13), not "our quick elevator trip after God has finished pouring out his wrath on us." Let us treat it like a blessed hope, not a consolation prize.