Post Tribulation Rapture

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In Christian eschatology, the Post Tribulation Rapture doctrine is the belief in a combined Resurrection and Rapture (eg., Resurrection-Rapture) of all believers coming after the Great Tribulation.

1 Doctrine and implications
2 Opposing doctrine and Biblical Case Against the Pretribulation Rapture
3 See also
4 External articles and further reading

[edit] Doctrine and implications

This doctrine holds that there is a Resurrection-Rapture of living believers in Jesus Christ at the end of the age (or the "End times"). Posttribulationists believe that Christians will not be taken up into Heaven at the rapture, but will gathered by the angels to meet Christ in the air, then return with him to enter the millenium on earth.

²⁴ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

³⁰ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

³¹ And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other

— Matthew 24, Book and verses of the Bible

In pretribulationism and midtribulationism, the rapture and the Second Coming (or Greek, paraousia) of Christ are separate events; while in posttribulationism the two events are identical or simultaneous.

The belief is that God's Elect from all ages will be translated from mortal bodies into immortal glorified bodies at the Second Coming of Christ and that this will be at the end of the age. This event, it is believed, will come at the conclusion of what is termed the 70th Week of Daniel, the final seven years of this present age. This view was held by the early Church Fathers and has been held by Christians since that time. The doctrine of the Post-Tribulation Rapture is today held by a growing number of evangelical Christians. For Post-Tribulationists concerned about the recent declension of Christian faith, doctrine, and morale in the western church, an important reason to advance the Post-Tribulation Rapture doctrine relates to the importance of preparation of believers for "witness under trial".

The "witness under trial" issue was of major concern to evangelist Corrie Ten Boom, whose family suffered in Nazi prison camps during World War II for the crime of protecting Jews. Corrie Ten Boom preached that the Pre-Tribulation Rapture would leave the Christian church ill-prepared for witness under persecution, just as it had in China when Mao Tse Tung rose to power, and warned that Pre-Tribulationism was the sort of false doctrine that Jesus warned about.

[edit] Opposing doctrine and Biblical Case Against the Pretribulation Rapture

Opposing doctrines include:

Pretribulationists believe that all Christians then alive will be taken bodily up to Heaven (called the rapture) before the Tribulation begins. Those who become Christians after the rapture will live through (or perish during) the Tribulation. After the Tribulation, Christ will return.
Midtribulationists believe that the rapture of the faithful will occur halfway through the Tribulation, after it begins, but before the worst part of it occurs.

The relatively new opposing doctrine is termed the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, the doctrine of an early Rapture of Christian believers occurring before the final seven years (or three-and-a-half years) begins and before the Tribulation of the End Times. This has become the most widely accepted eschatological doctrine in the United States during the past century. It is commonly taught in the vast majority of evangelical churches to the exclusion of all others. (See Dispensationalism for additional information about the root of Pre-Tribulation Rapture theology.)

The belief in the pretribulation or midtribulation rapture theories of dispensationalism is often criticized, on the grounds that it results in the division of Christ's single return into two stages. Some see it as an impossible "apartheid of the Elect" of sorts which is not seen in scripture. Pretribulationists defend it on the basis of a scripture passage which affirms that God has not appointed His people to wrath. Posttribulationists counter that the tribulation associated with the final witness of the saints is in no way connected to the wrath of God. This wrath of God will only come at the last day, and it will fall upon the heads of the wicked at the last judgment.

[edit] See also

Albrecht Dürer's woodcut, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Events and ideas

Rapture: event in certain systems of Christian eschatology (the study of the end times) whereby it is believed that all Christians will be taken from Earth by Jesus Christ into Heaven.
Apologetics: field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position.
Exegesis: extensive and critical interpretation of a text, especially of a holy scripture.
Bible prophecy: concept that many Bible verses contain prophecies.
Internal consistency and the Bible and Biblical inerrancy
Futurism: interpretation of the prophecies of the Book of Revelation and the Book of Daniel generally in the future as literal, physical, apocalyptic and global.

People ^[1]

Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Chapter 23.
Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 4
Caecilius Cyprianus (Bishop of Carthage; Post-Tribulationist) [Treatise 7.2]
Didache (speaks of Jesus gathering the elect after the Tribulation)
Ephrem the Syrian (Post-Tribulationist)
Hermas, The Shepherd of Hermas
Hippolytus (Writer of the early Christian Church; Speaks of the Antichrist's reign and persecution of the Church )
Irenaeus (Post-Tribulationist; Disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the apostle)
Justin Martyr (Christian apologist and Post-Tribulationist)
Tertullian (Father of the Latin Church; Post-Tribulationist)
Victorinus (third or fourth century; Book of Revelation first commentary writer)
John Gill (Held the view that the Church was not raptured out in any event prior the tribulation)
Matt Slick (Evangelical Calvinist Christian hold to a post-tribulation rapture)

[edit] External articles and further reading

References and citations

↑ William Arnold III, Post-Tribulation Rapture, 7. History of Pre- and Post-Tribulationism

Relevant Biblical verses

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (Resurrection of the righteous dead in connection with the Rapture)
Matthew 24:29-31 (Jesus about the Resurrection-Rapture)
Ezekiel 34:12 (Prophet Ezekiel about the Resurrection-Rapture)
Revelation 20:4-5 (Resurrection taking place after the Tribulation)

Other Biblical sources

Post-Tribulation Rapture books

Gundry, Robert, "First the Antichrist". Baker Books, May 1997. ISBN 0-8010-5764-7
Perry, Richard H., "Of the Last Days: Listen, I Tell You a Mystery". Essence Publishing (Canada), Jul 2003. ISBN 1-55306-595-6
Moesta, Louis, "The Crucible and the Crown". WordFire Press, October 1999. ISBN 0-9673548-0-3
Woods, Dennis James, "Unlocking the Door: A Key to Biblical Prophecy". Vital Issues Press, June 1994. ISBN 1-56384-039-1
Dave MacPherson, "The Incredible Cover Up". June, 1975. ISBN 0-931608-06-6