I appreciate your honesty in admitting that Pretrib is not clearly taught in the Bible. But your argument from "concealment" and "mystery" runs contrary to the NT revelation of Scripture, which is an unveiling of truth. Mormons, JWs and RCs use the same rhetoric to justify their extra-biblical teaching. Pretrib is not in good company. Scripture is enlightenment. Truth is clearly taught and retaught. It can be grasped by the simple. It is not just for the learned.
The Bible teaching on the second coming coming couldn't be clearer or simpler: when Jesus comes that is it. It is the end! Men are either ready or caught unexpectedly; they are caught up or caught on. They are either saved or lost. What is more, Scripture places our existence into two distinct and diverse ages: “this age” and” the age to come.” These two could not be more different. Simply put: “this age” refers to “time” and “the age to come” or the “hereafter” refers to “eternity.” This is age is full of sin, death and corruption. The age to come is pristine, perfect and incorrupt. I could teach a child this.
Pretrib makes end-time teaching a convoluted cryptic mess that can only be understood by those who have studied the subject intensely. But even after years of trying to put the dots together, Pretribber still cannot get everything to add up. It is easy to get men who have taught this doctrine 40 years in circles because they cannot even truly explain it. It simply doesn't add up.
Remember, even a parable is a simple earthly story with a heavenly meaning. There are deep spiritual revelations that are simplified so that we can grasp them. This is not Jesus speaking cryptically or mystically, it is Jesus speaking spiritually, simply and clearly. The truth is only concealed from the unenlightened. Parables are invented stories that serve to illustrate deep profound spiritual truths that pertain to reality.
There is a simplicity to God’s truth. But we complicate it.
Your reference to Proverbs 25:2 has nothing to do with what we are talking about. It is not even in context.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 do not teach (1) a rapture of the Church, (2) immediately followed by a literal seven-year tribulation, (3) immediately followed by a third coming of Christ. You know that. You admit that.
1 Corinthians 15:50-55
1 Corinthians 15:50-55 has nothing to do with what you are claiming. It declares, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed [Gr. allasso], In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed [Gr. allasso]. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
This passage is describing the great supernatural change that occurs to God’s people when Jesus returns and takes them from a temporal fallen “flesh and blood” existence to an eternal glorified condition. Corruptibility and mortality are shown here to be interlinked. Incorruption and immortality are also shown to be enjoined. They describe the two converse states existing in two completely different dimensions.
1 Thessalonians 4:14-5:4
1 Thessalonians 4:14-5:4 confirms this saying: “if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming [Gr. parousia] of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”
There is a catching away ("rapture") here, but no tribulation period following. That is because it is ongoing since the early Church. If Pretrib was true, this is where you would find it, but no, It is not here. Neither can you add it to the inspired text. That is forbidden. What follows Christ's climactic appearing then? Total destruction!
This is a record of Christ’s one and only future coming. This reading describes how Christ comes “with” and “for” His saints the next time. Verse 14 of our reading explicitly states, “them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Those living believers will be “caught up” to meet Jesus when He appears. This is the final uniting of the elect on earth (the live in Christ) and those in heaven (the dead in Christ). It is accompanied by the great sound of the trump ushering in the end. The word rendered “remain” in our King James Version (which relates to those that are alive at Christ’s coming) is the Greek word perileipo, which means “to survive.” Thus, we can take from this reading that the Lord is returning for those who remain by surviving. These are tribulation saints.
This coming is not only sudden but noisy. Christ is not coming secretly with an apologetic whisper but publicly with a triumphant shout. He appears with “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” This trumpet will sound and bring forth the elect from all nations. I Thessalonians 5:2-7 confirms that it isn’t just Christ’s coming that is sudden but also the destruction that accompanies. Likening Christ’s return to “a thief in the night” capably serves to impress the surprising nature of this coming for the lost. It shows that the wicked are caught abruptly in their folly at the apocalypse. The “sudden destruction” is so impactful that none escape. That is explicit in the narrative. The wicked are totally and completely destroyed, allowing no room for the Pretrib theory of a subsequent 7yrs trib.
