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The Whosoever Study Bible
Whosoever will, may come.
Three Views on the Rapture
When is the church caught up, and who is the tribulation for?
Scroll the table sideways to compare all three
| Pre-tribulationalThis Bible holds this | Mid-tribulational / Pre-wrath | Post-tribulational | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Thess 4:16-17“caught up... to meet the Lord in the air” | A distinct event before Daniel's 70th week: Christ comes for the church in the air; the second coming (Rev 19) is Christ coming with the church to earth, seven years later.The answer → | The same catching-up, placed at the midpoint (mid-trib) or after the great tribulation but before the bowls of wrath (pre-wrath). The church endures part of the period. | The catching-up is the second coming itself: the church rises to meet Christ as He descends and returns with Him in the same event. One coming, not two. |
| Rev 3:10“keep thee from the hour of temptation” | Kept out of the hour (Greek ek, out of), not through it: the church is removed before the period that "shall come upon all the world." | Kept through the hour, preserved within it, as Israel was preserved in Egypt during the plagues. Removal before the wrath portion only. | Kept through the whole period by God's protection, as in John 17:15 ("keep them from the evil"), where ek means preserve-within, not remove. |
| 1 Thess 5:9“not appointed us to wrath” | The entire 70th week is God's wrath on the earth (the seals open under the Lamb's hand, Rev 6:1, 16-17); the church is exempt from all of it. | Wrath begins later in the period (the trumpets or bowls); the first half is man's or Satan's wrath, which the church may endure. | "Wrath" is eternal condemnation, not the tribulation; believers are spared hell, not tribulation, which Scripture promises the church (John 16:33). |
| 2 Thess 2:7“he who now letteth... taken out of the way” | The restrainer is the Holy Spirit indwelling the church; His restraining presence is removed when the church is, and then the man of sin is revealed. | The restrainer is removed mid-period, when the antichrist breaks the covenant and is revealed. | The restrainer is Rome, government, or Michael (Dan 12:1); his removal has nothing to do with the church's departure. |
| Matt 24:29-31“after the tribulation... gather together his elect” | Describes the second coming, not the rapture: Israel's elect gathered on earth from the four winds at Christ's return (cf. Isa 11:12). The church is not in view in the Olivet Discourse, which answers Jewish disciples about Jerusalem. | For pre-wrath: this gathering is the rapture, placed after the great tribulation is cut short (24:22) but before the day of the Lord's wrath. | This is the rapture, plainly placed "after the tribulation." The strongest post-trib text. |
| Imminence“can Christ come at any moment?” | Yes. "Looking for that blessed hope" (Titus 2:13), "the Lord is at hand" (Phil 4:5). No prophesied event must precede the rapture; this is why the church is told to watch, not to count.The answer → | No. Signed events (the covenant, the abomination) must occur first; believers can know roughly where they are in the week. | No. The whole tribulation must run first; the church watches for the antichrist before it watches for Christ. |
| Who the tribulation is for | Israel: "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7), the 70th week measured "upon thy people and upon thy holy city" (Dan 9:24). The church is absent from Rev 4-18 after being addressed in Rev 2-3.The answer → | Israel and the church together through the early period; the church removed before wrath. | The church, which has always suffered tribulation (Acts 14:22) and will suffer the last one too; Israel and church are one people. |
| Two comings or one? | Two: in the air for the saints (1 Thess 4), to the earth with the saints (Rev 19:14, Zech 14:4-5, Jude 14). The details cannot be one event: Christ's feet never touch the earth in 1 Thess 4.The answer → | Two, closer together. | One. "Second coming" is singular in Scripture; a two-stage return is not named anywhere. |
| Historical note | Imminence and premillennialism are in the fathers (Irenaeus, Justin); the systematic pre-trib framework was clarified in the 1800s (Darby), as the Trinity was in the 4th century: clarified, not invented. | Mid-trib (Harrison, 1941) and pre-wrath (Rosenthal, 1990) are the newest of the three. | The historic majority view where premillennialism was held at all; amillennial and postmillennial traditions have no rapture distinct from the second coming. |
Why this Bible reads it this way
The site holds the pre-tribulational view because the church is promised exemption from the hour, not protection in it; because the restrainer is the Spirit in the church; and because the tribulation is measured on Israel, with the church absent from the chapters that describe it. The other two columns are stated as their defenders state them.