Some are teaching aggressively against the Pre-Tribulation Rapture view. However, I have yet come across an objection that could not be explained fully with Scripture. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture is the only view where all Scriptures actually work together in unity.
The fact is, there are TWO RETURNS of Christ in the Last Days; The Rapture Event and the Second Coming Event. By the Scriptures very context, they cannot be the same event. Scripture clearly shows this.
Why These Are Two Separate Events
The Rapture Verses are NOT the same as the Second Coming verses.
WHEN, TIMING DIFFERENCES:
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: The exact timing and date of this event is not know or provided to us in Scripture (1 Thes. 5:4-6, Rev 3:3). Although we can see signs for the Tribulation period approaching. Notice that I am not mentioning the Matthew 24:36-37 verse about ‘not knowing the Day nor the Hour’. Many are teaching it is about the Rapture Event but they are wrong by context. Matthew 24:36-37 is NOT about the Rapture but is Jesus telling the disciples about the Second Coming Event! Just look a couple of verses prior for proper context. Jesus actually tells us He is talking about AFTER the Tribulation Period:
“Immediately AFTER THE TRIBULATION of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:” (Matthew 24:29 KJV)
→ The Second Coming: The date will actually be known in the Tribulation Period. Also, the Second Coming happens after the 7 year Tribulation period. The exact day and hour is not known but all will see Christ coming (Matt 24:29-30, Dan 9:24-27, 2 Thes. 2:3-8).
LOCATION DIFFERENCES:
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: Christ is seen coming to meet us “in the air” (1 Thess. 4:13-18) to a place He has been preparing for the last 2000 years. It is a physical place with width/length/height. A huge place 1500 miles cubed! Large enough to hold every believer from the beginning of time! A place prepared to TAKE US TOO and where we will be WITH HIM. (John 14:1–3). This place is called the New Jerusalem, that celestial heavenly city. It is located in a place called ‘Heaven’. Heaven may be in our universe too far away for us to see or it could be in a different dimension. All we know is that it will come ‘out of Heaven’ and enter the space some distance from Earth during the Millennium Kingdom Age on Earth to come.
→ The Second Coming: Jesus lands His feet ON EARTH PHYSICALLY. Scripture shows Christ returning to start His 1000 year reign ON EARTH. No one is TAKEN to be with Him where He is. Instead, Christ is coming to be here on Earth for 1000 years. Those Raptured will be coming WITH HIM.
TAKEN VS. LEFT
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: Christians are the first to be TAKEN and unbelievers are LEFT BEHIND. (1 Thes. 4:13-18)
→ The Second Coming: The opposite is seen! The “wicked” (unsaved) are taken first and the “righteous” (saved) are LEFT BEHIND on Earth. The unbelievers who survive the Tribulation Period are the “GOATS” killed and the believers who survived the Tribulation are the “SHEEP” who will repopulate the Earth in the 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth. (Matthew 25:32-46)
WHAT JESUS WILL DO
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: Jesus is going to gather together His Bride (This is about us today, Believers, The Church, in the age of grace we now live in) to where Jesus is for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, a celebration of a believers marriage to Christ fully completed as we have already received our new glorified bodies. Now our Spirit and body are both perfected. (Rev. 19:6-9)
→ The Second Coming: Jesus returns to Earth and His feet LAND on the Earth. He then executes judgement on the nations (Sheep/Goats Judgement) and sets up His Kingdom ON EARTH where the previously Raptured will be ruling and reigning WITH CHRIST on Earth. (Jude 14-15, Rev 19:11-21, Zech 14:3-4)
SPEED Of COMING
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: Happens in the ‘twinkling of an eye’, and that is faster than one blink of an eye! (1 Corinthians 15:52)
→ The Second Coming: Scripture states that every eye will see Jesus coming. People will be terrified knowing what is coming and they will hide themselves in rocks and caves. And so, it seems like the Second Coming is not going to be an instant moment like the Rapture Event. (Rev 6:15-17)
WHO WILL BE SEEING JESUS?
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: Believers in Christ will see Him. (1 John 3:2, 1 Cor 15:52) The unsaved will see that millions of people, in an instant, right before their very eyes, vanished. The devil is prepared for this event and has a plan to explain what has happened (2 Thessalonians 2). It is likely one of the reasons he takes over the world government which will be in instant panic , economic disaster and utter despair; seeking someone to save them from their troubles. There will be a great deception. Some speculate it is something to do with an alien invasion, others about trans-humanism, but we do not know what it will be at this time.
→ The Second Coming: Scripture indicates that EVERY EYE WILL SEE HIM on Earth. Even those who rejected Him as Lord and Savior. (Rev. 1:7)
SHOUTING?
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: Jesus calls believers to meet Him in the air with a SHOUT. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
→ The Second Coming: Cannot find a verse where Jesus is shouting to believers.
THE RESURRECTION!
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: The dead in Christ are bodily resurrected with new glorified bodies. Those Believers alive at the Rapture event are CHANGED physically into glorified bodies as Jesus now has. Eternal bodies without the sin problem. This is our Bodily resurrection. The ‘the redemption of the purchased possession’, our new bodily resurrection (Ephesians 1:13-14, 1 Thes. 4:13-18, 1 Cor 15:51-54)
→ The Second Coming: There is no resurrection spoken of for those who survive the Tribulation Period. The Sheep and Goats Judgement (Matthew 25:31-46) occurs instead where the unbelievers are killed and will one day be resurrected for the Great White Throne Judgement of the condemned. Surviving believers will repopulate the Earth in the 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth. The only resurrection mentioned at the Second Coming is for the believers who were martyred or died during the Tribulation period. They will be resurrected at the Second Coming as they come back to Earth with Christ. (Rev. 20:4-5, Zech. 12:10, Zech.14:4-5, Rev 1:7, Rev 19:11-21, Rev 20:11-15)
THE MENTION OF ANGELS
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: No angels gather anyone. “For the Lord HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout…” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Not angels, Christ Himself. Christ resurrects and changes our bodies and we meet Him “in the air” and so shall we forever be with the Lord.
→ The Second Coming: Scripture clearly shows that God sends angels to gather the surviving Tribulation period unbelievers for judgment and then they are killed. (Matt 13:39, 41 & 49, Matt. 24:31, Matt. 25:31, 2 Thes. 1:7-10)
WILD HORSES!
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: NO MENTION of Jesus coming on a ‘white horse’.
→ The Second Coming: Jesus will return riding a ‘white horse’. (Rev. 19:11)
THE BLESSED HOPE!
→ The Pre-Tribulation Rapture: This event is described as our ‘blessed hope’ (Titus 2:13). Something believers are to look forward to. Believers today are to be DELIVERED FROM THE WRATH TO COME (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
→ The Second Coming: Judgment is coming to the unbelievers who survived the Tribulation period. (Revelation 19:11-21)
These above are just some of the reasons why the Pre-Tribulation Rapture and the Second Coming are two different events.
