The Basic Post-Trib Rapture Case—Victory over the Beast -

basic post-trib rapture case

BASIC POST-TRIB RAPTURE CASE. We can’t prepare for the end-times if we don’t know in which order the major events will occur. Many Christians assume that they will leave earth in the Rapture before the great tribulation. So they don’t concern themselves with other end-time events. After all, most televangelists favor the pre-trib position.

But what if they’re wrong? What if believers find themselves still on earth after the tribulation begins? We had better know. Because you can make a stronger biblical case for a post-trib Rapture than a pre-trib Rapture.

My own book Christ vs. Antichrist: The Last World Wars, now on sale for $0.99, lays out the post-trib Rapture timeline in detail. But I will present the basic case here…

The Bible itself provides the timeline for end-time events in Revelation chapters 6-19. Seven seal judgments in chapters 6-8 precede seven trumpet judgments in chapters 8-11. And those seven trumpet judgments precede seven bowls of wrath in chapters 15-19.

What happens in chapters 12-14? They form part of the “little book” mentioned three times in Revelation 10. There angels tell John to “prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” Those prophecies in chapters 12-14 do not follow chronological order.

Chapter 11, however, presents the tribulation in chronological order, until the seventh trumpet sounds.

There, “the nations…will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. ‘And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth’” (Rev. 11:2-3). The 1,260 days roughly equal the 42 months of the nations’ treading the holy city—Jerusalem. And that equals the Antichrist’s 42 months—or 3 ½ years—of “authority to act” (Rev. 13:5). Specifically, he had authority “to make war with the saints” (verse 7).

The Antichrist’s war with the saints

That is one of 27 verses in Revelation showing the Antichrist’s war with Christians. If believers had just been raptured, the Antichrist could only war against new converts. They would only have 42 months to become mature and unite against the Antichrist. Yet 144,000 believers show such maturity that they “follow the Lamb wherever He goes… And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless” (Rev. 14:4-5).

At the end of the 1,260 days of the two witnesses’ testimony, the Antichrist kills them (Rev. 11:7). But three and a half days later, “the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake… (Rev. 11:13).

Does their ascent to heaven begin the Rapture? If so, it happens after the 1,260 day (or 3 ½ year) tribulation. And the next verses show that the Rapture must happen next.

“The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly. Then the seventh angel sounded” the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:14-15). We see in Revelation 9:1,12-13 that the first woe was the fifth trumpet and the second woe was the sixth trumpet. Then in Revelation 11:14 “the seventh angel sounded” the seventh and last trumpet. The last trumpet signals the Rapture.

…we will 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 imperishable, and we will be changed. For…this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-54).

Rapture, then bowls of wrath

During the Rapture, God gives us immortal bodies as rewards. The Rapture is “the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name” (Rev. 11:18). But for those left behind, “the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came” (same verse).

The seven bowls of wrath begin when the temple of God in heaven opens. Revelation 11:19 says “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened.” Then Revelation 15:5 picks up where Revelation 11 left off with essentially the same words: “and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened.”

What happens when the temple in heaven opens? The next verse says: “the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple.” Chapter 15:1 calls those “seven plagues…the last [plagues], because in them the wrath of God is finished.”

But before those bowls of wrath begin to fall in chapter 16, the raptured saints celebrate in heaven.

Revelation 15:2-3: “And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”

They did not avoid the beast in a pre-trib rapture. They became “victorious over the beast” by enduring the tribulation.

Fire burns away our dead works

It seems they gained their immortal glorified bodies by passing through “the sea of glass mixed with fire” (verse 2). Why do they pass through a barrier of fire? In order to burn away from them the “wood, hay or straw” of dead works.

“Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward” (1 Cor 3:12-15).

That reward remains with him in his glorified body. But in the next verse, “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

So let us prepare for the great tribulation by overcoming, with Christ, the tribulations we face now. For “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). And let us do good works with Him now that will stand the test of fire on the day of the Rapture. For “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Php. 1:6).

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