The End Times & a Pretribulational Rapture

The disciples of the apostles would be a good place to start in determining an accurate eschatology (events concerning the end of the world). These early church fathers taught premillennialism that the Church's Rapture would occur before a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ known as the Kingdom Age or Millennium. Christ will reign from the city of Jerusalem, preceded by a seven-year period during which the Antichrist will rule the earth. During these last days, the Jews will rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. 

A movement occurred during the third century (200-300 AD) arguing that much of the end times teachings were symbolic, brought on by the Schism of Nepos and causing the whole Church to become amillennial. This period was in the middle of the Church determining the canon of the New Testament, namely which writings would be considered inspired by God. This schism centered on questioning the literal interpretation of the book of Revelation, particularly the 1,000 years of Revelation 20:2-3 as symbolic. An Egyptian Bishop named Nepos (around 290 AD) wrote a book entitled "Refutation of the Allegorists" that Gnostics and others used to influence the Church to abandon a literal millennium. This book no longer exists but is quoted in Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History. In his great work, Eusebius also documented that the Church believed in a literal interpretation of Revelation in the Apostle John's time through the early second century. 

Church Fathers 

In the first three centuries, the church fathers taught the following still future events: 

1.      The Roman Empire would fall apart (fulfilled in 476 AD).

2.   Ten nations would arise out of the Roman Empire in fulfillment of Daniel's ten toes and ten horns.

3.      A man possessed by a demon, called the Antichrist, will ascend to power.

4.      The Antichrist's name, spelled out in Greek, will add up to 666.

5.      The Antichrist will sign a peace treaty between the Jews in Israel and local non-believers, and will last for seven years.

6.      This treaty is represented by the seventieth week of Daniel 9.

7.      At the end of the seven years, Jesus will return to earth to destroy the Antichrist and establish His kingdom and reign in peace for 1,000 years.

In 180 AD, Irenaeus wrote in his Against Heresies 5.28-29, “The day of the Lord is as a thousand years, and in six days created things were completed. Therefore, it is evident they will come to an end in the six thousandth year.” “When in the end that church will suddenly be caught up from this, then it is said, ‘There will be tribulation such as not been since the beginning, nor will be.’”

Several church fathers taught that Jesus would return to set up His millennial kingdom in the Jewish year 6,000. They saw His first coming happening 4,000 years after creation. They taught that His Second Coming would happen around 2000 AD. An approximate range based on a review of the Jewish calendar would be 2030 – 2067 AD.

Daniel’s Prophecies 

The most effective and accurate starting point to understand the end times is to study and glean from the revelations that God gave to Daniel from his book of the same name. In it, Daniel relates several prophecies of events to occur beginning in Daniel’s day and even predicts the appearance and timing of the death of the Messiah at His first coming. The seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 provides a framework for both comings, sixty-nine weeks of years (483) from the decree by Artaxerxes (March 14, 444 BC), given in Nehemiah 2:1. This means that Messiah would die for the sins of the world (cut off – Verse 26) on April 6, 32 AD. The seventieth week would predict the period of His second coming, beginning with the Rapture and then a seven-year period we know as the Great Tribulation, culminating with Messiah's destruction of the Antichrist and the establishment of His kingdom for 1,000 years. 

Two other timeline prophecies in Daniel accurately predict the reestablishment of the nation of Israel on May 14, 1948, and their access to the Temple Mount on June 7, 1967. The first of these is found in Daniel 4:23-26 where Daniel’s vision predicts that Nebuchadnezzar would be driven away from mankind. Your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven periods of time [seven years of days] will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes. Seven years of days (@ 360 days/year) are 2,520 years. Cyrus issued his decree in Ezra 1:1-4, freeing the Jews and declaring the state of Israel to exist again on August 3, 537 BC. Two thousand five hundred twenty years later is May 14, 1948.

In Daniel 5:25, the inscription written on the walls to Darius read: ‘MENE, MENE,  TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ Daniel interpreted the words to Darius in Daniel 5:26-28: “This is the interpretation of the message: ‘MENE’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. “‘TEKEL’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. “‘PERES’—your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.” If these words are viewed as nouns instead of verbs, a second interpretation revolves around their meaning as units of measure, Mene = 1,000 garahs (twice), Tekel = 20 garahs, and Peres = 500 garahs. Add them up; you get 2,520 (1,000 + 1,000 + 20 + 500) years. Darius's decree to grant the Jews control of the Temple Mount occurred on August 25, 518 BC. Two thousand five hundred twenty years later is June 7, 1967. 

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel described (Verses 31-36) and then interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. It included a great image with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly, and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet part iron and part clay. The image was broken into pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carried them away. The image represented four kingdoms, Babylon (gold), Medio-Persia (silver), Greece (brass), and Rome (iron). The feet represent the split of the Roman empire into two parts (325 AD) when Constantinople ruled the east while Rome ruled the west. History confirms the fulfillment of this prophecy. 

The image also included ten toes on the feet. These toes represent ten kings or governments, weaker than Rome since they are made of clay and not iron. “As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be brittle. “And in that, you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with clay (Daniel 2:42-43). Since history shows no fulfillment to date, Christians believe this is yet to be fulfilled. Daniel envisioned  the kingdom age when Messiah will establish His kingdom: 

“In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. “Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so, the dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”     Daniel 2:44-45

Daniel 7 

Daniel 7 reports a vision God gave Daniel that restates the vision from chapter 2, with further details. It included four different beasts coming up from the sea, the lion (Babylon), the bear (Persia), the leopard (Greece), and the terrible beast (Rome). The fourth beast had ten horns (Verse 7), corresponding to the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s great image. In Verse 8, “While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts. A little horn, the Antichrist, would exercise great authority and cause great havoc, conquering three kings. Verse 11 tells us that Messiah would ultimately destroy his body. 

Daniel 12

There is so much more to the prophecies of Daniel found in chapters 7 – 11 that provide great definitions as to the events of the Tribulation. Daniel 12 is the culmination of these prophecies, as Michael, the great prince, arises to begin the event known as "the great deliverance" (the Rapture) when the saints of God will resurrect and ascend to heaven:

"Now, at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time, your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.    Daniel 12:1-3

To interpret these verses correctly, one must understand that when Daniel says at that time in verse 1, he is referring to the entire seven-year Tribulation. It refers back to Daniel 11:40, At the end time when Antichrist is revealed, goes to war with Egypt, persecutes Israel, and is then destroyed. The mid-tribulation rapture view comes from believing that Michael's war in Daniel 12 is the same war referenced in Revelation 12, which takes place at the midpoint of the Tribulation. In Daniel 12, Michael is standing to protect Israel from the Antichrist’s wars which occur in the first half of the seven years. In Verse 13, God promises Daniel that he will be resurrected with the other believers when Michael stands at the beginning of the Tribulation: “But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.” 

Paul’s View

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now so that in his time, he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.

   2 Thessalonians 2:1-9 

I was taught that the restrainer, as referenced in Verses 6-7, is the Holy Spirit, to be removed from the earth at the time of the Antichrist's appearance, as Paul relates above. If, however, the one who restrains is the Church, we have another clear reference to a pre-tribulation rapture. According to The Bible Knowledge Commentary: 

The Holy Spirit of God is the only Person with sufficient (supernatural) power to do this restraining. How does He do it? Through Christians, whom He indwells and through whom He works in society to hold back the swelling tide of lawless living. How will He be taken out of the way? When the Church leaves the earth in the Rapture, the Holy Spirit will be taken out of the way in the sense that His unique lawlessness-restraining ministry through God's people will be removed (cf. Gen 6:3). The removal of the Restrainer at the time of the Rapture must precede the day of the Lord. Paul's reasoning is thus a strong argument for the pre-tribulation Rapture: the Thessalonians were not in the Great Tribulation because the Rapture had not yet occurred.

Fulfillment of Jewish Festivals 

God introduced the seven festivals Jews were required to celebrate in Leviticus 23. Four take place in the spring (usually March or April), and then the final three happen in the fall, separated by four summer months. These festivals have their fulfillment in Christ's comings, the first four in His first coming, and the last will be complete at His Second Coming, as follows:

            Passover (Leviticus 23:5)                                           Christ’s death at Calvary

            Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6-8)                       Christ as the sin (unleavened) offering          

            First Fruits (Leviticus 23:9-14)                                   Christ’s Resurrection on Easter

            Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-22)                                   Pentecost (birth of the Church)

            Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25)                                   Rapture of the Church

            Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32)                     Great Tribulation        

            Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-36)                               Millennial Kingdom

If Jesus is fulfilling each festival in the same order, then the Rapture of the Church must be pre-tribulation! 

Other Misinterpretations 

Difficulties with the pre-tribulation Rapture can occur from a misunderstanding of the references to various periods involving the second half of the Tribulation. These include 1,260 days, 1,290 days, 1,335 days, and 2,300 days. A proper context to understand these periods might be the following:

·         1,260 days represent the period from the Antichrist taking full control and starting the major persecution in the middle of the Tribulation to the Second Coming.

·         1,290 days is the interval between the setting up of the desolating abomination to the Second Coming.

·         1,335 days describes the period from the stopping of the sacrifices and the setting up of the abomination to the cleansing of the Temple Mount and the beginning of the construction of the millennial temple.

·         2,300 days begin at the setting up of the desolating abomination and are completed at the dedication of the millennial temple.

  

References

Johnson, Ken. “The Ancient Book of Daniel.” Biblefacts Ministries, Biblefacts.org