What is the rapture?
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhy we should believe in the ‘Rapture’ (from the Latin for ‘caught up’)
Who are the two witnesses in Revelation 11?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10030 Revelation 11 introduces two unnamed figures who prophesy for 1,260 days during the Tribulation, are killed by the Beast, lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem, and are then raised and taken to heaven in the sight of their enemies. Their identity has been debated since the earliest centuries of the church, and…
What is the abomination of desolation?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10031 The abomination of desolation is one of the most significant prophetic markers in all of Scripture. Jesus Himself identified it as the critical warning sign for those living during the Tribulation, and He expected His hearers to understand it by reference to the prophet Daniel. The phrase links Old Testament prophecy, intertestamental history,…
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…
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…
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….
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,…
What is the man of lawlessness (man of sin)?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10084 In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul warns that the day of the Lord will not come “unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” This figure, also called the man of sin in older translations, is one of the most significant individuals in biblical prophecy. He…
What is the apostasy or falling away before Christ returns?
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10085 Paul warns in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that the day of the Lord “will not come, unless the rebellion comes first.” The word translated “rebellion” or “falling away” is the Greek apostasia, and its meaning, scope, and timing have been the subject of sustained debate among interpreters. Understanding this apostasy is essential for grasping…
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…