The Timing of the Rapture: From Sunset to Sunrise series

“The Timing of the Rapture”
Various passages
10/19/25

• • No early church leaders explicitly taught this theory of the pre-trib rapture
  • Early Christians were not recorded as believing in any escape from tribulation
  • Origins of pre-trib rapture seem to be traced to John Darby in the 1830’s
  • C.I Scofield popularized the teaching in his study Bible which was first published in 1909 and served to cement the pre-tribulational rapture view among countless Christians. This study Bible, along with the Bible prophecy conferences that accompanied it, created a generational presumption that the rapture of the church would occur before the beginning of the tribulation.

I. Consider The Elect at the End of the Age

A. Matthew 24:21-22 – “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. [22] And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

Who are the elect revealed to be in Scripture? Those chosen by God for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

B. Romans 8:32-33 -“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [33] Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” {the elect are those for whom Christ died to save – the justified ones}

C. Titus 1:1-2 -“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, [2] in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.” {elect = those who acknowledge the truth and have eternal life}

D. 1 Peter 1:1-2 – “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, [2] according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” {again, the elect are identified as those saved by the blood of Jesus}

E. Matthew 24:29-31 – “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. [30] Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. [31] And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Summary: if the elect all throughout the New Testament are identified as those who are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, what reason is there to change that definition when it comes to interpreting Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:21-31 about the gathering of the elect at the moment of His Second Coming? If all the elect have already been raptured from the earth prior to the Tribulation, who then are these elect that are upon the earth at the end of the Tribulation when Jesus returns

II. Consider the Specific Timing Verses

A. 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10 – “Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. 5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Justice for unbelievers and relief for believers occur simultaneously “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.” The banishing of these unbelievers from His presence occurs simultaneously “when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints.” Again, there is no distinction of Him coming secretly and first for the saints, then waiting for seven years while the tribulation finishes up on earth, and then Him coming visibly back to earth along with the saints that He presumably raptured seven years prior.

B. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 – “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?”

Paul clearly states three things to those who are concerned (“quickly shaken in mind or alarmed”) that they missed the coming of the Lord and the gathering of the saints to Him:

1) the great rebellion/apostasy must happen first

2) the Antichrist must be revealed first

3) the Antichrist must declare himself to be God (abomination of desolation) first

It is only after these three things occur that they should look for the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together with Him.” These two occurrences – His coming and our being gathered to Him – are viewed as a singular event.

C. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 – “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. [14] For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. [15] For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

The “coming of the Lord” that is referenced here is often taught as the secret rapture of the church prior to the period of the tribulation. Yet this is the very same Greek word, parousia, that Jesus Himself uses to describe His visible Second Coming. The word means to arrive in presence at a certain place. There is no reason to interpret this use of the Greek word parousia (coming) as secret or invisible. Nowhere in the New Testament is it used that way. Again, this same word is used many times in scripture to refer to the visible Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth (Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 38; 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 3:13; 2 Thess. 2:8; 2 Peter 3:12)

UNDERSTANDING > EXPECTATION > PREPARATION