We Shall All Be Changed

The Indignation is Coming

Continuing with Mr Thiessen's arguments.

Mr Thiessen quotes from Isaiah 26.  Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation is past.  Mr Thiessen suggests that the indignation speaks of the great tribulation and that hiding indoors, represents the church already in heaven. 

Did Mr Thiessen not notice the words, for a little moment?  The effects of the rapture are not just for a little moment, they are eternal.  If he wants to take portions of Scripture out of context, and apply them where they do not belong, he should at least follow through with that method and try to make it all fit, not just the words that suit his ideas.  

When a Bible teacher tries to prove ideas that the Bible does not endorse, that teacher must “grasp at straws” or else he ends up with nothing in his hands.

Mr Thiessen then grabs at some more straws and turns his attention to the twenty-four elders around the throne of God in The Revelation.  One argument that he uses that these represent the redeemed is that twenty-four priests served in the temple in Jerusalem at one time.  He says they are representatives of all the saints of Old and New Testament times up to the rapture.  What, in this wide world, does that have to do with the Church or with the time of Christ’s return?

The Seventh Trumpet

In the Revelation, there are seven trumpets that sound.  Each one signals the start of a new period or a new style of tribulation.  The seventh one is recorded in 11:15.  When the seventh trumpet sounds six facets of the great tribulation period are already past.  

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Paul mentions only the seventh trumpet; that is the trumpet sound that signals the return of Christ.  He wrote For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever.  

Since Christ is coming back at the sound of the seventh trumpet, the great tribulation, which is heralded by the first six trumpets, must already have taken place before the last trumpet sounds.  However, Paul wrote that Christ is coming back after the six trumpets have already sounded therefore Christians will still be dead or on earth at the sound of the seventh trumpet.

Paul Strandburg, a defender of the Pre-tribulation doctrine uses the following example to explain the disagreement concerning the seventh trumpet. If your friend John said he went to his favourite restaurant last night, and another friend Larry said he also went to his favourite restaurant last night, is it logical for you to assume they both went to the same restaurant? Obviously not, because even though John and Larry went to their favorite restaurants, they may have had two different eating establishments in mind. The same logic should apply with the word trumpet. 

His example might have some meaning except for the fact that in the Bible, the trumpets are specifically named.  In Strandburg’s example, this equates to John saying, the restaurant on the corner of 5th and James.  Larry, however, says, the restaurant on the corner of James and 5th.  

Even though the wording is different, the location is the same.  It is like that with the trumpets of the New Testament.  Paul spoke of the last trumpet blast; St. John, speaking of the last trumpet blast, called it the seventh trumpet blast.  Since there are only seven mentioned, they must be speaking of the same event.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound. 1 Cor. 15:51-52

To the Corinthian Christians, Paul wrote that at the last trumpet’s blast Christ would be returning, and we know that in The Revelation, there are seven trumpets, each one of which heralds a tribulation.  John tells us that the seventh trumpet heralds the return of Christ.  It is easy to correlate the two references to the last trumpet blast.   

It is a common error not to think of Christ’s return as being a tribulation.  It is the greatest of the tribulations because after that there is no more time for repentance and forgiveness for those who are not yet in the fold.  

How anyone cannot accept that the “last trumpet blast” of 1 Corinthians "1 Cor. 15:51-52" is the same as the “last trumpet blast” of The Revelation goes beyond belief. 

Brian Scheurtley writes: Although the pre-tribulation rapture theory is very popular today, given arguments that are offered in support of this doctrine we must declare Pre-tribulationalism to be contrary to the clear teachings of Scripture. Simply put, there is not one shred of evidence that can be found in the Bible to support the pre-tribulation rapture. The typical Pre-tribulational arguments offered reveal a pattern: of imposing one’s presuppositions onto a text without any exegetical justification whatsoever; of finding subtle meaning between words and/or phrases that were never intended by the author; of spiritualizing or ignoring passages that contradict the Pre-tribulational paradigm; and, of imposing Pre-tribulationalism upon passages that actually teach the unity of the eschatological complex (i.e., the rapture, second coming, general resurrection, and general judgment all occur on the same day—the day of the Lord). It is our hope and prayer that professing Christians would cast off this escapist fantasy and return to the task of personal sanctification and godly dominion. 

Pre-trib is ... quite a mess. It is a complicated colossus of disharmony and confusion.  Post-Trib, on the other hand, is simple, elegant, orderly and beautiful.