Book review by Terry James
While recently attending the Prophecy Watchers Conference in Colorado Springs, at which he and I were speakers, my friend Lee Brainard and I discussed his book. I’ve since looked at it in depth and concluded that it is one of the best treatments of the pretrib Rapture I’ve read.
Most Christians today don’t have a solid foundation in the Bible’s teaching on the subject, even if they attend churches that professedly believe in it. They haven’t been systematically taught the various arguments that can be made for a pretribulation Rapture. When they do wade into the debate regarding the event’s timing, they’re likely to hear more assertions, cliches, and sound bites than well-framed arguments. This lack of foundation leaves them susceptible to preachers with strong personalities and well-framed erroneous arguments. Hence, as we have painfully witnessed, multitudes have embraced the pre-wrath and post-Tribulation Rapture in the past couple of decades.
This book is designed to help remedy this lack of foundation. In fewer than 120 pages, the author has presented ten distinct arguments for the pretribulation Rapture in compact form. Distilled a little further, their essence can be presented in the following six points–the gist of which Lee presents here in brief.
The economy argument. God returns to Israel during the tribulation, and the evident economy during the tribulation is the Mosaic economy. Therefore, the church cannot be on earth during the seventieth week. God cannot have two honored economies or two honored temples at the same time.
The timeline argument. We see the representatives of the church in heaven in the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation prior to the opening of the first seal (the antichrist) in the sixth chapter. Therefore, the church is not on earth during the tribulation. We also see other timeline indicators which present a rapture prior to the second coming. For instance, the rapture is presented as the morning star of the day of the Lord, while the second coming is presented as the sunrise of the day of the Lord.
The distinction between the rapture and the second coming. There are numerous distinctions between the rapture and the second coming. For instance, the church is taken to heaven at the rapture, while she descends from heaven with the Lord at the second coming. Other distinctions include: the saints taken vs. the saints left, the bride vs. the guests, and the apantesis vs. the parousia.
The relative normality argument. The coming of the Son of man will be like an unexpected thief in the night and will catch the world unaware and unwatching. This does not fit the second coming. The whole world knows it is coming, and they prepare for it, even gathering the armies of the world at the right time and place—Armageddon. But the rapture fits the thief-in-the-night scenario perfectly. The world will be going about their normal business, oblivious to the dawning of the day of the Lord on the horizon, and they will be shocked out of their obliviousness by the vanishing of the church and the first wave of judgments.
The deliverance from wrath argument. The church, as the body and bride of Christ, cannot see the wrath of God that will be poured out on earth at the end of the age. This time of wrath is synonymous with the tribulation. Evidence is provided that the word tribulation is used for the wrath of God, and the concept of wrath is used for Israel in the tribulation.
The nature argument. The seals differ from the normal course of troubles during this age both qualitatively and quantitatively. The seals mark the Lord’s return to theocratic government from the providential government that has prevailed throughout the church age. The seals are vastly worse in degree than anything that mankind has experienced during the course of this age. The fourth seal alone brings twenty times the death toll of World War II. The first seal, the rise and reign of the antichrist, is expressly identified as the day of the Lord (the dawning of it) in 2 Thessalonians 2. It is a great delusion sent upon mankind as a judgment for their unbelief of the light they were already given. It is retributive judgment, albeit mingled with grace.
Taken together, these arguments present a rock-solid case for a rapture prior to the tribulation (that is, prior to the seventieth week). The church must be removed before the first seal is opened and the antichrist is revealed. The church must be removed before the Lord returns to dealing with national Israel during the seventieth week. The church must be removed before the world is bombarded with the seal visitations, which vastly outstrip anything mankind has experienced in the church age. As we read in Revelation 3:10, according to my paraphrase, “Because you have patiently suffered with me in the church age, I will remove you from the planet before the tribulation, which shall come upon the entire planet, to try those whose focus is only earthly.”
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For believers who are Rapture ready, this is indeed an exciting volume to consider while we eagerly await that shout from Heaven’s clouds of Glory: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).
Ten Potent Proofs for the Pretribulation Rapture
Author: Lee Brainard
Publisher: Soothkeep Press
ISBN: 979-8-9873081-3-4
To order:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7TLWN81