The rapture
There are three positions or points of view of the abduction:
Post-tribulation: this position has expired, stipulates that first the great tribulation will happen then we will be raptured in the air only to return moments later to establish with Jesus the millennium; Ie the rapture takes place after the seven years of the great tribulation. This is the position that least biblical basis has, but the ones that have are obviously misinterpretations, since the same word can not support two points of view.
Revelation 11: 15 And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he reigns for ever and ever. 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, "We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty, who you are and who you were and who are to come; you have taken your great power, and reigned. The belief is that the trumpet here (the trumpet angel) is for the raising of the dead since Paul says that with the trumpet of God the dead in Christs will rise first.
Revelation 12: 5 And she bare a son, a man that shall rule over all nations with a rod of iron; and his son was raptured to God and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they may sustain her there for a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Here it is believed that the woman is the church, and was taken into the wilderness for 1260 days which is three and a half years of the great tribulation, yet the woman here is not the church but Israel (Revelation 12: 1 , Genesis 37: 9)
Matthew 24:29 And immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her brightness, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of the trumpet, and shall gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. This is one of the strongest verses for a post-tribulation rapture since it tells us "after the tribulation of those days ... he will gather his elect" however here again he refers to Israel. God's elect are Israel (Isaiah 45: 4, Isaiah 65:15, Psalm 105: 15, 2 Timothy 2:10 Romans 9: 1-11 (here it shows that the church does not replace Israel).
Mid-Tribulation: This Posture stipulates that the church is leaving in the midst of the great tribulation after the first 3 ½ years. This view suggests that the church goes through the middle of the Great Tribulation, but is raptured before the Wrath of God that will be unleashed after the first 3 and a half years. Since the first 3 ½ years is of relative peace. An obvious problem with the concept of the Rapture post and mid-tribulation is that then the rapture of the church would not be a surprise, because if it is in the middle or after the tribulation we can know exactly the day of the rapture. Obviously the verses used for post - tribulation and Mid - Tribulation posture are misinterpretations. Following are some of these quotes and their misinterpretations:
1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep; But we will all be transformed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to the final trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
This view suggests that Paul in saying not all will die, is actually saying that many will die in the first 3 1/2 of the great tribulation, for this he says we will not all die, because in the middle of the great tribulation the rest Would be kidnapped. Paul, however, is talking about that not all would die before the abduction of the church, but one thing was certain we are all to be transformed. Although there are more scriptures than those who believe in this view they support most see Israel as if it were the church
Matthew 24:29 And immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her brightness, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Again this verse is used to show a point of view, this time the one of Mid-tribulation; The Bible mentions through the bible a very particular phrase "the day of the Lord, or the great day of the Lord" (Isaiah 12: 2, Isaiah 13: 6, Isaiah 13: 9, Jeremiah 46:10, Ezekiel 30: 3, Joel 1:15, Joel 2:11, Amos 5:20, Malachi 4: 5) among others, this day of the Lord, however, is not the Rapture, but the second coming after the great tribulation and the beginning of the millennium. While there are no signs or anything out of the ordinary happens for the abduction of the church, there are, however, certain prerequisites and conditions before the second coming or the great day of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2: 3). Paul tells the people of Thessalonian "he will not come, unless apostasy comes first and the son of perdition is manifested," that is, there is a requirement, since the "will not come before" is a guideline or a condition for the second coming happens. This is according to the scriptures, since it tells us that the wicked one (antichrist) would be killed with the radiance of his coming (2 Thessalonians 2: 8). Obviously this Antichrist must be manifested before he can die with the brightness of his coming , which agrees with Revelation 19 where he shows the Lord Jesus coming on a white horse, and casting the beast (Antichrist) and the false prophet to hell. Pre-Tribulation: The pre-tribulation Rapture is the Biblical basis. It posits that the church will be raptured before the great tribulation, hence the next event in the prophetic calendar. The Church may have been abducted at any time in the last 2000 years, there is no precondition for this being taken. This is the only way in which we know neither the day nor the hour as it says Matthew 24: 36Romans 5: 9 For much more, being already justified in his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Anger does not refer to hell, nor does it refer to any other type of punishment explicitly refers to the great tribulation Thessalonians 5: 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. It should be noted that Paul here is not speaking of the Israelites, rather he refers to the church, and this is obvious since he addresses the church of Thessalonica. Revelation 3: 10 Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also I will keep from the hour of trial that is to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Isaiah 26: 19 Your dead shall live; their corpses will rise again. Awake and sing, you dust dwellers! for your dew is like a dew of vegetables, and the earth shall give its dead. 20 Come, my people, enter into your chambers, close your gates behind you; hide a little, for a moment, while passing the indignation. The tribulation is the wrath of God or the judgments of God on the earth, the question would then be because there was God to pour out his anger on the church just as the pour on sinners and ungodly. In the book of Revelation we see again and again the great and the small suffering, blaspheming the name of God because of the plagues and terror of the great tribulation, how can we put the church in this context? , that is, it flows towards the same objective, without contradicting itself; if we read the conversation of God and Abraham when it was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah we can find a profound teaching. In Genesis 18: 16-33 God tells Abraham to destroy these two cities, to which Abraham replies: "You are going to destroy the righteous with the ungodly, the righteous judge of the whole earth, never do this" God replies that if he finds 50 righteous he would forgive the whole city for the sake of those 50. Abraham deal with God up to 10 just and God assures him that for the sake of those 10 Righteous would not destroy those cities. What was God doing? He was setting a precedent that would not destroy Just and unjust even when it was a general judgment about a city because of its sin (in the case of the great tribulation, the whole world). In fact, God showed that if there was a single one he would not do it, because he sent Lot out so that he would not perish. God does the same with his "righteous" when he sends the plagues upon Egypt, in saving his people, so that God is consistent. If God did this for those Righteous, why should it change as to the church that was bought at the price of blood?
Written by Robert Pool
Translated by Bruno Smith