I talk to people who believe in the Pre-Trip Rapture and they'll usually tell me they're
one of two things.
They'll either tell me that the rapture is not even mentioned in the book of Revelation,
which is a pretty strange thing to say since the book of Revelation covers in such great
detail the events of the end times.
To leave out an event as significant as Jesus Christ coming in the clouds and all the believers
of all the ages being caught up together with him in the clouds, that's such a major
event, to say that it's not mentioned at all in the book of Revelation, that it doesn't
happen at all in the book of Revelation, is unthinkable.
But because it's so ridiculous to say that the rapture is not found in the book of Revelation
at all, a lot of pre-trib people have tried to search for it and find something that they
could use as the rapture that's before the tribulation.
And here's what I keep hearing over and over again, Revelation 4.1.
This is what they've finally come up with to try to put the rapture before the tribulation
in the book of Revelation.
And Revelation 4.1 says, 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 show thee things which must be hereafter.
So this is a voice like a trumpet.
There's no trumpet in this verse.
There's a voice like a trumpet that's speaking and saying to John, singular, one person,
Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.
And they'll say, See, that's the rapture right there.
One guy being caught up, they say, That's the rapture.
This is one guy.
He's saying, Thee.
Thee is singular.
One guy is being caught up, and they say, That's the rapture.
But what's ridiculous about this is that they don't even read verse 2.
Because in verse number 2 it says, And immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne
was set in heaven.
Now the rapture is not a spirit going up into heaven.
The rapture is a bodily resurrection.
Revelation 4.1 is one man being taken up to heaven to see all these prophecies.
But people who believe that Revelation 4.1 is talking about the rapture, they don't even
read to verse 2.
Because in verse 2 it says, And immediately I was in the Spirit.
So John wasn't even physically caught up to heaven in Revelation 4.1.
He was only caught up in the Spirit.
The rapture is going to be a physical bodily resurrection.
We're going to be caught up physically into the air.
This isn't just some kind of a thing where our spirit goes up.
No, the Bible is clear that the rapture is a literal bodily resurrection of the dead
in Christ, which shall rise first.
We which are alive and remain are going to be caught up together with Him bodily.
And so this spiritual catching up of one person, John, is definitely not the rapture.
And if you think that this is the rapture, you're taking a really loose interpretation.
And it's funny because people I talk to who believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, they
claim to interpret the Bible literally.
Yet when you ask them to show you the rapture in Revelation, they'll take you to Revelation
4.1.
One guy being taken up to heaven, they don't even read to verse 2 when he says, And immediately
I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven.
He didn't even physically go up.
His body was still there on the Isle of Patmos.
He was taken up into heaven only in spirit.
That's not the rapture.
The rapture is a bodily resurrection.
We're going to be caught up in the clouds bodily, not just spiritually.
The dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds.
This isn't just some kind of a spiritual occurrence.
This is a physical occurrence.
And so, I mean, that's quite a stretch, you know, to say that that's the rapture.
But that, you know, those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, they have to say
that Revelation 4.1 is the rapture, because that's the only thing that they can even find
in the book of Revelation before the tribulation.
And it just doesn't fit.
I mean, they just, they had to find something, I guess.
I grew up being taught the pre-tribulation rapture, and when I was growing up, I was
taught that it's never mentioned in the book of Revelation, which I always thought that
there was something fishy about that.
Because an event as important and as major as the rapture, you've got a book about end
times prophecy, the book of Revelation, and he just doesn't mention it, it doesn't make
any sense.