michael j. svigel, ph.d. dallas theological seminary · michael j. svigel, “the apocalypse of...

Michael J. Svigel, Ph.D. Dallas Theological Seminary

II: Classical Arguments for the Pretribulation Rapture THE

LAST TRUMPET

IMMINENT RETURN

OF CHRIST

RESCUE FROM

WRATH ORIGINAL ARGUMENT

FOR THE PRETRIB RAPTURE

MISSING CHURCH

IN REV. 4-19

RETURN “WITH”

AND “FOR” SAINTS

POSTTRIB + MILLENNIAL

PROBLEM

REMOVAL OF THE

RESTRAINER IN 2 THESS. 2


LAST TRUMPET

IMMINENT RETURN

OF CHRIST

RESCUE FROM

WRATH CATCHING UP OF THE MALE SON (REV. 12:5)

MISSING CHURCH

IN REV. 4-19

RETURN “WITH”



PROBLEM

REMOVAL OF THE


Revelation 12:5 And she gave birth to a son, a male, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

IV: The Original Rapture…Revisited

“HUH?!”

III: The Original Argument for the Pretribulation Rapture

Yes, this was the original exegetical

argument that moved Darby to embrace a full Pretribulation

Rapture.


Michael J. Svigel, “The Apocalypse of John and the Rapture of the Church: A Reevaluation,” Trinity Journal 22.1 (Spring 2001).

Michael J. Svigel, “‘What Child Is This?’ Darby’s Early Exegetical Argument for the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church,” Trinity Journal 35.2 (2014).


Darby Kelly Blackstone Ironside


Necessary Presuppositions 1. A futurist interpretation of

Revelation and the 70th week of Daniel (Dan. 9:27).

2. The mystical, spiritual union between Christ and His Body, the Church.

3. An openness to distinguish between Israel and the Church.

4. A literal understanding of the chronology of Rev. 11–13.


John Nelson Darby (1800–1882)

“The child is Christ; it is also the Church, as associated with Christ. Like Christ she is to govern the nations…. The Church receives this power from her being associated with Christ; she will, notwithstanding, be also active in heaven. When the Lord Jesus comes again, it will be in the display of His authority, for He shall rule all nations with a rod of iron, and the Church will be with Him. (Ps. ii.6–9; Rev. ii.27)” —John Nelson Darby, Notes on the Revelation, 57–58

III(2): The Original Exegetical Argument for the Rapture


“If the mighty man, the mystic man, the man-child of Revelation xii. is to act, He must first be complete. . . . For not until then—until the Church, the body, is united to the Head, Christ, in heaven—is the mystic man in that sense complete; and therefore, the Church must be taken up before Christ can come in judgment.” —John Nelson Darby, Seven Lectures on the Prophetical Addresses to the Seven Churches, 3d rev. ed. (London: G. Morrish, c. 1855), 153–154.



“I have no doubt that the ‘man child’ spoken of in the chapter… includes the church as well as Christ…. It is Christ who has been caught up; but the church is included, for whenever He begins to act publicly, even as regards Satan being cast down, He must have His body, His bride, with Him; He must have His brethren, His joint-heirs.” —Darby, Lectures on the Second Coming, 61.


William Kelly (1821–1906)

“Although Christ, I have no doubt, is referred to as the man-child born of Israel, it may be no small difficulty at first sight to some minds how to bring in the birth of Christ in this chapter …. The reason, I think, is just this, that it intimates to us, as in Old Testa-ment prophecy, how the Lord and His people are wrapped up, as it were, in the very same symbol; even as, in a yet more intimate way, what is said about Christ applies to the Christians.” —Kelly, Lectures in Acts, the Catholic Epistles, and the Revelation, 485–486.


William Kelly (1821–1906)

“On this principle then I cannot but consider that the rapture of the man-child to God and His throne involves the rapture of the church in itself. The explanation why it is thus introduced here depends on the truth that Christ and the church are one, and have a common destiny. Inasmuch as He went up to heaven, so also the church is to be caught up.” —Kelly, Lectures in Acts, the Catholic Epistles, and the Revelation, 486–87.


William Blackstone (1831–1908)

“The term ‘Christ’ includes head and body (Eph. 1:22–23; 5:23; Rev. 12:5) and the body is allotted to suffering, as well as the head…. Nothing is said here about the resurrection of these [enthroned saints in Rev 20:4]. And why not? Because they had been raised long before, at the Rapture of the church. 1 Thess. 4: 13–18; Rev. 12: 5. They had escaped the great tribulation.” —Blackstone, The Millennium, 34, 49.


Henry A. Ironside (1876–1951)

“Who, or what, does the man-child symbolize? If we allow Scripture itself to answer, we find there is a person and a company of people answering to this description…. Is there any incongruity in understanding the man-child to represent both Christ Jesus our Lord and His church? Surely not, for He is the Head of the body, the church, which is the fulness, or completion, of Himself.” —H.A. Ironside, Lectures on the Revelation, 208–209.


Henry A. Ironside (1876–1951)

“We have seen that the man-child symbolizes both Head and body—the complete Christ. Therefore, as in other prophecies, the entire present dispensation is passed over in silence, and the church is represented in its Head, caught up with Christ. For immediately after this, Satan, again acting through the Roman Empire which is to be revived in the last days, turns upon the woman Israel and seeks to vent his wrath and indignation against her.” —H.A. Ironside, Lectures on the Revelation, 212.


“But if this was such a crucial

argument, why haven’t I ever heard of this

before?”


“Newer arguments are obviously

better arguments.”


“If it was such a good argument,

why don’t modern Pretribulationists

use it?”


“[Chronological snobbery is]…the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively) or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood.” C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)


Resting on the Male Son 1. The exegetical argument from Revelation 12:5 was Darby’s and Kelly’s decisive argument for the pretribulation rapture in the 1850s. 2. Because Darby and Kelly were early Dispensationalists, the Pretribulation Rapture became closely associated with Dispensationalism (though others held to it, too!).

III(3): The History of the Argument

Resting on the Male Son 3. The exegetical argument was continually strengthened by several deductive, inductive, inferential arguments, demonstrating its consistency. 4. Pretribulationism grew in popularity.


EX

EG

ET

ICA

L

AR

GU

ME

NT

INFE

RE

NT

IAL

A

RG

UM

EN

TS

PRETRIBULATION RAPTURE DOCTRINE

1850–1900


Abandoning the Male Son 5. Between 1900 and 1950, James Brookes, C. I. Scofield, Lewis Sperry Chafer, and then Walvoord, Pentecost, and Ryrie kept the inductive, deductive, and inferential arguments but abandoned the foundational exegetical argument!


EX

EG

ET

ICA

L

AR

GU

ME

NT

INFE

RE

NT

IAL

A

RG

UM

EN

TS


1900–1950


INFE

RE

NT

IAL

A

RG

UM

EN

TS


1900–1950



LAST TRUMPET

IMMINENT RETURN

OF CHRIST

RESCUE FROM


MISSING CHURCH

IN REV. 4-19

RETURN “WITH”



PROBLEM

REMOVAL OF THE



LAST TRUMPET

IMMINENT RETURN

OF CHRIST

RESCUE FROM

WRATH

MISSING CHURCH

IN REV. 4-19

RETURN “WITH”



PROBLEM

REMOVAL OF THE


Abandoning the Male Son 6. The most popular sources for the Pretribulation rapture (Scofield Bible, Clarence Larkin, Hal Lindsey, etc.) popularized the doctrine without its original exegetical foundation. 7. 1950–2000, Pretribulation Rapture lost much of its support among those who found the arguments unconvincing.


INFE

RE

NT

IAL

A

RG

UM

EN

TS


1925–1975


1950–2000


“Okay, okay. Enough history. Show me in the

Bible.”


Revelation 12:5 And she gave birth to a son, a male, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.


The Other Children (Rev 12:17)

Jesus? The Reformation? Scripture? Emperor Constantine? Believers? The Church?

Satan? The World System against the Saints (Dan 7:1–7); see Rev 17:12–17

CAST OF CHARACTERS IN REVELATION 12

The Dragon (Rev 12:3–4)

The Male Son (Rev 12:4–5)

Mary? Faithful Remnant (Spiritual) Israel (Gen 37:9–10); identical to 144,000 (7:1–8)

The Woman (Rev 12:1–2)

Gentile Believers and Martyrs of the Tribulation (Rev 7:9–17); see Rev 6:9–11

IV(2): The Cast

What Child

Is This?


What Child Is This? 1. Christ and Christ Alone • “The reference here is unmistakably to

the birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea.” (Smith, A Revelation of Jesus Christ, 183)

• “Since this child is born ‘to rule all nations with a rod of iron’ (Rev. 12:5), it can only refer to Christ, the one whose right it is to rule.” (Pentecost, Things to Come, 215)

• Also see Osborne, Beale, Mounce, Swete, Thomas, Walvoord, etc.

• Probably 99% of the people in this auditorium!

IV(3): The Main Character

What Child Is This? 2. Purely Allegorical Figure • Woman=Church; Male Child =

Reformation of the Church (Hall, A Practical and Polemical Commentary, 388)

• Male Child = Regeneration through Christ, Christianity enshrined in the heart, the figurative “throne of God” (John Ranicar, A New Exposition of the Apocalypse, 152, 154)

• Woman = Apostolic Church; Male Child = Holy Scripture!—“This the devil strove to devour as soon as it was written, by mixing spurious scriptures, and monstrous doctrines of heretics with it.” (Wall, Brief Critical Notes, 396)


What Child Is This? 3. Constantine and Christian

Emperors, or, the Triumph of the Persecuted Church through Constantine

• Woman = Persecuted Church; Male Child = Constantine/Christian Emperors

• Roberts, Clavis Bibliorum (1675), 606; Worthington, Miscellanies (1704), 66–67; Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. 2 (1794), 279–280; Pyle, A Paraphrase, with Notes, on the Revelation, (1795), 110; Scott, Commentary on the Holy Bible, vol. 6 (1822), 503; Park, A Concise Exposition of the Apocalypse (1825), 39; Clarke, The New Testament (1844), 515; Lord, An Exposition of the Apocalypse (1847), 313–336.


What Child Is This? 4. The Saved, or, those Born Again

through the Ministry of the Church (the Woman)

• Woman = The Visible, Institutional Church; Male Child = Spiritual, Mystical Church

• “At first sight these words appear applicable only to CHRIST…. But… what is true primarily of Christ alone, is, by virtue of His union with all true members of His body, and by reason of the working of His grace, trans-ferred to them.” (Wordsworth, Lectures on the Apocalypse (1849), 257)


What Child Is This? 5. The New Testament Body of Christ,

“born” from the Old Testament People of God (the Woman)

• “The Christian Church has been supposed to have been figured in this Woman. The crown of twelve stars may agree as well to the twelve Apostles, as to the twelve tribes, did not her parturiency and seed denote an offspring, which gives one descriptive character of the Christian Church, in a spiritual descent from the Jewish….


What Child Is This? 5. The New Testament Body of Christ,

“born” from the Old Testament People of God (the Woman)

• “….There can be no question that Our Lord and his Church are intended by the man child, ‘who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron;’ because the words, taken from prophetic Scripture, are unappropriable but to him.” (Hans Wood, The Revelation of St. John [1787], 157, 160)


The Other Children (Rev 12:17)

Christ and His Body, the Church Saints (Dan 7:13–14, 26–27); see John 15:18–19; Eph 2:14–16

Satan and the World System against the Saints (Dan 7:1–7); see Rev 17:12–17

CAST OF CHARACTERS IN REVELATION 12

The Dragon (Rev 12:3–4)

The Male Son (Rev 12:4–5)

Faithful Remnant (Spiritual) Israel (Gen 37:9–10); identical to 144,000 (7:1–8)

The Woman (Rev 12:1–2)

Gentile Believers and Martyrs of the Tribulation (Rev 7:9–17); see Rev 6:9–11


“Okay, prove it.”


1. Consistency in Symbolism The Woman (Mary/Israel) and the Dragon (Satan/Nations) both represent corporate entities. The Child as Christ/Church is more consistent.

V: Six Arguments Supporting Darby’s Original Rapture Text

2. Allusion to Isaiah 66:7–8 The neuter arsen and image of Israel giving birth in Isaiah 66:7–8 argues for a similar idea of corporate representation.

…kaiV e[teken a[rsen.

—Isa 66:7, LXX

…kaiV e[teken uiJoVn a[rsen.

—Rev 12:5


3. Background of Daniel 7 The vision of the “Son of Man” [huios anthrōpou) in Dan 7:13–14 is interpreted corporately as Messiah and His saints in 7:18; 26–27.


3. Background of Daniel 7 “The corporate interpretation of the man-like figure was in use from the time of the composition of the book of Daniel onwards.” —Maurice Casey, “The Corporate Interpretation of ‘One Like a Son of Man’ (Dan. vii 13) at the Time of Jesus,” Novum Testamentum 18 (1976): 179.


4. Use of Harpazō in 12:5 • Harpazō always means a sudden

snatching. • Often used in rescue contexts

(Acts 23:10; Jude 23). • Rev. 12:5 portrays the Child’s

rescue from the Dragon. • Christ’s ascension to heaven was

neither sudden nor a rescue (Acts 1:10).


4. Use of Harpazō in 12:5 • The ascension of Christ is

described with neutral terms like epairō “be lifted up” (Acts 1:9), anabainō “to ascend” (John 20:17; Eph. 4:8–10); and analambanō “to take up” (Mark 16:19; Luke 1:11).

• Harpazō is inappropriate for describing Christ’s ascension.


4. Use of Harpazō in 12:5 “The verb harpazo, ‘snatch,’ is never used of the ascension of Christ, although anabaino, ‘ascend,’ used of the two witnesses in 11:12, does have this connotation, and is used in relationship to the ascension of Jesus. But in our present text there seems to be no Christological reference. In the LXX and the NT harpazo means to take away by force, usually with the implication that resistance is impossible.” —Ford, Revelation, 200.


4. Use of Harpazō in 12:5 • Harpazō is used for the rapture of

the Church, which is sudden and a rescue (1 Thess. 4:17; 5:9).


5. Use of Psalm 2:9 in Revelation • Psalm 2:9 is alluded to three

times in Revelation. • In 2:26–27 Christ extends the

promise to overcoming believers. • In 19:14–15 Christ is described

as the one who will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

• The Male Child as Christ and the Church is consistent with the book of Revelation’s three uses of Psalm 2:9.


6. Death and Resurrection Missing In the account of the Male Child’s birth, the text makes no mention of his death and resurrection prior to ascension. There seems to be no good explanation of why these essentials of the Gospel would be missing from this text if the passage refers to Christ.


CONCLUSIONS 1. There is no good reason to reject the

view that the Male Son represents the Church in union with Christ.

2. The identification of the Male Son as Christ alone does not account for all of the evidence, and actually contradicts the unaffected meaning of harpazō.

3. The identification of the Male Son as the Church in union with Christ incorporates all of the evidence.

4. Therefore, the best interpretation of Rev. 12:5 is the rapture of the Church described in 1 Thess. 4:17.


Consistency in symbolism + Background of Isa. 66 + Background of Dan. 7 + Language of “snatching” + Use of Ps. 2:9 in Rev. + No death and resurrection

= Rev. 12:5 is the Rapture of the Church


But if this is this the Rapture, how is it related to the future seven-year

Tribulation?


“SIMPLE” ANSWER


3 ½ Years Church Age

Woman (Israel) gives birth to

Male Child

Age of Israel

Dragon tries to destroy the Child

-Child Raptured -War in Heaven

-Dragon Cast Down -Heaven Rejoices

3 ½ Years

Two Beasts Rise Woman Flees

-Beast Reigns 42 Months -War Against the Saints

-Woman Protected 3 ½ Years -God’s Wrath Poured Out

TIMING OF THE RAPTURE IN REV 12:5

-Dragon Pursues Woman

-God Protects Woman

VI: The Timing of the Rapture in the Original Argument

VI: The Timing of the Rapture in the Original Argument

Michael J. Svigel, “What Child Is This? (A Forgotten Argument for the Pre-Tribulation Rapture),” in John Hart, ed., Evidence for the Rapture: A Biblical Case for Pretribulationism (Chicago: Moody, 2015).



LAST TRUMPET

IMMINENT RETURN

OF CHRIST

RESCUE FROM


MISSING CHURCH

IN REV. 4-19

RETURN “WITH”



PROBLEM

REMOVAL OF THE


Michael J. Svigel, Ph.D. Dallas Theological Seminary

michael j. svigel, ph.d. dallas theological seminary · michael j. svigel, “the apocalypse of...

Documents