Thoughts on the End Times [3]: The Case of the Missing Tribulation
In my senior year of college my theology professor required a paper “exegetically defending the pre-tribulation rapture.” If you’re new to evangelicalism, terms like “Tribulation” and “Rapture” might be unfamiliar, so in this blog I’ll explain what they mean. Both are technical terms – names of end-times events.
“The Tribulation” refers to a brief period of trouble and persecution near the end of history. Jesus mentions the tribulation by that name (Matthew 24.21,29; so does John in Revelation 7.14) and explicitly states that His return will take place after the tribulation (Matthew 24.29-30).
The rapture is only mentioned in one passage (1 Thessalonians 4.17). Paul, speaking of the return of Christ says: “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air…”. The words “will be caught up” describe the rapture – the great “catching (or snatching) up” of the living into the air with the resurrected dead when Christ returns.
The term ‘rapture’ comes from the Latin word selected to translate “caught up” from the original Greek. The Latin rapio means “to seize, to take by force, to abduct” (also the root of our word ‘rape’).
My senior theology paper had to demonstrate from the Bible that the rapture occurs before the tribulation.
And that is where the trouble started.
1 Thessalonians 4.17 is the ONLY passage in the Bible that mentions the rapture, but 1 Thessalonians 4 doesn’t mention the Tribulation! How does one demonstrate that the rapture is before the Tribulation when no text explicitly says that?
I went to my professor’s office and pointed out the dilemma. “How can I draw a meaning out of a text that isn’t in the text in the first place?”
He smiled. “That’s the challenge of the assignment, isn’t it?”
“The Tribulation” refers to a brief period of trouble and persecution near the end of history. Jesus mentions the tribulation by that name (Matthew 24.21,29; so does John in Revelation 7.14) and explicitly states that His return will take place after the tribulation (Matthew 24.29-30).
The rapture is only mentioned in one passage (1 Thessalonians 4.17). Paul, speaking of the return of Christ says: “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air…”. The words “will be caught up” describe the rapture – the great “catching (or snatching) up” of the living into the air with the resurrected dead when Christ returns.
The term ‘rapture’ comes from the Latin word selected to translate “caught up” from the original Greek. The Latin rapio means “to seize, to take by force, to abduct” (also the root of our word ‘rape’).
My senior theology paper had to demonstrate from the Bible that the rapture occurs before the tribulation.
And that is where the trouble started.
1 Thessalonians 4.17 is the ONLY passage in the Bible that mentions the rapture, but 1 Thessalonians 4 doesn’t mention the Tribulation! How does one demonstrate that the rapture is before the Tribulation when no text explicitly says that?
I went to my professor’s office and pointed out the dilemma. “How can I draw a meaning out of a text that isn’t in the text in the first place?”
He smiled. “That’s the challenge of the assignment, isn’t it?”