Why You Believe in a Mid-Trib Rapture

Question – I saw on your website that you believe in a mid-tribulation rapture.

Would you please explain why?

Answer – Perhaps I have been misleading in my statements on the midtribulational rapture. Actually I lean toward that position from what I have gleaned through Scripture study. I do not claim that I am 100% absolutely convinced on the subject. But let me explain why I lean toward that position.

            The first reason is based on a conclusion from logic. That is, the Great Tribulation is concerned during its first half with the Gentiles, and since the Church is composed mainly of Gentiles in the Last Days, why should the Church be omitted from the first half of the Tribulation?

            The second reason I have trouble with the pretribulational rapture position is based on faulty argument by those who hold the pretribulation rapture position. One of the main arguments they use is based on an allegorical interpretation of a passage (a secondary meaning not explicitly set forth in the literal narrative) in Revelation where there is no indication that allegory is intended. The passage I am referring to is Revelation 4:1-2:

1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

2 And immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.                                                                                                           Revelation 4:1-2

The argument goes that after the letter to the seventh and final church, Laodicaea, (The letters also represents church ages) verse one of chapter four begins with the command “Come up hither.” According to the people who hold a pretribulation rapture position this is symbolic of when the Rapture occurs. But there is not one indication that this text means anything more than what the text plainly says, and there is another literary point to be made. That is, consistency of thought. Interjections of events when another is being discussed would be confusing to the reader, and that would increase the difficulty of understanding it. The Book of Revelation is an unsealed book, but the Book of Revelation is a book requiring much study. I have been delving into it on a regular basis for thirty-one years and there is much I do not know.

            My third reason has to do with the character of the message to the seventh and final church, Laodicaea. Most prophetic talk about the spiritual lack of this church, but they do not properly elaborate on the part of the passage which reads:

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,” Revelation 3:18a

Overlooked most often that fire in relation to the church quite often means persecution.

There seems to be a great distaste for facing up to the realities of persecution in these Last Days. But the reality is that the church in the last one hundred years has experienced more persecution than the totality of the persecution of the previous centuries of the church according to some sources, and now we see hatred for the church mounting where Christianity was once dominant. Passages like 1Peter 4:17:

For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God?

and,

And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD. (Ezekiel 39:6) tend to make me think that the church will endure great difficulty before it is called away.

            Next we come to the fourth reason for my idea of a midtribulation Rapture. There are two parts to explaining the basis for this reason. The first has to do with the nature of the believer’s relationship to God. He is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Scripture says the believer has the Holy Spirit indwelling as the earnest of our salvation:

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14

This is a legal term we still use today when we make a deposit on property. Biblically it says the Holy Spirit cannot be removed from the believer until the final redemption, which takes place when the Lord Jesus Christ acknowledges us as His own at the Mercy (Bema) Seat of God.

The second part has to do with the work of the Holy Spirit in restraining evil.

2 Thessalonians 2

1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

This is one of the few places in the King James Bible where the language is truly archaic because we think of letting as allowing rather than the original primary meaning of restraining. The passage tells us that the Holy Spirit restrains evil and does not allow it to progress beyond a certain point until the day comes the Holy Spirit will be removed from the world. Since the Holy Spirit is given as the earnest, when He departs I must go with Him. I fail to see why the departure of the Holy Spirit from the earth and the departure of the Lord’s redeemed would not take place at the same time. The indication this will occur when Antichrist is revealed when he breaks his protection agreement with Israel. That takes place at the mid point of Tribulation when the time known as Jacob’s Trouble begins. Hence my conclusion is the rapture occurs at the midpoint of Tribulation.

            I hope this explanation makes sense. It appears more and more to me to be the right one.