Rapture Reality Check

By James Irwin

The book is about the pretribulational rapture theory. The book is written by a person that at one time believed the pretribulational rapture theory. The author noticed scriptural problems with the pretribulational rapture theory as time went by. The author presents a biblical view of the rapture by presenting the scriptures on the subject. At the end of each chapter, the author asks questions about the scriptures presented. In particular, the author asks questions about the scriptures that caused him to reject the pretribulational rapture theory. At the end of each chapter, there are pages for notes. The reader can write his answers to the questions. The questions are designed to make the reader think about the scriptural basis for his views. This is why the title of the book is Rapture Reality Check.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris NZ
• Release date: Dec 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781499099126

James Irwin

The author is a retired computer programmer. The author received the new birth in 1983. Soon afterwards the author joined a Pentecostal church that taught the pretribulational rapture theory. The author originally believed the pretribulational rapture theory. After some time, the author noticed scriptural issues with the pretribulational rapture theory. The pretribulational rapture theory did not jibe with the word of God. The author accepted the word of God and rejected the pretribulational rapture theory. The author’s reasons for rejecting the pretribulational rapture theory are given in this book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by James Irwin.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016920516

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-9914-0

                Softcover        978-1-4990-9913-3

                eBook             978-1-4990-9912-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 12/15/2016

Xlibris

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 What Did Paul Teach about the Rapture?

Chapter 2 What Did Jesus Teach about the Resurrection?

Chapter 3 The Last Trumpet

Chapter 4 Tribulation versus Wrath

Chapter 5 The Final Warning

Chapter 6 The New Heaven and the New Earth

Chapter 7 The Olivet Discourse and the Epistles to the Thessalonians

Chapter 8 The Resurrection at the End of the Age

Chapter 9 The Starting Point of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

Chapter 10 He Shall Cause Sacrifice to Cease

Chapter 11 The End-Time Parables

Chapter 12 He Who Endures to the End Will Be Saved

Bibliography

Preface

I experienced the new birth in 1983 and soon thereafter joined a Pentecostal church. The Pentecostal denomination teaches the pretribulational rapture theory. After a couple of years in the Pentecostal church, I noticed things in the Word of God that made me feel uneasy about the pretribulational rapture theory. As I undertook a study of the Word of God, I saw more and more things that were wrong with the pretribulational rapture theory, so I decided to write a book about the scripture-related problems with that theory.

Since the Word of God is infallible and the pretribulational rapture theory is just a theory, the points of conflict between scripture and the pretribulational rapture theory should not be ignored. Any theory that conflicts with the Word of God, as the pretribulational rapture theory does, should be rejected. I urge those who have been taught the pretribulational rapture theory to read Rapture Reality Check. Even if you are so strong a believer in the theory that the thought of anyone disputing it angers you, I still urge you to read Rapture Reality Check. If you cannot counter the scriptural points raised herein, then you should not be so adamant about your belief in the pretribulational rapture theory.

It took me many years of study, meditation, and prayer to acquire the knowledge to write Rapture Reality Check, which will definitely challenge your thinking about end-time events.

Introduction

I originally believed in the pretribulational rapture theory, but over time I noticed more and more scripture-related problems with this theory. Since the rapture includes dead and living saints, it requires an associated resurrection. The resurrection of the saints is discussed in John 6 and in 1 Corinthians 15, where no pretribulational resurrection of the saints is mentioned. This missing resurrection was a real eye-opener for me, leading me to disbelieve in the pretribulational rapture. The examples Jesus gives of Noah and Lot, and Jesus’s parable of the wheat and the tares, do not line up with the pretribulational rapture theory.

In the Bible, God destroys the wicked at the time of the separation of the wicked and the righteous. He does not give the wicked a chance to repent. Paul taught the Thessalonians that Christians will be raptured on the day of the Lord and that the wicked would be slain the very same day. There is no separation in time between the judgment of the righteous and the judgment of the wicked. Wouldn’t the Antichrist qualify as being wicked? The Antichrist certainly would qualify as being wicked. According to Paul’s teaching, the Antichrist will be slain on the day of the rapture.

This is the exactly the picture given in Revelation 19: Jesus heads to earth for his wedding supper accompanied by the armies of heaven. On his way to earth, he destroys the armies gathered at Armageddon, slays the Antichrist, slays the false prophet, and tramples the grapes of wrath. The millennial kingdom is set up that very day. So Paul’s picture entails the rapture, the destruction of the wicked, and the establishment of the millennial kingdom all occurring on the day of the Lord. Because of this, I do not believe in a future Daniel’s seventieth week that occurs after the rapture of the church.

Firstly, Daniel’s seventy weeks are not even mentioned in the New Testament. Pretribulationalists look to the work of Robert Anderson for their belief in a future Daniel’s seventieth week. Anderson believes that Jesus was crucified in AD 32. The Bible says that Jesus was crucified on Preparation Day and that the next day was a special Sabbath. Preparation Day occurred on Nisan 14, and the special Sabbath was on Nisan 15. These are just two consecutive days of the Hebrew calendar. The weekdays of the Hebrew calendar change each year, just like your birthday. Tradition has it that Preparation Day was a Friday in the year Jesus was crucified. However, when the scriptures are examined closely, it becomes clear that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday. (See the book Good Wednesday by James Irwin.) Preparation Day was a Monday in AD 32. Clearly, Robert Anderson has the wrong year! If Anderson’s time line is correct, then Jesus would have remained in the grave for five straight days before his resurrection. On account of this error, the work of Robert Anderson must be rejected, leaving no basis for the belief in the existence of a future Daniel’s seventieth week. What does work for the prophecy of Daniel’s seventy weeks to be accurate is a starting date of when Artaxerxes gave his edict to Ezra, in 457 BC. The end of Daniel’s seventy weeks was in AD 33. Jesus was crucified in AD 30, which is in the middle of the period of Daniel’s seventy weeks. Preparation Day was correctly on a Wednesday in AD 30, so Daniel’s seventy weeks are history.

CHAPTER 1

What Did Paul Teach about the Rapture?

In the following scripture, Paul is speaking to the Thessalonians about the rapture. There is no change in subject between chapter 4 and chapter 5. The chapters and verses of the epistles to the Thessalonians were added later, but not by Paul. Paul is still talking about the rapture in chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–4:18 (KJV)

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye 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 unto 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: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Paul speaks of the sequence of events of the rapture in chapter 4. Note that he says nothing about what happens after the church meets Jesus in the air, except that the Christians will be with the Lord forever. In chapter 5, Paul talks about the time of the rapture.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 (KJV)

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.

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.

Ye 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 an helmet, the hope of salvation.

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Paul mentions the time and date of the rapture in chapter 5. He claims that the rapture occurs on the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord will come upon both saints and sinners. It will come like a thief in the night, which means that we don’t know when (Matthew 24:43) it will happen. (Jesus also issues the thief a warning about his return to the church of Sardis [Revelation 3:3].)

Paul says that the wicked will be caught by surprise and destroyed on the day of the Lord. He does not say that Christians are exempt from being caught by surprise on the day of the Lord, but he does advise Christians to live an appropriate lifestyle so as not to be caught by surprise and subsequently destroyed (1 Thessalonians 5:4).

Christians receive their salvation on the day of the Lord. Christians are raptured on the day of the Lord, thereby avoiding God’s wrath, which will fall upon the wicked that very same day. There is no separation in time between the salvation of the saints and the destruction of the wicked. Is there anywhere else in scripture where Paul associates the rapture with the day of the Lord? Yes. Paul teaches the same thing to the Corinthians and Romans.

1 Corinthians 5:1–5 (NIV, emphasis added)

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?

For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.

So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

The situation in the foregoing scripture is that a Christian brother is having an affair with his father’s wife. Paul gives instructions to the church at Corinth to turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. If the man repents, he will be saved on the day of the Lord. Christians receive their salvation on the day of Lord. In other words, Christians are raptured on the day of the Lord.

Romans 2:5–8 (KJV, emphasis added)

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.

What is the day of wrath but the day of the Lord? On the day of the Lord, God will give eternal life to the righteous. The saints will be raptured on the day of the Lord. Also, God will show wrath and