What is the rapture?
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhy we should believe in the ‘Rapture’ (from the Latin for ‘caught up’)
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What is the pre-wrath rapture view?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 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…
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What is the partial rapture theory?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10028 The partial rapture theory is perhaps the least well-known of the major rapture positions, and it differs from the others not in its timing but in its scope. While pretribulationism, midtribulationism, posttribulationism, and the pre-wrath view all debate when the Rapture occurs, the partial rapture theory debates who is included in it. The…
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What is pretribulationism?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10024 Pretribulationism is the view that Christ will return to gather His Church to Himself before the seven-year Tribulation period begins. It is the position held here at Bible Proclaimer, and it is the view that Ian believes best accounts for the full range of biblical evidence when the text is read according to…
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What is midtribulationism?
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10025 Midtribulationism is one of several evangelical positions on the timing of the Rapture relative to the Tribulation period. It holds that the Church will be raptured at the midpoint of the seven-year Tribulation, after the relatively milder first half but before the intensified judgements of the second half, sometimes called the Great Tribulation….
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What is the difference between the rapture and the Second Coming?
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10023 One of the most common sources of confusion in eschatology is the assumption that the Rapture and the Second Coming are the same event described from different angles. If they are, the debate about timing is largely irrelevant. If they are not, then two distinct future events await, each with its own character,…
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Is the rapture taught in Scripture?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10022 Few doctrines provoke more debate among evangelicals than the Rapture, and one recurring challenge comes from those who argue that the concept is not actually taught in Scripture at all. The word “rapture” does not appear in English Bibles, and critics contend that the entire idea was invented in the nineteenth century by…
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Why is date-setting for Christ’s return wrong?
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10080 The impulse to calculate the date of Christ’s return is understandable. Believers long for the Lord’s coming, and prophecy gives enough detail to make the temptation to set a timetable feel almost reasonable. But date-setting is not a harmless exercise in prophetic enthusiasm. It is a practice that contradicts Scripture directly, damages the…
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What is the doctrine of imminence?
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10081 The doctrine of imminence is one of the most distinctive and practically significant features of pretribulational eschatology. It holds that the Rapture of the Church could occur at any moment, without prior warning, without the fulfilment of intervening prophetic events, and without any sign that must precede it. Understanding this doctrine requires careful…
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What is the restrainer in 2 Thessalonians 2?
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10083 Second Thessalonians 2:6-7 introduces one of the most debated figures in prophetic Scripture: “And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of…