Many Christians confuse the rapture with the first resurrection. They are two separate events, occurring at different times, one before the great tribulation and the other directly after.
Copyright 2020 by H.D. Shively
Understanding the Difference between
the Pre-Tribulation Rapture and the
Pre-Wrath First Resurrection
In Matthew 24: 3, Jesus’ disciples asked Him…What shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world? Jesus told them in verses twenty-nine, through thirty-one, "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: and 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. And 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.”
The apostle Paul is teaching from Jesus’ statements in I Thessalonians 4:16,17. Paul is describing what will happen when Jesus returns.
“For the Lord Himself will 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: 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.”
This is the first resurrection which occurs after the tribulation when Jesus’ returns. This is not the pre-tribulation rapture. Paul’s statements are often misinterpreted as the pre-tribulation rapture.
While some Christians do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture at all, it occurs in scripture and is also prophesied in the Apocrypha (I Esdras 6:26), where Esdras (Ezra of the Old Testament) is told by the Lord through an angel that “They shall see those who were taken up, who from their birth have not tasted death.” This event would instigate a change in the hearts of the people who witness those being taken up – “and the heart of the earth’s inhabitant’s shall be changed.”
The pre-tribulation rapture was taught by Cyrus Scofield, but he had misinterpreted the timing of the event. He said that because the word ‘church’ does not appear after Revelation chapter three, then John’s calling up into heaven in chapter four is the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. Unfortunately he overlooked the fact that candlesticks are churches in Revelation 1:20 and chapters two and three. The two witnesses in chapter eleven are also described as “candlesticks” in verse four. –
“These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.”
If these two witnesses are candlesticks, then they are two individuals that represent churches. There is no other application for the word in the book of Revelation.
Smyrna and Philadelphia are the only two candlesticks/churches that receive no correction from the Lord in Revelation chapters two and three. The two candlestick/churches of Revelation chapter eleven, represent the spiritual conditions of Smyrna and Philadelphia. They are called up to God or raptured in verse Revelation 11:12. –
“And they heard a great voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them.”
John hears the same phrase ‘Come up here,’ when he is called up to heaven in Revelation chapter four, verse one. As a similitude of the bride, this merely links him to the remnant candlesticks in chapter eleven. In chapter four, John is being elevated to another level of instruction. Previously he had been receiving direct teaching from the Lord, now he would be receiving what he is to relate to the church in a completely different method, through prophetic visions. His apparent rapture in this instance, is only telling us that there is going to be a change in the manner that he is to be receiving his instructions.
John is seen again in chapter ten being commissioned by an angel to share the Gospel. As a representative of the church, he is still working on earth and has obviously not been raptured.
It’s important to understand that it is only the Philadelphians who are promised to be kept, (Rev.3:10) who also share the same characteristics with the Smyrnans, which is the only other church spiritual condition that receives no correction from the Lord. Both share the same spirit of faithfulness. The remaining five spiritual conditions will be left behind if they do not repent in time. Therefore it is important for us to examine the things those churches are harboring that will keep them from the Philadelphian category.
We are to pray we are worthy to escape as Jesus said (Luke 21:36) and be willing to let Him change or remove those things in us that would keep us earthbound.
The Two Witnesses and the 144,000
The two witnesses represent the 144,000 remnant who are seen safely in heaven in chapter 14, after the witnesses have been raptured in chapter 11. This rapture precedes the carnage that occurs at the end of 14, verses fifteen through twenty. The 144,000 are raptured prior to the angel’s warning not to take the mark of the beast in verses nine and ten.
The 144,000 in turn represent the Philadelphian remnant that God promises to keep from the hour of temptation (apostasy) which in turn keeps them from the hour of His judgment, the tribulation. This is a symbolic number representing a greater multitude, but is symbolically showing us that it is a small amount of believers in comparison to the number of Christians on earth at that time.
This group are not only Jews as taught by Cyrus Scofield, who did not understand prophetic symbolism. In the description of the 144, 000 in chapter seven we see that Manasseh replaces Dan. This shows us the half-Gentile offspring of Joseph, who is a similitude of Jesus, being grafted in to the Hebrew lineage. Therefore we are being shown that the 144,000 is a mix of believing Jews and Gentiles.
The witnesses are also described as two olive trees. There are two olive trees described in scripture; the Hebrew olive tree and the wild Gentile olive tree that has been grafted in (Romans 11:17-23).
The Tribulation
Because Scofield did not understand prophetic symbolism, he also misinterpreted the tribulation as beginning after chapter four. However, chapters eight through eleven chronicle the warning period of the seven trumpets. Trumpets in scriptures are used to call religious assemblies or as a warning before a war. In the context of the book, the trumpets symbolize a period of warning that would precede the tribulation. Thus the trumpets are warning us that this is the "beginning of sorrows" that Jesus told us about in Matthew twenty-four, verse eight. The tribulation actually begins after the two witnesses/candlestick/remnant church is raptured in chapter eleven and when the last of the seven trumpets sounds signifying that the warning period is over and the tribulation is about to commence.
The post-tribulation rapture which includes the first resurrection of the dead (I Thessalonians 4:16), occurs before God’s wrath falls to destroy the beast one world government, the antichrist and Babylon, the city/system that represents them. When God calls His people out of Babylon, (Revelation 18:4) that is the pre-wrath rapture and the first resurrection of the dead in Christ; and it will be the only time that there will be no true believers on earth. This is the rapture that will gather up all those who have been left behind after the pre-tribulation rapture, along with those who have come to the Lord during the tribulation.
The great tribulation is the result of man’s sin falling back upon him, which occurs before the first resurrection/rapture. The purpose of the tribulation is to hopefully bring mankind to repentance. After the post-tribulation rapture, the wrath of God is poured out upon all those who willfully practice sin and rebellion against God.
While Babylon is being destroyed and vile men are experiencing God’s wrath, the Lord’s church will be celebrating the marriage supper of the Lamb. In order for the marriage supper of the Lamb to take place, every believer would have to be present, no one would be excluded, thus the dead in Christ rise first and the believers are gathered by the angels (I Thessalonians 4:16, Matthew 24:31). It is in this period of time between the Lord’s sign appearing in the sky and His actual physical return to earth with His saints, that this long awaited marriage supper with the Lord takes place.
In conclusion, we can see the Biblical distinction between the pre-tribulation rapture represented by the calling up of the two witnesses that represent the remnant church, and the post-tribulation first resurrection when Jesus returns. The great tribulation and the time of God’s wrath are also two separate events that will occur in a not so distant future. Let’s take advantage of the time we have left to prepare ourselves to meet the Lord.
For a more detailed study please see our feature Understanding the Book of Revelation