“For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 HCSB).
The rapture of the church is a subject of great interest to many both inside and outside the church. At the risk of greatly oversimplifying the dedicated work of those who have invested in the study of this subject, we can identify three primary views regarding the timing of the Rapture…
Pre-tribulation View. The pre-tribulational rapture position holds that those who have accepted Christ will be caught up to meet Jesus prior to the beginning of the Tribulation period. God’s people will be raised to eternal life during this time and will accompany Jesus in His triumphant return at the end of the Tribulation. While those who remain will have an opportunity come to faith in Christ following the Rapture, they will do so in an environment of extreme persecution.
Mid-Tribulation View. The mid-tribulational rapture position teaches that believers will also be caught up to meet Christ. However, that meeting will take place at (or near) the midpoint of the Tribulation. According to this view, God will rapture His people before He executes His judgment during the second half of the Tribulation period.
Post-Tribulation View. As the name implies, the post-tribulation rapture position holds that believers will caught up to be united with Jesus at the conclusion of the Tribulation. This view maintains that Christians will endure the entire Tribulation period and sees the rapture of the church and Jesus’ second coming as virtually simultaneous events.
While these chronological differences have sparked a great deal of debate, one commentator encourages us to maintain a healthy perspective regarding these views…
“The different views of the rapture may disagree over the timing of end-time events, but they all agree on the big picture: there will be a rapture and we will live forever with Jesus in heaven. In the long haul (after we’ve been with Christ for billions of years in heaven), the question of whether the rapture happened before or after the Tribulation period will seem utterly ridiculous. Perhaps we should all keep that in mind the next time we’re tempted to get into a heated argument about the timing of the rapture.” (1)
(1) Dr Ron Rhodes, What Does the Bible Say About…?: Easy-To-Understand Answers to the Tough Questions (pg. 253).