Does the Bible Actually Disprove the Pretribulation Rapture?
Reading 1 Corinthians 15:50-52: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep (i.e. die), but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
There will obviously be faithful Christians who have not died physically that are changed from mortal bodies of flesh and blood into incorruptible bodies at the last trumpet. Yet teachers of the pretribulation rapture doctrine say that there will be a trumpet after the last trumpet. Is this rational?
Now reading Revelation 11:15: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”
The trumpet sounding in Revelation 11:15 is the last of the trumpets which are sounded in the last book of the Bible. There is no good reason to say that this trumpet is not the last trumpet which is referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:52. Even though the Corinthians whom Paul wrote to directly may not have known about the seven trumpets which would later be written about in the Book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul knew about them. Moreover, if the Corinthians had known about them like they are known about now, it would only have been reasonable for them to connect the last trumpet which Paul spoke to them about with the last trumpet which is sounded in Revelation. Pretribulation teachers discount the obvious here.
Pretribulation rapture teachers also assume that certain passages which only speak about the mass removal of the righteous from the earth without mentioning Christ returning to earth to destroy His enemies and reign over all means that both will not happen on the very same 24 hour day. They are operating on defective logic. For one, no Bible passage teaches that both will not happen on the very same day. Moreover, even one Bible passage which teaches that the righteous will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air on the same 24 hour day that Christ returns to earth to reign and execute judgment on His enemies is enough to prove the pretribulation rapture teachers wrong. There are actually Bible passages which do so. Here are two key examples.
Matthew 24:29-31: “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: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
The preceding passage shows that Christ’s faithful people on earth will be delivered and gathered together after tribulation as all the tribes of the earth see Him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This obliterates the concept that Jesus will have a secret coming before His visible return to earth like the pretribulation rapture teachers would have us believe.
Jesus also taught elsewhere in the Gospel accounts that the exit of the righteous from the earth and His return to earth to destroy the wicked will happen on the same 24 hour day. Anyone who is familiar with the stories of Noah and Lot in Genesis must acknowledge this. The righteous will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. He will then immediately come to the earth to execute judgment on His enemies.
Luke 17:26-30: “And as it was in the days of Noe (Noah), so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
Aaron’s email is: gospeltruth768@yahoo.com