Up until last weekend, I have believed in the "Rapture of the Church" right before the Tribulation. However, last weekend as I was reading I Thessalonians 4:16 & 17 - I saw something I had never seen before in this passage.
As most of you know, this is the key passage that Bible scholars use to support the "Pre-Tribulation Rapture" of the church. It reads:
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."
Most of us don't know that there is a cross-reference by "the trumpet of God". This took me to I Corinthians 15:51 & 52 which reads:
"Behold I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
When I read "the last trumpet", I immediately turned to Revelation 11:15 to read about that Last Trumpet - or "the Seventh Trumpet".
To my surprise, when the Seventh Trumpet is sounded - it will bring in the Kingdom of God. That verse reads:
"Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!'"
Here is the problem. Most Bible scholars argue that these are two different trumpets. However, using logic we can see that is not possible. I Thess. 5:16 & 17 is referring to the "last" trumpet of God. If it is the last one, there cannot be another one after that one. That, my dear friends, means we will be going through the Tribulation. Since the 7th Trumpet ushers in the Kingdom of God (the Millenium or 1000-year reign of Christ), that definitely shows it to be the Last Trumpet. No other trumpets are sounding after that one. And, if the Last Trumpet is the 7th Trumpet, that also means we are going through the Tribulation. Logic asks, "Just how many last trumpets can we have?"
After having this truth revealed to me, I realized just how selfish it sounds when Christians say, "I'm just waiting for that trumpet of Christ to sound and then I'm out of here!" Why would we WANT to leave our unsaved friends and family to suffer here on earth without our witness? In fact, in Philippians 1:29 God tells us "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake."
When that Last Trumpet sounds, it will be at the end of the Tribulation as Christ is preparing to come back to earth. At that time, we will be taken up to meet Him in the clouds so we can all return with Him - "and so we shall forever be with the Lord".
3 comments:
Also, if Christians say there is a "Pre-Trib Rapture", then they are saying there will be TWO Raptures. According to my Bible, at the last trumpet, we are going up to meet Him in the air as well.
That is also a "Rapture". So,how can there be two "Raptures"?
Nice to see a pre-tribber come to the truth simply by actually reading the Scriptures as written. Rev. 11:15-18 says it all. Christ takes His kingdoms back, the dead are judged and rewarded, and God's wrath is about to be poured out. How much clearer can it get? I can never figure how they say the seals are God's wrath when the fifth seal is Christians being martyred (no punishment on the wicked at all) and they are asking God when is He going to start taking His vengeance. Obviously they don't think His wrath has begun yet.
Thanks for sharing this insight. I had not seen that one as yet. Sure makes sense!
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