The Imminent Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church

I found this online book some time ago and am slowly going through it. While I disagree with many of the author's conclusions and I'm always right ;-), he does make some good points in certain areas.

Read it HERE.

The author also has also written a book called "What the Bible Says About the Future" which can be read online HERE, and has a new book pending called "The Olivet Discourse".

This resource page is helpful. In some instances, I think Mr Smith should have been more thorough e.g. the day of the Lord v the wrath of God in light of OT passages etc. In fact there is strong evidence that the dotL includes the 6th seal and the grammar of Rev 6:17 is OFTEN in the past. There are very good reasons for believing God's wrath is contained within the seals and the 5th seal martyrs are not an obstacle to this view - as has been discussed before. Unfortunately, he only gives this a cursory treatment.

He implies that many (most?) pretribbers take the apostasy of 2 Thess 2 to be the rapture. Although Dr Ice is one of these, most pre-trib scholars do not believe this to be true. Even if it were so, the apostasy/rapture view is not helpful to pretribulationism.

But, while I have some issues, Mr Smith does provide a lot of good food for thought.

Is John 14:3 the Rapture?

John 14:1-4 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. And you know the way where I am going."

Posttribulationists need to strenuously argue that, in the above verses, Jesus is not telling His disciples that He will be coming back for them and taking them to Heaven. In their view, the rapture occurs after the three-and-a-half year Great Tribulation. The Lord comes only ONCE (single phase Second Advent) and stays on the earth with the Church. So, how can John 14 be reconciled from a post-trib viewpoint?

On his website, Tim Warner makes the following observations:

“…The second additional "contrast" cited by Ice has to do with John 14:1-3, where he interprets "my Father's house" as heaven, something not supported by Jesus' earlier usage of the term, "My Father's house" (cf. John 2:16:17), or with the common expression in the Old Testament, "the house of the Lord" (cf. Isa. 2:2-4, Joel 3:18, Zech. 14:21).”

The Father’s house isn’t in Heaven? (Matt 5:16; Matt 7:21) I love the way Allen Beechick responds:

When Jesus comes, where will He take us? John 14:2–3 says:

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

He will take us to heaven, pre-tribs answer. But post-tribs respond that the verse doesn't actually say so. It merely says we will be with Him, wherever that is, which happens to be on earth.

For the benefit of my post-trib friends, let me re-phrase the verse to make it more clear:

In my Father's house (in heaven) are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go (to heaven) to prepare a place for you (in heaven). And if I go (to heaven) and prepare a place for you (in heaven), I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that ye may be with me (on earth).

Makes sense?