In the first video, David Rosenthal gives evidence of a rapture position that may surprise you. I say that because most churches hold to a Pretribulation Rapture position.
David Rosenthal systematically explores Matthew 24 and the 7 Seals of Revelation. He then gives evidence and a Scriptural basis for select events tied to the return of Jesus in, “6 Proofs of a Pre-Wrath Rapture.”
I recommend David Rosenthal and suggest you check out his website http://www.zionshope.org. Zion’s Hope was started by his father Marvin Rosenthal who wrote the book The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church.
The second video is equally as good as the first but I will leave it up to you to decide which is more useful in conveying the truth of God’s Word concerning the rapture of the Saints and God pouring out His wrath upon an unrepentant world.
Three of the end times signs given by Jesus before He returns to rescue the saints and to pour out His wrath on an unrepentant world are:
Wars and rumours of wars – Russia, China, North Korea
Famines – The ECONOMIST report in this post
Pestilences – Covid 19 is just the beginning
“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, andthere will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” Matthew 24:7-8
“When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and withfamine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.” Revelation 6:8
The following report is from THE ECONOMIST on May 20th 2022.
By invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin will destroy the lives of people far from the battlefield — and on a scale, that even he may regret. The war is battering a global food system weakened by Covid-19, climate change, and an energy shock. Ukraine’s exports of grain and oilseeds have mostly stopped and Russia’s are threatened. Together, the two countries supply 12 percent of traded calories. Wheat prices, up 53 per cent since the start of the year, jumped a further 6 six per cent on May 16th, after India said it would suspend exports because of an alarming heatwave.
The widely accepted idea of a cost-of-living crisis does not begin to capture the gravity of what may lie ahead. António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warned on May 18th that the coming months threaten “the spectre of a global food shortage” that could last for years. The high cost of staple foods has already raised the number of people who cannot be sure of getting enough to eat by 440m, to 1.6bn. Nearly 250m are on the brink of famine. If, as is likely, the war drags on and supplies from Russia and Ukraine are limited, hundreds of millions more people could fall into poverty. Political unrest will spread, children will be stunted and people will starve.
Mr Putin must not use food as a weapon. Shortages are not the inevitable outcome of war. World leaders should see hunger as a global problem urgently requiring a global solution
Russia and Ukraine supply 28 per cent of globally traded wheat, 29 per cent of barley, 15 per cent of maize, and 75 per cent of the sunflower oil. Russia and Ukraine contribute about half the cereals imported by Lebanon and Tunisia; for Libya and Egypt, the figure is two-thirds. Ukraine’s food exports provide the calories to feed 400m people. The war is disrupting these supplies because Ukraine has mined its waters to deter an assault, and Russia is blockading the port of Odesa.
Even before the invasion, the World Food Programme had warned that 2022 would be a terrible year. China, the largest wheat producer, has said that, after rains delayed planting last year, this crop may be its worst ever. Now, in addition to the extreme temperatures in India, the world’s second-largest producer, a lack of rain threatens to sap yields in other breadbaskets, from America’s wheat belt to the Beauce region of France. The Horn of Africa is being ravaged by its worst drought in four decades. Welcome to the era of climate change.
All this will have a grievous effect on the poor. Households in emerging economies spend 25 per cent of their budgets on food — and in sub-Saharan Africa as much as 40 per cent. In Egypt bread provides 30 per cent of all calories. In many importing countries, governments cannot afford subsidies to increase the help to the poor, especially if they also import energy — another market in turmoil.
Nearly 7000 children below the age of five and 2000 pregnant women were treated by World Vision for acute malnutrition in Sudan ( 5 months of 2021) and the problem is worse in 2022.
The crisis threatens to get worse. Ukraine had already shipped much of last summer’s crop before the war. Russia is still managing to sell its grain, despite added costs and risks for shippers. However, those Ukrainian silos that are undamaged by the fighting are full of corn and barley. Farmers have nowhere to store their next harvest, due to start in late June, which may therefore rot. And they lack the fuel and labour to plant the one after that. Russia, for its part, may lack some supplies of the seeds and pesticides it usually buys from the European Union.
In spite of soaring grain prices, farmers elsewhere in the world may not make up the shortfall. One reason is that prices are volatile. Worse, profit margins are shrinking, because of the surging prices of fertiliser and energy. These are farmers’ main costs and both markets are disrupted by sanctions and the scramble for natural gas. If farmers cut back on fertiliser, global yields will be lower at just the wrong time.
The response by worried politicians could make a bad situation worse. Since the war started, 23 countries from Kazakhstan to Kuwait have declared severe restrictions on food exports that cover 10 per cent of globally traded calories. More than one-fifth of all fertiliser exports are restricted. If trade stops, famine will ensue.
Jesus warns us that at the time of His second coming to earth the world will be like it was during the time Noah lived.
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:37-39
What was it like in Noah’s day? It was much like it is becoming today as God’s values and God’s Word are being trashed. It is leading up to the prophesied time when God will once again pour out His wrath upon the earth with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements.
“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Genesis 6:11-13
In Revelation 6, when Jesus opens the sixth seal around the scroll containing the Trumpet and Bowl judgements He reveals He is about to release the wrath of God on the earth. It is at the trumpet blast when the seventh seal is opened that the Saints are raptured to meet Jesus in the sky and only then are the trumpet and bowl judgements released consecutively.
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Revelation 6:12-17
We know that at the fifth seal the Saints have not been raised from the dead or raptured because John sees the souls of the martyred under the altar asking God how long will it be before He judges the wicked.
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”Revelation 6:9-10
Moreover, it is shortly after the seventh seal has been opened with a trumpet blast that John now sees resurrected and raptured saints clothed in white robes from every tribe and nation standing before the throne praising God the Father and the Son.
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”Revelation 7:9-10
The timing of the rapture is important: God allows the Saints to be tested when Satan is allowed to persecute the Saints during the time of tribulation but God does not pour out His wrath upon the Saints with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements.
“After He had said this, while they were watching, He was lifted up and a cloud hid Him from their sight. As they were still staring into the sky while he was going, suddenly two men in white clothing stood near them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way [houtōs eleusetai hon tropon] you saw Him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called the Mount of Olives (which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away).” (Acts 1:9–12)
Jesus was taken up into the clouds, and just as He was taken up, He will come back in the clouds as both the following Scriptures testify. His first return is to take the Saints to heaven just prior to God’s wrath being poured out on an unbelieving world with the Trumpet and Bowl judgments in opened Scroll. He does not return to the Mount of Olives on this occasion as some commentators have mistakenly believed. Jesus meets the saints in the air, in the clouds.
One reason for this misinterpretation is another misinterpretation from Zechariah 14:4. Note the following passage does not say that Jesus will descend to the Mount of Olives. It is an entirely different event when Jesus returns with the saints to rescue and restore Israel. It occurs after the wrath of God is poured out on an unbelieving world.
“On that day his feetwill stand on the Mount of Olives that lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, leaving a great valley. Half the mountain will move northward and the other half southward.” (Zech 14:4)
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:29
“For the Lord, himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
The heavenly censer with the prayers of allthe saints spoken of in Revelation 8 symbolizes what currently shields the world from divine judgment, so its sudden casting down to the earth filled with fire from the altar must represent the removal of that covering. It is as if this is the final offering up of the prayers of the saints just prior to the Rapture, the censer is no longer needed to hold the prayers of the saints hence the angel filled it with fire from the altar and it is thrown to earth to initiate the wrath of God. Note: the Trumpet and Bowl judgments immediately follow in sequential and escalating order.
“Another angel holding a golden censer came and was stationed at the altar. A large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne. The smoke coming from the incense, along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.” (Revelation 8:3-5)
This interpretation of the censer makes sense of the events that immediately precede the Rapture of the saints and the Wrath of God being poured out simultaneously. This is a perfect fit for the Prewrath position of the rapture of the saints prior to the Trumpet and Bowl judgements. That the heavenly censer is removed at the seventh seal thus provides additional verification that God’s wrath does not begin until the seven trumpets.
Prewrath interpreters such as myself locate the resurrection just before the day of the Lord’s wrath is poured out beginning with the breaking of the seventh seal. The six seals depict the wrath of Satan being vented on Christians and Jews by the Antichrist and his followers. It is a time of great tribulation then the rapture and resurrection take place after which the wrath of God with the trumpet and bowl judgements. This is consistent with Matthew 24 and Paul’s Thessalonian teaching.
“Let no one deceive you in any way; for the day of the Lord will not come unless [ean mē] the apostasy comes first [prōton] and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)
The rapture and the resurrection will happen at the cutting short of the Beast’s great tribulation and before the day of the Lord’s wrath.
IT IS AT THE SEVENTH SEAL THAT JOHN SEES THE FOLLOWING
“After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. They w ere shouting out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood there in a circle around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Praise and glory, and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” Then one of the elders asked me, “Thesedressed in long white robes—who are they and where have they come from?” So I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them.They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat,because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9–17)
“Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given. They cried out with a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” Each of them was given a long white robe and they were told to rest for a little longer, until the full number was reached of both their fellow servants and their brothers who were going to be killed just as they had been. Then I looked when the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and a huge earthquake took place; the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon became blood red. . . . .” (Revelation 6:9–12)
The Rapture has not occurred at the fifth seal as those under the altar are identified as souls and they are asking God when will He avenge them.Note also the cosmic disturbances that take place at the sixth seal they precede the coming of the Day of the Lord – The Rapture.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7: 9-10)
It is at the end of the sixth seal, John saw the raptured multitude of saints praising God standing before God’s throne in heaven. The rapture has taken place.
“I will produce portents both in the sky and on the earth— blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sunlight will be turned to darkness and the moon to the colour of blood, beforethe day of the LORD comes— that great and terrible day!” (Joel 2:30–31)
Note again the cosmic disturbances before the Day of the Lord comes.
“Immediately afterthe tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matthew 24:29–31)
Note it is after the tribulation that the cosmic disturbances take place before the Son of Man comes to rapture His saints, those dead first and then those alive on the earth.
“And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth nations will be in distress, anxious over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves. People will be fainting from fear and from the expectationof what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man arriving in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the other trees. When they sprout leaves, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near. So also you, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21:25–31)
Note once again the cosmic disturbances precede the Son of Man coming to rapture His church.
I hope this helps to show The Rapture takes place after the tribulation not Pretribulation and that it takes before the wrath of God is poured out with the trumpet and Bowl judgements. Defined by the “end times” writers as a PreWrath Rapture
“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
What two events must take place prior to the rapture? Are there risks in blindly following the teaching of prominent Bible teachers?
What is wrong with a PreTribulation Rapture from a Scriptural standpoint? Nelson does a good job of explaining the relevant Scriptures, particularly 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
Great to see that Dr Michael Brown has realised that Scripture does not support a Pre-Tribulation Rapture.
Without a doubt, the New Testament proclaims that Jesus will return to earth and establish His Kingdom. And without a doubt, the New Testament calls us to live with readiness and expectation. We can all agree on that.
But does the New Testament teach that, for true believers, Jesus will come suddenly, like a thief in the night, without any signs? Or, to the contrary, does it teach that His coming will not be like a thief in the night for godly believers, since we are awake and alert, fully aware of the signs of the times?
“To be clear, I don’t doubt for a moment that we’re living in prophetic times”, said Dr Brown
The gospel is spreading all over the world in unprecedented fashion, just as the Scriptures predicted.
Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel has been re-birthed, and Jerusalem remains at the centre of world attention, again, in accordance with the prophets’ words.
And around the globe, Christians are being brutally persecuted for their faith, mowed down by the hundreds and thousands. This too is in harmony with Scripture, which speak of the last days as times of great blessing and great upheaval, of great light and great darkness, or great victory and great conflict. Jesus promised that Christians would not experience the wrath of God but Scripture shows us that in the end times, God’s wrath is poured out at the Trumpet and Bowl Judgements. The Rapture occurs after the sixth seal. John saw the great multitude that no one could number of believers before the throne clothed in white robes (resurrected bodies) and waving palm branches just prior to the seventh seal being opened and the trumpet judgements commencing.
Despite the popular theology of our day, Christians should not expect to get out of experiencing the tribulation or the end times. Nowhere in the Bible does the Lord promise us this, say Michael Brown and Craig Keener, two leading, acclaimed Bible scholars. In fact, they say, Jesus promises us tribulation in this world.
Yet this is no reason to fear. In this fascinating, accessible, and personal book, Brown and Keener walk you through what the Bible really says about the rapture, the tribulation, and the end times. What they find will leave you full of hope. God’s wrath is not poured out on His people, and He will shield us from it–as he shielded Israel in Egypt during the ten plagues. So instead of taking comfort in what God hasn’t promised, take comfort in the words of Jesus: He has overcome the world, and we live in his victory.
Another great teaching by Nelson Walters (just 12 minutes) on what event Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24: 29-31. It is clearly a picture of The Rapture not Jesus physical return to earth to rescue Israel described in Revelation 19:11-15. Conclusive evidence for a PreWrath timing of the Rapture.
Alan Kurschner on the flaws of a Pretribulation Rapture
Prewrath eschatology has exposed a fatal flaw in pretribulationism. It has shown that there are clear passages in the Bible that teach that certain, discernible, prophesied events will occur before the day of the Lord: the Antichrist and the apostasy (2 Thess 2:3), celestial disturbance (Joel 2:30-31), Elijah will return (Mal 4:5), the wicked saying “peace and safety” (1 Thess 5:2–3).
Pretribulation theology has traditionally taught that the rapture will occur on the same day that the day of the Lord begins, then any event that occurs before the day of the Lord will also have to occur before the rapture. This, of course, is problematic for the pretribulation position, because their entire theological pretribulation system is based on imminence, the belief that no prophesied events or signs can happen before the rapture.
Because of this crack in their system, untold numbers of pretribulational Christians in the last two decades have become prewrath in their eschatology and have rejected their previous pretribulation belief system. To be sure, there are many “pretribs” who have attempted to explain away this biblical contradiction to their system in various ways. One of the most common attempts to do so, and one that is growing in more popularity, has resulted for them needing to create a new dispensation and forcing it between the rapture when the church age dispensation is completed and the seven-year tribulation dispensation. So in essence they are creating a “gap” between the rapture and the seven-year period, a gap of time they claim that these “before the day of the Lord” events will occur. In this way, they attempt to maintain the doctrine of imminence. To place these events before the rapture in their system would be fatal to their theology.
Here is the problem: Their claim that the rapture is disconnected from the day when the day of the Lord’s wrath begins is without support. In fact, Scripture is quite consistent that the rapture and the beginning of the day of the Lord’s wrath occur on the same day, they are back-to-back events, not separated by days, weeks, months, or—I have even heard some pretrib teachers claim—years. I have covered this before here, here, and here.
Their interpretation is a deus ex machinain order to protect their imminence theology, so much so they are willing to grab out of thin air and inject a whole, new, distinct dispensation into God’s redemptive plan. Their dispensation-itus condition exposes their flawed theology when they feel the need to contrive a new dispensation in God’s plan when a contradiction is pointed out to them.
Let me give a plug for Alan’s book Prewrath: A Very Short Introduction to the Great Tribulation, Rapture, and Day of the Lord
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 