Why Must The Rapture Precede The Tribulation?

Q. I’ve studied many positions concerning the rapture and would like you to answer why so many people feel that a rapture of the church must happen before the tribulation and Christ’s Return.

There are two parables where Jesus taught about the wheat and tares and the ten virgins carrying their lamps. The first parable suggests that the tares are gathered and burned before the wheat is stored, suggesting the good will reside with the evil until the harvest and judgment. The second parable suggest that 5 faithful virgins wait for the groom while the other 5, while apparently followers at first…give up and miss the Lords return. In both parables the “faithful” are present until the Harvest/Banquet…the last day.

There are many Christians who are expecting a rapture because religious leaders are preaching it as fact. What will happen if they aren’t raptured and all hell is poured out on earth?

A. Neither the Parable of the wheat and Tares nor the parable of the 10 virgins is about the Church. They’re both about the people on Earth at the time of the 2nd Coming. In Matt. 24:7 and Luke 21:11 Jesus said that wars, famine and pestilence would be signs that the end is drawing near. He also said that Christians would be persecuted.

The real point of the Rapture is to fulfill a promise Jesus made to the Church. The Bible says that before the great End Times judgments begin, the Church will be rescued (1 Thes. 1:10) and kept from the world wide time of trial (Rev. 3:10). If this doesn’t happen then Jesus will have failed to keep His promise to us.

Click here for a more complete defense of the pre-trib rapture.