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I responded to pretrib teacher and pastor Jesse Johnson and his claim in an article he wrote about Revelation 3:10 supporting a pretrib rapture.
“Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” (Revelation 3:10)
I actually agreed with Johnson’s view that the hour of testing refers to the day of the Lord’s wrath. But he assumes that this proves a pretrib rapture. It does not. Johnson makes two mistakes in assuming that his view supports pretribulationism.
First, he fails to distinguish between the event of the Antichrist’s great tribulation and the event of the day of the Lord’s wrath. He assumes they are one and the same. This skews his pretrib conclusion about being raptured before the Antichrist arrives.
Second, he fails to recognize that Revelation 3:10 does not address when the day of the Lord begins. That is the watershed question. Focusing only on Revelation 3:10 is limiting, so pretribs are notorious for reading a whole theology into this single verse. Johnson assumes (again) that the day of the Lord must begin before the seven-year period. However, the interpreter must look outside of Revelation 3:10 and to the book of Revelation as a whole to be informed of the nature and the timing of the day of the Lord.
In short, Revelation 3:10 addresses the promise of a deliverance from the “hour of testing,” not its nature and timing.
Prewrath teaches that the rapture of the church will happen before the day of the Lord’s wrath, but not before the Antichrist’s great tribulation. We will be rescued from the hour of testing (day of the Lord), but not from the persecution of the Antichrist during the great tribulation that will come upon the church.
Links mentioned:
Revelation 3:10 and the Pre-trib Rapture by Jesse Johnson
