Before we go further, I need to define some terms. The Tribulation period refers to the seven year period right before the Second Coming of our Lord. You can read about the Second Coming in Revelation chapter 19. That event is followed by the Millennial Reign of Christ when He will rule the earth from Jerusalem for 1000 years. (Some recently have revived the idea that Christ will return after the Millennium, but Revelation chapters 19 and 20 are quite clear: the Millennium will follow the Second Coming, not precede it.)
The prophet Daniel in about 535 B.C. spoke about 70 seven year periods that would precede the reign of the Messiah. 69 of those seven year periods took place before the messiah was "cut off", or crucified. Because the Jews had rejected their messiah, that last seven year period has been put off until Israel is ready to accept Jesus. In the meantime, God formed the Church to preach the gospel to all nations. So that last seven year period has been delayed until the Church finishes its task of preaching the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. After that, God will again "restart the clock" and the seven year Tribulation period will begin.
The teaching regarding the pre-tribulation rapture of the church states that before that Tribulation period begins, the church will be resurrected and caught up into heaven thus missing that time of judgement. This has been the teaching especially in Baptist and charismatic circles for a long time. Yet, there have always been those who disagreed with that scenario putting the rapture in the middle or at the end of the Tribulation.
The most recent departure from the teaching of the pre-trib rapture has come from Jewish Christians and others who have a real heart for Israel and the Jewish people. They have brought the church great blessing by showing us things like the meaning of the feasts that God commanded the Israelites to keep. They have noted that some of the church has viewed the church as replacing the Jews in the plan of God. That view regards all prophecies regarding Israel as applying to the church only. They do not believe that God will have any more dealings with the Jews as His own people. He is done with them. Until the nineteenth century, this was the standard view in every church.
But when God brought the Jews back into Palestine after the world wars, many Christians began to see that God was beginning to restore the Jewish people back to the Promised Land as He said He would in the prophets. So many Christians began to see the Jews and the Christians as two peoples of God each with a distinct place in the overall plan of God. The old idea of Christians replacing the Jews was largely pushed aside.
Recently, though, another idea arose which rejects the distinction between the church and the Jews as separate peoples of God. After the Six-Day war in 1967, many Jews began to accept Jesus as their Messiah and Lord. Of course, they had a desire to see their Jewish brethren accept the Lord and were big supporters of Israel.
However, some began teaching that Israel and the church were one. Scriptures like those in Romans chapter 11 were used to "prove" that God "grafted" the church into the Jewish people. Hence, the church and the Jews are really not separate, but belong to the same covenant and have the same purpose. A careful reading of these passages must cause us to draw another conclusion. What the church is grafted into is not Israel or the Covenant (Law) of Moses, but the Abrahamic Covenant. Paul called Christian believers "sons of Abraham" not "sons of Israel". The Abrahamic Covenant created both the Jewish nation (Israel) and the church.
Regarding the Jewish nation, God promised Abraham, "I will make you a great nation." Regarding the church, God promised "In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed." Gen 12
Paul consistently said that the church is not under the Law of Moses, but confirmed that we are children of Abraham, the father of faith, and that we have the blessing of Abraham.
So we now have a situation where some are saying that the church will go through the Tribulation and not be raptured beforehand. They view the church and the Jews as one people of God. It would make sense then that the church and the Jews would share the same destiny. The church, though, is made up of believing Jews and believing Gentiles. Unbelieving Jews are not part of the church. The unbelievers (Jews and Gentiles alike) will go through the Tribulation. The church, having fulfilled its commission will go to be with the Lord.
The NT also confirms that the (unbelieving) Jewish nation and the church (believing Jews and Gentiles) are distinct. "Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Gentiles or to the church of God." (1 Cor. 10:32) Paul did not teach that the Jews and the church are 'one'.
Some might counter this argument by noting Ephesians 2:14-16, "He Himself is our peace, who has made both [Jews and Gentiles] one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity."
Doesn't that say that the Jews and believing Gentiles are one in messiah? No. It is saying that believing Jews and believing Gentiles are one. Paul says this several times in his letters. The point that Paul is making is that the divisions created by the Law of Moses between Jews and Gentiles are gone IN CHRIST because no believer, whether Jew or Gentile, is under the Law. It was the Law that brought a separation. Jews would not even eat with Gentiles. In Christ, we are in full fellowship with one another.
Paul teaches the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [of the Lord beginning with the Tribulation] will not come unless the falling away comes first." (2 Thess. 2:3) The Greek word that is here translated as "falling away" would better be translated "departure", meaning the departure or rapture of the church. The word is 'apostasia' and it literally means 'departure'. The reason it has been translated as 'falling away' is that is what it means in 1 Timothy 4:1, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith." The assumption has been made that 'departure' must mean 'departure from the faith'. But Thessalonians says nothing about departure from the faith. The context is the place of the church at the end of the age.
I discovered this many years ago in my own studies. Some years later I found one commentator who agreed with me. Now this view, that the word means 'departure' and not 'falling away', is becoming increasingly accepted in Christian academic circles. I expect it to become the standard view in time.
Additionally, we also need to read this passage in view of the Jewish marriage ceremony. In that ceremony, the bride waits for her bridegroom to come to her home and take her to his home. Although legally they are already married, they would not live together until that time. Note John 14:2-3 " In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." A bridegroom, in preparation for this event, would build on his father's land and prepare a place for her to live with him. When all preparations were done, he would come to get her. This is precisely the idea in 2 Thessalonians.
For this, and many other scriptural reasons, we should maintain the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture of the church.
Shalom.
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