Monday, May 27, 2024

How Abraham's Conversation with Christ Proves a Pre-Trib Rapture

One thing we know about God is that He doesn't change (Malachi 3:6, Numbers 23:19). If we can examine a behavior of God and extrapolate a principle, that principle will never change. In Genesis 18:16-33, we see a clear principle being established in this conversation between Abraham and Christ concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The whole conversation revolves around it. Abraham asks, "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" This is what Abraham wants to know. Abraham is establishing this principle that God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked by slowly lowering the number down of righteous found in the cities from fifty people to ten righteous people. Although Abraham stops at ten, there's nothing saying that the number had to stop there. At that point, the principle had been established. God doesn't punish the righteous with the wicked.

And we know that it was Jesus that spoke with Abraham because we have it from His own mouth (John 8:48-59).

John 8: 57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” 59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The Jews picked up rocks to throw at Jesus because with Him saying this, in their eyes, he was committing blasphemy. He had just equated Himself to God, and said that He had spoken to Abraham.

Okay, we know that Jesus spoke with Abraham, and that in that conversation, it was established that God does not punish the righteous with the wicked. But what does that have to do with rapture? Good question.

First, we have to understand what the Tribulation is. I like how Got Questions sums it up, "The tribulation is a future seven-year period when God will finish His discipline of Israel and finalize His judgment of the unbelieving world." Zephaniah 1:15–16 describes the Tribulation as, "A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements." Almost all of the book of Revelation details exactly what will happen during that seven year period and it isn't pretty. God pours out His wrath on an unbelieving world to the point where, "(Matthew 24:22) And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened."

So it's perfectly clear. The Tribulation is a time of God's judgement over the entire world. If we apply the principle learned from the conversation between Abraham and Jesus, we can only come to one conclusion. God will not punish the righteous with the wicked. But how will that happen?

First, we have the promise from Jesus in Revelation 3:10, "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth." The only question left is how will He keep us from the hour of trial? We have that answered clearly in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."

Christians, the rapture is supposed to be a comfort (1 Thessalonians 4:18). We are not subject to the wrath of God. Do not let teachers scare you into thinking that we'll have to go through the Tribulation. That defies the nature of God, clearly established in the conversation between Abraham and Jesus before Sodom and Gomorrah were to be destroyed.

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