Good morning folks!
Many brethren hold to a pretrib rapture as I use to as well. But after much deep study on the subject I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection/rapture does not take place until after the tribulation and posted all the scriptural evidence on a link on my website along with a simple timeline:
The Rapture of the Church is after the Tribulation
Is there any scripture I missed?
One of the biggest mistakes one can make when reading the Bible is to think that the entire Bible applies
to them. That is not the case. It looks like you are mixing up that which God meant for Israel with that which is meant for the church. Now it is true that we can learn from the OT (Rom 15:4), but Christians need to keep in mind that the OT is not written to them. It would be like reading a letter addressed to someone else and thinking everything it said was meant for themselves.
It is important to realize that everything Jesus did when he was here was to and for Israel. When a Gentile woman asked to heal her daughter, Jesus said,
Matt 15:24,
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Of course, because of God's grace and her believing, Jesus was told by God to heal the woman's daughter. But that does not negate the truth that Jesus came to and for Israel, not the Gentiles. Gentiles were out of luck throughout the entire OT, including the Gospels.
Eph 2:12,
That at that time [before Pentecost and the new birth) ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Israel was God's chosen people. He of course made many promises to them, one of the chief ones being that they would have an everlasting kingdom of their own. Well, Jesus came and there was no kingdom set up. Instead the Jews killed the king. At the death and resurrection of Jesus, the promised kingdom was left unfulfilled. But that doesn't mean all the promises God made to Israel will never get fulfilled. They will. That is precisely what Revelation is all about. It is God working with Israel to set up the kingdom He promised them in Genesis to John.
What about all the books between John's Gospel and Revelation? That is what Paul [by revelation] calls a mystery that was hidden in God until it was revealed to Paul.
Eph 3:9,
And to make all [men] see what [is] the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Col 1:26-27,
26 [Even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now [Now when? After Pentecost when the new birth became available] is made manifest to his saints:
27 To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Nobody had Christ in them in the OT, including the gospels. Christ in you is the new birth and it was kept secret for a very good reason.
1Cor 2:7-8,
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, [even] the hidden [wisdom], which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known [it], they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Why would the devil not have killed Jesus had he known the mystery? When Jesus was here on the earth there was one Jesus, in one place at a time, doing one thing. Now, since all Christians have Christ in them (Col 1:27), there are hundreds of millions of Christ's all over the world who are capable of doing everything Jesus did and even more. In speaking of the time after his future resurection, Jesus said,
John 14:12,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Wherever there is a Christian, there is Christ. The only thing the devil could do after he made his mistake, was to keep Christians from knowing the mystery that Paul talks about in his Epistles. Sad to say, as evidenced by a lack of preaching on Paul's mystery, the devil has been highly successful.
Eph 3:1-3,
1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
Most Christians are under the impression that there are 4 gospels. The scriptures say different. Specifically, the Apostle Paul was given a gospel from God.
Rom 16:25,
Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my [Paul's] gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John will not establish the Christian. One could read them all day long for 100 years and they will not be established. Romans 16:25 is clear that it is only through Paul's gospel that the Christian can be established.
One of the key elements of Paul's gospel is given in Thessalonians:
1Thess 1:10,
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
The wrath to come is that of Revelation. Christians are spared from that wrath because we won't be on the earth when it comes.
1 Thess 4:13-18,
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.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
There is no way anybody could not be filled with intense apprehension and fear thinking they will have to endure the tribulation. It would hardly be a
comfort, which is clearly God's will for the Christian.
To summarize:
To get the story of Israel, read Genesis to John and then Revelation. The books between (Acts through Jude) are meant for born again believers and tell a rather different story than that of Israel. It is the story of Christendom. One of the differences is that we will be caught up into the clouds with Jesus before the events of Revelation. Since we are the lights of the world, that world will be plunged into utter darkness, otherwise called the tribulation. We'll be long gone before that takes place.
Notice the 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says we will be with the Lord forevermore after he gathers us together in the clouds. Revelation (and many other verses) say Jesus will come to earth the second time as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He'll be cleaning house. The money changers in the temple Jesus cleared out will be chump change compared to his next appearance. One the things Revelation says is that Jesus will be accompanied by an army when he comes again. Who do you think that might be? Well, if we will have been gathered together in the clouds to be forevermore with the Lord, then when he comes, we'll be right there with him. We will be the Jesus' army. We will be the ones to help Jesus kick some devil butt! No wonder 1 Thessalonians 4:18 says to comfort one another with these words! I'd hardly think it a comfort to go through the tribulation.
For a more in depth look at all of this, I'd like to suggest:
https://christianovercomers.com/pdf_files/Commentary_On_Revelation_Bullinger.pdf
God bless you brother.
