Lesson 9: Exempt From the Wrath – The Rapture
Lesson 9 Overview
Is the Rapture of Christians Really in the Bible? with Dr. Andy Woods
This lesson finishes the second argument (the church is absent from the earth during the tribulation) by completing the case that the 24 elders are the raptured church, answers the “saints” objection, and then begins the third argument: the church is promised exemption from divine wrath. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
The 24 Elders Sing of Their Own Redemption
Dr. Woods reviews the previous lesson. In Revelation 5:9-10 the 24 elders sing about redemption. The New American Standard Bible reads “men, they, them” (third person), while the King James reads “us, we” (first person), a difference explained by textual criticism, where the NASB follows the earliest manuscripts and the King James follows the majority. Citing J.A. Seiss and David Hawking (23 of the 24 Greek manuscripts read “us,” with only Codex Alexandrinus differing), he concludes the elders are singing of their own redemption. This matters because angels are not redeemed, so the elders must be the redeemed church, not angels.
More Similarities Between the Elders and the Church
Dr. Woods stacks up further parallels between the 24 elders and the churches of Revelation 2 and 3. They come from every tribe, tongue, and nation, matching the church’s global commission. They are enthroned, matching Christ’s promise to the Laodicean church that overcomers would sit with Him on His throne (Revelation 3:21). They are called elders, the term for church leadership (1 Timothy 3). They are called a kingdom of priests (Revelation 5:10), exactly as the church is described (Revelation 1:6). And the number 24 recalls the 24 priestly divisions of Israel (1 Chronicles 24), reminding us that the whole church is a priesthood, not a priesthood drawn from one tribe. He warns against strange “mathematical” readings that divide 24 into 12 tribes and 12 apostles, since the text does not do that.
Taken together (crowned, resurrected, clothed in white, redeemed, singing of their own redemption, from a global harvest, enthroned, called elders, a kingdom of priests, and numbering 24), the elders look just like the church. Since they are in heaven in Revelation 4 and 5, before the tribulation judgments begin in chapter 6, they must have been raptured there beforehand.
What About the “Saints” in the Tribulation?
Dr. Woods answers a common objection: Revelation does mention saints being persecuted during the tribulation. He argues the word “saints” is a non-technical term that does not equal the church. It is used in the Old Testament (Daniel 7:21) for believers who lived before the church even existed, when the church was still a mystery (Jesus said “I will build my church,” future tense). So the presence of “saints” in the tribulation refers to tribulation believers, not the church.
He adds a striking observation: heavenly scenes elsewhere in Scripture (Isaiah 6, Ezekiel) show the living creatures and myriads of angels, but never the 24 elders. The elders appear only in Revelation 4, once John is brought into heaven just before the tribulation, which he takes as evidence they arrived by the rapture.
He then challenges anyone to find a clear reference to the church on the earth in any tribulation passage, noting it is absent from Jeremiah 30:7, Daniel 9:27, Ezekiel 38 and 39, and even Matthew 24 and 25 (the Olivet Discourse, which concerns Israel, since Jesus mentions fleeing on the Sabbath, an Israelite institution, whereas the church worships on the first day of the week).
Argument Three: The Church Is Exempt From Divine Wrath
Dr. Woods introduces the third reason: the church is promised exemption from God’s wrath. He cites 1 Thessalonians 1:10 (Jesus “rescues us from the wrath to come”), 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (“God has not destined us for wrath”), Romans 5:9, Romans 8:1, and Revelation 3:10 (kept “from the hour of testing” coming on the whole world). Since Jesus already bore the Father’s wrath in our place, believers need not fear it.
The tribulation, however, is precisely a time when God’s wrath is poured out. He points to the repeated Greek word orge (“wrath”) in Revelation 6:16-17, 11:18, 15:1, 15:7, 16:1, and 16:19. Since the church is exempt from wrath and the tribulation is wrath, the church cannot be in it.
He rejects the claim that the first half of the tribulation is only Satan’s or the Antichrist’s wrath, not God’s. In Revelation 5:7, Jesus takes the seven-sealed scroll (the title deed to the earth), and every seal He opens brings a judgment (Revelation 6:1). So Jesus Himself causes the judgments from the very first seal: the Antichrist, war, famine, the death of a quarter of the population, martyrdoms, and cosmic disturbances. Citing commentator Robert Thomas, he notes that in Revelation 6:17 the verb “has come” is in a past-tense form, meaning the day of wrath had already arrived by then, not that it was only just beginning at the sixth seal. He compares this to Noah’s flood, which was clearly God’s wrath even though the word “wrath” is not used. His conclusion: God will not pour His own wrath out on His bride, so the church must be removed first.