Endurance, Not Escape
Recapping why the Wrath of God is not the same as the Great Tribulation and how the Pre-tribulation rapture fails the smell test, among other future things.
“[B]ut on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
– Luke 17:29-30
Benjamin West, “Death on a Pale Horse” (c.1796). Oil on canvas.
In my last three entries pertaining to the End Times — Is the Rapture Real?, Not Destined for Wrath, and Wrath, War, What Is It Good For? — I have attempted to show that the clear passages of Scripture elucidate and clarify the unclear passages of prophecy, such as Revelation. Clear interprets the unclear, not the other way around. But before I dig into the Seventh Seal, which is one of the most enigmatic and iconic passages in prophecy to date, I want to quickly recapitulate some of what I’ve spoken about so far, with a bit extra food for thought, for new subscribers or those just jumping into it.
The end times began at Pentecost (Acts 2:17). This initiated the time of tribulation against the saints (Rev.1:9), which corresponds to the beginning of birth pains that continues to intensify in frequency and magnitude till the end of the age, reaching its climax with the Great Tribulation. This helps us make one clear distinction: the end times is different from the end of the age. The end times, so to speak, encapsulates the whole Church age. The end of the age is simply the short period of time before Christ’s return. Much ink continues to be spilled over the fine details, which we really do not know much about, but we do have the key points for what to expect. My main concern is keeping the order of events clear as day, so that the details can fill themselves in as they happen, rather than everything being a jumbled and nebulous unsolvable puzzle. We have the bricks laid, but patience and perseverance will witness the mortar fill in. Otherwise, Christ cannot expect us to know when the time is near (Matt.24:32-33).
The order of events needs to be clear. And it is, quite frankly. I think it is overtly clear. As I’ve said before, Scripture plainly and thoroughly teaches the end of the age will happen in the following order:
the Great Apostasy and the Great Tribulation,
then the antichrist is revealed,
then the sign of Christ appears in the heavens,
then Christ seizes and separates the wicked from the saints and brings the antichrist to nothing in one fell swoop.
First Christ returns, then He raptures. As He descends, then we ascend. Christ’s return inaugurates the wrath of the wicked and the rapture of the righteous. It is a twofold judgment. Christ reiterates this process over and over—very clearly actually—that at the end of the age He will send His angels to separate the wicked from the righteous (Matt.24:29-31), the weeds from the wheat (Matt.13:24-30,36-43), good fish from the bad fish (Matt.13:47-50), and the sheep from the goats (Matt.25:31-46). One could argue that this is not the final great white throne judgment that happens after the Millennial Reign and immediately before the new heavens and new earth (Rev.20:11), and that’s fine, but you cannot argue there is no judgment happening at all—something judgmental is happening at the end of the age, and it involves separating good from evil.
Now, not only is this separation of good from evil happening at the same time, Christ clearly articulates in The Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat that the wicked and righteous will grow together, but that the wicked will suffer His wrath first, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (v.30) Christ seizes the evil generation at hand to separate them from among His saints. He articulates this again in His Olivet Discourse when He compares the end of the age with Noah’s Flood, that the wicked will be “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah [His saints] entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matt.24:38-39) The evil generation is swept away by His wrath, but the righteous are protected from the flood of fire to come. Since those in Christ have eternal life already, born again by His blood, the focus at the end of the age is not our escape, whether secretive or conspicuous, it is on our endurance through persecution in order to bring the wicked into judgment. To reiterate this, again, Christ’s uses another analogy in Luke 17, where the evil generation is swept away and destroyed but the righteous are saved:
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:26-37)
The righteous are in the Ark when the unrighteous are swept away. The storm appears in the sky before the deluge happens, just as the fig tree’s branches become tender and its leaves appear when summer is near—He is at the very gates (Matt.24:32-33). Furthermore, “on the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (v.30) is “His second coming”, and with the sign of Christ appearing in the heavens comes fire and sulfur raining from heaven and destroying the wicked (v.29). When the disciples ask where this cataclysmic judgment will be, Christ says, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather”( v.37), which is prophetic imagery retold in Revelation 6 and 19 about Christ’s return. This separation process happens to everyone at the same time on the same day, but the righteous are protected from the storm. The wrath of the wicked and the rapture of the righteous are, more or less, simultaneous. The only way to make a Pre-tribulation rapture work is for Christ to return twice. But Christ does not return twice. We are not waiting for two more comings of Christ. There is only one second coming. The return and the rapture are woven together as two stages of the same event that happens on the same Day, they are not two distinct, separate events (Hebrews 9:27-28).
This same day judgment process is, then, compared to two things: Lot escaping the depraved city of Sodom, “but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (vv.28-30) and Lot’s wife turning to a pillar of salt, “Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” (vv.32-33)
Christ gives us, the readers, the exact same warning the two angels gave Lot and his family before they destroyed Sodom, “Do not look back!” Think about that for a moment. Christ parallels the tragic loss of Lot's wife to us potentially falling for the same sin, clinging to our earthly appetites, wealth, and power, at a time when we are supposed to know the fig tree is ready. That includes our desire to live a normal life in this world (vv.28,35).
Scary thought.
More parallels can be had, too. Consider it; Babylon, the great city at the end of the age that represents the world, is referred to as spiritual Sodom (Rev.11:8); just as two angels were sent to mark the end of Sodom (Gen.19:1), so will two witnesses be sent to mark the end of the age (Rev.11:3); just as the wicked were swept away in Sodom (Gen.19:15,17), so will the wicked be swept away at the end of the age (Matt.24:39; Lk.21:27); just as Sodom was judged by fire in a single day (Gen.19:24), so will Babylon be judged by fire in a single day (Rev.18:8); just as Lot and his family were spared at the moment of Sodom’s destruction, so will the Church be spared at the moment of God’s wrath against Babylon:
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” (Genesis 19:15-17)
I think this is really worth noting for those who reject a rapture or ‘seizing of the righteous’ wholesale. The angles “seized”, or raptured, Lot and his family—even though he was taking his sweet ol’ time—and took them out of the city before it was destroyed as a sign of God’s mercy (v.16). This directly parallels the angelic harvest that takes place at the very end of the age (Rev.14:14-20; Matt.13:39-43,47-50, 24:30-31), just as Abraham interceding for Sodom parallels the cloud of witnesses and intercession of the saints petitioning and praying for us on our behalf before God, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” (Gen.18:23) It further encapsulates God’s promise that the righteous will not suffer His wrath. Abraham petitioned to spare the whole city if ten righteous people lived in it, and God agreed, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” (v.32). But God only found one righteous man (2 Peter 2:7-8). So, He destroyed Sodom but spared the remnant: Lot and his family, five in all.
Sodom represents for the state of the world at the end of the age. Lot and his family represent the Church. Lot endures persecution, according to Peter, “for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard” (v.8). Those who are in Sodom will either participate in her ways or be persecuted by her. Lot’s wife foreshadows those lead astray during the Great Apostasy and Great Tribulation (Matt.24:24, 13:19-21). If one were to succumb to tribulation, like Lot’s wife, let Christ’s words be remembered: There are those who believe only a little while, but His word takes no root in them; so under trial and persecution, they fall away (Luke 8:13). This elucidates James’ admonition: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21)
For clarity, God will not condemn the righteous with the wicked. You will not suffer God’s wrath, if indeed, you are in the faith. But the righteous will suffer persecution until Christ returns. That much is certain. There is no escaping it. The Great Tribulation, specifically, is not God’s wrath but part of the war Satan wages against God. In short, there are two wars at the end: One against God and His saints, the other against Satan and his worshippers. Satan wages war first and conquers the saints (Rev. 11:7-8, 12:17, 13:7, 19:19), then God wages the war and conquers Satan (Rev. 17:14, 19:11, 20:7-10). The first war is Satan wrath (Rev.12:12). The second war is God’s wrath (Rev.19:11). Satan’s wrath is the Great Tribulation. God’s Wrath is judgment of the wicked, and comes after the Great Tribulation. We are called to conquer by enduring and persevering through tribulation. Through persecution, tribulation, and martyrdom, and their steadfast faith in the power of Christ’s atonement, the saints conquer Satan (Rev.12:11,15:2; Rom.16:20).
This is why Christ tells us that “the one who endures to the end will be saved…. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (Matt.24:13,42)
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Matlock Bobechko | September 24, 2024 – 9:00AM EST
Brilliant piece. Thanks bro.