RFC: Tribulation Rapture, John 14

John 14

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

I don’t see this proving/disproving much about other possible events surrounding the rapture. Christ leaves to prepare a room in his father’s house. When he comes back, he will take the saints to be with him. But, as it wouldn’t in any similar modern conversation, this doesn’t necessarily exclude any other action Christ might take at his return. That is, none of these appear as comprehensive statements about everything Christ will do. Nor does it even explicitly say that the only reason Christ is going away is to prepare these rooms. This is something he does upon his departure, and it is at least one purpose for his departure. If he goes to prepare a place, he will also return for them to take them to it.


Objection 1:

John 14:1-4. It's important to see that Jesus refers here to taking the believers away with Him to heaven (where He's preparing the rooms). This can't be referring to His second coming, at which time He will come back to earth and reign here for 1,000 years. So this must be referring to the rapture, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4.

I think there’s an inconsistency here, because in the comment on 1 Thess 4:13-18, it was suggested that we received at a pre-tribulation rapture glorified bodies suited for both heaven and a Millennial Earth.

So, in one scenario, the pre-tribulation rapture, you have the Church taken up to heaven for seven years, to return to earth with Christ after the tribulation.

In the proposed scenario, you have the Church taken up after the tribulation to return to Earth immediately.

While on the surface, the second sounds illogical, that we do an immediate about-face and go back to earth instead of to heaven where our rooms are prepared, I’m not much more comforted by having rooms in heaven we occupy for only seven years. It’s still a very short period of time.

We are to dwell with Christ for eternity, so these rooms prepared in His Father’s house are to be eternal rooms presumably (or else why is Jesus going to heaven to prepare a place we only use for seven years).

Ok, so if they are then eternal rooms, does it matter whether we stay in them 7 years or no time before we have them for eternity following the 1000 years?

My point is, the seven years is trivial as an argument. Either way, according to the prevailing arguments we’re still essentially doing an about face in mid-air.

At this point, I’ll step somewhat outside of scripture and say I don’t have much problem with these verses. Once we start talking about heaven, and immortal bodies, we don’t have any idea of what this is like. We know in terms of location Jesus comes down, we go up, Jesus reigns with us over the earth. We also know from 1 Thess 4 that how we’re caught up in the clouds with Christ is how we’ll be with him forever, so it doesn’t sound like we change location.

For all I know we can be united with him in heaven and on earth at the same time and these scriptures here appear to contradict because the reality itself is muddled to our thinking. We simply don’t have any frame of reference to understand what life is like post-rapture. And if you think that’s a easy escape for me, consider how many of us understand the balance between free-choice and predestination, yet as Calvinists we accept this and many other paradoxes at face value.

Once we’re taken up, I’m less eager to debate the fine points of heavenly life as proofs of a pre- or post-tribulation rapture. I think that debate ought to be settled on details primarily preceding.