Two Rapture Passages Pretribbers Can't Answer // THE RAPTURE & ENDURANCE OF THE SAINTS

foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back to the Maranatha Global bible study on the Rapture in the endurance of the Saints I just want to begin by saying that I really believe this is an incredibly important session we're going to take some time to look at the primary place in scripture where Jesus actually speaks about the Rapture and its timing and then we're going to compare that with Paul the apostles Exposition and commentary on Jesus's words if you're a post-tribber or pre-rather I believe that this very simple study I don't expect it to be long at all I believe it will profoundly strengthen your position and help you to understand the foundation for your position if you're a pre-truck pre-tribulational brother or sister I'm simply asking that you'll sort of give me the benefit of the doubt be a Berean bear with me and just work through this material I'm personally convinced that if you look at this information with an open and honest heart prayerfully before the Lord I personally believe it's impossible to remain a pre-tribulationist it's just so clear I mean it really is so incredibly clear now if you have friends who are pre-tribbers who like to study the scriptures I would just invite you to pass this on to them ask them to watch these things with an open and honest heart okay so we're going to look at Matthew chapter 24 verses 29 through 31 and then we're going to look at first Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 15 through 18. now to be very clear we could look at a large section of Matthew 24 and 25 because that's all part of the Olivet discourse that's Jesus's sermon on the end times and we could look at most of or much of first Thessalonians chapter four and five because in chapters 4 and 5 Paul does deal with the issue of the Rapture in great detail and at the end we're going to sort of make some quick comparisons but for the sake of time for the sake of brevity for the sake of Simplicity we're just going to look at these few verses so we're going to go ahead and read beginning in verse 29. so Jesus says immediately after the tribulation okay the timing here is very clear it is after the tribulation immediately after the tribulation of those days he describes the cosmic signs he says the sun will be darkened the moon will not give its light and the Stars will fall from the sky and the powers of Heavens will be shaken and then okay so after the cosmic signs after the tribulation he says and then the sign of the son of man he's referring to himself will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great Glory so all the tribes of the Earth will see Jesus with their eyes coming in power and great Glory what that means is shining in radiant light this is his coming in glory this is his parusia and he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the Four Winds from one end of the sky to the other okay as I said we could continue reading we could look at the various Parables that are in chapters in chapter 25 the parable of the wise and foolish virgins the parable of the Judgment of the sheep and goats and so forth but we want to zero in on these verses now go ahead and read first Thessalonians chapter 4 15-18 again this is Paul the apostles commentary on the words of Jesus how do we know that he's talking about what Jesus said because he begins by saying this he says this we say to you by the word of the Lord he goes listen what we're saying now is according to what Jesus said he says that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord we will not proceed we will not be before those that had previously died those that had fallen asleep he says for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then those of us who are still alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord Comfort one another with these words and it's important to state that the coming resurrection of our bodies the Deliverance of these bodies of sin these corrupt Wicked bodies are deliverance from this corrupt Wicked age the resurrection is the most beautiful comforting news that any man woman or child could ever hear the night will soon be over the night will end the difficulties of this age will come to an end and for those who are in Christ he will save us he will come back to save us he won't leave us as orphans I will come back to you and the Lord says I will dwell amongst them I will be their God and they will be my people so we're going to look at a whole bunch of charts what I've done is I've placed Jesus's words on the left as you can see I've placed Paul's words on the right and I've color-coded words just for ease so we can look at it and go oh yeah Paul is basically saying exactly what Jesus just said so here's just sort of a again a broken down very simple overview of both Jesus and Paul's words now I'm just going to begin by making some comparisons okay the post-tribulational or the pre-wrath position concerning the Rapture the idea that we are raptured when Jesus returns the post trip of pre-wrath interpretation of these two passages sees Paul's words okay it's it understands Paul's words as specifically referring to Jesus's words in Matthew 24 verse 29-31 okay so it's the post-trib or the pre-wrath view that says yes Paul was commenting on Jesus's words now the pre-trib interpretation says that Paul's teaching is entirely based on just new revelation so when Paul says we say this by the word of the Lord what Paul meant is Paul heard something a revelation Jesus spoke to him privately taught him about the Rapture but it's not based on the words of Jesus in the gospels this is just new fresh Revelation in fact our pre-tribulational brothers and sisters will actually say that Jesus's words in Matthew 24 have nothing to do with the Rapture whatsoever in fact they'll say Jesus never even mentions the Rapture there's no reference No No Illusion no hint of the rapture so when Jesus talks about the sign of the son of man appearing in the sky and the Gathering Together the elect into the sky are pre-tribulational brothers and sisters will say that has nothing to do with the Rapture and Paul's words there in first Thessalonians 4 have nothing to do with Jesus's words so I just want to ask you which of these two positions seems more reasonable hey guys Stephanie here I want to interrupt for just a moment to tell you about the mobilization initiative the mobilization initiative is near and dear to all of our hearts it's precious to us in the Fai family 20 years ago the epicenter of explosive gospel growth in the world was in the global South now the first second third fastest growing churches in the world are in the Middle East the 10 40 window in the Muslim world and that's incredible and what we have found is that the Lord is raised up a multitude a generation of worthy laborers from the global South who know how to pray they know how to preach and they know how to work hard but they are from countries that have a lower GDP than say where I am from and so they don't have the financial support to be sent and sustained on the field so the mobilization initiative connects the financial resources of the West to send and support full-time long-term laborers from the global South to the Middle East to the Muslim world into the in the 1040 window head to faistudios.org to jump in on the mobilization initiative Maranatha and so let's go ahead and look back at the chart as you can see Paul said this we say to you by the word of the Lord post Rivers believe that Jesus is referring specifically to the word of Jesus the words of Jesus in Matthew 24 verses 29 through 31. second the post-trib or pre-wrath interpretation sees both Jesus and Paul as speaking about the Rapture and the parusia the coming of the Lord okay the pre-trib interpretation says that Jesus and Paul were talking about two completely different things that are actually separated by a period of seven years our pre-tribulational brothers and sisters will say Paul is talking about the pre-tribulational Rapture again which they say happened seven years before the Glorious second coming of Jesus they say Jesus was talking about his second coming Paul was talking about an event that is separated entirely unrelated actually by seven years seven years separation two completely different things which of these two positions makes more sense which sits better in your spirit so again when we look at the comparison of the two we can see that Jesus referred to the it says the peoples of the earth will see the son of man coming Paul the Apostle refers also to the coming of the Lord the parusia pre-turbers say these are completely unrelated pre-tribbers would say there are two comings of the Lord there are two more comings of the Lord first his coming in the clouds his parusia in the clouds and secondly his coming in glory okay you ask yourselves which one of these two views makes better sense the post-tribulational or the pre-wrath interpretation sees both passages as speaking literally literally about Jesus coming in the clouds both passages are speaking literally of Jesus coming in the clouds the pre-tribulational interpretation says that Jesus was speaking about his second coming they would say Paul was speaking of another coming on the clouds again that happened seven years previous now again notice that both passages speak of the son of man coming in the clouds the post-tribulational interpretation sees the reference to angels and the Archangel as being the same thing it's just word same thing worded slightly different the pre-tribulational interpretation says that these two references are completely unrelated they have no relationship whatsoever and again they're separated by seven years now I want you to notice again I've laid these passages out I haven't mixed them up I've laid them out in the order that they were spoken notice the commonalities between the two passages Paul actually follows Jesus's order yes he changes the wording he expresses it in his own language but ultimately the very first references to the coming of the Lord Jesus talks about the coming of the son of man the very next statement that Jesus makes is he says then he will send forth his angels Paul the Apostle says with the voice if you will of the archangel so Paul says the Archangel Jesus said Angels you go well that's different that's clearly different guys you've got differences just like this in the Gospels you know where in one gospel there are angels sitting by the empty tomb in one of the other Gospels it says an angel right it's just different perspectives but again the pre-tribulational perspective sees these as being completely unrelated and separated by a period of seven years the post-tribulational interpretation sees the great trumpet and the trumpet of God is just references to the same thing the pre-tribulational interpretation says that these two events are entirely unrelated these are completely different trumpets they have no relationship they're separated by seven years notice that Jesus says that he will send forth as angels with a great trumpet poly Apostle says that he will descend from heaven with the voice of an archangel with the trumpet of God again the post-tribulational view says these are both talking about the same thing our pre-tribulational brothers and sisters say they're completely unrelated the post-trib or the pre-wrath interpretation sees the elect and those who are in Christ or the dead in Christ as the same the pre-tribulational interpretation says the elect is Israel they are not those who are in Christ so again when we compare the two we notice that in the very same order we're not going out of order Jesus says then the angels will gather together his elect which by the way if you simply work through the term the elect throughout the New Testament it refers to Believers consistently we've actually already covered this in one of the earlier sessions Paul the Apostle says and the dead in Christ will rise first so at the blasting of the trumpet with the voice of the Archangel those who are dead in Christ will rise Jesus says he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and gather together the elect the post-tribulational perspective says these are all talking about the same thing the pre-tribulational perspective says these are completely different events separated by seven years the post-tribulational or pre-wrath interpretation sees Jesus's reference to the sky and Paul's reference to the air as talking about the same thing the pre-tribulational interpretation says that Jesus was not being literal he's not literally going to gather Israel up into the air this is just a figure of speech he just he's just going to gather them from all over the Earth they're actually going to come you know I don't know on trains or they're going to be carried or this type of thing or you know as it says in Isaiah 60 that those that formerly tormented you will come to you and they're carrying your children and bringing your sons from afar this type of thing okay so again you can see it where Paul the Apostle says that he will gather his elect from the Four Winds from one end of the sky to the other again our pre-tribulational brothers and sisters will say that's not literal and then Paulie Apostle says he will gather them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air okay so again as I said this is going to be a relatively shorter session we're just going to end by looking at a much bigger chart of all of Matthew 24 and 25 as well as all of first Thessalonians 4 and 5. so we just worked through a handful of clear commonalities where it I mean it's really hard to deny that Paul was talking about Matthew 24. it's really hard to deny that he goes what I'm about to tell you we tell you by the word of the Lord and then point by point he pretty much just paraphrases Jesus now if you look at this comparison you can see that the commonalities between the two passages are many very specific key motifs and themes and phrases that are repeated by both in order in order so I'm going to put this chart up here and again we're not going to work through all of this material as I said for the sake of being short and brief and for the sake of Simplicity I just wanted to work through those for those few verses I mean it's really hard to deny that Paul was talking about what Jesus was talking about if you're Berean if you love to study the scriptures I'm going to leave this chart up and you can continue to work through these passages yourselves as always guys you know look I'm not here to convince anyone or to strong-arm anyone I'm simply appealing to you as a brother and a sister to be bereans to open the scriptures to peer into these things and to prayerfully ask the Lord if the things that Joel was just talking about are true Lord teach me the truth truth opened my eyes I don't care what my pastor teaches I don't care what my favorite teacher teaches I don't care what Seminary teaches I want to know what you teach I want to know what your word has to say and I believe that oftentimes it's far simpler it's far easier to understand than we sometimes believe our theological systems sometimes they actually make things much more confusing so we're going to leave it right there I trust that this was helpful in edifying look forward to seeing you next time until then guys God bless you all have a fantastic week in Maranatha [Music]

Channel: FAI STUDIOS

Views: 22,115

Keywords:

Id: MVB8GjPZ1yA

Length: 18min 42sec (1122 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 15 2023