The Rapture: When Will It Take Place? Part 5e: Pretribulation Rapture

The Rapture: When Will It Take Place? Part 5e: Pretribulation Rapture
Friday, August 22, 2025 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Contemporary issues / Scripture discussion / The church / Thought for Today

The Rapture. As we are starting to see, the belief in the pretribulation Rapture is not as biblically secure as many might wish.

While there are some Scriptures that appear to support it, there are others that point away from it. In the previous post, we discovered that the way the first and second resurrections are commonly taught does not line up with what the Scriptures actually say.

Other Scriptures are often used to “prove” the pretribulation Rapture. As we will observe, Scripture is sometimes ripped out of its context in order to make the text provide the desired results.

Have you ever heard Matthew 24:40–41 used to prove the pretribulation Rapture? Over the years, I certainly have heard it used in that way. Several members of our church admitted the same.

Matthew 24:40–41 (ESV): “Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.”

Being taken proves the pretribulation Rapture! But take a look at its context:

Matthew 24:37–39 (NAU): ““For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man.”

What does the context tell us? Those who perished in the flood were the ones who were taken away. Those who focused on and practiced evil were the ones taken away. Noah, and those with him, were the ones protected. While arguably Matthew 24:40–41 does speak of an unexpected surprise, in context being left behind is much preferred to being taken away.

An argument from silence: It is often suggested that since the church is not mentioned in the book of Revelation beyond chapter three (other than Revelation 22:16 which takes place back in the present church age), it is therefore no longer on the earth and must have been raptured out.

But that argument does not hold. We also do not see the church mentioned within the context of the new heavens and the new earth. If we use that same line of reasoning, that if the church is not mentioned it is not there, then the church must not be in the new creation. That is ludicrous, as we know that where Jesus is, we will be also. But it does point out that arguments from silence are dangerous, as the claim about the church in the book of Revelation demonstrates.

It is also argued that since we will not know the time of the coming of Jesus, the Rapture has to be a pretribulation one. Once the great tribulation starts, since we know it will last seven years, the time of Christ’s coming will be known if there is a post-tribulation Rapture. Yet Jesus dis say those days would be shortened, because if they were not, no flesh would survive it.

Matthew 24:22 (NAU): Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Even with a post-tribulation Rapture, we cannot know the precise timing of Christ’s return. Remember, even with the pretribulation Rapture, Jesus did tell us that we could know the general season. Thus the Rapture timing argument falls apart.

We will continue our discussion in the next post.

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