Evidence for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, Found in 1 & 2 Thessalonians
These are some good points!
Also, since Paul's letters to the Thessalonians is where the doctrine of the rapture was first concretely defined and explained, it's really helpful to read them both together. There are several clues that point to the timing and purpose of the "catching away" of the church:
"For they themselves report...how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come." ~1 Thessalonians 1:9-10
The Thessalonians are commended by Paul for waiting for Jesus, who will save them from wrath (i.e. indignation or fury). A deeper reading of 1 & 2 Thessalonians shows that Paul is referring to the seven year long Tribulation period.
"...May the Lord...establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints." ~1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
Given the other evidence here, this text seems to indicate that when Jesus comes back (at the end of the Tribulation) He will be accompanied by His bride, the church! That would mean that the church needs to be in heaven at some point prior to the end of the Tribulation.
"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words." ~1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
"Caught up" in these verses derives from the Greek word harpazo, which means to be snatched out forcefully or suddenly. It's also associated with escaping from danger, as we see from Revelation:
"The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up (harpazo, rapture) to God and to his throne..." ~Revelation 12:4-5
The dragon is coming...coming...BOOM. Baby's gone! As Paul says, the rapture is encouraging! I believe that this is true precisely because of this escape from danger. If you had a pet dog that you loved running into a busy road, you would catch them up in your arms out of harm's way, if possible. Imagine if the dog were able to know that their master would swoop in to save them from disaster, how comforting that would be!
Yet many people believe that the dog will be hit by the car (the church will go through the Tribulation, aka wrath of God), at which point the master swoops in to save them from...what? The car has come and the damage is done. This is hardly comforting, but rather, terrifying! That thought really scared the Thessalonians, as we see in the next passage:
"Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come." ~2 Thessalonians 2:1-2
Harpazo has another connotation; that of gathering together or collecting something. When Paul mentions being "gathered together" to Christ, he's talking about the rapture. The fact that the Thessalonian church was "shaken in mind" implies that they held a belief (taught by Paul) that was being tested, namely that they would not be subject to the day of the Lord (the Tribulation).
Perhaps the prophet Isaiah sums up these arguments best:
"Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead [the dead in Christ]. Come, my people [dead and alive], enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury [indignation, wrath] has passed by. For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain. [the Tribulation] " ~Isaiah 26:19-21
The Lord is coming to remove His people from the worldwide punishment for sin, embodied in His wrath.
Come, Lord Jesus. Save your people!
Eagerly waiting for Him,
-Daniel
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