The resurrection will be the par excellence event of Jesus’s second coming. Jesus and Paul showcase this event in their respective teachings.
So when we come to the book of Revelation one would expect at least a description of it taking place, right?
Pretribulation interpreters place the resurrection at Revelation 4:1:
After these things I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said: “Come up here so that I can show you what must happen after these things.
Is there any description of the resurrection taking place at Rev 4:1? Nope. Pretribulationists force the rapture and resurrection to take place at that point, in order to maintain their errant imminence theology.
Posttribulation interpreters place the resurrection at Rev 19:11–14:
Then I saw heaven opened and here came a white horse! The one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice he judges and goes to war. His eyes are like a fiery flame and there are many diadem crowns on his head. He has a name written that no one knows except himself. He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God. The armies that are in heaven, dressed in white, clean, fine linen, were following him on white horses.
Is there any description of the resurrection taking place at Rev 19:11–14? Nope. Posttribulationists force the rapture and resurrection to take place at that point. In fact, there is a description of the resurrection as having already taken place at a previous point in the book of Revelation with the portrayal of the attire of the armies of heaven.
So both pretribulationism and posttribulationism cannot showcase the resurrection in the book of Revelation within the framework of their interpretation. They force it by assuming that it must take place at their respective chronology.
Prewrath interpreters, on the other hand, locate the resurrection just before the day of the Lord’s wrath is poured out beginning with the breaking of the seventh seal. Between the wrath of man/Satan in the seals and the wrath of God in the trumpets and bowls, the rapture and resurrection take place:
After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. They were shouting out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood there in a circle around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Praise and glory, and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” Then one of the elders asked me, “These dressed in long white robes—who are they and where have they come from?” So I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them.They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat,because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev 7:9–17)
No forcing here! It is a natural interpretation that is consistent with Matthew 24 and Paul’s Thessalonian teaching. The rapture and the resurrection will happen at the cutting short of the Beast’s great tribulation and before the day of the Lord’s wrath.
