Questions for dispensationalists and pretribulational rapturists:

 

(some questions borrowed from David Lankford’s book  The Second Coming: A Second Look )

 

 

Where are scripture references for a seven year tribulation? (excluding Daniel 9:27—for evidence that you cannot use this verse, please read Dispensationalism and the King James Bible )

 

What is the length of the reign of the Antichrist according to scripture?

 

Where are the scripture references of the length of the marriage supper of the Lamb?

 

Where are the scripture references to the marriage supper of the Lamb being in heaven?

 

Where are the scripture references to our reigning in heaven with Christ during the Tribulation?

 

How do we know when Daniel’s last week has begun?

 

Where did Jesus say he would come again in two stages? ( see Hebrews 9:28; I Timothy 6:14; II Timothy 4:1,8; Titus 2:13; I Peter 1:7; Acts 3:20-21)

 

Dispensationalists teach that since the ‘church’ is not mentioned in Revelation chapters 4 through 19, this means that because of the rapture, it is not present on the earth during the tribulation. With this logic, can we assume that since the church of Laodicea is also not mentioned past Revelation 3:22  that  it is raptured before the tribulation? If so, does Jesus rapture it before or after he spews it out of his mouth? (Revelation 3:15,16).  Also, why isn’t the ‘church’ mentioned in Revelation 20-22, (where the millennial reign, the marriage supper of the Lamb and the New Jerusalem are discussed)? Can we assume that the ‘church’ is also not a part of these events?

 

Since John the Apostle is supposed to represent the church being raptured in   Revelation 4:1, where does the Word of God explain that he actually represents the Lord’s  Church? How does John being caught up ‘in the spirit’ into heaven (Rev.4:2) represent a physical rapture? Why didn’t Paul represent the church when he was caught up into heaven? (II Corinthians 12:1-4)  What about Elijah, Enoch, the two witnesses in Rev.11:12? And if John represents the church raptured up into heaven in Rev. 4:1, what is he doing back on the earth during the tribulation in Revelation 13:1?

 

For those that believe that 1 Corinthians 15:52 describes the pretrib rapture  ‘at the last  trump’, how can there be another trumpet sound after the ‘last trump’ when the angels  gather the elect after the tribulation as described in Matthew 24:31?

 

      The first resurrection which is described in Revelation 20:4-5, discusses trubulation saints who were ‘beheaded for their witness of Jesus’. How can you be raptured seven years before the first resurrection? Remember, 1Thessalonians 4:16 says “the dead in Christ shall rise first.”  Jesus said he would raise up his servants  “at the last day” (John 6:39,40,44,54), and those who reject him will be judged in the last day (John 12:48). Are you going to be raptured before Lazarus is (John 11:24)? Do you believe the last day includes the tribulation? This would mean that those who are dead will be judged during the tribulation, which is contrary to scripture (Rev. 11:18). This belief would also assume that the last day aka the day of the Lord would be 1007 years in length, which is also contrary to scripture (2 Peter 3:8). The timing problems are solved, however, when you realize that ‘the last day’, ‘the day of the Lord’, ‘the day of Christ’, ‘the rapture’, ‘the first resurrection’, ‘the second coming’ and ‘the great day of his wrath’ all happen at the same time.

 

 

Points to Consider:

 

Jesus prayed for his church in John 17:15 “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”

 

  For those that believe that Revelation 3:10 describes a promise of a pretribulation rapture, please compare it with 1Corinthians 10:13:

 

 Revelation 3:10 “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee    

from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”

 

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to  

  man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able;       

  but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

 

The Lord carefully grafted Gentile believers as wild branches into the natural tree of

Israel (Romans 11:17,19,24). It would make no sense for God to rip you out of the tree with a rapture right before the tribulation (it’s also not scriptural).

 

Stephen referred to the Old Testament Israelites who followed Moses into the wilderness as the ‘church’ in Acts 7:38. Apparently, the modern day dispensationalist movement refuses to acknowledge this as well as the fact that we are all children of Abraham by faith and are inheritors of the promise (Galatians 3:7,14). Paul said in Romans 2:28,29 “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly… but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly…” Why is it so hard to believe that just as the Lord protected his people during the plagues in Egypt, he will not be able to protect his people during the similar plagues listed in Revelation, and must rapture them out of the earth instead?

 

The argument is presented by dispensationalists that the church will be raptured

because we are ‘not appointed unto wrath’ (1Thess.5:9). I agree that God has not appointed us to wrath and a careful examination of the book of Revelation will divulge the fact that the wrath of God does not begin until the sixth seal (Rev.6:12-17), which happens concurrently with the seventh (last) trumpet (Rev.11:15-19) and the seventh vial (Rev.16:17-21). This is evidenced by the fact that several of the same events are described in the 6th seal, the 7th trumpet and the 7th vial, which happen at the end of the tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31).