prewrath in a nutshell

Although Post-Trib, Pre-Wrath Rapture is thought to be a fairly new position, in reality, it is far closer to the original teachings of church leaders from Paul on to the eighteen hundreds. In fact, the Pretribulation Rapture position was invented in the 1830's, and did not exist in church doctrine before then. The differences between the Pre-trib position and the Post-Trib, Pre-wrath position can be summed up by this statement: Pre-Trib puts the rapture before the emergence of the AntiChrist and the Great Tribulation, thereby removing the Church and believers from the world prior to the events of Revelations, and Post-Trib puts the rapture after the events of the first six seals and the emergence of the AntiChrist, but before God's Wrath is poured out on the world in the Trumpet and Bowl Judgements.

Why is the distinction important? Why does it matter when the rapture occurs, because we'll all be going anyway? The answer is found in the seven letters to the seven churches in the first chapters of Revelations. Five of the seven churches are admonished to repent of the sins or be blotted from the book of life. Now these are churches, full of believers. True, their actions were not altogether good, and some of them were downright scandalous, but they were Christians nonetheless. Christians being blotted from the book of life? How could this be possible? Doesn't the Bible teach that our salvation cannot be taken from us? Doesn't this contradict the teachings of salvation through grace, rather than works? In truth, I do not understand it all myself, but I have learned not to question God's Word simply my simple human mind can't fathom his whole purpose. That said I would direct you to 1 John 3:7 "little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous." There are a great many churchgoers that may have strayed from the path, backslidden, or downright left the fellowship of the Lord after experiencing his saving grace. God's purpose for us is not to simply be saved and then go on living a sinful life, like we have some kind of heavenly get out of jail free card. Second, I would remind you to the numerous times that God allowed the Israelites to be enslaved, persecuted, and even killed when they strayed in order to bring them forth tried and tested as through fire, purified and righteous. Given that background, it may not be so surprising that God would test and try the modern Church as he did the Israelites.

The basic premise of the Pre-Wrath position is that God will allow the church to go through the great tribulation and the first six seals of Revelations before being raptured. Where do we get that from? First, from reading the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. Here, the disciples, knowing that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God already, have questioned our Lord as to His prophecied coming in triumph as Kings of Kings. Here is his answer:

3And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
23Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25Behold, I have told you before.
26Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29Immediately 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:
30And 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.
31And 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.

Proponents of the Pre-Trib position claim that Jesus was speaking to the disciples as Jews only, since the Church hadn't been established yet, and that this description of events was intended for the Jewish nation only. I have two problems with this. First, the disciples were the foundation of the church and the church fathers, and Jesus knew that. He also knew that it would be written about and cannonized into the Holy Bible for all believers to read. To assert that it wasn't meant for Christians would imply that God was pretty short-sighted here, a possibility that I cannot accept. Also, one of these disciples was John, who later received Revelations, which was definitely meant for believers. Why would God, who inspired the Word in its entirety, make a mistake here? The answer, he wouldn't. Remember that God is not the author of confusion. He wouldn't include in the New Testament (which isn't read by non-Christian Jews, by the way) prophecies unless they were meant to be read by believers. Second, Christ uses the term "elect" in verse 31. Time and time again, especially in the New Testament, that word is only used to describe Christians, not Jews. To ask me believe otherwise is not supported by scripture.

Now, given the discourse given to us in Matthew, re-read Revelations 6 and 7. The first six seals are directly parallel to the signs given in Matthew!

1st seal - White horse: world leader bent on conquest (possibly the AntiChrist)

2nd seal - Red Horse - open warfare

These two seals are remarkably similar to the prophecies of "nation will rise up against nation" and "wars and rumors of wars"

3rd seal - Black Horse - Famine

Read verse 7 again: there will be famines...

4th seal - grey horse - pestilence and death

Continue on in verse 7: ...and pestilences.

5th seal - intense persecution

Jesus speaks of this in verses 9 and 10

6th seal - cosmic disturbances - sun turns black, moon turns red, and the stars fall from the sky.

Let's read verse 30 again: 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:

Verse 31 then describes the rapture; Christ gathering up his elect from the four winds.

Note here again the word gather. Interesting that this is the meaning of our word rapture. Also read Revelations
7: Here John descibes a great multitude of people standing in front of the throne of God. Listen to the description in verse 14 of chapter 7: ...And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." If this isn't a description of believers in heaven after the rapture, I don't know what is.