Lesson 6 Overview

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

This lesson opens the case for the pre-tribulation rapture by first surveying the major timing views and then documenting how strongly the pre-trib position is attacked today. Dr. Woods says he will give seven reasons for the pre-trib view, and he spends this lesson showing why that defense is needed. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.

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The Views on Timing

Dr. Woods reviews the four main positions on when the rapture happens relative to the seven-year tribulation. Pre-tribulationism (his view) says the church is removed before the tribulation and sees none of it. Mid-tribulationism says the church sees half of it. Post-tribulationism says the church sees all of it. The pre-wrath view says the church sees roughly three-quarters of it. He argues the “pre-wrath” label is misleading, since every view considers itself pre-wrath, and that it is more clearly described as “three-quarters” rapturism.

He also addresses “prepping.” He says he owns emergency supplies simply as common sense in a fallen world, not because he expects to enter the tribulation, and that being prepared and being pre-tribulational are not mutually exclusive. He warns against the resigned “pray for pre, plan for post” and “pan-trib” attitudes, promising to show that real certainty about the pre-trib view is possible.

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The Pre-Trib View Is Under Attack

The main purpose of this lesson is to document how heavily the pre-trib position is criticized, which is why a careful defense is needed. Dr. Woods surveys several critics.

Rick Joyner is quoted calling the rapture a tool of the enemy that implants a “retreat mentality.” Dr. Woods answers that a pre-trib believer can still be a cultural and political activist, not to build God’s kingdom (which only God can build), but to restrain evil, a role he will later tie to the church as the restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7.

Rick Wiles is quoted predicting the doctrine would be gone by 2020 and calling the “secret” pre-trib rapture and Christian Zionism a “two-headed monster” that ruined America. Dr. Woods responds that the rapture is not secret (it comes with a shout and the voice of an archangel), and that blaming America’s decline on this doctrine is a false-cause fallacy, like saying the rooster’s crow causes the sunrise. He notes that pre-trib believers like Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye were leaders in Christian political activism, which disproves the “defeatist” charge.

David Barton is quoted rejoicing that a Left Behind film did poorly at the box office, hoping it signals a move away from pre-trib eschatology.

Barbara Rossing (The Rapture Exposed) is quoted calling the rapture “a racket” that distorts God’s love for the world. Dr. Woods calls this a straw man, since pre-trib teaching does not claim God abandons the world; rather, God removes the church, pours out wrath, evicts Satan, and establishes His kingdom on the earth.

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The More Scholarly Critics

Dr. Woods then turns to respected scholars. He notes that apologist William Lane Craig, excellent on the resurrection, argues the rapture is a misreading of Thessalonians and is really the same event as Christ’s second coming. Dr. Woods replies that this ignores the earlier point that the rapture and the second advent are described completely differently and cannot be harmonized, and that Craig uses the “ram, jam, and cram” method because he does not interpret the passages literally, appealing to church history rather than the text.

He criticizes N.T. Wright (whom he nicknames “N.T. Wrong”) for objecting to a literal reading and arguing that Christ returns to transform and heal the earth rather than to snatch people away. Dr. Woods responds that Christ’s first-coming prophecies were all fulfilled literally (Bethlehem, the virgin birth, the tribe of Judah, and so on), so the second-coming prophecies should be read literally too, and that the healing of the planet comes only after Satan is evicted, which is the whole point of Revelation.

Finally, he cites Hank Hanegraaff (the “Bible Answer Man”), who calls the rapture a nineteenth-century idea popularized by John Nelson Darby that wrongly separates Israel and the church. Dr. Woods says this is exactly why he spent time on the tenth truth (the doctrine being recovered), and argues that Scripture itself distinguishes Israel, the Gentiles, and the church.