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Wrath or Rapture?
1 Thessalonians 5
Many pre-tribbers make every attempt to paint a picture of the tribulation so horrible, no Christian could possibly endure it. The entire period is labeled, the "time of wrath." Then, they introduce 1 Thessalonians 5:9, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath..." Therefore, a pre-tribulation rapture must be implied. After all, "Jesus would never allow His bride to be dragged through the mud before the wedding!"
This sounds good to modern Christians who have never missed a meal, or slept on the ground. It seems only reasonable, for believers who have service agreements on all their appliances, to be raptured before that awful time. But for the Thessalonian Christians who received this letter, life was not so easy. They were being persecuted severely for their faith; many had been killed, [1 Thes. 2:14, 2 Thes. 1:4-6]. Paul was not telling them they would not have to suffer. They were already suffering. He was saying they would get relief, when Jesus comes to destroy their persecutors.
The Context of 1 Thessalonians 5.
Luke 17
The wicked will be destroyed the same day, suddenly, when Jesus is revealed. It is within the context of the "Day of the Lord" that Paul wrote, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation, by our Lord Jesus Christ." It is God's wrath, at the battle of Armageddon, that we are exempt from. We are not promised exemption from persecution, or even martyrdom. In fact we are promised persecution, [Luke 21:12-19, John 16:1-4,33, 2 Tim. 3:12]. But we can be certain, as Paul reassured the Thessalonians, that God will destroy those who persecute us, and deliver His people from persecution. When He comes in judgment, we will be spared, because, "God hath not appointed us to wrath..."
The Wrath of the Tribulation
God's Wrath in the "Church Age"
Saints in the Tribulation
The Old Testament Connection
I understand 1 Thes. 5:9, "God hath not appointed us to wrath," to mean exactly what it says. We will not experience God's wrath. But it requires a leap of logic to say this verse implies removal from the earth.
9 For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:9 must be interpreted within it's context. Paul wrote in verse 2, the "Day of the Lord" is coming as a "thief in the night." I have given conclusive proof that the "Day of the Lord" begins when Jesus comes after the tribulation. [See the article entitled, "The Day of the Lord."] The fact that the sun and moon will be darkened, "after the tribulation," but before the "Day of the Lord," demonstrates that the "Day of the Lord" is not the tribulation, as pre-tribbers claim, but follows it. According to verse three, "sudden destruction" will overtake the ungodly at that time. The seven year tribulation cannot be characterized as "sudden destruction," nor can it rightfully be labeled the "Day of the Lord." During the tribulation the tension builds to the climax, when Jesus is revealed from heaven, to destroy the ungodly, [Rev. 19:11-21].
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
No doubt, the great tribulation will be dreadful. Jesus said there has never been anything like it before, nor will there be anything like it again. But Revelation paints a picture of a large group of overcomers emerging from the hour of trial, [Rev. 7:14, Rev. 12:11, Rev. 20:4]. Some of God's wrath will be unleashed during the tribulation on the followers of Antichrist. But this wrath is selective, not universal. [See: Rev. 9:4, Rev. 16:2, Rev. 16:10].
In Daniel 9:26, Matthew 24:2, Mark 13:2, Luke 19:41-44, and Luke 21:20-24, the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was foretold. According to two of the above passages, Luke 19:41-44 and Luke 21:20-24, this was God's wrath on Israel. If it is true that 1 Thes. 5:9 teaches Christians cannot be on earth when God's wrath is unleashed, why didn't the rapture come before A.D. 70! Forty years into the "Church age" we find "wrath" without a "pre-wrath" rapture!Since God's wrath can be found prior to the tribulation within the alleged "Church age," and Christians were not raptured, there is no logical grounds for demanding a pre-trib rapture in order to keep Christians separate from "wrath" in the tribulation.
The book of Revelation refers to believers in the tribulation many times. All rapture views place saints of God on earth during God's wrath. Whether we call them Israel, the Church, or tribulation saints, is irrelevant. If a single saint is on earth at that time, all of the pre-trib logic is nullified. Are the "144,000," the "great multitude" of Rev. 7, the saints who "overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb," and the beheaded overcomers of Rev. 20:4, "appointed unto wrath?" One must have an elitist attitude in order to sustain such a conclusion.
God has routinely judged the wicked while supernaturally protecting His children at the same time. The precedent set in Egypt is important because it establishes God's normal method of judging the wicked. God protected His own people while pulverizing the Egyptians with a series of plagues identical to many of the plagues in Revelation. Other examples could be cited, such as Noah and the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God never raptured His people before to avoid His wrath, He simply protected them, or gave them the means to protect themselves, such as Noah's ark, and the early warning given to Lot.