(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

It's me, Alex Larsen with Bible Truth 23, back with another video and today I'm going to be doing another video with this trusty light board to help me to explain a doctrine that a lot of people are confused on and that is the doctrine of the Rapture. So in this video I'm going to be explaining what the Bible says about the Rapture and the timing of the Rapture of when it will take place on the timeline of biblical prophecy. Now most people out there believe in what's called a pre-trib rapture, meaning that they believe that the rapture will happen before the time of tribulation. And the tribulation is the, the great tribulation as the Bible calls it, is a time of persecution from the world, from the antichrist against believers. And there's a lot of people out there who are pre-tribbers, meaning that they believe that the rapture will take place before the tribulation. They believe that the church, which to them is all believers, will be taken out of here before the tribulation comes. But I'm going to show you in this video and explain to you from the Bible that that is not true. That the Bible teaches that we as Christians will go through the tribulation. We will see the antichrist. We will see the first six seals in the book of Revelation and that Jesus does not come at the beginning of the seven years and he does not come before the tribulation but he comes after the tribulation but before God pours out his wrath. And this doctrine is known as the post-trib pre-wrath rapture. So I'm going to be explaining that today and I encourage everybody who's listening, regardless of where you stand on this issue, to pay attention because I'm going to be using a lot of scripture today and trying to break it down to help people to understand because one thing that I've noticed with a lot of pre-tribbers is that they make a lot of false assumptions about what we believe and I've seen a lot of posts made by people here on Instagram attacking our doctrine of post-trib pre-wrath rapture and saying it's wrong because they basically confuse it with the classical post-trib position or they make assumptions that are not biblical such as assuming that the tribulation and God's wrath are the same thing or assuming that there's a universal church or things like that which are not biblical doctrines and are just based on theological assumptions but I'm going to be showing you from the Bible today from a biblical perspective what the Bible says about the rapture, what it says about the second coming, what it says about the tribulation, the wrath of God, all those things and breaking it down in a way that's easy to understand, okay? So please pay attention and just ignore all past assumptions and presumptions that you might have to just work with me here because I'm going to explain to you what the scriptures say, what the scriptures teach. So first of all, the most important thing to understand is what the rapture is. The word rapture itself is not used in the Bible but it does come from a biblical concept because the word rapture simply means to be caught up and that word caught up is used in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 which is the primary passage about the rapture. I'm going to set this down for a second. I don't need this right now. I'm just going to lay some groundwork here before getting to this, this chart I'm going to use where basically I'm going to draw a timeline of the end times to help you to understand that. So anyway, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and everybody agrees that this passage is about the rapture, it begins in verse 13 and I'm going to read to the end of the chapter. Now pay attention to the details here. It says, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others, which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. So the word rapture comes from that phrase in verse 17 where it says we shall be caught up together, or they which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So the rapture is just a theological term referring to this whole event. Where Jesus descends from heaven, the dead in Christ rise first, and then we which are alive and remain, so those who did not die, those who are still alive, will also be caught up together with those who are resurrected to meet the Lord in the air. So there's a few things I want to point out about what takes place when the rapture happens. First of all it says in verse 15, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. Now the reason why I read this verse is because the pre-tribbers believe that there is a difference between the second coming and the rapture. Now first of all, the word second coming is not used in the Bible, so I think it's just ridiculous that they use that term because if they believe that Jesus already came before the second coming, because they think it's way later at the end of the seven years of Daniel in Revelation 19, then why would you even call it the second coming if you believe that Jesus already came to rapture his saints? Why call it the second coming? That would make it the third coming. But anyway, it clearly says right here in 1 Thessalonians 4.15, it's talking about this event and it calls it the coming of the Lord. Now there are certain verses in the Bible which talk about the fact that the coming of the Lord is drawing near, that every day we get closer to it. Like in James chapter 5 it says in verse 7, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, a husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. Now verses like this would be something that a pre-tribber would use to support the idea that the rapture is imminent and yet out in the next breath they say that the coming of Jesus Christ at the rapture is not the coming of the Lord, that that's a separate event. Now there's a lot of verses in the Bible that talk about the coming of the Lord, the coming of Jesus Christ, but the thing is that they will say, well you're not rightly dividing. So they'll basically pick and choose which scriptures apply to the rapture and which ones apply to Revelation chapter 19, even though they're both talking about the coming of the Lord. I'll give you an example of that later, but primarily I'm referring to Matthew 24. The whole subject of Matthew 24 is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it says that multiple times in the chapter, but they will say, well it's not talking about the rapture, it's talking about the second coming. Well according to 1 Thessalonians 4.15, the rapture is the coming of the Lord, then in James 5 verse 7, which is a verse that they use to support the imminency of the rapture, it again says the coming of the Lord. So they'll play these mental gymnastic games with you and say, well, you know, in the certain instances where it says the coming of the Lord, it's referring to the rapture, but that's not the second coming, but then they say, well in these instances, because it doesn't line up with our theology, then all of a sudden it's a different event. It's in Revelation 19. So anyway I want to continue into chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians because it gives us important details concerning the timing of this day of the Lord, or I'm sorry, timing of the rapture. I kind of jumped ahead there, but it calls it the day of the Lord in this chapter. So anyway, it says in verse 1 of chapter 5, so the passage I read about the rapture ends at verse 18, that's the end of chapter 4. It continues then in chapter 5 verse 1, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now I want to stop there real quick and point out that this is one of the verses that they will use to prove that the rapture is imminent. They'll say, well, the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. That means it's unexpected. That means nobody will see it coming. That means it could happen at any moment. And that is the way that they interpret that verse. So first of all, I'd like to point out that the pre-Tribbers understand that this verse is referring to the rapture. And I agree with that. Remember when 1 Thessalonians was written, there were no chapter divisions. The chapter divisions of chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are all relatively new. They didn't exist when Paul was writing it. He didn't write chapter 5 when he got to verse 1 here. This is just a continuation of what was said in chapter 4. He's not changing the subject. It's about the same subject and that is the rapture. Now in verse 2 of chapter 5, he calls the rapture the day of the Lord. Every pre-Tribber understands this because this is one of the verses that they use to support the pre-Trib rapture. However, if you continue reading, you will see that the context shows that their interpretation of verse 2 does not fit with the context. It doesn't make any sense. It's not the proper interpretation. Number 1 and also another thing is that I will also show you what else the Bible says about this term, the day of the Lord. So anyway, in verse 3 it continues. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3, For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. We are all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of salvation. So the pre-Tribbers interpret verse 2 as meaning that the rapture, which is also called the day of the Lord, could take place at any moment. As they say, well thief in the night, that means you're not going to see it coming. But it says just a few verses later in verse 4, But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. So he's saying to the Thessalonians, to the Christians, to the church, that the day of the Lord will not overtake them as a thief. And he explains why, because they are not the children of darkness, but they are the children of light. He says in verse 6, let us watch and be sober. He is telling them to watch, to pay attention, to be sober-minded, meaning to be serious about these things. He's not saying it's going to take you by surprise. So what does it mean when we say that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night? It explains in verse 3, for when they shall say, now notice how it says they, so it's not referring to the church, it's not referring to believers. It says, when they shall say, so it's referring to others, the world, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. So the reason why the day of the Lord is so cometh of the thief in the night is because when they shall speak of peace and safety, sudden destruction shall come upon them. So it's going to be a surprise to them, because they think that they're safe, they think that they're all good. But once the day of the Lord comes, once the rapture takes place, sudden destruction will come upon them, meaning the unbelievers, the world. And this fits with the rest of the scriptures, because the day of the Lord, all throughout the Bible, is associated with the day of God's wrath. That is what the day of the Lord is. It is the time when God punishes the wicked in this world, okay? So in verse 9 of this chapter, it says, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And again, this is another verse that the pre-tribbers will use in order to support their doctrine. However, it does not say God hath not appointed us to tribulation. It says God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to explain that a little bit more later about the fact that the Bible never promises that we will not go through tribulation. It just promises us that we will not face the wrath of God. And this makes sense with the context, because the day of the Lord, as I'm about to show you with other scriptures, is the day of God's wrath. And so the day of the Lord coming as a thief in the night is the sudden destruction coming upon the unbelievers. But because we are saved, because we are the children of the day, we are not going to face that destruction. We are not going to face that punishment, because we are not under God's wrath. So all this scripture proves is the pre-wrath position, that we will not face God's wrath. We will be out of here because, as it explained in the last chapter, when Jesus Christ comes, the dead in Christ will rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And that event is also called the day of the Lord. So already we see kind of a plan developing of the fact that when Jesus Christ comes, we leave this earth, but then sudden destruction comes upon the wicked, upon them, upon the others, and that is God's wrath. So we're not appointed to wrath, I agree with that. We will not face God's wrath, but they will. They will face the day of the Lord, the day of God's wrath. So let's read what else the Bible says about the day of the Lord. This fact that they will face destruction, the wicked will face destruction, and we will not. So it says in Isaiah chapter 13, Isaiah chapter 13, this is a perfect passage for understanding and seeing what the day of the Lord is. Because remember, we all agree that the rapture is the day of the Lord. It begins that day of the Lord. The pre-Tribbers do not disagree with that because they use 1 Thessalonians 5 to support their doctrine. However, as I've just explained, it's taken out of context and it shows that they're not reading past verse 2, because verse 2 explains that it does not mean that it's imminent, it just means that sudden destruction will come upon the wicked. And the reason why is because the day of the Lord itself is the day of God's wrath. It says in Isaiah chapter 13 verse 6, How will ye? For the day of the Lord is at hand. It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. See, we've got the same word that's used as in 1 Thessalonians 5, the word destruction. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt, and they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrow shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth. They shall be amazed one in another. Their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened and is going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogant sea of the proud to seize, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man of the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and the day of his fierce anger. So that is what the day of the Lord is. He talks about destruction from the Almighty. He talks about how He will destroy the sinners out of the land, that the stars of heaven and the constellations will not give their light. He will punish the world for their evil. He will punish the wicked for their iniquity. He will cause the arrogant sea of the proud to seize. The earth will remove out of her place. The heavens will be shaken. It's called the wrath of the Lord of hosts. The word wrath means God's anger, and it calls it the day of His fierce anger. So that is what the day of the Lord is, when He expresses His anger upon the wicked by destroying them, by bringing judgment, by bringing all of the plagues and all the destruction upon them we see in the book of Revelation. That's what the day of the Lord is. It says further in the book of Zephaniah chapter 1, Zephaniah chapter 1 and verse 14, The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord. The mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste-ness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness. It says in the book of Joel, it talks about this as well, several times, and there's a key verse to understanding this doctrine in Joel that I'm going to ignore for now but come back to later, but right now I just want to focus on two verses. So Joel 1, 15, it says, Alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come, which is very similar to what was stated in Isaiah 13, and then also Joel 2, 11 says, And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great, for he is strong that executeth his word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it? Now that last phrase there, pay attention to that, the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it, because there's similar wording elsewhere in the Bible, specifically in the book of Revelation, and I'll get to that later, but the point that I'm trying to make is that just as it points out in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, the day of the Lord is the destruction upon the wicked, okay, it is the day of God's wrath, it is the day of God's judgment and punishment of the unbelievers, and that event is associated with the rapture in 1 Thessalonians, so when the rapture takes place, that's when we know that the wicked are going to be punished and be destroyed by God, okay, but the question is, well when does all this take place? Because remember, the pre-tribbers believe that the day of the Lord is just a term for the whole seven years, and I'll explain that concept with this timeline later, but the pre-tribbers believe that when the rapture takes place, when the day of the Lord begins, that that is something that will just take place unexpectedly, there's no signs, there's no warnings, there's nothing fulfilled in Bible prophecy before then, they believe that it could happen at any moment, and that all the stuff in Revelation, the seals and the trumpets and everything, the tribulation, that that all takes place after the rapture, after the day of the Lord, okay, but the problem with that is that the Bible tells us when the day of the Lord is, very clearly, and we can see and compare scripture to understand and build a timeline, or at least a general timeline, of the end times, but, and the most important verse for understanding this is Joel 2-31, which, honestly, I think, I don't understand this, this verse is very well known, but yet, it's so ignored, Joel 2-31, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, okay, so these events that are said here, the sun is turned into darkness and the moon into blood, this takes place before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, okay, so, whenever the day of the Lord, which is the rapture, according to 1 Thessalonians, whenever that takes place, before that takes place, there's first going to be these signs in heaven of the sun being darkened and the moon being turned into blood, now there's only two other places in the Bible where it talks about that event, and I'm going to get to that a little bit later, but the point is, if you want to understand when the rapture is, you have to understand that there are these signs in heaven that are stated in Joel 2-31 that take place before the day of the Lord come, not after, not during, or whatever, it says before, so, if the Bible says the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come, that means that the rapture, which is the day of the Lord, according to 1 Thessalonians 5-2, the pre-tribbers agree with that, the rapture takes place after the sun is darkened and the moon is turned into blood, okay, that's something that we should understand, now, the Bible teaches that we are saved from God's wrath, right, because, remember, the day of the Lord is God's wrath upon the wicked, it is the day of God's wrath, I just read at least, what was it, four Old Testament passages that explain that very clearly, okay, in Isaiah 13 and in Joel chapter 1 and chapter 2 and then in Zephaniah chapter 1, it very clearly states that the day of the Lord is the day of God's wrath, so, that makes sense with 1 Thessalonians 5 where it says at the end of the passage in verse 9, that God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, now, why does He say that? Because the day of the Lord is the day of God's wrath, okay, that's what it is, we are saved from God's wrath, that is what we are promised to be saved from, in fact, the Bible says in Romans 5-9, much more than being justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him, before we got saved when we were sinners, the Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day, God was angry with us, our, His wrath was upon us, you know, it says in John 3-36, John the Baptist says that those that believe not, he says he that believeth not the sun shall not see light, but the wrath of God abideth on him, the word abide means to continue, so that implies that God's wrath was upon us before we believed, before we got saved, but through salvation, according to Romans 5-9, we are saved from God's wrath and then, therefore, it says in 1 Thessalonians 5-9, that God has not appointed us to wrath, because we are saved, we are going to be delivered from this great punishment and these great plagues and destructions that God will bring upon this earth, we will not have to go through that, okay, so there's no doubt that the rapture is before God's wrath, there's no doubt that the rapture is pre-wrath, but when is the tribulation and what is the position of the tribulation in relation to the rapture and God's wrath? See, the issue with the pre-trib rapture is that the pre-tribbers believe that God's wrath and the tribulation are exactly the same thing, there's a few problems with that and I'm going to go into that in a little bit, but, because you know there's so many different things to talk about, but I kind of have a plan here of the things I want to discuss, but at the moment I want to basically just start this timeline now to give you a general idea of the end times, okay, to understand the fact that the end times are seven years long from the beginning when the Antichrist makes a covenant to the end when Jesus establishes his millennial kingdom. Now for the pre-tribbers it begins when the rapture takes place and ends at the millennial kingdom, it begins with the rapture and ends at the second coming, but I'm going to show to you that that is not true and that cannot be so according to the scriptures, that the rapture does not take place at the beginning of the seven years and it does not take place at the end of the seven years either, okay, like the classical post-tribbers claim, but it takes place during the seven years, okay. So follow me, I'm going to go to the book of Daniel now. So we're going to lay down some more foundations, just give a little bit of a timeline of the end times and this is again something pretty much everybody understands and agrees with, the fact that there's this seven year period in the end times. Some people call it Daniel's 70th week and the reason why is because it says in Daniel chapter 9 verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again in the wall even in troubleless times and after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the word desolations are determined and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause a sacrifice in the oblation to cease and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate and to answer your question Elias I'm going to post this later but right now I just want to create a little timeline of the end times this thing which is called by many the 70th week of Daniel so it says here it talks about these 77 70 weeks and the weeks the word week in the Bible doesn't necessarily mean seven days but if you go like the book of Genesis it talks about with Jacob and how he's serving Laban I think it is and how when he's serving Laban he wants to marry Leah even though he wait no he wants to marry Rachel but originally Laban gave Leah because she was the older sister and so he said that he's going to fulfill the week meaning the extra seven years in order to basically pay for his wife okay that's a very oversimplification of the story but I think it's somewhere in Genesis 30 something or 20 I don't know somewhere in the book of Genesis it uses that term of week to refer to a seven year period and that's what it's talking about in the book of Daniel so when it talks about this one week in verse 27 that is a period of seven years and it says in the midst of the week so I'll be in the middle of the seven years is this event known as the abomination of desolation Jesus refers to it in Matthew 24 which I will turn to in a moment he says the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet so here's just this represents the seven years okay I have to write backwards in order for you to read it so it might take a little bit longer sorry about that so seven years okay so this timeline right here represents seven okay so this timeline right here represents seven years and it says in the midst of the week so that would be the middle he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to season for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate now Jesus refers to this again in Matthew chapter 24 okay again like I said as the abomination of desolation which is spoken of by Daniel the prophet I'll just abbreviate this as AOD abomination of desolation just to save a little bit of room okay so you got the AOD right here and then you got the covenant right here I'll just write the cove just to save room okay covenant and then you got the millennial kingdom over here man I keep not writing okay okay probably bad handwriting okay so you got the millennial okay oh it's probably backwards oh man sorry I have to do it backwards because otherwise you won't be able to read it but uh it's kind of confusing on my part don't worry just bear with me I'll get back to you in a second. I'll just write it backwards. I'll just write it backwards. I'll just write it backwards. I'll get back to it in a second but if anybody has a bible open just turn to Matthew 24 cause that's where I'm going to go next so yeah here we have the I wrote the seven backwards it doesn't matter anyway so here we got the seven years you got the covenant at the beginning the abomination of desolation in the middle and then the millennial kingdom at the end okay so this is a seven year period we're going to figure out where on this timeline the rapture takes place or the day of the lord now remember the pre-tribbers believe that it's over here at the beginning before the covenant because they believe they call this whole thing the seven year tribulation now I'm going to go into that again a little bit more in detail later but just at the moment I'd like to say that the bible never says that the tribulation is seven years in fact the only time the bible ever tells us that there's this seven year period is in the passage I just read in the book of Daniel but it says nothing about the tribulation or anything like that the bible never says that the great tribulation lasts seven years that's just a doctrine made up by man and that's one of the assumptions I was referring to the beginning of this video that they just have these theological assumptions which are not based on scripture and they constantly say well you know the seven year tribulation the seven year tribulation they base everything on that idea but it's not a fact it's not what the bible teaches the bible never says that this whole thing is the tribulation in fact in the passage I'm about to read from in Matthew 24 it will show you that the tribulation cannot be seven years in fact at the very very most and I don't believe it's the whole this this whole time but at the most it can only be three and a half years it cannot be any more than that okay so only at least or at most one half of this but it's not it's not the whole thing okay so let's see Matthew 24 so this is a very important chapter for establishing this concept and I'd like to point out different things while I'm reading this that the pre-tribbers kind of will try to use against us or try to try it to use to support their doctrine because the thing about pre-tribbers is that they're very inconsistent with the use of math Matthew 24 when you use this chapter in order to support the post-trib pre-wrath position they'll say well that's not about the rapture that's about the second coming or that's not written to Christians that's written to Jews but then conveniently when they're talking about the rapture they use verses like Matthew 24 36 to the end of the chapter verse 51 I believe it is where it talks about people being left behind and one being taken the other left and things like that they use that to talk about the rapture but then they also say that the chapter has nothing to do with the rapture and it doesn't apply to Christians being said to Jews things like that okay where they're just mental gymnastics where they're completely inconsistent but you know they always insist that the dispensationalism is a consistently literal interpretation of the Bible well it's not it's not consistent and it's not literal either it's only literal when it's convenient for them and it's only consistent when it's convenient for them but anyway Matthew 24 verse 1 to 3 and Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple and Jesus said unto them see not all these things verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down and as he sat upon the Mount of all is the disciples came up to him privately saying tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world now pay attention to all the details in verse 3 because this helps us to understand the context of the chapter of who Jesus is speaking to so who his audience is and what he is talking about the dispensational apparently don't get this because remember they try to make a distinction between the rapture and the second coming at Revelation 19 they say that this chapter specifically from verses 29 to 31 which I'll get to later which approved the poster position they'll say well that applies to Revelation 19 that does not that's not the rapture that's not the same thing it's a different event that takes place at the end of this timeline I'm holding upside down at the end of this timeline as opposed to at the beginning of this timeline they'll say here's the rapture here's the second coming this is Matthew 24 in Revelation 19 they say this is 1st Thessalonians 4 but the problem is that they're asking him what shall be the sign of thy coming now also yeah well the rapture is not the second coming okay but we already saw in 1st Thessalonians 4 15 that it says that the rapture is the coming of the Lord that the Lord descends from heaven so yes the rapture is the coming of the Lord and that's what they're asking him about so everything in this chapter is Jesus's response to the disciples question what shall be the sign of thy coming so in other words what is the sign of the rapture what is the sign of the day of the Lord because according to 1st Thessalonians 4 15 that is the coming of the Lord the coming of the Lord is when Jesus descends from heaven the dead in Christ rise and we are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air okay that is the coming of the Lord so that's what his response is going to be about another thing I want to point out is that the dispensationalists the pre-trippers will say that this chapter is is being spoken to the Jews now I would understand if you use like a different chapter and say well that's only being said to the Jews or whatever but it specifically tells us that it's the disciples who came on to him privately saying tell us when shall these things be so who are the people that Jesus is preaching to it's the disciples he doesn't say he's preaching to a crowd of Jews it doesn't say he's preaching to unsaved people it doesn't say he's preaching to to people in in general he's not in a crowd he's in a private place at the Mount of Olives okay I think it's in a like John 18 where it mentions I think it's John 18 where it mentions the fact that uh that when Jesus was arrested they had gone to the Mount of Olives and it was a place that he resorted often with his disciples so Judas knew about it so he knew that Jesus was there okay so when they go to the Mount of Olives it's Jesus and his disciples he's preaching to his disciples he's not preaching to the Jews but then people might say well you know the disciples were all Jews no they weren't because Jesus had a disciple particularly one of the twelve apostles by the name of Simon the Canaanite it says in Matthew 10 4 and I think it also says in the book of Mark it calls Simon Zelody's Simon the Canaanite okay Canaanites are not Israelites they're not Jews that's a different race entirely so no it's not being written to a specific ethnic group and also at the end of the book of Mark in chapter 13 it says what I say unto you I say unto all so you can't just take this and say well he's speaking to Jews primarily so therefore it's only talking to the Jews and it doesn't apply to anybody else that's foolish and it's just taking it out of context and ignoring the end of Mark chapter 13 as well and the fact that one of Jesus's apostles was not even a Jew he was a Canaanite so anyway let's continue on after now that we've gotten that part out of the way the fact that they apparently aren't even understanding his audience and the subject of the chapter but in verse 4 and I'm gonna read to verse 14 it says and Jesus answered and said unto them take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet for nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there should be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and diverse places and all these are the beginning of sorrows then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you should be hated of all nations for my name's sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many and because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold but he that shall endure into the end the same shall be saved and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come okay so here Jesus is responding to the question that is raised by the disciples in verse 3 where they say what shall be the sign of thy coming he answers with all these things down to verse 14 okay so things include there's wars and rumors of wars many coming in his name claiming to be Christ there's Kingdom rising against Kingdom famines pestilences earthquakes and diverse places there's a the fact that they are delivered up to be killed the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all nations all these things according to Jesus are the signs of his coming but he does not and there okay so this is just kind of building up and I'm going to come back to this later and compare it with how the book of Revelation where we see all these things taking place in the same chronological order in the book of Revelation and you can really tell when these things take place in in this end times Bible timeline but verse 15 is a verse 15 of verse 22 is a very key passage to understanding this timeline to understanding that end times but apparently the the pre-trippers ignore some of the stuff so it says in verse 15 when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy place so that's in the middle remember okay according to Daniel 9 27 the abomination is in the midst of the week so that's three and a half years in at least he says then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes and woe unto them that are without or that with child and to them that gives suck in those days but pray that your flight be not in the winter neither on the Sabbath day for then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no one ever shall be and except those days shall be shortened there should no flesh be saved but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened so verse 21 says for then shall be great tribulation now when is then well in the preceding verses he said when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy place so when is the Great Tribulation is it does it begin here is it this whole thing like the pre-tribber say no according to verse 21 it is at this time the Great Tribulation does not begin until the abomination of desolation so the Great Tribulation is at maximum so the most amount of time it could be is from here to here okay the Millennial Kingdom okay it cannot take place in this first part because he says that the Great Tribulation is when the abomination of desolation stands up which is in the midst of the week according to Daniel 9 27 and yet the pre-tribbers say that this whole thing is the tribulation so in order for the rapture to be pre-trib which it's not as I'm going to explain I'm going to show you but in order for the rapture to be pre-trib let's just say it hypothetically was okay it does not need to be at the beginning of these seven years it could be right here but they would call that a mid trip because again they believe this whole thing is a tribulation with zero evidence whatsoever because there's not a single verse in the Bible that says the tribulation is seven years the only time we ever see a verse that tells us when the tribulation begins is right here in this and also in the parallel passages mark 13 Luke 21 where it's in the time of the abomination desolation the midst of the week that's when the tribulation begins okay so let's see where am I so let's continue with verse 29 and this is the key verse to understanding why it says in verse 29 immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven in the powers of heaven shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven and shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other so this is the rapture now the preacher were saying no this is not the rapture the rapture we just know it's before the tribulation so it's over here but this event this is the second coming this is over here but remember first thessalonians 4 15 says that the rapture is the coming of the Lord this chapter is in response to the disciples question what shall be the signs of thy coming Jesus is telling them the signs of his coming he explains to them there's going to be wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences and earthquakes if they're gonna be delivered up to be killed there's gonna be the abomination to desolation there's gonna be great tribulation and then shall these signs appear in heaven okay all to answer the question what shall be the sign of thy coming not the sign of this but the sign of the rapture okay because the rapture is the coming of the Lord now further proof of that lies in the fact that verse 29 tells us that immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken now where else do you see that talked about in the Bible I read it earlier Joel 231 the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come and remember according to first thessalonians 5 the day of the Lord is the rapture so I'm gonna put a kind of another chart down here on the bottom just real quick according to the Bible you have the tribulation because it says immediately after the tribulation okay so these signs do not appear in a heaven until after the tribulation okay it says immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be dark in the moon shall not give her light then the next thing that happens is so after the tribulation you have the Sun being dark in the moon shall not give her light okay Joel 231 the Sun should be turned to darkness in the moon and the blood before the great terrible day of the Lord and then also the stars shall fall from heaven okay so I got a little drawing here okay the tribulation then these signs in heaven then according to Joel 231 these signs in heaven are before the day of the Lord so the day of the Lord is after this okay it's not it's not really that complicated I mean I think everybody knows what the words before and after me a post-trib free wrath look okay immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the star shall fall from heaven the powers of heaven shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven and shall all the tribes of the earth mourn they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory the Sun shall be turned into darkness in the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come the day of the Lord according to first Thessalonians 5 2 is the rapture so in other words you got the rapture at this time a little bit after this so like in between these two things okay the rapture is after the tribulation post-trib before the day of the Lord pre-wrath that's when the rapture is it's not that difficult to figure out the Bible says okay this is immediately after the breaking it down okay this is for the people who don't get it it's after the tribulation but it's before God's wrath because remember the day of the Lord comes of the thief and the knight but not to us it's not going to overtake us as a thief because we're not appointed to wrath so we're not appointed to face this but the Bible never says we won't face this the Bible never says we won't go through tribulation it says we won't go through wrath but it doesn't say we won't go through tribulation in fact we know that we will go through tribulation because this there's this chapter here this chapter would be meaningless if we wouldn't go through tribulation but anyway they'll say well you know this is an argument I heard recently they'll say well it says the Sun shall not or the moon shall not give her light that's not the moon being turned into blood well apparently these guys know nothing about the Sun the moon the stars because first of all the concept of a blood moon or a moon being turned into blood the moon being turned blood red that is not the moon's light that is doing that okay the thing about the moon is that it's light comes as a reflection of the Sun okay it doesn't give off its own light it's it's a rock in space it doesn't give off its own light okay so the moon in the heavens the moon in the heavens does not give off the light that it gives off is the light of the Sun now since the Sun is darkened okay the light that the moon gives off is not her own light is not the light that we normally see at nighttime with the moon but instead it's a different light that's red that's caused by well obviously this is a supernatural thing since uh you can't have a lunar and a solar eclipse at the same time but this time there is a lunar and a solar eclipse taking place at the same time we don't know exactly how it's gonna happen how the sun's gonna be darkened but the fact that the Sun is darkened the moon being turned to blood means that the moon is not gonna give off the light of the Sun as a reflection of the light of the Sun okay so this still applies to Joel 231 okay not only that but there's no other description in the book of Revelation of such an event happening you know they say this is in Revelation 19 but none of this stuff happens in Revelation 19 or the preceding chapters it doesn't take a genius to just compare these verses with first Thessalonians 4 and then Revelation 19 and see which one does not fit hey remember I read first Thessalonians 4 at the beginning but let's go through it again okay do I have a I do not have a bookmark there but look there's many similarities I could probably even put another chart down here but I don't have room on my whiteboard I don't want to get rid of the timeline but anyway first Thessalonians 4 what happens it's called first of all it's called the coming of the Lord okay Jesus descends from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel with the chump of God the dead in Christ are risen we which are alive and remain should be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air okay so in Matthew 24 and by the way I'm probably gonna do another video on this because I'm not gonna be able to get through all the content I have here I'm starting to lose my voice a little bit but I think this this would be a little bit of a good place to stop after Matthew 24 but there's other things which kind of prove this further anyway in Matthew 24 what do you have you have the Son of Man which is the Lord Jesus Christ okay well they they use these foolish hyper literal things where they say well it says the Son of Man it doesn't say the Lord therefore it's a different event the Son of Man is the Lord okay it's not like there's two different people in these two events it's the same person it's Jesus Christ okay Jesus Christ is the Lord he's also the Son of Man so just because it uses a different title doesn't mean it's a different event that's a stupid thing to say so the Son of Man of descends from heaven he comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet so you have Jesus descending from heaven in the clouds you have the sound of a trumpet and then shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other now they might make a big deal out of the word elect and say well that is referring to the Jews now it is not referring to the Jews and there are many instances that prove that wrong and I recommend that you go and watch the previous video I made on the subject of replacement or fulfillment theology because that will help you to understand this even further the fact that the Jews are not God's chosen people in the New Testament but Christians are and that the idea that Jews are God's elect is is contrary to the entire New Testament now I'm gonna read some verses to you to prove that to show you who the elect are and that there is a difference between the unbelieving Jew and the elect okay so when it talks about the elect it is talking about believers let's go to Isaiah chapter 65 okay this is a verse that I used or a scripture that I turn to in the the previous video I made called replacement slash fulfillment theology for dummies it says in Isaiah 65 it makes a distinction between the unbelieving Israel and between God's elect it says I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah and inheritor of my mountains this is Isaiah 65 verse 9 and mine elect shall inherit it and my servants shall dwell there and Sharon shall be a fold of flocks in the valley of Acor place for the herd to lie down in for my people that have sought me but ye are they that forsake the Lord that forget my holy mountain that prepare a table for that troop and that furnished the drink offering unto that number therefore will I number you to the sword and you shall all bow down to the slaughter because when I called you did not answer when I spake you did not hear but an evil before mine eyes I did not choose that wherein I delighted not wherefore thou say the Lord God behold my servant shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servant shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servant shall rejoice but ye shall be ashamed so he makes this very clear distinction between the elect and the rest of them the elect of Israel out of the seed of Jacob and then those that have forsaken the Lord so he's speaking to Israel he's saying ye have forsaken the Lord and therefore ye shall be hungry ye shall be thirsty ye shall be ashamed you will not inherit these things but he says that mine elect shall inherit my mountains and my servants shall dwell there okay so not the unbelievers not the unbelieving Christ rejecting God hating Jews but a specific group of people that are elect meaning chosen okay now if you've ever read the New Testament you'd understand that the word election is used to refer to the saved such as in Romans 8 33 and I'm pretty sure every person knows everybody who studies the Bible knows this verse it says who shall lay the who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect it is God that justify it showing that those who are justified by God are those who are elect it says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 4 which is being written to Gentiles Thessalonians it says knowing brethren beloved your election of God it says in Colossians 3 verse 12 again speaking to Gentiles those of Colossae not Jews he says in Colossians 3 12 put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mine meekness long-suffering etc then in Romans 11 it makes a very clear distinction between the the unbelieving Israel and God's elect it says in in Romans chapter 11 verse 5 even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace that it is no more works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work what then Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded yet for some reason the pre-tribbers will say well the elect in Matthew 24 that's Israel it says Israel hath not obtained it but the election hath so you can't say that the election is Israel because there's a distinction made between the children of Israel and the election the election are those who are the remnant according to the election of grace it says so those who have received the grace of God the remnant the small part that's left over those are the people that are considered as God's elect not the whole nation not just the Jews in general but just only those who have believed who have received God's grace and then as we saw in those other passages first Thessalonians 1 for Romans 8 33 Colossians 3 12 and there's other verses it shows us that even the Gentiles also are part of the elect God's chosen it's not the Jews so they'll say well you know gathering the elect is gathering the Jews together no it's gathering believers because in the New Testament the elect refers to the saved refers to believers that is what Matthew 24 is talking about and so there's really no difference between Matthew 24 and first Thessalonians 4 so there's no reason to say that they're two different events because they're both talking about the coming of the Lord they both have the Lord descending from heaven there's a trumpet that sounds and the believers are gathered okay that's the same event but if you compare Matthew 24 to Revelation 19 there are no similarities okay in Revelation 19 it's just Jesus coming on a white horse at Armageddon to defeat the Antichrist and the armies which are in heaven follow him on white horses and and there's doesn't call it the coming of the Lord there's no trumpet there's no angels there's no resurrection there's nobody being gathered together there's none of that talked about in Revelation 19 yet they say that that's what Revelation 19 is talking about the same thing as Matthew 24 that's just foolish so there's so many other things I want to talk about today but I mean I'm sorry to lose my voice but anyway I'm gonna sorry Samantha I'm gonna stop this video here but I'm gonna do another part I don't know when maybe tomorrow maybe sometime next week but even then I want to do a one-on-one video first I could do a video with you at another time but this video I just want to explain this timeline I thought I explained it pretty well okay that the pre-tribbers believe that this whole thing is a tribulation the Bible says the tribulation does not begin until the abomination of desolation so let's let's draw that okay okay the trib is okay that's that's at the most okay not saying that the trib the tribulation isn't gonna last the whole time but that is the tribulation okay begins of the abomination desolation and then okay let me just cut it off at some arbitrary point just to make a point okay then there is the day of the Lord there is the the rapture okay okay so you got everybody ascended up that's the rapture okay and then you got the at the same time you got the Sun the moon being darkened okay okay and then you got God's wrath for the remainder of the seven years now I don't know how you can disagree with this when I just read so many verses that explain this concept it's it's not difficult but you know they try to complicate it with their their complex charts that they get from Clarence Larkin's books and you know people like Robert breaker who who do similar things like this with a whiteboard but who make it extremely complicated and over complicated but this is just really simple and this is what the Bible teaches okay the tribulation is that the abomination desolation Matthew 24 the Sun and the moon are darkened after the tribulation according to Matthew 24 but before the day of the Lord or God's wrath the rapture is the same thing as the day of the Lord according to first Thessalonians 4 and then it's also the coming of the Lord so since the coming is after the tribulation after the Sun or moon or darken and the coming of the Lord or the rapture or the day of the Lord is right here it's not all the way back here it's pretty easy to understand but there's more things that will prove that in the following video we're all going to the book of Revelation and how the book relation applies to it and the fact that the Bible teaches that we will be in tribulation we will be persecuted by the Antichrist etc so I'll show you those things in the following video but for now I'm going to to cut it off here so thank you everybody for watching God bless you and goodbye