Lesson 12 Overview

Is the Rapture of Christians Really in the Bible? with Dr. Andy Woods

This lesson begins examining the competing rapture views, critiquing mid-tribulationism and giving a detailed case against post-tribulationism. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.

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The Other Views Do Not Answer the Seven Arguments

Dr. Woods notes that after giving seven cumulative arguments for the pre-trib rapture, he now turns to the other views. His first observation is that the competing camps largely ignore or fail to answer those seven arguments, though they do appeal to certain verses of their own.

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Critiquing Mid-Tribulationism

Mid-tribulationism places the rapture about 42 months (three and a half years) into the tribulation, partly because it assumes God’s wrath does not begin until the midpoint (a claim Dr. Woods has already disputed). Its main proof text is Revelation 11:12, where the two witnesses are killed, raised, and called up to heaven at the middle of the tribulation.

Dr. Woods answers that Revelation 11 never mentions the church or churches. Read plainly, it describes two individuals who resemble Moses and Elijah being taken to heaven, not the rapture of the church. So the passage has nothing to do with the timing of the rapture.

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Critiquing Post-Tribulationism: The “Last Trump”

Post-tribulationism places the rapture at the end of the tribulation, arguing that the “last trumpet” of 1 Corinthians 15:52 is the same as the last trumpet in Revelation. Dr. Woods responds that these are two different trumpets: Paul’s is a trumpet of blessing and resurrection, while Revelation 11’s is a trumpet of judgment that unleashes the bowl judgments.

He explains that “last” does not mean “last ever” but last in a series, like saying “first I went to the laundry, last I went to the store.” Paul’s is the last trumpet of the church age, not the last trumpet in all of history. He adds that Revelation 11’s trumpet is not even the final trumpet, since Jesus sounds another to gather Israel at the second advent (Matthew 24:31).

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The Millennial Population Problem

Dr. Woods presents what he calls the Achilles heel of post-tribulationism: who populates the millennial kingdom? Scripture shows children being born (Isaiah 65:23), death occurring (Isaiah 65:20), and sin continuing (Ezekiel 45; Zechariah 14), even a final revolt against Christ (Revelation 20:7-9). But resurrected people do not marry or bear children (Matthew 22:30).

The pre-trib, mid-trib, and pre-wrath views all have an answer: people converted after the rapture survive the tribulation and enter the millennium in mortal bodies to repopulate the earth and pass on the sin nature. But post-tribulationism resurrects all believers at the very end, leaving no one in mortal bodies to populate the millennium. Dr. Woods says most post-tribulationists do not even recognize this problem.

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The Sheep and Goat Judgment

A related problem is the sheep and goat judgment (Matthew 25:31-46), where Christ separates believing survivors (sheep, who enter the kingdom in mortal bodies) from unbelievers (goats). The other views explain these as tribulation survivors after the church is gone. But if post-tribulationism is right and Christ already separated and resurrected all believers at the rapture, there is no reason for this separation to happen again.

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The Hebrew Wedding Analogy

Dr. Woods argues the church’s program is patterned after the ancient Hebrew wedding, which had roughly ten steps: a marriage covenant secured by payment, the bride set apart, the groom leaving to prepare a bridal chamber in his father’s house, a betrothal loyalty test, the groom returning at an unknown time preceded by a shout to retrieve the bride, the couple hidden in the father’s house for seven days, a ritual cleansing, a meeting with the wedding guests, the consummation, and a public presentation of the couple to the world.

He maps these onto Christ and the church: the covenant is Christ’s sacrificial death, the setting apart is positional sanctification, the prepared chamber is the heavenly dwellings of John 14:2, the betrothal test is the present life leading to the judgment seat, the retrieval is the rapture (John 14:3), the seven hidden days are the church hidden during the seven-year tribulation, the cleansing is the judgment seat of Christ, and the public presentation is the second advent. His point is that the post-trib “elevator theory” (up to meet Christ and immediately back down) omits the middle steps, which require an interval of time, and so damages the whole wedding picture.

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The Judgment Seat and the Heavenly Dwellings

Dr. Woods adds two more problems for post-tribulationism. First, the judgment seat of Christ, where believers receive or forfeit rewards (the five crowns, which are cast at His feet), requires time in heaven after the rapture. Pre-trib has seven years for it, mid-trib has 42 months, pre-wrath has the final quarter, but post-trib has no time for it at all.

Second, the heavenly dwellings of John 14:1-4: Christ is preparing dwelling places for the church, implying the church will need them for a period. If the church only goes up and immediately returns to earth, as post-trib teaches, those dwellings would go unused. Quoting Hal Lindsey, he argues this would make Christ’s promise meaningless.