PRELUDE
Understanding that Jesus will return is critical. The Parable of the 10 Virgins is the most vivid example I can think of to illustrate the importance. The 10 virgins represent Christians. Only 5 of them made it to the wedding banquet because only 5 of them diligently looked for the coming of the groom (Jesus). When the foolish five knocked on the door, the groom said, "Truly I tell you, I do not know you." And after telling this parable, Jesus warned the disciples, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour" (Matthew 25:12-13). This means that those who are not looking for the return of Christ will miss the "catching away". It does NOT mean they are not saved. It simply means, they will be left behind and have to endure the horror and hardship of the Tribulation--a period of God's wrath meant for enemies of God (Spoken from the Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory, a theory that I support).
Many scholars comment that whether we believe that the Rapture has happened, will happen before, during, or after the Tribulation, or may not ever happen is not going to change our salvation. It is largely a theological debate, because the Bible doesn't directly tell us when it's going to happen. This is why there is a debate in the first place, because theologians who spend hours studying this subject have to depend on their knowledge of the history, the culture, and the Scripture to piece together the clues for their "answer." I put “answer” in quotation marks because it's really their best guess at best. In fact, we will see in the discussion below, scholars supporting any of the theories on when the Rapture would take place all use the same Scripture to support their own views.
Studying anything pertaining to the Word of God is healthy. However, we should take care not to become obsessed. In regards to when the Rapture will happen, and just which theory is the right theory, let us not forget what Jesus have clearly told us: Just like in the days of Lot and in the days of Noah, they knew NOT UNTIL THE DAY that judgment was coming, we will not know UNTIL THE DAY of the Rapture (Luke 17:26-27).
According to Pastor Perry Stone, the return of the Lord is secretive because of the following reasons:
1. Freedom to choose. Jesus wants people to do things out of love, not out of necessity.
2. Reward for those who have faith.
3. Only the Father know the time when the place for the bride is adequately prepared by the groom--This is very well illustrated in the Jewish wedding: the point is the groom surprises the bride, so the bride must be ready, always, for the coming of his groom.
SCRIPTURES CONCERNING THE RAPTURE AND THE TRIBULATION
1 Corinthians 15:20-23; 51-52
2 Peter 2:9
1 Thessalonians 2:1; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:9
Acts 1:11
Daniel 11:41
Ephesians 1:9-10
Ezekiel 14:13-14
Exodus 12:23
Genesis 18:25, 19:22
Hebrews 4:9, 11:7, 31
Isaiah 1:9; 13:13, 19; 26:9, 19-21; 37:32, 66:19
Jeremiah 30:7
Jude 14-15
John 5:25-29; 6:40; 12:28-29; 14:1-3
Luke 17:26-35; 21:21, 36
Matthew 24:37-41
Nahum 1:2
Psalms 27:5; 71:2, 141:10
Revelation 2-3, 7:3, 11:18; 12:17; 19:14
Zechariah 14:3-5
Zephaniah 2:1-3
4 THEORIES OF WHEN THE RAPURE WOULD OCCUR
1. Preterism
2. Pre-Tribulation
3. Mid-Tribulation
4. Post-Tribulation
PRETERISM
Preterists believe that most or all of Bible prophecy (especially the 2nd coming of Christ and the final Judgment) has already been fulfilled in Christ during the 1st century and in the on-going expansion of His kingdom.
When will Christ return? This question is relevant, and can be answered by scripture. Jesus seems to have answered it very clearly in these passages (Matt. 10:23; Matt. 16:27,28; Matt. 24:34). Ever wonder why the First Century Christians expected Jesus to come in their lifetime, and where they got this expectation from? Take a look at the extreme sense of imminency in these passages: James 5:8,9; 1 Pet. 4:7; Matt. 10:23; Matt. 16:27,28; Matt. 24:34. These verses have always troubled Bible students, and have been used by liberal theologians to attack the inspiration of Scripture. They reason that these passages were not fulfilled when they were supposed to be (the first century generation), so Jesus and the NT writers failed in their predictions and were therefore not inspired. But these verses point to Christ's coming in some sense in connection with the Fall of Jerusalem at 70 AD. So, Jesus' predictions were fulfilled. He did not fail, nor do we need to engage in theological gymnastics to try to explain-away the seeming delay or postponement of His return. It happened right on schedule. Many knew the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was important in God's scheme of redemption, but never understood its full significance. It has to do with the consummation of the plan of redemption. The final events of the redemptive drama came to pass in the first century within the apostles' generation (before A.D. 70). Christ's kingdom is here now. Paradise has been restored in Christ (spiritually-speaking). Christ has conquered all His enemies and has given us the Kingdom.
Points to Consider:
1. The Book of Revelation was written by John 20-25 years after 70 AD, thus throwing out the theory that events recorded in Revelation has already occurred in 70 AD. For example, Preterists claim the Temple John wrote about throughout Revelation was the Temple that still stood before 70 AD. Well, if John wrote Revelation AFTER 70 AD, there was no Temple standing!
2. The question, “Ever wonder why the 1st Century Christians expected Jesus to come in their lifetime” is a weak argument. Jesus was clear that no one would know the exact day and time of Jesus’ return. Furthermore, just because they “expected” Jesus to come does not mean they correctly speculated.
3. Let’s entertain them and say they were correct. Jesus promised the following scenario during his Millennial Reign: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Clearly, all of these events still occur today. So, either the Preterists are wrong or Jesus lied. Jesus doesn’t lie.
PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE
The Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory says that the Rapture will occur at before the 7-year tribulation period, which immediately precedes the return of Jesus.
Main Idea: The Rapture is a blessing for those who have been faithful and overcomers. The Tribulation is a period of Jacob’s Troubles. That is, this is a period of time between God and Israel to deal with Israel’s inequities. This period of time has nothing to do with the Church. And because God has ALWAYS provided escape for the righteous, He, too, will provide escape for the Church during the Tribulation. Why? Because the Church is declared righteous through the blood of Jesus!
Reasons for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture
1. The tribulation is a time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).
2. It’s a trial that Israel has to go through in order to bring about the return of the Son.
3. This trial is not for the Church; the Church is judged at the Lord’s table!
4. God reserves His wrath for His enemies (Nahum 1:2). He chastises His children.
5. The tribulation is a time to judge the nations for their sins (Revelation 11:18), not the Church, not the saints!
6. The tribulation is to destroy the Earth of sinners (Isaiah 13:19); it has nothing to do with destroying the righteous!
7. The tribulation is to bring forth a remnant of Israel (Isaiah 1:9, Revelation 12:17)
8. The Lord has not appointed us to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9)
9. The Lord said we should pray to escape these things (Luke 21:36) – If we weren’t meant to escape, then why would God tell us to pray to escape?!
10. The Lord said He would keep us from the hour of testing (Revelation 3:10)
11. The Church will have a Sabbath of rest in Heaven (Hebrews 4:9)
On Mount Sinai, the Lord showed Paul the mystery of the Rapture, captured in Paul’s writing in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. No one had gotten a direct revelation of this mystery before, which God had hidden from men since the beginning of the world.
Why did God have to wait to reveal the mystery of the Rapture until Paul’s time?
1. The mystery of the Church: the Church had to be formed!
2. The Gentiles had to be grafted into the covenant, because the Gentiles are a part of the great catching away that is going to take place. The Gentiles were not grafted into the covenant until Acts 10.
Zephaniah 2:3
Psalms 27:5
Isaiah 26:19-21
"We may be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger."
This suggests the Rapture occurs BEFORE the Tribulation
God does not judge the righteous in the same manner as the unrighteous. God provides an escape of His wrath for the righteous (1 Corinthians 10:13, Luke 21:36)--another support for the "catching away" of God's people PRIOR to the Tribulation.
God has always provided “escape” for the righteous, aka the overcomes (Revelation 2-3), while He released His wrath on the unrighteous, aka the wicked (Psalms 71:2, 141:10; Isaiah 37:32, 66:19):
- In the days of Noah (Hebrews 11:7)
- And as Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37), and “It was the same in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28-30), these are other evidences for the pre-Tribulation Rapture theory
- In the days of Lot (Genesis 18:25, 19:22; 2 Peter 2:9)
- Israelites escaping Egypt (Exodus 12:23)
- Rahab escaping judgment (Hebrews 11:31)
- Christians escaping Jerusalem during its demise (Luke 21:21)
- A group of people will escape from the Anti-Christ to Jordan (Daniel 11:41)
- 144,000 Jews will be sealed and protected from the destruction of Anti-Christ (Revelation 7:3)
- Noah, Daniel, and Job will escape God’s judgment (Ezekiel 14:13-14)
MID-TRIBULATION RAPTURE
The Mid-Tribulation Rapture theory says that the Rapture will occur 3 1/2 years before Christ returns, or halfway through the great tribulation period of seven years.
Main Idea: Supporters of this theory read the same Scriptures but do not consider all prior examples of when God provided escape for the righteous. Furthermore, they take clump all mentioning of “tribulation” to mean THE Tribulation. Since Jesus Himself has warned His people of the tribulations of walking with Him, they readily believe that those tribulations are part of THE Tribulation.
http://www.prophecyforum.com/mid-trib.html
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/tribulation.html
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/wrath.html
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/great_tribulation.html
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/daniel.html
Points to Consider:
1. This theory fails to recognize that THE Tribulation is God’s plan to finally restore Israel, as prophecied by Isaiah and Daniel.
2. This theory fails to consider that if the Church was not removed PRIOR to the Tribulation, there would be no way to distinguish between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians (Christians are Christians!). Yet, throughout Revelation, we see that people were either Israelites or Gentiles (as opposed to Christians or non-Christians), back to how people were defined prior to Jesus’ crucifixion. Why? The timeline, as recorded in Daniel’s prophecy about the 70 7’s (Daniel 9:20-27), stopped when the Israelites rejected their Messiah and nailed Jesus to the Cross. This initiated the great parenthesis—the Church Age—where the Gentiles were given the duty that Israelites failed to perform: Be God’s ambassadors, through whom all nations would come to know God. This mission started with many Jewish Christians and continues to this day. Upon the start of the Tribulation, that timeline resumes. This also supports the theory that the Tribulation is not meant for the Church.
POST-TRIBULATION RAPTURE
The post-tribulation doctrine says that the rapture will occur at the same time as the return of Christ, or at the end of the seven-year tribulation.
Main Idea: Supporters of this theory read the same Scriptures and ignores the same things that supporters of Mid-Tribulation Rapture do. They do not consider (1) God clearly stated the Tribulation is a time of Jacob’s Trouble; (2) God does not judge the righteous.
http://endtimepilgrim.org/posttribrap.htm
http://worldview_3.tripod.com/tribchurch.html
http://www.lastdaysmystery.info/the_post_tribulation_rapture.htm
http://www.logosapostolic.org/bible_study/RP355-3RaptureAfterTribulation.htm
Points to Consider:
1. Which trumpet sound? The Post-Tribulation theory believes the trumpet sound that Raptures the Church is the same trumpet sound as the last trumpet sound. They are not the same trumpet.
2. Jesus returns twice just as Jesus came twice. There was a private coming and a public coming, just as there will be a private return and a public return. The Post-Tribulation Rapture theory believes there is only the public return, therefore concluding He will come for His people and establish His Kingdom all in the same day.
3. When Jesus returns publically, He returns with His Church (Zechariah 14:3-5; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; Jude 14-15, Revelation 19:14). How is the Church supposed to “return” with Jesus on the Mount of Olives if the Church wasn’t Raptured PRIOR to Jesus’ second and public return? (Just to clarify, the first and private return was to gather together the Church, aka, the Rapture.) Some argue that the Church will be Raptured right before Jesus physically returns to Earth. That means the Church will be caught up into the clouds and then turn right back around to Earth with Jesus. This just doesn’t seem like something God would do.
According to Dr. Chuck Missler, the following is a short list of problems with the Post-Tribulation Rapture Theory:
- This theory denies the New Testament teachings of the Doctrine of Imminency: We are taught to expect Him at any moment (Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:18; 5:6; Revelation 22:20). The Doctrine of Imminency should result in a victorious and purified life (1 John 3:2-3). This attitude is expressed throughout the New Testament.
- This theory suggests that the Church is still on Earth during the 70th Week of Daniel, a time when God judges the Israelites. However, God has made it clear that Israel and the Church are two different entities that are dealt with separately (Daniel 9:26).
- This theory suggests that the Church will experience God’s Wrath. However, we have been promised that the Church will NOT experience God’s Wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9; Revelation 3:10).
- This theory leads to the several unexplained questions: How does the Bride (the Church) return with Him if they weren’t taken out to be with Him prior to His return? Who will populate the Millennium? Who are in the “Sheep and Goat”Judgment of Matthew 25?
AFTERTHOUGHTS
Does any of this affect salvation?
As mentioned above, many scholars comment that our views on WHEN the Rapture will occur do not affect our salvation. Let’s analyze this comment.
Jesus told us many parables, and I believe they can be summarized into two main messages: (1) If we do not remain vigilant and be ready for His return, we will miss Him; (2) If our heart does not truly belong to Jesus, we will not be welcomed into His kingdom.
Of the 4 theories discussed above, I believe the most dangerous theory is Preterism. This is because they believe Jesus has already come. They believe we are already in the Millennium. That means, they are no longer looking for the return of Jesus. If Jesus does return to Earth, are they really going to recognize Him? The Pharisees couldn’t. What’s to say they could? The other 3 theories all look for the return of Jesus, which suggests that as long as we remain vigilant and constantly be on the lookout for Jesus’ return, we will not miss Him.
What does it mean to remain vigilant? One of the most obvious examples is to have our ears be in-tuned with God’s Word. Throughout Revelation 2-3, we keep getting reminded that, “He who has ears, let him hear.” Jesus was also recorded saying this in the Gospels. We need to have our ears in-tuned to God in order to hear Him. If we are not in-tuned to the Holy Spirit, if we are not in-tuned to God, we will not hear God's call, and we will miss Jesus’ call.
Here’s why:
John 5:25
"Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live."
John 5:28-29
"....all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
1 Thessalonians 4:16
“For the Lord himself shall descend heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
John 12:28-29
"... The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: other said, an angel spake to him."
These passages suggest that there are 3 types of people:
1. Outer court people: those who live by flesh. Hence, God spake, but they heard only thunder
2. Inner court people: those who have the Spirit of God but are more spiritual than intimate with God. Hence, God spake, but they could only feel it spiritually and could not completely understand. They aren't close enough to God to fully understand.
3. Holy of Holies people: those have an intimate relationship with God. Hence, God spake, and they heard and understood God.
Hence, If we cannot hear God, we will not be able to respond to His call!
What does this have to do with salvation? Just to prevent confusion, let me summarize my views on salvation. (1) We cannot lose salvation. We cannot lose it because it never belonged to us in the first place. (2) However, just saying, “I’m a Christian” is not enough. Salvation may be made freely available to all through Jesus, but if we want it, we must OWN it (Luke 14:15-23). Otherwise, it would be the same as if we never received it.
Furthermore, consider the warning given in Revelation 14:9-11: A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
In my opinion, any Christian who has to go through the Tribulation faces some terrible, turbulent times. Christians who go through the Tribulation may still be saved, but if they cannot remain faithful to Jesus and cave in to the Anti-Christ by receiving his mark, they will be judged with Satan.
Again, salvation is not ours to lose because it was never ours to give or lose. If we want it, we need to grab it. And once we grab it, we must make sure we never let go or swap it for temporary relieve.
Hermeneutics (interpretation of the Bible) is key.
Jesus is very clear about being ready for His return. Those who do not expect His coming may very well miss Him. However, what does it mean to be ready for His return?
Study and know the Word of God.
I often twinge at the word, “interpretation,” because people immediately assume the Scripture can mean different things to different people; it all depends on each person’s perspective, or, more colloquially, what each person thinks it means. Sure, this works when we’re studying literature, and the author is dead, and we have no real way to get at just what exactly the author meant when he/she wrote this or that. However, this does not work when it comes to the Bible. The obvious reason is we have a LIVING God. If we are not sure what He meant, we can ask Him directly. Dr. Chuck Missler readily emphasizes, “God means what He says and says what He means.” In other words, “thinking” this is what God means instead of “knowing” runs the risk of being wrong. Why even run that risk? Again, we have a LIVING God. There is no need to guess. Why guess anyway? If we guess wrong, where does that put us?
When we conduct a Bible study, we need to remember that this is not the same thing as hosting a book club. People who treat studying the Bible as reading a book for a book club tend to read the Bible as any other literature. They inject personal opinions about what they think must have happened or what should have happened, and during the book club meeting, everyone shares these opinions. During the discussion, some people may change their opinions, some may refuse to believe anything else other than their own version of the story. At the end of the day, there may or may not even be a consensus, but that doesn’t really matter anyway, because the author isn’t around to show who got it right and who didn’t.
The Bible is not “just” another literature. The Bible is the Word of God. When we read it, we seek to understand what God means. What we think God means is an inadequate understanding, and we should continue to study the Word until we know what God means. This is easier to do on simple ideas and passages. However, on complex theological issues, this becomes very difficult and is the subject of many debates.
One of the main problems underlying these debates is, as you may have guessed, hermeneutics. Depending on how you read the Bible, you may understand a certain passage differently than another person. Our current study about when the Rapture would occur is a good example. People who tend to overly allegorize Biblical passages would argue that the Rapture does not have to occur. Jesus does not need to physically gather His people together. It’s just metaphorical speech. On the other hand, people who take the Bible literally would argue that the Rapture will occur exactly as it is described in the Scriptures. Jesus will come down in the clouds literally, we will be caught up to join Him in the clouds literally, and in the twinkling of an eye, we would all be changed literally.
So, how should we read the Bible? God doesn’t exactly spell that out for us. He didn’t have a preface at the beginning of the Bible that specifically instructs us when to take His Word literally or metaphorically. And because of this, there are just as many theologians that swing from one side of the spectrum to the other.
Having said that, I’d like to point us to what Jesus said:
“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18).
What I have discovered, from reading past fulfillment of prophecies, is that the literal understanding is always fulfilled by Jesus. There may be a metaphorical or symbolic component to the fulfillment, but there is always a literal fulfillment. There could be a literal fulfillment without the metaphors and symbolisms but never the other way around. This goes to support what Pastor Perry Stone (and many Biblical scholars, including Missler) champions, “If the literal sense makes sense, don’t seek any other sense.”
In sum, God is always very clear. Jesus is always direct. If we are not supposed to know, Jesus tells us that up front. If we are supposed to know, Jesus explains in plain language. If symbolisms are used, those symbols are presented without a doubt. When we are confused, we should seek other Biblical passages that may shed light on the particular passage we’re reading. If we still cannot understand it, then we do not understand it, and that’s okay! Pray for the wisdom to understand it, and let the Holy Spirit guide us. What we shouldn’t do is start making things up and just deciding what it must mean without any evidence to support our conclusion. What we shouldn’t do is gather with other people who are just as confused and decide as a group what God must mean by popular vote. Again, studying the Bible is not the same as reading a book for a book club. We seek to understand the Word of God, not to inject our personal bias into it.
Related Posts
http://aletheia-seekers.blogspot.com/2011/10/mystery-of-rapture.html
http://aletheia-seekers.blogspot.com/2011/07/misunderstandings-about-rapture.html
3 comments:
(Hello Aletheia, Here's something I saw on the surprising web.)
PRETRIB RAPTURE SECRETS
How can the “rapture” be “imminent”? Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven (He's now there with the Father) “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. ("The Rapture Question," by the long time No. 1 pretrib authority John Walvoord, didn't dare to even list, in its scripture index, the too-hot-to-handle Acts 3:21!) Since Jesus can’t even leave heaven before the tribulation ends (Acts 2:34,35 echo this), the rapture therefore can't take place before the end of the trib! (The same Acts verses were also too hot for John Darby - the so-called "father of dispensationalism" - to list in the scripture index in his "Letters"!)
Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening (Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! The "rest" for "all them that believe" is tied to such destruction in II Thess. 1:6-10! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who'd be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the posttrib end of “death” (15:54). (Will death be ended before or during the trib? Of course not! And vs. 54 is also tied to Isa. 25:8 which is Israel's posttrib resurrection!)
Many are unaware that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 this "rapture" was stretched forward and turned into a separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which the mass of evangelical scholars rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” ["gathering"] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!).
Other Google articles on the 182-year-old pretrib rapture view include "Pretrib Rapture Politics," "Pretrib Rapture Scholar Wannabes," “Famous Rapture Watchers,” "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," “X-Raying Margaret,” "Edward Irving is Unnerving," “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” "Walvoord Melts Ice," “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” "Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thieves' Marketing," "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy," “Deceiving and Being Deceived,” "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty," and "Christ's return is NOT imminent!" – all by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” (see Armageddon Books).
Hi Lounorm,
Thanks for sharing your findings. As mentioned in many of my posts in regards to when the Rapture occurs, I've made it clear that there are good scholars that support any one of the 3 major theories (Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Tribulation).
I've also mentioned that there is no right or wrong answer because the Bible does not explicitly say which theory is correct. If it did, we wouldn't be debating about this right now.
Why do we even bother talking about it then? For me, it's about studying the Word. Paul speaks of "the mystery of the church," and his Thessalonian epistles speak heavily about the subject of the Rapture. Just because the Bible doesn't explicitly say something about a subject doesn't mean it doesn't address it at all.
Although the passage you have shared with us is interesting, I do not find it convincing.
As mentioned in many of my posts on the Rapture, the reason I believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture is because...
1) God has made it clear that the Tribulation is a time of Jacob's Troubles. That is, this is part of the seventy sevens prophesied by Daniel that the Israelites must pay for their transgressions. The Tribulation has nothing to do with the Church.
2) God has shown through numerous events that He does not judge the righteous (Noah and his family saved from the Flood; Lot and his family saved from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; etc.). Through Jesus, all are declared righteous. That is, today, all who place their faith in Jesus are Christians and are declared righteous. The Tribulation is a time of judgment on the Earth, and since God does not judge the righteous, aka, the Church, He will remove the Church (Rapture) prior to the Tribulation.
The passage you quoted above does not address any one of the above key points.
It is one thing to get into a theological debate about what Paul meant when he wrote this and this. It is another to view these interpretations under the context of the bigger picture: How God has proven Himself to be just and righteous throughout time.
It is not easy understanding prophecy. We must be careful we understand the context, otherwise it is very easy for us to take Scripture out of context and miss the big picture.
God bless
http://2010hello.blogspot.com/2010/11/jesus-comes-in-days-warning-wake-up.html
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