Timing of the Rapture

What We Can Know

When is the Rapture going to take place? I don't know. In fact, no one knows. No one but God knows the exact time of the Rapture, when His Son will return to Earth to gather all the believers to Himself, and then take them home to Heaven.

But we can know the timing of the Rapture, and particularly when it will occur in relation to the 70 Weeks of the Book of Daniel, a 7-year prophecy-packed timetable. Knowing what God says about the 70th Week is the key to discerning the timing of the Rapture.

Let me remind you that we live in the end-times, the time period leading up to the return of Christ and the Rapture of the Church. Right now, we are in the beginning of birth pains stage, but sometime in the near future, Daniel's 70th week is going to start. It is Daniel 9:24-27 which identifies some of the main events – some definitive markers – in this divine time frame.

The Sequence

The first event to take place will be the signing, or confirming, of a peace treaty between Israel and other countries. The second event will occur 3½ years later, at the midpoint of the 70th Week, when the Antichrist will be revealed. The third and final event ¬ at the very end of the 7 momentous years will be a great remnant of Jewish people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

Don't forget the key years Р1, 3½, and 7 Рand the main event associated with each year. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people … to make an end of sins … to bring in everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24).

Again, we can't know the exact time of the Rapture, but we can know the general time – where the Rapture occurs at in relation to the three events mentioned above. So, when will the Rapture be? It will occur after the midpoint, the 3¬Ω-year mark of Daniel's 70th Week, and before the end of this Week, the 7-year mark. That's it – the Rapture of the Church will occur at an unknown time to us, sometime during the second half of Daniel's 70th Week.

A Closer Look

Let me explain. First, we know that the Antichrist will be revealed at the midpoint of Daniel's 70th Week, at which time he will desecrate the temple in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15). He will then unleash a great tribulation which will be directed at both the Jewish people and Christians (Matthew 24:9, 21). But after a little while, this tribulation will be cut short by God (v. 22), marked by great signs in the skies (v. 29). Immediately after that, Christ will come in the clouds to rapture the Christians (v. 31).

Let me say it again: After the Antichrist will be revealed at the midpoint of the 70th Week, he will begin great tribulation, but it will be cut short (meaning it won't last the entire 3¬Ω years), and then the Church will be raptured.

Since the salvation of the Jewish people will take place at the very end of Daniel's 70th Week (Daniel 9:24), we know the Rapture will occur sometime during the last 3¬Ω years. Matthew 24:9-31 lays out the order of events in the second half of Daniel's 70th Week, and therefore, the timing of the Rapture.

First, there will be the revealing of the Antichrist (v. 15), then great tribulation (v. 21), then signs in the heavens (v. 29), and then the Rapture: And he [Jesus] shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

God's Wrath

What about God's wrath? Will it occur after the Rapture? We read in 1 Thessalonians 1:10: Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

The Rapture – believers being taken off the earth – is the means by which we will be rescued from God's wrath. The Rapture of the Church then will occur after the tribulation of the Antichrist, but before the wrath of God. It will occur after the persecution of the Church, but before the punishment of the unbelievers.

Therefore, the Rapture of the Church is post-tribulation and prewrath. Praise God that, for a little while, we will suffer great tribulation for Him – but then we will be delivered from His great wrath on Earth and from His eternal wrath in Hell: For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Serving God

God greatly loves us, and wants us to greatly love Him. He wants us to be excitedly serving Him in these days, to be willing to suffer for Him, and to be enduring to the end of the age.

In Matthew 24:9 and 13, Jesus tells us, Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted … But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved [raptured]. Jesus encourages us, saying: These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Steven J. Hogan has been a pastor-teacher for more than 25 years, and at Hope Bible Church of Tampa since 2003.