As we have learnt about the sixth seal, there’s a lot of chaos and terror in the book of Revelation. The sun is going to be darkened, the moon is going to turn red and the stars are going to be falling from heaven. Basically the world is coming to an end at that time. The lost people who have always mocked God, criticizing him, that’s why they’re afraid when God is finally coming down and gives them judgment.
There are 2 main heresies in Revelation 6 that we’re going to cover.
The first heresy is that the church will go through the tribulation. That belief is wrong, the Bible teaches that the church will be raptured before the tribulation. Proofs were given in Revelation 4. But one of their teachings concerning the church will go through tribulation is according to verse 17.
Revelation 6:17 “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
There is this viewpoint called the pre-wrath rapture. The pre-wrath view is before the wrath of God (sixth seal, God coming down) they will be raptured, however the church will go through the tribulation. Even though we are going to be avoiding the wrath by being resurrected or raptured before the wrath, however when the rapture comes down, we’re still nevertheless going through the tribulation even though we’re before the wrath. That’s the pre-wrath point of view.
What we Christians and premillenial scholars teach is that the tribulation timeline is wrath, so because Christians are not appointed to wrath, we’re going to be raptured before the tribulation. Because the church is not going through the wrath.
Pre-wrather is also known as post-tribulation. They believe they’re going to go through the tribulation and it’s until after the tribulation then they can escape the wrath. Their proof text is Revelation 6:17, it’s at the end of the seals.
But the simple answer against that is, yes it’s true in this passage there is a day of wrath, but there more than one day of wrath in the tribulation, there are dayS of wrath. This is one of the last days of wrath right here.
The entire tribulation timeline is known as days of wrath. Post-tribbers think that there’s only one day of wrath but that’s not true, there are many days of wrath.
Luke 21:21-23 “Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.“
In verse 21, Post-tribbers realize this is about the tribulation. In Matthew 24, this is referring to the fifth seal where the Jews are running for their lives because a bunch of cannibals are out to get them. Human sacrifices, persecution.
In verse 22, this is the days of vengeance. It’s not days of wrath? Look at verse 23.
In verse 23, ‘those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.’ So, the entire tribulation timeline is ‘days of wrath’.
They might use an argument here saying that this is referring to the wrath of the devil, not the wrath of God. But that doesn’t make sense. Look at the previous seals, does that look like Satan’s wrath or God’s wrath? When we read Revelation 6:1, who’s the one who opened the seals? It was Jesus Christ, the Lamb. He’s the only one worthy to open the seals, and when He opened the seals, look at all this wrath taking place: war, famine, death and hell. That’s referring to Jesus Christ, obviously.
Here’s one of the stronger verses used by post-tribbers to support their claim that people cannot be resurrected or raptured until after the tribulation, not before.
Job 14:12-13 “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!”
In verse 12 above, no man can be resurrected or raptured until the heavens be no more. Remember Revelation 6, it mentions that the heavens parting as a scroll, so they’re claiming that there cannot be a resurrection or rapture before, it has to be after.
But they have a problem here at verse 13, they’re still stuck in the grace until ‘thy wrath be past’. They taught that tribulation is not wrath but this verse shows that they’re sleeping through the wrath until the end. The time of wrath is the tribulation. They’re going to have to admit the tribulation is called wrath.
The simple answer to Job 14 is that they’re only looking at one part of the resurrection. This is a post-tribulation rapture, not for the church. This is for tribulation saints, and there’s a second rapture that avoids the wrath.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”
In verse 9, ‘appointed’ means a timeline. So God did not put you in this timeline of wrath. But Job 14 says that you’re going through the wrath and then get raptured, but this verse says that you’re not even appointed to that time of wrath.
In verse 10, there is your resurrection, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
There’s a resurrection and a rapture that avoids the wrath, and there’s a resurrection and rapture that goes through the wrath. It means that there are 2 different raptures. We’re dispensationalists, we rightly divide and it’s not a problem to believe that there are 2 different raptures – one for the Christians before the tribulation, and another for the tribulation saints, post tribulation, before the second coming of Christ.