I think it would be wise to actually study the pre-tribulation rapture as it's mentioned in the bible and not just throw the subject out there and not want to discuss or debate the topic.
Just one example:
10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the
hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
So the Christians living in Philadelphia were raptured in the first century? Or they will live until the end times and then be raptured?
Revelation 3:10 is addressed to the Christians in Philadelphia, one of the seven churches to which the Apocalypse is addressed (Revelation 1:4), if you back up to verse 7 of chapter 3 you'll even see this, "To the angel of the Church in Philadelphia".
In the Apocalypse John addresses the entire work to its target audience, the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. John begins by describing the visions he received while imprisoned on the island of Patmos, located off the coast near Asia. He describes the vision of Jesus he received, and Jesus then has seven messages to each of the seven churches, Revelation 3:7-13 is for the Philadelphians.
That's the context for this passage.
Now, I am aware of all manner of fanciful interpretations that exist here. Such as that the seven churches refer to seven "church ages" or that they refer to "seven types of churches". But there is precisely zero reason to hold to such an opinion. If we are going to read the Bible seriously, we can't just throw out good exegesis.
We don't get to just make up whatever we want and then claim that's what the Bible says. We take what the Bible says, the actual words of the text, and then we seek to understand what they mean in their context.
And the context is that Revelation 3:10 is said to Christians living in the city of Philadelphia sometime approximately around the year 95 AD, near the end of the reign of Emperor Domitian. We know that it was written around this time based mostly on external evidence, early Christian witness points to the Apocalypse being written during the reign of Domitian. Though in modern times some have conjectured both earlier and later dates, some have argued for a date as early as the time of Nero, and others as late as the reign of Trajan. But the majority opinion has always been that it was written during the time of Domitian as the ancient witness of the Church has suggested.
So what does Revleation 3:10, therefore, mean in that context?
That it refers to some time in the future where Jesus is going to take Christians out of the earth and beam them directly into heaven to escape a seven year period of tribulation is certainly no where to be found anywhere in the text, it's not what the text is talking about, and no where does the Bible even come close to talking about such a thing happening.
Dispensationalism, and its doctrine of a "Pretribulation Rapture" is a modern fiction concocted in the modern era and subscribed to by only a fringe minority of Christians; and while it was originally conceived by an Irish clergyman, it eventually gained the largest following in the United States due to a number of different factors.
But considering these things:
1) The Bible never mentions a "pretribulation rapture".
2) The Bible teaches that there will be a resurrection at Christ's Parousia, His appearing or "second coming" which is on the last day, at the end, etc.
3) Christians never believed in a "pretribulation rapture" at any point in history prior to the 1800's.
That doesn't give the idea much credence.
I say all this as someone who grew up believing in the pretribulation rapture, in fact I didn't even know there were other views until I was 18-19 years old. And the reason I stopped believing in it was because I tried to defend it, and when I started reading the Bible for myself, and looking at all the different proof texts I had been told taught it, it became increasingly more difficult to defend.
In fact, when I started to do a serious dive into Scripture I began to notice that Scripture seemed to teach something else entirely. But, naturally, I figured if I was the only one seeing what I was seeing, then I was almost certainly wrong. So imagine my surprise when, as I began to look to see what different denominations believed, and what was believed by the majority of Christians since ancient times, was exactly that thing I was now seeing for myself in the Bible.
Now, of course, it is entirely possible that all Christians were wrong until John Darby came up with the pre-tribulation rapture. It's possible that virtually all Christians are still wrong today. And that the Dispenationalist/Pre-tribulation Rapturists are actually right.
But the odds of that seem unlikely. Why don't we see a pretribulation rapture taught anywhere between the 1st century and the 19th century? Why is it that hundreds of millions of Christians, across denominational boundaries, all agree that Christ's return is to come as Judge of the living and the dead on the last day, and it is then that the dead shall be raised bodily?
Most importantly, why doesn't the Bible ever actually say that Jesus is going to remove the Church from the earth to escape a future tribulation? Why do advocates of the pre-tribulation rapture position rely entirely on a patchwork of verses that they then have to add their own spin and assumptions into?
What do I mean by "add their own spin and assumptions into"? Well, let's just take this verse here you've offered, Revelation 3:10. It doesn't mention anything about Jesus taking Christians out of the world to escape a future tribulation. What does it say? It says that they would be spared the hour of trial that will come upon the earth. That word there "keep", that's τηρήσω (
tereso), the future active indicative first person singular form of the verb τηρέω (
tereo), and it means "to guard", "to observe", "to watch", "to take care of", "to tend to".
It is a promise that Christ will remain firm and committed to them during that time of trial, He will guard them, stand watch over them, hold onto them. If they patiently endure and remain faithful to Him, He will hold onto them, keep them, guard over them as the Good Shepherd watches over His flock, and they shall not fall during that time of testing.
That's the plain meaning of Revelation 3:10.
-CryptoLutheran
. As for any hint of rapture, those that pledge allegiance to nation over Kingdom and involve themselves in the politics of man, especially as bystander, will find they 've missed the boat.
