Tim McHyde

Author and Bible teacher

Help For Angry or Depressed Pretribbers

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An angry pretribber wrote me the following comment with their unsubscription from my newsletter:

Thanks for the uplifting information that we will be here through the Tribulation and all that great things to look forward to.  It says God does not want his people to see his wrath, and  He loves us. Why did it say the mystery of us not all “sleeping” Not all of us will die because we are His children and He doesn’t wish for us to go through His wrath. I don’t have the chapter or verses, but they are in the Bible.   Keep reading or start before that verse before your depressing news.

You are like the rest of them. They say all the bad statements and don’t bother looking at the fact that God doesnt want us to experience His Wrath. Also the mystery of us all not sleeping, that some of us will be taken up to Heaven. The people who are ready and watching.

Angry emails and comments like this have increased lately. They used to be a few per month, but now have come every week. I think it is because most American’s paycheck deductions increased with the new year and we’re still in a languishing economy. (Plus Obama’s recent inauguration certainly poured salt in the wounds of my conservative Christian audience.)

Yet when I read these comments, I don’t get angry or feel like lashing out back at them. I realize that people who lash out like this have had their emotional buttons personally pushed by what I wrote, as if it was said to them and not to the general public. They are bothered by someone stating a different view that contradicts their own and suggests to them that they are wrong. Their foundation which their faith is based on is called into question. It makes it personal for them.

Knowing this, I feel sorry for them that they have had their faith shaken. My response to this person would be to help them to see that if these ideas bother them, then the best response is not to attack me, but to look inward and ask what nerve is so exposed that I could inadvertently strike it and cause such a strong reaction?

Here, then, from that loving perspective is what I wrote back to this person:

Was the Exodus depressing, too? Seeing God put ten miraculous plagues of his wrath (Ex 15:17) on Egypt (while Israel was still there), the Red Sea part, shoes not wear out, quail descend on command for food, also water from the rock, and bread from heaven, a pillar of fire and column of smoke guiding them daily?

Indeed, for some, they reacted with depression in these things and wanted to go back to Egypt. Others saw these miracles and glory of God and were exhilarated and felt blessed.

So the question for you is, why are you choosing to be angered or depressed by the same plan for our escape now that God did then which we read about now in our Bibles and find exhilarating, thrilling and inspiring? What’s in you that lacks confidence and faith that like God got Israel out of Egypt through miraculous protection and provision, that he won’t do the same for us in our time of tribulation?

Note, this is not a judgment on you like you put on me as I don’t take your comments personally. These are just honest questions to see if I can help you get out of the depressing perspective of and rejection of God’s end time plan to save his people on the earth from the Great Tribulation. This plan is revealed in Revelation (Rev 12) and Jesus’ own words about fleeing when you see the Abomination (Mt 24:15,21 = Great Tribulation coming) and looking “up” at the end when you finally see him coming for your redemption is nigh (Lk 21:28). (You don’t look up to see someone coming from the sky to earth unless you are on the earth yourself!)

So contrary to what you seem to think, the Great Tribulation is not sure death. There is a terrestrial escape plan through it (Satan’s wrath), just not a celestial one. Thus, everything Paul said about us not all sleeping refers to this rapture at the end of the Tribulation. He’s contrasting the raptured who did not die/sleep that are changed instantly on their feet with those who did die and are raised from their graves.  He’s not saying the rapture saves you from death in the Great Tribulation as you suppose.

Rapture Purpose or What Good is a Post-Trib Rapture?

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Emailed question:

I have studied and taught bible prophecy for many years also; my question for you is -if the rapture is at the end of the great tribulation -why would we need one at all?

This is a great question, as few understand the real purpose of the rapture. It also underscores a truth about the pretrib rapture doctrine that I have observed repeatedly over the years. Believing in the pretrib rapture incurs a great barrier to correctly understanding the bulk of end time Bible prophecy.

Pretrib Rapture = Escape

Naturally, based on the supposed pretrib timing of the rapture, pretribbers believe that the purpose of the rapture is to deliver the saints from a supposedly unbearable period on earth, the Great Tribulation. So dreadful is the Great Tribulation in the minds of pretribbers, that they liken the concept of us being on earth for it to wife abuse (“Jesus would not put his bride through the Great Tribulation!“).

However, when the verses speaking directly on the timing of the rapture and the associated resurrection of the dead in Christ (1Th 4:15-17) are used instead of typical allegorical or types and shadows style cases for the rapture timing, a different picture emerges. The rapture gathering is “after the tribulation of those days” (Mt 24:29-31) or at the “seventh” or “last trump” (1Co 15:52=Rev 11:15).

Post-trib Rapture = Reward

Once you correctly conclude that the rapture is at the 7th trumpet after the Great Tribulation ends, it is then possible to see related key rapture passages that reveal the true rapture purpose. Fortunately, all of these verses can be read plainly and literally. No subjective allegorical reading or “types and shadows” are used such as is required to argue a pretrib timing to the rapture.

Here’s the first passage to look at on the rapture purpose:

Revelation 11:15, 18 (ESV) —  15 the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Reward of: Eternal Life…

God uses the rapture to “reward” his servants. But how and why? As the writer above noted, obviously this reward cannot be an escape if the rapture happens after the Great Tribulation. Notice that just like the passage above, Paul also touches on this reward being given to both the living and the dead in Christ at the same time:

1 Corinthians 15:50-53 (ESV) — 50  I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51  Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53  For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

…Just In Time To Rule For 1000 Years

The purpose is clearly to reward the saints with eternal life. But what is the reason for the post-trib timing of the rapture (and resurrection) giving this change to eternal life? Revelation 20 again mentions this resurrection of the righteous (that coincides with the rapture) and sheds light on the purpose to the timing:

Revelation 20:4 (ESV) —  Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The resurrection(/rapture) timing is clearly right before the Millennium, the period we saints will rule the earth with Christ. Now this all makes sense. We change from physical to spiritual bodies at this time since you simply cannot rule for more than around 120 years in a physical body. Since we saints are to reign, this is also when the dead in Christ also finally “come back to life.” Plainly, they do not come back to physical bodies. As Paul said above, we are quickened or changed to incorruptible, immortal bodies as “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” a spiritual kingdom.

In conclusion, the rapture is about rewarding the living and dead saints at the same time with eternal, immortal, spiritual bodies so that they can immediately reign with Christ at the start of the Millennium. The rapture is not some celestial escape from the Great Tribulation for the saints. Instead, God has a terrestrial escape plan for his servants that is described in Dan 11 and Rev 12. Only when you see the rapture in it’s proper timing do you see its proper purpose which then allows you to see the real escape plan for the Great Tribulation that God has in store for us.

The Gap/Delay in the Seventy Weeks Before the (Entire) 70th Week

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An assertion I receive regularly from visitors to my site is that I am wrong to believe that the Seventy Weeks of Daniel have a gap before the 70th week. They believe there is no precedent or rationale for this. Most of the people saying this believe the 70th week has already happened as part of their Preterist or Historicist view as opposed to the Futurism that my view would be categorized under. For example, here’s the latest email I have received along this vein:

I believe you are right about a lot of your insights to what the future holds for all of us. I too have spent years researching out bible prophecy and have come to some of the same conclusions. I could write a book on a lot of things I disagree with you but will leave it at only one problem with your view. Let’s talk about the tribulation period that many including yourself believe is from the book of Daniel 9:24-27. Nowhere in scripture is there a prophecy split in time. It is not biblical or logical. My belief is that the 70th week followed the 69th week just as the 2nd week followed the first week.

Why There Can and Must Be A Gap

My response to these arguments is as follows:

  1. It is often overlooked that the 70 weeks have natural divisions of 7, 62 and 1 weeks. This is ready-made for a gap if there need be. In other words, the 2nd week must immediately follow the first week, but it is no necessarily so that the 70th week immediately follows the 69th.
  2. There are gaps in the original periods of broken Sabbath years from which the 70 years of punishment and 70 years of restoration are derived. Thomas Ice has a good series on the 70 weeks that covers the gaps of years in part 4 about this. If there are gaps in the original source of the 70 weeks, then there can be a gap in the fulfillment of prophecy based on it.
  3. A gap is implied by how it says the Messiah will be cut off “after 62 weeks” (Dan 9:26). Many never slow down to ask why it does not say he is cut off “in the last week” or “in the 63rd week?” That would be more natural and confirm the theory that the final week immediately follows the 62nd/69th week. Instead this “after the 62nd week” phrase implies that the last week does not follow directly but instead a period that is not the 1 week or 63rd week does. In other words, a non-week gap period before the final week.

Given the above I see there is a precedent for a gap and the language of the Seventy Weeks prophecy also implies a gap after the 62nd/69th week. We have been in this gap period or delay between the 69th week and the 70th week ever since Jesus came and declared a Sabbath year and himself Messiah in Nazareth by claiming Isaiah 60:1 had been fulfilled by him. Thus, we’re awaiting the final “one”/70th week of the Seventy Weeks when most of what we read in Revelation is fulfilled including the literal 3½ year/42 month/1260 day Great Tribulation in the second half of that seven year period. After Wormwood comes.

Is the 70th Week Half Over?

A related question to this is how much of the 70th week is left to be fulfilled: All in its entirety (7 years) or only half (3½ years)? I think this question comes up because of a perfect storm of assumptions from a couple of commonly accepted teachings among Christians:

  1. The idea that Jesus had a 3½ year ministry instead of the 62 week ministry implied by Daniel’s “after 62 weeks he shall be cut off.” The 62 weeks are a dual prophecy. Added to the 7 years before them, the 69 weeks come to the year Jesus announced himself as Messiah late in the Sabbath year of 28/29 AD. Then 62 weeks, on Passover of the year 30, he was cut off. As I said above, it would be improper to call that period when he died the 63rd/70th/final week as Scripture itself calls it a period “after 62 weeks” only. I think for a good reason, as explained above.
  2. The idea that the covenant of the final/70th week is the New Covenant made by Jesus through his death. However, the context points to the “coming prince” of the people who destroyed the temple (the Romans) as being the “he” who makes a seven year covenant cutting off the sacrifices in the middle (without breaking it or a “peace treaty” contrary to what is believed). Daniel 11:31-32 talks more about the person who cuts off the sacrifices and creates the abomination. He flatters and corrupts people. This is not Jesus, obviously. The end time Beast/Antichrist/King of the North (Dan 11:40-45) is the one who does this in the 70th week.

The 70th week is completely unfulfilled and yet future. The seven year pact made by the coming prince spans its entire period of exactly seven years. It is not already in effect and spanning 2000 years. When it happens there will be sacrifices again to be cut off and a temple for the prince to take over, defile with his abomination/image of the beast and make his headquarters (Dan 11:45) as he proves to the world he is God (2Th 2:4).

ObamaCare RFID Microchip 2013 – Latest “Mark of the Beast”

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Perennial Mark of the Beast Anxieties

Another year, another “mark of the beast” (Rev 13:16-18) theory. Just as with date setting for Bible prophecies, speculation over the mark of the beast never ends. The last thing believers want is for the mark to sneak up on them causing a loss of their salvation for this supposed unpardonable sin.

As such, several people have asked me lately about ObamaCare’s mandatory RFID Microchip by March 23, 2013. Of course, microchips are probably the number one candidate for what the mark of the beast will be. Therefore, the news of a mandatory RFID chip on US citizens is too close for comfort to the mark of the beast to not cause great anxiety among prophecy-savvy believers who hear this rumor.

The only hitch is that, as you can readily verify at reputably sites like Snopes, it is a hoax that ObamaCare will require a RFID microchip by 2013. Unfortunately, nobody who has emailed me about this theory so far has accepted what reputable news sites say.

Bible Says Mark Not Forced or Before the Antichrist

No matter. The important thing is what the Bible says on this topic. There are three reasons a mandatory RFID does not fit the mark of the beast:

1. The mark is not going to be sneaked or forced on people like a brand on cattle. People must accept it knowingly and voluntarily (for ability to trade and get food) or if not, be put to death (Rev 20:4). This means that everyone who has the mark will have consented to it.

2. The mark of the beast does not appear in prophecy until the beast who it is named for comes to power with the False Prophet who requires it (Rev 13:11-16). This would be the Great Tribulation or last 3½ years of this age or when the Antichrist (Beast), False Prophet are ruling and deceiving the earth.

3. The mark does not come until a clear angel-sourced warning goes out to all the earth about not taking it (Rev 14:9). A clear unmistakable warning like this is only fair given how dire the consequences are for taking the mark.

For more on this and the torture that goes with the roll out of the mark, see The Mark of the Beast – If You See It, It’s Too Late

 

The 70/72 Others Jesus Sent: Why That Number?

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Tim, What is the significance of the number 72?

After sending out the twelve to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal (Lk 9), Jesus sent out 70 or 72 “others” ahead of where he was going to be (Lk 10:1). (Note: older Bibles say 70 and newer ones favor the manuscript reading 72, as do I.) The missions of the two groups are clearly similar (Lk 10:4=22:35 ESV; Cf. Matt 10:13 with Luke 10:6; Matt 10:15 with Luke 10:12; Matt 10:16 with Luke 10:3). But their numbers are very similar, too. Both are multiples of twelve; 72 being six times twelve. The twelve, of course, is based off the 12 tribes of Israel which the 12 apostles will sit on 12 thrones over in the Millennium (Mt 19:28). But why six times twelve for the second group?

The answer may be found in a third group to be sent out on the very same gospel preaching mission in the end times, the 144,000 (Rev 7:1). Unlike previous groups, they will proclaim the gospel to every nation and language in the world (Mt 24:14=Rev 14:1,6-7). Also unlike other groups they will receive special protection (Rev 7:1=9:4) from the Antichrist who is martyring believers during their mission (Rev 13:7,15,16). Their number is also a multiple of 12 and also 72.

So we have three groups of one times twelve, then six times twelve, and then twelve times twelve (times 1000) respectively. I believe the significance of the number 72 is to link that second group with the twelve and the 144,000 and also to indicate how their mission is only partial. The 72 are just an intermediate fulfillment of the greater final end time mission of the 144,000 who will preach the “everlasting gospel” in the entire world, not just Israel’s land. Being half of twelve times twelve is fitting in this role. Unlike the 72 who covered Canaan, the 144,000 will have to cover the entire world or all 72 of the biblical 72 nations of Genesis 10 (Septuagint text. Masoretic text lists 70). If the 144,000 go out in pairs like the 72 did, then the 144,000 can marshal 1000 pairs of gospel witnesses per biblical nation on earth.

For more on the 144,000 see my book or The Four End Time Groups: Will You Be in the Safe Group?