Does Revelation 3:10 Teach a Pre-Tribulation Rapture? (Part 1)

The “pre-tribulation rapture” is the belief that Jesus will remove the church (the living and the dead) from the earth before the great tribulation. Faithful Christians who believe this often cite Revelation 3:10 as a key proof for this doctrine. However, the preponderance of evidence does not support this claim.

• The “time of testing” which from Jesus promises to protect his church is not the antichrist’s persecution against believers, but his own divine wrath against the antichrist.
• Jesus’ promise is to the Christian congregation at Philadelphia as a collective whole, not to every believer individually. He made good on his promise because the original audience died ordinary deaths long ago. Jesus’ promise will apply equally to his worldwide church at the “time of the testing,” which is yet future.
• In the context of Revelation 3:10, the phrase “keep/protect you from the hour of testing” probably does not mean physical removal out of a situation. Those who argue that it does mean this sometimes believe outdated and erroneous ideas about Greek grammar.
• The bottom line is that Revelation 3:10 (by itself) does not support a pre-tribulation rapture. The preposition translated “from” is a very slender reed upon which to hitch your interpretive wagon. The doctrine may be true. But, it is likely not present in Revelation 3:10.

We’ll examine each of these, below.

What is this “time of testing”?

Here is our text:

The “time of testing” from which Jesus protects the church is the tail end of the great tribulation, when Jesus pours out the seven-seal judgments upon the kingdom of evil. This is a critical point. Many Christians are confused here.

• Revelation 4-18 is not really about the antichrist’s reign of terror against believers—the “great tribulation.” Many Christians think it is about that. But they’re wrong (except for Revelation 13).
• Instead, Revelation 4-18 is about the time at the end of this seven-year “great tribulation” when Jesus pours out the seven seals of judgment upon the kingdom of darkness.

We know this because Revelation 4-5 shows us the solemn run-up to this day of the Lord, which culminates with the slain Lamb being the only one worthy to break the seals and open the scroll which heralds the better tomorrow (Rev 5:2).

• Because Jesus has overcome for his people, as our vicarious and righteous substitute, he alone may open the scroll and its seven seals (Rev 5:5).
• As if to solemnize this awful but necessary time of divine wrath against evil, the angelic creatures sing: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation” (Rev 5:9).
• Before Jesus can receive power, honor, glory, blessing, “and dominion forever and ever,” he must first destroy his evil counterpart and his wicked kingdom. What follows in Revelation 6-16 are the seven-sealed judgments of wrath against the antichrist and Babylon.

The horsemen, the brimstone, the incineration of one-third of the earth’s vegetation, the waters turning to blood, the mutant, demonic locust-like creatures—all the “bad stuff” we associate with Revelation is divine wrath against antichrist and his followers. The antichrist is doing none of this! Instead, Jesus is doing it to the antichrist and to his people.¹

This means this “time of testing—the one about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth” (Rev 3:10) is against unbelievers—against the antichrist and his followers.² Jesus is testing whether they will repent and choose Jesus or cling to darkness. Some translations use the word “trial” here, but this not the best because Jesus is not evaluating the faith of believers. He is testing whether unbelievers will truly continue to reject him.

This judgment ends with the Lord destroying Babylon and the antichrist’s people wailing because Jesus has smashed their world (Rev 18:9-19). “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her” (Rev 18:20). Now that the Lord has vanquished the kingdom of evil, John tells us: “I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns’” (Rev 19:6). Jesus now returns to establish his kingdom on earth (Rev 19:11-21).

So, the “time of testing” is not the antichrist’s persecution of believers—it is Jesus’ wrath upon the kingdom of darkness. During this period, Jesus will protect his people. Before Jesus cracks open the sixth seal of judgment, he commands an angel to mark a vast number of believing Jewish people with his “seal” to protect them from the coming judgments (Rev 7:3; cp. Ezek 9:4-6; Ex 11:6-7, 12:13).

Who does Jesus protect?

Our passage is here—who is Jesus protecting and what kind of protection does he promise? He will protect his church (as a collective whole) from physical and spiritual destruction.

Because the church in Philadelphia (collectively, as a single referent)³ is protected from this time of testing, it’s reasonable to believe that this protection applies to the entire church as a whole. The is a promise to the community, not to every single individual. So, taken collectively as a single community, Jesus will protect his church from this time of testing.

Pre-tribulational Christians go beyond the evidence when they insist that: (a) if any Christians die during the Great Tribulation then Jesus’ promise here is void, so (b) this must mean Jesus promises to physically remove the church from the scene. This does not necessarily follow.

First, as we saw, the “time of testing” is not the antichrist’s persecution of believers—it is Jesus’ wrath upon the kingdom of darkness. So, the entire objection fails.⁴ Some object that, if this be true, then it’s cold comfort indeed:⁵ “A whole bunch of y’all will die during the antichrist’s persecution, but don’t worry—I’ll protect the believers who are still alive when I unleash literal hell on earth. Cheers!” This is a false dilemma that demands: “What took you so long!?” One might as well criticize God for allowing the Israelites to suffer in Egypt before “finally” protecting them during the final plague (Ex 2:23-25; 12:23, 29).

Second, even if we (wrongly) conclude that Jesus does promise protection during the time of antichrist’s persecution during the last 3.5 years of his sinister reign … because Jesus’ promise is to the church as a whole, collectively, it simply means that the church will be protected during this period. That is, as an organism and a worldwide family of Jesus people, Satan shall never destroy the church because the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Indeed, Jesus promised that he would intervene to stop this great tribulation lest no believers be left alive (Mt 24:21-22). That intervention is the judgments of the seven-sealed scroll which together destroy antichrist’s kingdom (culminating at Rev 16, re-told in Rev 17-18).

Will some believers will die during this “time of testing” when Jesus pours out the seven judgments upon the whole world? The answer is yes—but they will die at the antichrist’s hands, not Jesus’ hands. That is, the antichrist will never destroy “the church” as a whole. The Japanese killed many Americans sailors in the Pacific theater of operations in World War 2, but they never destroyed the U.S. Navy. Many Israelites died under Pharoah’s rule in Egypt (Ex 1:15-16), but “Israel” never did die.

• John tells us about believers who have already died during the antichrist’s reign of terror before Jesus responds to the prayers by unleashing judgment upon the kingdom of darkness (Rev 6:9-10, 7:13-14). These martyrs who died during this great tribulation plead for justice upon “those living upon the earth” who killed them—the very people who are the objects of this “time of testing.”
• After Jesus opens the fifth seal, the angels tell the great tribulation martyrs “to rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were to be killed even as they had been, was completed also” (Rev 6:11).
• But, we also see believers being sealed and protected—John highlights Jewish believers in particular who are safe from these judgments (Rev 7:3, cp. Rev 9:4).

Some may protest that it is too fantastic to believe that believers will be protected from death at a time when the first four “trumpet judgments” of the seventh seal destroy a major portion of the world (Rev 8:6-12). But, consider the plagues upon Israel before the Exodus: “But not even a dog will threaten any of the sons of Israel, nor anything from person to animal, so that you may learn how the LORD distinguishes between Egypt and Israel … The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” (Ex 11:6, 12:13).

More to come, next week, on what it means to be “kept from the time of testing.”