ANY HONEST Bible expositor must come to the conclusion that the Rapture of the Christians will occur at the beginning of the seven years of Great Tribulation for the following reasons:
1. The seven years is determined on the Jews and Jerusalem i.e. Daniel’s people and Daniel’s city. They are NOT determined on the Church and any attempt to claim that the Church is “spiritual Israel” is a total distortion of Scripture.
2. The Rapture is the second phase of the Resurrection to Life. The first phase occurred when all the deceased Old Testament Saints who had been waiting in Paradise were taken to heaven when Christ rose and ascended.
3. The Church age concludes when Israel’s 70th “week” begins and the Book of Revelation clearly teaches that Israel alone will be God’s witness during the seven years of Tribulation! Paul assured the Thessalonian Christians that the Day of the Lord, otherwise known as the Tribulation, would not “overtake you as a thief” because they were not appointed to wrath but to salvation whether they died or were alive at the time.
4. When false teachers claimed that the persecutions of the Romans against the early Christians was the Tribulation, Paul made it absolutely clear those who taught such things were deceivers and that the day of the Rapture had NOT come. Two things must occur before the Tribulation could begin:
i) The Departure of the Christians.
ii) The “man of sin”, Antichrist, must be revealed to sign a seven-year covenant with Israel (Dan.9:27).
5. Jesus gave the Jews some signs as to when the Kingdom would be established and these were likened to the days of Noah and the days of Lot. But He also indicated that the seven-year Tribulation will have come when there was a sudden global disappearance of individuals from the entire world. “One shall be taken (in mercy) and the other shall be left (for judgment).”
6. The letters to the seven churches of Asia are prophetic of seven stages of Christendom in the Church Age and the last four of these churches continue to the coming of the Lord. They are:
a) Thyatira representing the Catholic Church. To the overcomers Jesus said: “Hold fast till I come” (Rev.2:25).
b) Sardis representing Protestantism. To the overcomers Jesus said: “If thou shalt not watch…thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee” (Rev.3:3).
c) Philadelphia representing Evangelical non-denominational missionary Christians beginning about 1700. To these Jesus said:
“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” (Rev.3:10).
Here we have a promise made by the Lord Himself that Christians will not be here for the HOUR i.e. for the time of global Tribulation.
Jesus did not promise to keep the Christians in the midst of the great Tribulation but from the TIME. That could only mean that the Rapture must occur BEFORE the Tribulation begins and therefore at the same time that Antichrist signs his peace and security agreement with the nation of Israel. Israel will witness the signs of Sodom’s gross immorality and violence like the days of Noah, while the Church of Jesus Christ will rise like eagles caught in the updraft to our Living Head in heaven!
This “catching away” is instantanious and global. Two will be in bed; two will be in the field; and two grinding in the mill. In a split second; in the twinkling of an eye, this global event will be all over. There will be no warning and the shout of the Lord will only be heard by those who rise into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air!
d) Laodicea is the last stage of Christendom before the Rapture. Christendom before the Rapture will be a church in decline, a church rich and increased with goods yet spiritually impoverished. To this church Christ comes knocking but His knocks are unheard amid the din of contemporary music and charismatic chatter. There is no place for Christ in such a church where the mighty dollar has driven them to fleece the poor while its leaders live in luxury.
Yet there is a remnant even at Laodicea and when the Rapture comes these will be caught through the open door into heaven and share the throne with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father.
The Bride Must be at the Wedding
When Jesus came the first time He came to Israel. The Church did not exist when Jesus came the first time.
His first advent was heralded by a Jewish prophet named John the Baptist and Jesus told His disciples not to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans but only to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt.10:6).
All of Christ’s ministry with few exceptions, was to the Jews. He came as the Son of David and King of the Jews but He was rejected by His own people.
Thus we should remember when reading the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel records that all that He taught applied to the Jews. It could not apply to us Gentiles. His disciples were Jews; His audience were Jews and when He spoke to the Samaritan woman He declared that “salvation is of the Jews”. That was how God arranged it in Old Testament times. To get right with God a Gentile had to leave his pagan gods and turn to the only Living God; the God of Israel.
The truth of a Gentile Church was kept secret by God until after Christ had risen and returned to heaven.
Yet during the Lord’s ministry He told parables about a wedding that one day would take place.
In Matthew chapter 22 Jesus told a parable of a King who made a wedding feast for his son. He sent his servants out to invite guests but they would not come and they even slew some of the King’s servants.
The king was angry and “and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city”.
He then sent his servants into the highways and byways and gathered all who would come.
The parable had a meaning and taught that Jesus the Son of God had come as John wrote,
“He came unto His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him to them gave He the power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12).
When the Jews rejected Jesus as their King God sent the Romans to destroy their city and then He sent His servants into all the world and all who received Him were made the sons of God. But one day there must be a wedding feast for the King’s Son and for Him there must be a Bride.
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and he told the Corinthian Christians whom he had won to Christ:
“I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2Cor.11:2).
Also Paul told the Ephesian Christians: “Husbands , love your wives, even as Christ loved the church” (Eph.5:25).
The Church began at Pentecost and she is the Bride of Christ. When we first trust in Christ we are engaged to Christ and the wedding is to take place in heaven.
Jesus said,
“I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3).
The Lord is now preparing a place for His Bride, the Church, and when that is ready, He will come into the air and call His Bride to Himself.
The wedding is in heaven before the Lord comes as King of kings to reign over the earth for He told the Jews in Luke chapter 12 to be watching:
“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately” (Luke12:35-36).
The wedding must occur BEFORE the Lord returns therefore the Bride must be caught up to the wedding in heaven before the Lord returns to reign.
The Tribulation ends “immediately” before the Lord returns to reign (Matt.24:29) and He returns “from the wedding!” So the Bride must be caught up before the Tribulation so that the wedding of Christ and His Church can take place before Jesus comes to reign.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
The parable of the ten virgins is found in Matthew chapter 25 It follows a full description of the seven-year tribulation concluding with the glorious appearing of Christ in the heavens in chapter 24 and is one of three parables that Jesus taught to prepare people for this climactic event. 
Christ is returning to establish His kingdom on earth and the Jews will be His servants to rule the kingdom. They will seek the Lord in the Tribulation and these parables are warnings to all urging them to be ready for His coming.
When Christ returns He will return with His bride; the Church. That is clear from Revelation chapter 19 for we read that “His wife hath made herself ready”(Rev.19:7).
After the Rapture, the Bride of Christ will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to receive her rewards for faithful service and these rewards are displayed at the coming of the Lord for we read,
“To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of saints” (Rev.19:8).
One of the first things that must occur on earth after Jesus returns will be the marriage supper of the Lamb.
When Jesus came the first time He told the parable of the wedding feast for the King’s Son which taught us that Israel was not ready to be guests at the marriage of the King’s Son and so their city was burned by the Romans in AD70.
Since then the Gospel has gone into the highways and byways of all the world for nearly 2,000 years and soon the Lord will return with His Bride to reign over the whole world.
There will be guests at the marriage supper of Christ and His Bride: the Church. The Jews and Gentiles who seek the Lord during the Tribulation will be gathered and the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins is given to warn all to be ready. Not all who survive the Tribulation will be believers. Only those who possess the oil of the Holy Spirit with their vessel will be able to attend the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The parable of the 10 virgins makes no mention of the Bride. The virgins are guests at the marriage supper. It is a warning to those who will be in the Tribulation to trust Christ or they will not enter the kingdom when Christ returns.
BY John Ecob
