What is the pre-wrath rapture view?
Question 10027
The pre-wrath rapture view is a relatively recent entry into the eschatological debate, developed most fully by Marvin Rosenthal in his 1990 book The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church and further defended by Robert Van Kampen. It attempts to chart a middle course between pretribulationism and posttribulationism, arguing that the Rapture occurs during the second half of the Tribulation but before the specific outpouring of God’s wrath in the bowl judgements. It has attracted a dedicated following and raises questions that deserve careful engagement.
The Position Stated
The pre-wrath view divides Daniel’s seventieth week into three distinct periods rather than the usual two halves. The first period, covering roughly the first half of the seven years, corresponds to the “beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:4-8). The second period, beginning at the midpoint with the abomination of desolation, is the Great Tribulation, characterised by satanic persecution of believers and Israel rather than divine wrath. The third period is the Day of the Lord, the specific outpouring of God’s wrath, which begins at some point during the second half (typically identified with the opening of the seventh seal or thereabouts) and continues to the end of the seven years. The Rapture occurs at the transition between the Great Tribulation (satanic persecution) and the Day of the Lord (divine wrath), somewhere between the midpoint and the end.
The theological principle driving the view is the same one that drives pretribulationism: the Church is exempt from God’s wrath. The difference is in where the pre-wrath position locates the beginning of that wrath. Pretribulationism identifies the entire seven-year period as the wrath of God. The pre-wrath view restricts God’s wrath to the Day of the Lord, which begins later in the sequence and is preceded by a period of satanic and human opposition that is not, strictly speaking, divine wrath.
The Arguments Examined
The pre-wrath position correctly observes that the phrase “the Day of the Lord” carries a specific meaning in the Old Testament prophets and should not be casually equated with the entire Tribulation. Joel 2:31 describes cosmic signs that precede the Day of the Lord, and Matthew 24:29 describes the sun being darkened and the moon not giving its light “immediately after the tribulation of those days.” The pre-wrath reading places these cosmic signs after the Great Tribulation but before the Day of the Lord, creating a window for the Rapture.
The view also draws on the Olivet Discourse’s sequence. Jesus describes the abomination of desolation, the Great Tribulation, cosmic disturbances, and then the gathering of the elect (Matthew 24:15-31). Pre-wrath advocates argue that this sequence is chronological and that the gathering of the elect is the Rapture, occurring after the Tribulation but before God’s wrath.
Where the View Fails
The fundamental problem is the same one that besets midtribulationism, though pushed further into the Tribulation timeline. The seal judgements of Revelation 6, which occur in the first half of the Tribulation, are opened by the Lamb Himself. The riders who bring conquest, war, famine, and death are released by Christ. By the sixth seal, the inhabitants of the earth are crying out to be hidden “from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come” (Revelation 6:16-17). The text does not say “the wrath is about to come” but “has come” (elthen, aorist). The pre-wrath attempt to restrict divine wrath to the bowl judgements requires one to argue that the seal and trumpet judgements, initiated by the Lamb from the throne of God, are somehow not expressions of divine wrath. This is exegetically untenable.
The view also requires the Church to endure the satanic persecution of the Great Tribulation, which undermines the promise of Revelation 3:10 to be kept “from the hour of testing.” The pre-wrath position redefines this as exemption from the Day of the Lord while allowing exposure to the Great Tribulation. But the text says “the hour of testing that is coming on the whole world,” not “a portion of the testing.” The scope of the promise matches the scope of the entire period, not a subdivision within it.
Imminence is again lost. If the Rapture occurs at a calculable point within the second half of the Tribulation, after identifiable events including the abomination of desolation, then believers can know approximately when the Rapture will occur once the Tribulation begins. The New Testament’s consistent presentation of the Rapture as something that could happen at any moment is incompatible with this framework.
So, now what?
The pre-wrath rapture view represents a serious and studied attempt to reconcile the Rapture passages with the chronology of Revelation and the Olivet Discourse. Its advocates are often meticulous in their handling of the text, and the view should not be dismissed without engagement. Its central weakness, however, is the same weakness shared by every non-pretribulational position: it cannot adequately account for the scope of divine wrath throughout the entire Tribulation, and it sacrifices the imminence that is integral to the New Testament’s presentation of the Church’s hope. The pretribulational position remains the most coherent reading of the evidence, placing the Church’s departure before the entire period of wrath and preserving the “any moment” expectation that shaped the faith of the earliest believers.
“For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (ESV)