Rapture versus “translation.”
I personally don’t like the word “rapture,” because it is not in the Bible. The word describes the way that the people will feel who are caught up to be with Jesus - rapturous. I prefer the word “translation.” (Hebrews 11:5). “Enoch was translated without seeing death.” He was a “type” or representative of those living people who will be caught up to the clouds when Jesus returns. Moses is a type of those who have died and will be raised to life by Jesus when he returns.
GOD’S SERVANTS WILL BE SPARED THE “WRATH” TO COME
I THESSALONIANS 1:10 “... wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
I THESSALONIANS 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I THESSALONIANS 1:10 “... wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
The fire did not fall on Sodom and Gomorrah until the angels had rescued Lot. The rain did not fall until Noah and his family were safe in the ark. The destroying angel did not pass through Egypt until God’s children were safe behind the doors painted with the blood of the Lamb. The stubble of last year’s fields is not burned until the harvest has been safely gathered in. God cannot completely withdraw His spirit from this world, so long as His servants are here. He cannot then pour out His final wrath, which results from the withdrawing of His spirit, until those servants are safe in the “Father’s house.” The Church is to expect trial, but not the “wrath of God.”
The teaching of a secret pretribulation rapture is a doctrine that never existed before 1830. Did the pretribulation rapture come into existence by a careful exegesis of Scripture? No. The first person to teach the doctrine was a young woman named Margaret Macdonald. Margaret was not a theologian or Bible expositor but was a prophetess in the Irvingite sect (the Catholic Apostolic Church).