Pretribulation Rapture: Fact or Fiction?

I watched a video this week where two pastors passionately argued that a pretribulation rapture is a work of fiction.  Their mission is to warn that believers will go through the tribulation.

When you do not understand the coming millennial kingdom and the events surrounding the judgment seat of Christ, it is easy to confuse parts of Scripture.  I believe this is what happened to these pastors.

They cited 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, which does describe the rapture (emphasis is mine):

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Then they cited Matthew 24:29-31 as evidence of why there will not be a pretribulation rapture (emphasis is mine):

²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: ³⁰ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

But Jesus is not talking about the rapture here.  The pastors stressed the importance of comparing Scripture with Scripture, but they fell short.  They based their assumption on the mention of a trumpet in both 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and Matthew 24:31.  Look at a previous verse, Matthew 24:27:

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

I believe this verse does refer to the rapture.  Believers will meet Jesus in the clouds in the air — which happens in an instant, like lightening — but no one on earth will see Him.  Immediately after the rapture, the seven-year tribulation begins.  Then after the tribulation everyone will see Christ Jesus when He visibly returns to earth.  This is the post-rapture and post-trib event that Jesus is describing in Matthew 24:29-31.  

We see a similar reference to Christ Jesus’ visible second coming to earth in Revelation 1:7 (emphasis mine):

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
 and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.

The pastors also argued that Matthew 24:37-41 describes the rapture:

³⁷As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.  (Matthew 24:37-41, emphasis mine)

I admit that these verses stumped me.  When you compare Scripture with Scripture, during the days of Noah God “took away” all the evil people in the flood.  This includes the nephillim, the giant offspring of fallen angels who mated with daughters of men (Genesis 6:4) to try and pollute the human gene pool and prevent the birth of Jesus.  While Matthew 24:37-41 sounds like the rapture, it would be contradictory.

I prayed for God’s wisdom, set my studying aside, and went to listen to John Herbert, a kingdom truth preacher I like.  Wouldn’t you know it he was talking that about that very passage!  Herbert says the parable is describing all believers at the judgment seat of Christ; that the Greek word for “taken” describes being an intimate associate or a joining to one’s self. 

Comparing Scripture with Scripture, Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:38 that the field is the world.  Grinding the mill also relates to the threshing floor, where the wheat will be separated from the chaff.  In the Matthew 24:40-41 parable, Herbert says Jesus is talking about believers and their works done while in the body that will either withstand the test of fire or be burned up at the judgment seat of Christ.  

Herbert also says the ones who are left behind in Matthew 24:40-41 are believers whose works do not withstand the test of fire.  They will be outside the millennial kingdom (in the outer darkness) for a period of 1,000 years.

An alternate theory is that Jesus is referring to the remnant of believers who will be saved during the tribulation period.  The ones who are taken are those who are unsaved and will suffer God’s wrath and judgment.  But I need to do more study on this before I make a conclusion. 

Either way, I am convinced that these verses — and all of the types — in Scripture do not support a post-tribulation rapture.