Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn, and I am really excited to keep jumping into this eschatology series. We're talking today about the rapture, the tribulation, and the church. Now, if you grew up like I did, many of you probably remember a certain movie called Left Behind. It became a series, and man, some of my most vivid memories about the end times come from that era. And I'm not talking about like the modern kind of Kirk Cameron deal. I'm talking about like the 70s, like way back when. In uh the last episode, Jeff Durbin and I were talking about it. Some of you were probably cringing, laughing. I didn't even realize, and I know Jeff, that he came from all of that extremism. And by that I mean way in there, like was picking up copies of the Jerusalem Times to like follow every day what was happening and trying to predict, you know, the end of the world. And oh, he and his wife Candy, the story was just so, so uh funny, but also really enlightening and helpful. And you kind of understand then why this is an actual example and illustration for people and not just some caricature, it's real. The title of the movie series, Left Behind, was based on the belief that there would be a rapture or a snatching away, and there were Christians, and everybody else would be left behind, and if you were a Christian, you'd go. And I used to wake up fearful that my family got raptured and I was left behind and have nightmares, and my dreams were filled with horror film scenes. And I remember one dream I used to have all the time where my family was being dragged away and split apart, and I would yell to my sisters, keep believing in Jesus, keep believing in Jesus, don't let them make you stop believing in Jesus. And images of guillotines and military operations and beheadings, you know, waking up one day in my bed as a married man and only finding the imprint of my wife, you know, she was raptured, I was not. These were the fears of my childhood, and I'm not making that stuff up. Fast forward to a total total overhaul of my theology after being saved of the prosperity gospel, and I went down every rabbit hole there was and scrutinized what I was taught, including my eschatology, again, the study of the end times. As I read and exegeted and researched, I came to find that one must only, and I mean always and only, build doctrinal views on the word of God as plainly and simply as possible. Tradition can't trump the word of God, sensationalism and media can't trump the word of God, family history and what you're attached to can't trump the word of God, and bad experiences also cannot trump the word of God. I must, for Costi Hinn, form my theological positions on the Word of God alone. What emerged from that era of study was an understanding that I need to approach the Bible as literally as possible and understand its grammar and the original language and historical context of what the book says, authorial intent, the Bible's customs, concepts, and the commands. And in doing this, I came to find that one discovers the truth and then can apply the truth as accurately as possible. Now, we're gonna get some things wrong, nobody's theology is perfect, but when it's all said and done, we can come to certain positions and we can say, I've done my best biblically, and you can come to other conclusions and find them wanting when you base them on something other than the word of God. And of course, if you've been with us in this series, you understand my view and Jeff's and so many others is that faithful brothers are using the word of God to come to conclusions. We just sometimes see it differently or interpret it differently, but all in all, uh you are not going to be found wanting per se, if you look at the scriptures and base your theological positions on the word of God. Now, I came to premillennialism and I found it extremely convincing. And I started then assessing am I historical pre-mill, am I, you know, this dispensational thing? Like, do I see a distinction between Israel and the church? Do I see certain prophecies that should be fulfilled in the future? Am I more futurist in my positions on these things? What do I see here? What does the Bible say? What does sound hermeneutics lead me to? And, you know, I remember thinking, what if I see problems in all of these views? Because some people are extreme in the pre-mill, post-mill, dispy, covenantal, aw-mil, reformed world. Like there's always extremes. And then I thought, can I hold certain positions without the extremes? And then, well, what do I do with the rapture? And what about the left behind series? And how do I navigate different views on the tribulation? To put it simply, I just kept going back to the Word of God again and again until everything became clear. And I ended up landing with conviction, biblical conviction, on premillennialism and not historic, but a dispensational premillennialism, and not the kind of dispensationalism that's crazy and weird with everybody predicting the end of the world and coming up with systems and looking at it and going, oh yeah, two forms of salvation, two types of God's people, not that. What I just mean is for lack of a uh more proper modern term, we're unfortunately stuck with the label dispensational and all of its extremes and different versions. If you say, I believe there's a distinction between Israel and the church, or I believe that the Bible makes a rapture clear and a tribulation that's seven years clear, and the church not being there. But I would say this: when you look at church history, and I found this as well, you actually see many church fathers and others throughout early church history who held to a belief in a rapture, a harpodzo, the taking away, and a tribulation that was churchless, meaning the believer not going through it, and all of these things. So we'll talk in the next episode about discerning dispensationalism, and because everything just gets lumped under there. But you can take a lot of what I'm telling you, and it will fit into a framework for premillennialism, and you can believe in a rapture or tribulation and understand the church in this context and not be weird about it. And I would say this long before Darby and the emergence of the interpretive system of uh dispensationalism in the 1800s, church history had many who believed in a snatching away. So all of that clear, you can see it in the scriptures, and you may not agree with my view and what I lay out here, but at the very least, I hope you find me interacting with it biblically and not from some left behind caricature, which leads me to where I want to begin. Three unhelpful mindsets about the rapture and the tribulation. Three unhelpful mindsets about the rapture and the tribulation. Number one, and every of you should agree here, fear mongering. One of the worst outcomes of the left behind series is fear mongering. Children having nightmares of being left behind, adults having nightmares about being left behind, and instead of people fearing the Lord and turning from sin lest they endure judgment in hell for eternity, we got people fearing being left behind and Christians using the rapture to torment their children. You know, you don't want to be left behind without mommy and daddy, do you? You don't want to be left behind without all of us and be stuck here. And I mean, this is the stuff of the night of nightmares of your childhood. Probably causes some of you as adults to wince at a even a biblical argument for a rapture, because no doubt we've rightfully lost respect for a lot of people who hold this view because they fear monger. Well, you're not going to find that here. I have no fear-mongering and nothing even related to fear except fear the Lord, repent of your sin, turn from that sin, and be saved by the grace of God. You'll spend eternity in heaven with him. And if you don't, then you should fear the judgment of Christ, and you will be in hell, a literal hell forever, separated from God, in burning, fiery judgment, that I'll preach all day. That's the motivation, no doubt, for believing in Christ. I want to be with the Lord and love him forever. I don't want to be in judgment in hell and separated from my creator. Amen. But the idea that kids are more scared about being left behind than they are, that they are sinners in the hands of a holy, righteously angry God, oh, may it never be. Fear mongering. No thanks. Number two, overobsession with predictions. Another very unfortunate result of days gone by and days that I pray we see pass and we bring change to. Because the premillennial dispensational view holds to a literal fulfillment of certain prophecies in the future, there can easily become this unhealthy overobsession with predicting the end of the world, the conflict in Israel, some funny caricatures. You know, Putin's the Antichrist, everyone's looking for Nikolai Karpathia from the Left Behind series, or anyone with poor believers or sweet friends who are Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian. It's like, oh, could be the Antichrist. It's like, calm down. From this mentality, you get the preacher who derails his entire Sunday sermon on Saturday night because Israel and Iran sent a few missiles flying, or Russia is invading the Ukraine. And that's where these people who say, you know, Putin is the Antichrist, and Nikolai Karpathia is around every corner. And now anyone with a Russian or European accent is the Antichrist, we end up in a whole lot of trouble. And this also leads to people who would say, you know, how dare you as a preacher be so tone-deaf as to not preach on the prophetic fulfillment in this moment, or didn't you see the news on the weekend? Don't you know we need to read the times? And I'm sad to say this is most prevalent in my theological camp. But I'm determined, and I hope you are too, if you are in this position with me, to be a voice of reason and hopefully truth and time go hand in hand, and people stop thinking the small but loud minority represents the true position here. Look, we're not here to be news paper clipping preachers. Every time Netanyahu makes some decision and Trump is with him, and now it's like stand with Israel because we want to be blessed, and you know, we stamp the Bible on it. We can't do that. Number three, escapism and passivism. Sadly, this might be the one we need to fight against the most because there can be an escapist mentality that leads to a passive attitude about evangelizing boldly, giving generously, standing courageously, and let's just be honest, enjoying life joyfully. People go, I don't want to buy a home, I don't want to buy stuff, I don't want to this, I don't want to this, you know, polishing brass on the Titanic as it sinks. If we're all going to get raptured, what's the point? You know, uh Jesus could rapture us any day now. Okay. Doesn't mean everything's a waste of time and money. Or the modern caricature that is flying around, though I think it's a bit out of order, is that, you know, boomers made us all dispensational and they're just obsessed with the rapture because they thought they were the center of the world. They made all their money, now they just sit on it and they just want to escape. How convenient. You know, I don't think that's the majority, we got to be honest. But no doubt the caricature came from somewhere. And what about passivism and accusations of loser theology? Again, I don't think the majority of us act like we're losing or gonna lose. We're advancing like an army flanked by angels and filled with the power and the authority of Christ through the gospel. But some have turned the church into the frozen chosen. We're sitting around just waiting for a rapture, we don't evangelize, we don't lobby the government, we don't fight abortion, we don't pray for the nations, we don't pray like God will do something amazing. We don't say to the mountain, be moved with our faith and advance with gospel zeal. We don't go to the nations. We don't even go to our neighbors. And meanwhile, my post mail bros are trying to take over entire cities, and that makes some people uncomfortable. Maybe there's something wrong here, and it's not theology, it's mentality. And before you say, well, the theology leads to that mentality, costly, no, it doesn't. You gotta hear me out on this episode. Believing in a rapture, or believing in a post-millennial view, or believing in an omillennial view, should never affect our zeal. And here's what I mean: our zeal should always be at the max because the Bible is clear, because the Great Commission is for every position. Durbin talked about that, and I was so fired up in the last episode in our conversation because that was his real qualm is I don't care what your position is, I'm not trying to proselytize people and convince them of my eschatology. I'm trying to proselytize them with the gospel and get everybody to be active, whatever their position. And so you can have a dispy view, dispensational view, dispy for short, and see a distinction between the church and Israel. And have a view of a biblical rapture. And guess what? You can be as fiery as ever for the sake of the gospel and get after it for the glory of God. So let's jump into this and start with defining the rapture now. It comes from the term, a Latin term, uh rapio or caught up, and it's from Harpazo in the Greek. And we see that word and that concept in 1 Thessalonians 4, 17. And in particular, this passage is 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 13 to 18. And I want to turn there briefly. If you're following along on YouTube, you'll see all these notes on the screen, and you can turn there in your Bible. If you're driving or running or jogging or you're working out listening to eschatology podcasts, um, you're like the super saved, so God bless you. I'll just read this text to you and you can kind of follow along. But 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 to 18 says, But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. So, first of all, this is meant to drive hope, not fear. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, so he's saying it's revelation from God, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. So that means if you're alive and you're here and the coming of the Lord happens, in this context, we're talking about the day of the Lord, we won't precede those who have fallen asleep. What will happen? The dead and the living at that time. Verse 16, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Now, the position on the rapture, which is not crazy, is just normal looking at the text, is the Lord doesn't yet fully return, meaning he doesn't return to earth. He comes down into the air, the church is caught up to him, and then you would contrast that or parallel with it, Revelation chapter 19, and the return of the Lord with the armies of heaven, which would be the church at that time because of the rapture, and us having been in the marriage supper of the Lamb and with the Lord, returning. And what happens in that passage? Well, his feet touch the Mount of Olives. He's back, and we rule and reign with him for a thousand years. Now, again, you may not agree, but you see, the position isn't crazy. No one's making stuff up because of, you know, left behind. You're just looking at the text plainly. And so what do you have here? You have believers caught up to meet the Lord, Paul comforting grieving believers and those who have died, who are in Christ, being reminded, the living being reminded, and those who are one day gonna die, and then they're gonna be the dead in Christ, they're gonna rise first, and everyone's gonna be caught up. It's harpazo with them to meet the Lord in the air. What's the emphasis on? Reunion. Reunion with Christ, reunion with other believers, and on encouragement. So if you hold to a pre-tribulation rapture, encouragement is the theme. Not fear-mongering, not crazy Jim Baker doing food storage sales at 2 a.m., which is so weird because why are you buying food storage if you believe in a rapture? Because you're gone anyway, unless you're trying to help other people, then you better give them your gate code or your house key or what have you. Uh it's encouragement. This is not wrath or judgment language. It's hope-filled, it's family language. And so the rapture is meant to comfort the church, not terrify us. So left behind with terror, yeah, not helpful. And then there's another passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 51 and 52. I want to read you this because this passage is another really helpful explanation by Paul. He says, uh, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 51 and 52. Sorry, I'm in 15, verse 15. Behold, I tell you a mystery, verse 51. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, notice the same language used in 1 Thessalonians, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. Look at the language. Someone will be alive, some will be dead, the dead are going to be raised imperishable, and then we will all be changed, the living. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. What's he saying? Well, he's saying a few things. Number one, we will not all sleep, we will all be changed at the last trumpet. Paul's revealing a mystery that not all believers will die. There will be people alive when the harpazo takes place. But all will be changed instantly at the last trumpet. The dead in Christ are going to rise and put on immortality. Those who are alive, they'll be changed in an instant, and they'll also put on now the imperishable. The imagery emphasizes transformation and glorification, not tribulation. And the mystery language implies it's something previously hidden but now revealed, which supports the uniqueness of the rapture as distinct from the second coming where Christ returns in visible judgment. Now, people say, mystery, it sounds kind of weird, conspiracy, this is my problem. No, no. The gospel was a mystery. What does Paul call it? You see Ephesians chapter 3 and the manifold wisdom of God, the mystery of the church being revealed. You have all of these mysteries, not a ton of them, but a pretty decent list. The church was a mystery throughout the ages, and then you're going, wow, we're this people, the Gentiles grafted in, this is amazing. It was a mystery now revealed. The mysterion in the Greek and the New Testament, referring to that which was previously hidden, now disclosed. The rapture can be lumped under that same category biblically, not left behind lunacy, but just a biblical view on a snatching away of the church before the tribulation. So some key points. Number one, the rapture is gathering Christ's church to himself. Debates around the rapture usually center if you believe in one, timing. So you got pre, mid, and post-tribulation. Some saying rapture is before, some midway at the three and a half year mark, the abomination of desolation, when the Antichrist rises up. Well, then the church is taken away. And you can debate that, but you're dead, you're in the same category if you're there. And then also, you we would distinguish the rapture, that's Christ coming for his church, from the second coming, which is Christ returning to the earth to reign. And this is why most who hold to a pre-trib rapture, that's pre-tribulation rapture, typically view 1 Corinthians 3, verses 11 to 15 as the believer's judgment. And it takes place right after the rapture. And I'll just kind of give you this in short. If you visualize it with me, I'll kind of walk you through it. Let's say you have all of us here, and it were the rapture will occur tomorrow, okay? And that's not a prediction, relax. The church is taken away. And at that moment, we go up with the Lord and we experience the Bima seat judgment or the believer's judgment, and I'll explain that in a moment from 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And there's the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we are with the Lord in his presence for seven years. Meanwhile, what's What's going on in the earth? The tribulation. The bride of Christ is not going to go through the tribulation. And then at the end of that time, Revelation chapter 20, the Lord returns. And the armies of heaven are with him. And if you were to read Revelation chapter 19 and then into 20, you'll see all of this. And the armies of heaven robed in white, that's us, we're with him, returns, and he establishes his thousand-year rule. So it's an up, a cross, if you will, up in glory with him, Bimis judgment, the marriage supper of the land, and then down with the Lord to the earth, and then the millennial kingdom, and then into the eternal state. Here's the deal. That's all simply explained from Scripture. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, when a person who's premillennial and holds a view of the rapture and the tribulation like this, says, Well, that's a believer's judgment. The idea then makes a lot of sense, even what I'm explaining to you, when you read the words that Paul lays out. I'm going to go over there to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verses 11 to 15. Paul, in the same letter, encouraging the Corinthians, says, uh, in verse 11, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is in Jesus Christ. Now, if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident for the day, very important phrase, will show it, because it's to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. So you might think, oh yeah, judgment, hell, no, no, no. But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. What is Paul saying? He's warning the Corinthians, you guys are believers, you better live right because there's a believer's judgment. And one day you're gonna go up and you're gonna face the Lord and you're saved, but here's the deal: you are going to either suffer loss and not reward, although you're saved and through fire, but if you are faithful, if you turn, it's gonna be reward. You can't have a judgment where everybody still gets saved unless you take this plainly to be a judgment for believers only. And interpretively, the day, that phrase the day, is believed to be the day of the Lord. That is the rapture of the church. The day is gonna reveal it. You're gonna be raptured up, and you'll you'll stand before the Lord at the Bima seat. And why would this only be a believer's judgment for the church? Because everyone is saved, the Bible says, and yet it's judgment. But whether or not they get rewarded is determined by how they stewarded what they were given. Those who built on Christ, lived for Christ, used their money, their talents, their mind, their heart, their hands for Christ will be rewarded. Those who built on their foundation, their own, and were selfish, had impure motives, or were stagnant believers, they will be saved still, because it's through faith, but their work doesn't last and there is no reward. Why do I tell you all that? Because I'm talking to you who believe in a rapture and the tribulation and see the church as taken away. And by way of implication, our friends who are post-mill or amil, you can listen in on this. I gotta say, holding to a view that sees the rapture in Scripture should never lead to passive escapist loser theology, but rather a passionate, generous, all-out, all-in, dare I say, fiery life of zeal for the gospel. We should be the ones going the hardest because we're the ones who believe that when the rapture takes place, we're gonna be judged and rewarded by Christ based on what we did with our life. I've got to build a ministry on Christ. I've got to use my life for his glory, or else I get no reward. How's that for fearing the Lord versus telling little Johnny Jr. or little Sally that they're gonna get left behind if they don't believe and we're using left behind movies and Kirk Cameron fear-mongering to make sure our kids believe in Christ? What about, hey son, we're gonna face the Lord one day? And the first thing that happens when we are taken out of this earth is we're gonna stand before him at the Bima seat. And I want my life to count, and I want your life to count. You have faith in him? Oh, yes, I do, Dad. All right, let's live it all out. Let's build our ministry, our lives, our family on the right motives. And if we build ministry, life, or family on the wrong motives, money, bad motives, impurity, ill-gotten gains, bad integrity, all of it, well, guess what? All of it's gonna burn up. It'll all have been for nothing. You're still saved, but we wasted our life. If you make lots of money for yourself, if you do nothing for the poor, if you advance the gospel minimally, but you advance yourself maximally. And if you don't pour into your kids and your wife and raise up godly generations and get after it for the glory of God, guess what? You get nothing at the Bemisy judgment. That's what we really believe about the rapture. That's what the Bible really says about the believer's judgment. That's what's really happening at the beginning of the tribulation and leading into the marriage supper of the Lamb. Yes and amen. But we are not escaping to go chill. We're escaping the horrors of hell that are unleashed on the wicked here on earth, but we're not escaping the eyes of Christ as he reveals the motives and methods of our lives. So hear me on this, rapture-believing Christians. Do not ever allow the caricatures that are thrown at us in our position to be true. And my post-mill friends, all mill friends, people who have seen this play out, not in our generation, as Jeff and I were discussing, we all gotta go harder than ever. There needs to be unity and clarity and zeal so that people stop thinking that we're post-mil if we're passionate. May it be that you just have a position on eschatology that might be different, but you got the same fire in your bones to reach people and be rewarded by the mighty king who reigns now and will reign in a literal thousand years, according to my view. Believing in the rapture should lead more Christians to action because we're going to answer to the Lord for what we're doing right now to advance his mission. Now, we've talked about some of the concerns, right? I laid those out, we've defined the rapture now. I want to give you a definition of the tribulation. The tribulation is a unique future period of unprecedented distress and divine judgment prior to Christ's second coming. Some key texts here. You have Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 to 27. And let me just explain to you what's happening here. It's the 70th week of prophecy or 70th week prophecy. And Daniel's prophecy outlines 70 weeks. It's sets of seven years. And sometimes people are like, what in the world's happening? And it reminds them of one of those crazy, crazy gifts or memes where the guy's looking at all the numbers flying everywhere. And this has been decreed for Israel in the book of Daniel. It's a prophetic book. The final 70th week describes a covenant confirmed and then broken midway. And it leads to the abomination of desolation. And that framework provides the Old Testament backbone for a future tribulation. This was something that we would believe in our position, the tribulation has been prophesied. It's a unique seven-year period in which Israel and the nations are central. So we're not Zionists. We're not overly obsessed with Israel for no reason. We just know that in that region something's going to happen. In Matthew chapter 24, verses 15 to 22, you have the Olivet discourse happening in that section. And again, different views will differ here, but in my position, you've got the Great Tribulation being pictured there, and it ties directly to the abomination of desolation. I mean, Jesus refers directly to that, identifying it as the trigger for the Great Tribulation. And his words really echo Daniel's prophecy. And they describe an unprecedented time of suffering cut short only for the sake of the elect. And this really sets up the tribulation as not a generic era of difficulty, but as a specific, literal, climactic, identifiable event tied to Israel, temple desecration, and God's sovereign timetable. Another passage that backs up a view of the tribulation or a belief in it is Revelation chapter 6, all the way through chapter 19. You have seals, trumpets, bowls, you have all these judgments. And the bulk of the book there centers on this escalating judgment. If you ever read it, you're just seeing boom, boom, boom, just judgment after judgment after judgment falling upon the earth. And massive amounts of the human population are dying. That's not happening yet in that sense. I mean, crazy destruction. And the imagery is comprehensive. War, famine, cosmic upheaval. There's like demonic, wild things happening. And you could say there is symbolism in the book, but you can also say these are literal events unfolding in the book, and the language, though symbolic, can still be literally events that are happening. You have martyrdom, you have wrath being poured out by God. And the scope is global and the intensity is unparalleled. This cannot be reduced to the ordinary trials of the church age. Other positions might say that. I see something much stronger. It is a concentrated future outpouring of divine wrath like the world has never seen, and it precedes the return of Christ. And so, what's the nature of the tribulation? Let me just summarize for you, and some of these notes will be on the screen. Intense suffering, deception, persecution, cosmic upheaval, although fully unfolding under God's sovereign plan. And then what's the purpose of the tribulation? Because some people say, what's the point? Well, first, judgment on the unbelieving world. That's Revelation chapter 3, verse 10, and then chapters 6 all the way to 19. Also, purification and salvation of Israel at that time. This would fulfill Romans chapter 11, 25 to 27, and Zechariah chapters 12 all the way through 14. I mean, at that moment, you'll have Israel, the people there at that time saying, Jesus was the Messiah. The Christians were right. We are the blind, rebellious, reprobate people. We then turn, they'll turn, and there'll be great revival and fulfillment leading up to, or sorry, coming out of that moment leading up to the millennial kingdom. And so that's a proper view of Israel and some aspect of salvation for true Israel, okay? Not just randomly people who say that they're Jewish today, right now, but there will be fulfillment then. And then the question begs: where's the church? Well, this view, the pre-tribulation rapture view, would say that the church is absent in Revelation 6 through 19, mentioned quite often in chapters 1 through 3, and then not once in the tribulation chapters. So the church is absent. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 10, in chapter 5, verse 9, you have these clear statements. Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come, that we're not destined for wrath. Well, the tribulation is a mighty outpouring of wrath, and you can uh contrast those passages and make them parallel with what is promised. And Paul's assuring believers that Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. And that's not, you know, destined for wrath, obtain salvation, and so it's just talking about hell. In the context, Paul is talking about eschatological judgment, not just hell. And so this undergirds a pre-tribulation rapture view that the church is rescued before God's judgment falls upon the earth. Another aspect here regarding the church, the church is seen in heaven during the tribulation period in Revelation chapters four and five. There's worship, there's crowns, we're a redeemed people. And so you have these repeated references to the churches, the churches, the churches in chapters one through three. John then sees the heavenly throne room in chapter four and the lamb who was slain. And what's he surrounded by? Redeemed worshipers from every nation. That's in chapter five. And the church is then conspicuously absent from the tribulation narratives in chapters six through 19. Why would John see the church in four and five, and then the church is absent on the earth during tribulation, but present in heaven before them worshiping Christ? And so that absence that we see would support the argument that the church is raptured prior to the tribulation, not in the middle of it and not after it. Now again, other views, mid-trib rapture would occur at the midpoint. They would back that in Daniel 9, verse 27, and Revelation chapter 11, and then the post-trib view of a rapture and a second coming being simultaneous, that would come from John chapter 6, 39 to 40, and then Matthew 24, verses 29 to 31. So there are things to think through, there's challenges to overcome, but all in all, I just want to help you understand really the why or the how. Now, a premillennial distinction then is this the church is with Christ in heaven during the tribulation and then returns with him in glory as he establishes his kingdom. It's Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 to 14. At that climax, Christ returns riding on a white horse. The armies of heaven are clothed in fined linen, they're white and pure. That's us, we're following him. And the description matches the church seen earlier clothed in white garments, rewarded and glorified in heaven. So the church, having been raptured and with Christ in heaven, now returns with him in his triumphant second coming. The question then begs: how do we come to these conclusions? I've obviously showed you a great deal of scripture or mentioned a great deal of scripture, but it would come down to hermeneutics. First, grammatical historical interpretation. You take prophetic texts at face value, unless context demands otherwise. Number two, progressive revelation. Daniel, then the Olivet Discourse, Paul's teaching, and the book of Revelation all build on one another. And so as you see progressive revelation unfolding, God is revealing more and more about his plan throughout the ages. Abraham or Adam or David or Deborah or Samson didn't have the progressive revelation that we have today. We can understand more of God's plan and understand it with continuity and clarity because it's there. Lastly, consistency. I think the position is merited and helps with consistency because you see that Israel and the church and the nations all have very distinct roles in God's plan. It's one plan. God's people is one people, but there are unique distinctions within that, and that helps us understand the Bible as a whole. And so some practical takeaways here. Number one, this view should breed hope. The rapture comforts believers. It encourages us, because we are 1 Thessalonians 4.18, to encourage one another with these words. That's not overobsession, that's not left behind movies, making everyone freak out. It's encouragement. Please be encouraging if you believe this stuff. Number two, it should breed holiness, knowing that judgment is coming. You're going to answer the Lord for the way you lived as a believer. You should live soberly, faithfully, you should evangelize boldly, and you should walk faithfully. 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 10 to 14 makes that so clear as Peter encourages the church, even in the midst of their trial, hey, get after it. We're going to be rewarded one day. Finally, number three, humility. Good Christians differ on the timing, but all must agree Christ is returning. We unite around his coming. We don't divide over charts, and we don't certainly start lobbing grenades at one another when things are a little different. And we can understand this position that the rapture should breed hope, that there should be holiness, and there should be humility in our hearts. Now, next time I want to help you be discerning about dispensationalism. And that's where a lot of these views are typically categorized under. And so you you in this episode have come to understand the rapture is the church gathered to Christ, the tribulation is God's judgment on the earth and part of Israel's salvation. And then the church is in heaven during the tribulation, returning with Christ at his second coming. But even though these things have been taught throughout church history, in the modern era, circa the 1800s, when you have Darby and you have the Schofield Bible, and you have a lot of these more dispensational schools of thought, I think that there have developed some extremes that are not biblical or helpful within that system. And so I hope this series gives you a lot to think about. And I hope you'll have a more discerning dispensationalism or a more healthy view of those who are dispensational leaning, or as John MacArthur once called it, leaky dispensationalism, and see that we're not about the extremes. Most of all, I hope this series reminds you to look forward to the return of the Lord. Friend, he is coming. Thanks for listening. Thanks for sharing, and thank you for supporting for the gospel's teaching content. If you'd like to join our gospel patron community and help us raise our 2026 budget before the end of the year, we'd love to partner with you. And we have seen God grow this ministry and we pray that he'll continue to grow it for his glory. Our goal, which we've been openly celebrating with you and partnering with people to accomplish, is to raise $400,000 by the end of the year, starting now. And so far the Lord has already provided about a quarter of that. And we're off to a great start, but we've still got a ways to go. Now, the reason, if you're new to our ministry that we prefer to pre-raise so much of our budget ahead of time, is to pre-plan content, filming production, and be faithful with resources, events, and fiscal planning. Proverbs 6.6 says to go to the ant and see how the ant prepares ahead of time. And so to prepare for Q1 and Q2 of 2026, we always pre-raise as best as we can as much of the budget as we possibly can. And we're grateful for your help with that. You can go to forthegospel.org and click give to partner with us in that way, either one time or monthly. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.