Where, on the Bible Timeline, does the “Rapture” Occur?

Why there can’t be a mid-trib rapture (of the church)

Dispensationalists of all the different Acts positions believe in what is known as the “rapture” of the church, the body of Christ, or the catching up of all believers in Christ, described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17:

13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

While there is division over exactly where we presently are on the Biblical time line between folks who begin the church in Acts 2, and those who start it with Paul in Acts 9, there is also division over exactly when, on the time line, the rapture occurs. This is the question this discourse seeks to resolve.

There is no one scripture verse, at least that I can identify, that says the b of C will be caught up (raptured) before the beginning of the prophesied seven years of “Jacob’s trouble.”(Jer. 30:7)

One can conclude, however, that this will happen prior to the “great tribulation“(Matt. 24:21) for the following reasons:

1. Grace and works (of the law) are mutually exclusive (Romans 11:6). I don’t believe there can be (or will be) a works program and a grace program running side by side in the world, as there would be in a mid-trib rapture scenario. In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians he clearly establishes that the body of Christ must needs be “taken out of the way” before “the man of sin…the son of perdition… that wicked be revealed. (2 Thess. 2:3-8) This “wicked” he speaks of can be none other than the anti-christ (1 John 2:13,18), who, according to Daniel 11, is on the scene in the first three and a half years of the seven years of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30:7),  because it is in this period that he works his magic to lure Israel into an unholy alliance through flattery and handouts:

“And in his estate shall stand up a vile person….shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries….And after the league²made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. 24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time. (Daniel 11:21-24)

2. Proponents of a mid-trib rapture identify Revelation 11:12 as one and the same as the event in 1 Thess. 4:13-17, described above. The ones I know of base their claim purely on mathmatics, that is, they say, if the King James Bible is the word of God, then everything in it must “add up”, and, according to their calculations, the math doesn’t support a pre-seven year trib rapture.

The problem with this assessment, as I see it, is that the context and doctrine of John’s Revelation doesn’t fit in with the grace message. No grace believer– not even mid-trib proponents– that I know of believes that the Revelation is written to the b of C. It is clearly addressed to “kings and priests” (chapt. 1, verse 6; also see 1 Peter 2:9), who are “the servants of our God…an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” (Chapt. 7, verses 3, 4), and is a fulfillment of OT prophesy. Thus, in contending that the b of C is still on the earth in the first half of the seven years mixes prophecy and mystery, which is a sure violation of right division (2 Tim. 2:15)

3. Finally, the event of Rev. 11:12, while it is a type of rapture, includes only two people; the two witnesses who are given the power to “prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days,” (verse 3) which is the first half of the tribulation.

In conclusion, works and grace, mystery and prophecy, are mutually exclusive. The book of Daniel and the Revelation are part of the prophetic scriptures written to Israel, who is under the works of the law, and therefore cannot include the b of C, which is “not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). The grace dispensation, which I believe began with the casting away of Israel in Acts 28,³ must end before the prophetic clock kicks back in, and what will constitute the end of the d of g will be the catching up of the church the body of Christ off the earth. Then, and only then, can the final seven years of Daniel’s 70 weeks of years,⁴ viz., “Jacob’s trouble”, commence.

Mike Schroeder

All Scripture references are from the King James Bible. Please feel free to redistribute this article as you see fit. 　

Post Script

Will you be in the number who are caught up on that day that the Lord descends from heaven with a shout? Only the saved, those who have believed on Jesus Christ—“who knew no sin”—and his sacrificial death on the Cross having paid for all their sins, will be going on that ride. History has shown that whatever peace man has achieved in the world can only be temporary. The Bible says that individual men and women can know, beyond a doubt, that they are saved and bound for heaven, and therefore have absolute and permanent peace, regardless of what is going on in the world, by trusting Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for their eternal salvation. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Have you done this? If not, why not now?