Someday the world will come to an end. Do you know how it will happen? Despite my recent tweet, my eschatology continues to be a work in progress. Presently, my beliefs about the end are characterized more by what I do not believe than what I do believe. I do believe Christ will someday return, but I’m still working on the details.

The most popular brand of eschatology today is pre-trib premillennialism. But in my list of things I do not believe, I do not believe the Bible teaches a pre-trib rapture.

This post is not an exhaustive argument against pre-trib rapture but against the frequent citing of 1 Thessalonians 1:10 by pre-trib proponents. Here is the verse:

…and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Here is how the pre-trib argument goes. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven. We await for his return. He will come back to deliver his people from the seven-year tribulation at the end during which God’s wrath is poured upon the earth. Thus in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 we have the promise that all Christians will be removed from the earth (raptured) before the tribulation takes place.

The problem with this view is 1 Thessalonians 1:10 has nothing to do with some period of judgment occurring on Earth just before the coming of Christ. Nothing in the context makes reference to rapture; wrath here does not refer to an end-times tribulation but to eternal judgment.

The natural meaning of this verse is that the believers in Thessalonica trusted that Jesus Christ was the one who delivered them from God’s eternal judgment. Believers were secure in the knowledge that they would be raised to life with Christ in Heaven rather than cast into Hell for eternal judgment.

This meaning becomes clear a few chapters later, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10: For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Note the contrast here. The people of God have not been destined for wrath but for salvation. Their deliverance is not from temporal suffering just before the end of time but deliverance from eternal judgment. We do not receive salvation so that we can avoid the tribulation, we receive salvation to be rescued from Hell.

Revelation also speaks of this. Revelation 11:9-10 tells us about the wrath faced by those who take the mark of the beast: And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Note how it describes God’s wrath. It is not in terms of a tribulation period but eternal judgment.

Christians are in the world to shine the light of Christ even in the midst of great suffering. We labor no matter the cost knowing that this world is not our home. We wait patiently for our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing he has delivered us from the coming wrath: we need not fear the flames of judgment, we are secure in Christ. But there are many, many more who do not know God’s mercy. God will keep us here to share with them about his love and grace. When finally he returns, we (Christians) will still be around to see it.