Can you help me to understand some of the differences between the pre-wrath rapture, and a post-tribulation rapture?
The doctrine of the pre-wrath rapture, can be widely accredited to the 1990 book by Marvin Rosenthal, appropriately titled The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church.[1] It offered a major alternative to the popular, imminent pre-tribulation rapture, but also tried to seriously take into account the thrust of 1 Thessalonians 5:9:
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9, NASU).
The pre-wrath rapture largely advocates that at the point of Revelation 6:17, “for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (NASU), Believers will be spared from the Tribulation judgments, which they classify as “wrath,” mainly the trumpet and vial/bowl judgments of Revelation chs. 7-16. In some ways, the pre-wrath rapture is a modified version of the mid-tribulation rapture, as it tends to place the gathering of the saints about two-thirds through the Tribulation period. The effects of the pre-wrath rapture, on contemporary eschatology, are very real—to the point that the second edition of Zondervan’s Three Views on the Rapture offers the pre-wrath rapture as an option, but no longer the mid-tribulation rapture.[2]
Post-tribulationists have generally looked at pre-wrath rapture advocates as allies against pre-tribulationism. The pre-wrath view, as originally espoused by Rosenthal, to be sure, was often rooted within many dispensational presuppositions. But, like post-tribulationism, it directly takes on the widespread, popular view, that Believers are to be removed from Planet Earth, before the start of the Seventieth Week of Daniel. This means, that unlike pre-tribulationism’s major selling point, one of an escape from all of the difficulties of the Tribulation—a pre-wrath rapture would require Believers to remain on Earth for the majority of the Tribulation. A pre-wrath rapture stands at odds with pre-tribulationism.
Both the pre-wrathers and post-tribulationists advocate that Believers are to be spared from God’s wrath—but they may be seen to have some disagreements involving specifics. The customary pre-wrath Tribulation scenario, as originally advocated by those like Rosenthal, may be seen to support a strictly sequential approach to the Book of Revelation, not too different than many pre-tribulation rapture charts. This may be a reason why, in the pre-wrath model, the trumpet and vial/bowl judgments of Revelation chs. 7-16 compose the “wrath” of God. Post-tribulationsts such as this writer may be seen, instead, to advocate more of a symphonic presentation of the seal, trumpet, and vial/bowl judgments of Revelation. This is not unlike various prophetic depictions from the Tanach (OT), where prophecies are not always seen to be delivered in a linear manner. For a post-tribulationist, this allows those judgments specifically classified to be as orgē or “wrath,” to be limited to a much shorter space of time, in a post-tribulational window.
The only times orgē appears in the Book of Revelation are in a post-tribulational context (Revelation 6:16, 17; 11:18; 14:10; 16:19; 19:15). It is used after the sixth seal (Revelation 6:16-17), the seventh or the last trumpet (Revelation 11:18), the seventh vial/bowl (Revelation 16:19), and is most importantly used to describe the eternal punishment of the condemned (Revelation 14:10).
On the whole, there are more areas of agreement than disagreement, which post-tribulationists have, with advocates of a pre-wrath rapture. This writer chooses to look at such differences as points of further collaboration and investigation, not unnecessary division and rivalry.
NOTES
[1] Marvin Rosenthal, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1990).
Other resources released subsequent to Rosenthal, include: Robert Van Kampen, The Sign (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999); H.L. Nigro, Before God’s Wrath (Lancaster, PA: Strong Tower Publishing, 2002).
[2] Alan Hultberg, “A Case for the Prewrath Rapture,” in Alan Hultberg, ed., Three Views on the Rapture, Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), pp 109-154.
