The Pre-Wrath Rapture View (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday December 18, 2024

The Day of the Lord Series: The Pre-Wrath Rapture View

Lesson # 52

The five views of the rapture: (1) “Pre-tribulation”: The rapture will take place “before” the Tribulation. (2) “Partial”: Only those believers who are worthy will be taken off the earth at the rapture. (3) “Mid-tribulation”: The rapture will take place during the “midway” point of the Tribulation. (4) “Post-tribulation: The rapture will take place “after” the Tribulation. (5) “Pre-Wrath”: The rapture of the church will take place prior to God exercising His wrath during the last year and half of the seventieth week of Daniel.

The last view of the rapture in relation to the tribulation portion of Daniel’s seventieth week is the “pre-wrath” view, which originates with Marvin Rosenthal and asserts that the church will be taken off the earth by Jesus Christ just prior to God exercising His wrath during the last 21 months of the seventieth week.

The pre-wrath rapture theory contends that the rapture occurs about three fourths of the way through the seventieth week of Daniel and thus before God exercises His wrath against the inhabitants of planet earth.

It argues that the wrath of God is not striking the earth for the first and one half years of the last three and a half years of the seventieth week but rather the wrath of man and when God is about to exercise His wrath, He removes the church.

This view argues that the church will be removed at the time of the sounding of the seventh seal in the book of Revelation and at that time, the church is removed.

Rosenthal presents the following theses: (1) The Rapture of the church will occur immediately prior to the beginning of the Day of the Lord.(2) The Day of the Lord commences sometime within the second half of the seventieth week. (3) The cosmic disturbances associated with the sixth seal will signal the approach of the Day of the Lord. (4) The Day of the Lord will begin with the opening of the seventh seal (Rev. 8:1).

Rosenthal states “that the seventieth week of Daniel has three major, distinct, and identifiable periods of time: the ‘beginning of sorrows,’ the Great Tribulation, and the Day of the Lord—all found in the Olivet Discourse.”

The pre-wrath view divides the seventieth week of Daniel into three periods: (1) “Beginning of Sorrows”: Related to the first four seal judgments and takes place during the first three and a half years of the seventieth week (2) “Great Tribulation”: Man’s wrath exercised through the sixth and seventh seal judgements, which take place during the first 21 months of the last three and a half years of the seventieth week (3) “Day of the Lord”: God’s wrath exercised on mankind through the seven trumpet (God’s wrath on mankind) and bowl judgments (God’s wrath on the nations) taking place during the last 21 months of the seventieth week.

In this view the seal judgments in Revelation are man’s wrath, not God’s wrath.

The seals are not God’s wrath; they are God’s promise of eternal protection during man’s wrath and the trumpet judgments are God’s wrath on mankind in the day of the Lord, and the bowl judgments are God’s wrath on the nations.

Like every view of the rapture, with the exception of the pre-tribulation view, the pre-wrath view does not teach that Christ could come back at any moment and thus, this view rejects the imminency of the rapture and so therefore, the church will have to suffer severe persecution before the rapture.

There is no “blessed hope” as mentioned by Paul in Titus 2:13 with this view.

Another problem with this view is that it erroneously associates the seven seal, trumpet and bowl judgments in Revelation 6-18 with the church when they are all related to the seventieth week of Daniel when God is dealing with Israel.

In fact, the seventieth week is the final seven years of God disciplining the nation of Israel for her rejection of Him and His Son Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, the first of the seven seals recorded in the book of Revelation chapter six begins the period in which God exercises His wrath which coincides with the beginning of the seventieth week, however, the pre-wrath views the opening of the seventh seal as the beginning of God’s wrath.

However, Revelation 6 makes clear that the seven seal judgments are from God.

In fact, Jesus Christ Himself breaks the seven seals on the scroll and the elect angels execute the judgments related to these seals.

Therefore, how could this judgment be associated with the wrath of Satan or man?

It is obviously the wrath of God.

Furthermore, Daniel 9:24-27 does not mention the seventy-weeks as being a time of Satan’s wrath but rather it speaks of God disciplining the nation of Israel for their rejection of Him.