Beyond The Shadow of a Doubt: The Rapture Comes Before The Tribulation
What is the evidence for this statement? Read on.....
Beyond The Shadow of a Doubt: The Rapture Comes Before The Tribulation
Have you ever heard a compelling and easy to understand explanation for why the Rapture must come before The Tribulation? I’m going to try to give you one today.
The 7 Year Tribulation is an indispensable part of God’s plan. Without it, the Earth which was ruined at The Fall cannot be reclaimed by the Lion of The Tribe of Judah (Jesus, our Kinsman Redeemer) who opens the seven sealed scroll, without it an incalculable number of Gentiles who weren’t saved before the Church Age closed will never be saved, without it the Jewish people as a Nation cannot be saved, without it Jesus will not return to set up His 1,000 year reign on Earth, and without it Eternity will never begin. None of these things can happen unless The Seven Year Tribulation (The Tribulation) happens because according to the Bible all these things require The Tribulation. The Tribulation cannot start without the Antichrist being revealed and the Antichrist can’t be revealed without the Rapture taking place:
2 Th 2:6-8 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 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. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
Something or someone is restraining the Antichrist. This restrainer will continue to restrain until He is taken out of the way. Only then will the Antichrist be revealed.
We know that The Tribulation will begin when the Antichrist makes a 7 year covenant with Israel. This is described in Daniel 9:27.
Accordingly, the revealing of the Antichrist is indispensable to God’s master plan for the end of the Age. The restrainer must be removed for this to happen. God cannot leave this removal to any human agency. God must be in sovereign control of this Himself. For that reason the Restrainer must be God. The best interpretation of this is that God The Holy Spirit is the Restrainer. We know that God the Holy Spirit resides in church age believers, each one of which is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
God the Holy Spirit dwelling in believers is removed by God at The Rapture. Only then can the Antichrist be revealed. It is for this reason that The Rapture has to occur before The Tribulation. There is no other possibility.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit restraining the Antichrist is interesting. Good read brother.
For those who are interested in a fuller discussion of this topic: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1046356/11369789