By Austin Fields
Yes. There are many verses of Scripture which teach us that the rapture of the believers, both dead and alive, will take place before the tribulation.
“Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30)
To me this parable declares in no uncertain terms that the rapture must take place before the tribulation period starts. The sower is Jesus Christ, the seed that He sows are the elect, which is referred to as wheat (See Luke 22:31). The wheat was sown in the sower’s field (world). Satan sowed his followers in the same field that belonged to the sower of the good seed; therefore Satan and his followers are “squatters,” having no legal right in the field.
Now the sower (Jesus Christ) is going to clean up His field, but ere He starts to burn the tares, He gives the command to gather His wheat (elect) into His barn. The barn is a place where the wheat is taken so that no harm can come to it. Surely then the barn can only represent heaven. Thus we have the owner of the field, gathering the wheat into a safe place ere He burns His field and rids it of every undesirable thing. To me nothing can be clearer than that the rapture must take place before the tribulation, for the tribulation as described in the book of Revelation is a time of burning, but the wheat is safely housed in the barn (heaven) before the burning starts.
John, in Revelation 4 and 5, saw the enthroned elders, which denotes the church, ready to reign with Jesus Christ, but they could not reign until the Lamb had taken the book from out of the hand of God. This book contains the requirements that must be met ere the field (world) could be redeemed, which Satan had corrupted with tares. From these two chapters we learn that the saints were in heaven before the first seal was broken, and the breaking of the first seal is the beginning of the tribulation. Therefore, the saints must be raptured before the tribulation starts.
There are many verses of Scripture which warn the saint, and exhort him to watch for the coming of the Lord, but if the saints are not to be raptured before the tribulation, but are to go through it, then the warnings and the exhortations would be out of place, and they should instead watch for the Antichrist, false prophet and the terrible day of the Lord. Nowhere is the saint exhorted to watch for the tribulation, but for the second coming of the Lord. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to meet the Lord in the air, not on the earth.
“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them (dead in Christ) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
SHARING
