The explanation of the original Pre-wrath Rapturists, like Dr. Marvin Rosenthal (and his son), that the Trumpets and Bowls are part of the Day of the Lord outpouring of God’s wrath, before which the church is raptured, does make a lot of sense. The fact that the Bowls are referred to as “the wrath of God” is a strong argument in favor of that explanation. However, concerning these truth claims that: “the first six seals are not God’s wrath” (Dr. Alan Kurschner, Post-trib Pre-wrath Eschatology, 38:11), but, the Trumpets and the Bowl judgments are the Day of the Lord day of wrath, I would raise the following questions and concerns.

First, I definitely agree that the definition of “the day of the Lord” is key to our understanding of this whole subject of Eschatology and the rapture question (I recently preached a whole sermon and have several chapters in my books on just on this topic). Clearly letting scripture interpret scripture, this pivotal phrase appears about 25 times (depending on the version used), and is always about a day of judgment – not a prolonged period of 7 years of tribulation, or 3 ½ years of great tribulation, or 1007 years of tribulation and the millennium (as per Walvoord, LaHay and most Pre-tribulation Rapturists). However, there are also other considerations directly related to both key scriptures, and their interpretations, which I think may have been overlooked, which drive me to a slightly different understanding. While it is definitely still Pre-wrath, but staying with the definition of the “day of the Lord” as being God’s wrath poured out, it is not necessarily the natural disasters associated with all of the cosmic events of the Trumpets and Bowls.

To begin with the sixth seal is the sign the prophets, such as Joel (2:30-31), and Jesus (Matthew 24:29-31), prophesied as that which precedes the “day of the Lord”. It is about the cosmic intruders, the stars falling from the sky, which causes the sun to be darkened, to look like “sackcloth made with hair”, and the moon to become blood red in appearance. Theologians seem to fail to relate these descriptions to real world events, in terms of physical realities, which John was seeing like a movie in his visions. However, they will be physical realities happening in the real world. As such their interpretation and explanation is much more realistically and adequately explained by what we now know from science. When we take that next step to concretize the reality of what John was seeing and describing, it sheds light on how the whole revelation should be understood.

It is essential to understand what John meant by “the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind” (Rev. 6:13). Theologians seem to almost ignore this, as far as relating it to any real event, probably because they don’t really know the science (An exception to this is a Bible scholar who is also a scientist, Dr. Jeffrey Goodman, who is informed on such subjects, in particular comets, which he explains in his book The Comets of God). However, such an oversight leads to a failure to accurately understand what is being described throughout Revelation, especially with respect to the 6^th Seal, the 7 Trumpets, and the 7 Bowls. They fail to see the intrinsic connection between all of them, and thus the timing of all of the events. Sadly, they also fail to recognize the amazing proof for the divine nature of these revelations to John, who could not have known the science associated with such revelations.

It is difficult for me to understand how so many men miss the fact that the events described in terms of the Trumpet judgments begin with the cosmic events of the extraterrestrial bodies called “stars” (in Greek “asters” (ἀστέρες)”= “luminous body like a star, luminary.”) of 6:13. The first Trumpet begins with the “hail and fire mixed with blood, [which] …was hurled to the earth” (7:7). The second Trumpet is described as “something like a great mountain burning with fire [which] was hurled into the sea” (7:8). Obviously, they are not what we know as “stars” today in modern English, but they are the luminous heavenly bodies which is what the Greek word used in 6:13 actually means. Such cosmic intruders of the sixth Seal are the same as those of the Trumpets, not another set which follow after those of the sixth Seal.

Furthermore, once we do recognize the physical realities John is seeing and describing, the extraterrestrial cosmic intruders into our earth’s atmosphere, all the rest of the details of the ensuing Trumpets and Bowls are obviously related, natural consequences of those initial sign events. Many of those details actually match very closely what is known about comets today, and the earthly and heavenly (atmospheric) natural consequences of such an encounter. They would cause cataclysmic pollution of our atmosphere, earthquakes, storms of huge hailstones, massive wildfires and forest fires, pollution of the streams, rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. The atmospheric pollution including smoke from the fires and volcanoes would obscure the light from the sun, moon and stars. The sun as viewed through the beard or tail of the comet would appear very hairy (“comet,” comes from the Greek word “Kome” which is translated “hair,” or the Latin word “stella cometa,” which literally translated means “hairy star”), which is how the sun would appear as viewed through “sackcloth” (like a burlap bag). They were referred to by the ancients as “hairy stars”. This is exactly what was reported by observers of past encounters with Comets, such as Haley’s Comet.

We are clearly told in Joel 2:30-31 and Matthew 24:29-30 that these are the signs which will mark the beginning of the “day of the Lord”. According to Jesus in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew, it is associated with the rapture of the “elect” (which in every other occurrence in scripture is the church). According to Revelation 6:12-17, this sixth Seal is “the wrath of the Lamb …  the great day of Their wrath.” According to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:9 it is both the rapture and the day of the Lord’s wrath (the “second coming of Christ”), with no time gap between the two.

However, these sets of 7 events or developments are not separate catastrophic events, but are all parts of a whole, a global development with identifiable stages. The first five seals are precursors to the “day of the Lord” events and processes and thus not necessarily included in that terminal event at the second coming of Christ. They are what Jesus describes in the first 26 verses of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. However, the sixth Seal begins the revelation about that climactic series of events culminating in “day of the Lord”, which is the “day of the Lord’s wrath” at the second coming of Christ. It is a catastrophic event which destroys the whole earth and all those still on the earth. It is a preliminary description of what is developed further and explained more in the 7^th Trumpet and the 7^th Bowl, which in turn correspond to the Battle of HarMagedon and Christ’s return in the 19^th chapter of Revelation.

The idea that the Trumpet and Bowl judgments are all included in the 7^th Seal may be almost correct, except that it would be the 6^th Seal. The 7^th Seal tells us nothing about the following Trumpets and Bowls, but only tells us that at that point the judgments are over, represented by the “silence in heaven for about half an hour”. The chapter break there is very misleading, as the second verse of the 8^th chapter begins a description of a new vision revealed to John about the Trumpets, with no indicated connection with the 7^th Seal. However, the rest of that 8^th and the 9^th chapter do connect with the sixth seal, beginning with the “asters” falling from the sky. The Trumpets describe in detail how such cosmic events will affect the earth, and the Bowls give some detail as to how they will affect the human inhabitants of the earth. If we don’t recognize the connection between them the whole picture become incoherent and somewhat nonsensical in terms of realistic interpretations and explanations.

However, this is not to say that they are just repetitive parallel descriptions of the same events and processes. Rather, as is necessary in describing any involved complex developments there are progressive stages with many simultaneous events involved. Thus, beginning with the initial events of the 6^th Seal there is a progression and evolution of developments described in the descriptions called Trumpets followed by descriptions of a later stage of such developments in the Bowls – such as the progression from 1/3 of the earth and waters (Rev. 8:7-8) to the whole earth and waters being ultimately affected (15:3-4), and the people on the earth being affected (15:2 & 8-11).

An important distinction the Pre-wrath advocates make which distinguishes them from the Pre-tribulation view is the difference between what is God’s wrath poured out on the unsaved world, and the wrath of Satan, the Antichrist and their followers. Thus, the “day of the lord” and the “day of the Lord’s wrath” cannot be the whole 7-year Tribulation Period, nor even the whole last half of that period when the Saints (which is the church at that time) will be persecuted by the Antichrist. It is contrary to clear scripture (such as 1 Thess. 5:9) to suggest that what will be happening during any part of that Tribulation Period (the 70^th week of Daniel), which affects God’s own people, will be the outpouring of the wrath of God. However, up until the 7^th Trumpet as described in Revelation 11:15-19, and the 7th Bowl of 16:17-21, it is not about God’s wrath being poured out, but rather the very destructive natural effects of the cosmic events, comet strikes and likely meteor strikes (the latter commonly associated with comets). It is at Christ’s second coming of Revelation 19, to fight His enemies at the battle of HarMagedon of 16:16-21, which is also the coming of the 7^th Trumpet of 11:15-19, when His wrath is poured out (which is also described in Revelation 14:14-20).

While the “rest of her children” of Revelation 12:17, who are “the brethren” “who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” will be persecuted by the dragon, Satan, there are indications that there will be divine protection for some from those natural disasters. An example is the scorpion-like locusts coming out of the “bottomless pit” (the description of which sounds like a volcano caused by the comet strike). According to Revelation 9:4 they were not allowed to harm the men who had the seal of God on their foreheads. While this could be understood as only referring to the 144,000 of chapter 7, it seems most logical that the 144,000 are the “woman” of chapter 12 who will be sequestered away and protected by God for the whole 1260 days of the Great Tribulation, during which time this 5^th Trumpet will occur.

Then we see the first bowl of 16:2, the loathsome and malignant sores, which only affects those who have the mark of the beast and worship him, which implies there will be others not affected by this plague. Then the fifth bowl was only poured out on the Beast and his kingdom, as opposed to the whole earth and all those on the earth (16:10). If these Trumpets and Bowls are not poured out until after the rapture, and they are part of the wrath of God being poured out, who would it be that would be spared from them?

Some contend, as the Pre-tribulation Rapturists do, that these catastrophic natural events, mostly caused by the “falling stars” (i.e. comet and meteor encounters), must all be God intervening in nature to execute judgment on the sinful world. But the reality is that such natural locally catastrophic events, comet and meteor encounters, earthquakes, volcanoes, hailstorms, etc. have always occurred throughout the history of the world. Many have suffered and died from such disasters, including the righteous. But most of us recognize that such is just the course of nature – not God selectively pouring out His judgement on men. It is not clear why they should have to be God’s wrath in these last days, anymore than any other time. Unlike the fire from heaven which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, or the sudden unnatural death of Ananias and Sapphira, these are events of nature as opposed to supernatural divine interventions in nature.

As stated previously, the explanation that the Trumpets and Bowls are part of the Day of the Lord pouring out of God’s wrath, before which the church is raptured, does make a lot of sense. The fact that the Bowls are referred to as “the wrath of God” is a strong argument in favor of that explanation. However, the last verse of that 15^th chapter, 15:8 gives us the following additional information:

 “ ⁷And one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. ⁸And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.” (Rev. 15:7-8)

However, according to Rev. 7 those who have been raptured before that day of the Lord’s wrath will be serving God in that temple:

“the ones who come out of the great tribulation, … have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.” (Rev. 7:14-15)

Furthermore, other passages which address this issue of the timing of the rapture and the day of the Lord second coming event, do not allow for any significant time gap between the two, but seem to be saying they are to occur virtually simultaneously:

“ ¹⁶For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸Therefore, comfort one another with these words. ¹Now as to the periods and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need of anything to be written to you. ²For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night. ³While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that the day would overtake you like a thief;…” (1Thess. 4:16 – 5:4)

The “day of the Lord” is not only not the whole 7-year Tribulation Period, but is also not the first 5 Seals, the first six Trumpets and the first six Bowls. It is where 1 Thess. 5:2-3 (cited above), and Revelation 11 explicitly put it:

“¹⁵Then the seventh [trumpet] angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.’ ¹⁶And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷saying, ‘We give You thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. ¹⁸And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.’ ¹⁹And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.” (Rev. 11:15-19)

Surely any honest truth seeker can see the parallels with the following related passages:

“¹⁷Then the seventh [Bowl] angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, ‘It is done.’ ¹⁸And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since mankind came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. ¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. ²⁰And every island fled, and no mountains were found. ²¹And huge hailstones, weighing about a talent each, came down from heaven upon people; and people blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because the hailstone plague was extremely severe.” (Rev. 16:17-1)

“⁵¹Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1Corinthians 15:51-52)

Where is there any actual scripture which tells us that there will be a rapture before the 70^th week of Daniel (the 7-year Tribulation Period) begins? Similarly, where is there any actual scripture which tell us that it happens before the Trumpet and Bowl judgments begin, or any time before the end of that last 1260 days, 42 months, or 3 ½ years (“time, times and half a time”)? All the above passages appear to indicate that it will happen at the end of that period, but before God’s wrath is poured out on the Dragon, the Beast, and all of their followers. While the logical arguments of the Pre-wrath but not Post Tribulational Rapturists are pretty convincing, are they not lacking literal support from scripture? Do they not involve reading into those related passages something which is not there, similar to what the Pre-trib Rapturists do?

A strawman argument is that the Post-tribulational view maintains that the “day” in “the day of the Lord” is interpreted as a literal 24 hour solar day. That is simply not necessarily the case. What is true is that it is argued that the word “day” does not mean the whole 7-year Tribulation Period, as maintained by most Pre-tribulationist (and for many the whole 1000 year Millennium as well). It is also not believed to be a rather prolonged period as would be required by all the Trumpets and Bowls, especially if they are interpreted as sequential with respect to time. It is believed, at least by this Post-trib Pre-wrath Rapturist, that the events and processes of that day of judgment could be only 24 hours, or even virtually instantaneous, but could also take more than one day. It could even be the thirty days of Daniel’s extension to 1290 days, 30 days beyond the 1260 days of Revelation (which seems to be a likely explanation for the difference between the two accounts). The only point being that it will happen at the end of that period, after the first five Seals, the first six Trumpets and Bowls, and it will be the sixth Seal, the 7^th Trumpet, and the 7^th Bowl.

Again, one must concede that the reference to what Jesus said in Matthew 24:22 about those days being cut short, could be understood to mean that a rapture of the elect will happen before the end of that whole Great Tribulation Period – but that is a stretch which seems to require a lot of reading into the related texts something that isn’t actually stated, and manipulating what is there. According to Revelation, that period known as the Great Tribulation will be 1260 days, or 42 months, or 3 ½ years. There is nothing there that indicates a rapture during that period, or that the “day of the Lord”, or the “day of Christ”, will begin somewhere in that period. Instead, what is there is the indication that the 7^th Trumpet of Revelation 11:15-19 will be when Christ returns to begin to actually judge the dead, and when the prophets and saints are to be rewarded. This requires a resurrection at that time, which agrees with a literal interpretation of 1Corinthians 15:52 as the “last trump” (as opposed to the very speculative interpretations invoking other Old Testament trumpets or the Jewish Shofar blown at their feasts). It also requires a rapture of the church at that time which according to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is concurrent with the resurrection. It agrees with 1 Thessalonians 5 that the rapture event of the 4th chapter is immediately associated with the day of the Lord judgment – the destruction that comes suddenly on the unsaved like “a thief in the night”.

Perhaps a more consistent interpretation of those days being cut short of Matthew 24:22-23, in light of what is what is not stated elsewhere would be that Christ returns to rapture His church before the Antichrist is allowed to accomplish what he was trying to do, and before the final destructive events of the 7^th trumpet and the 7^th bowl. Since they are the terminating events of this 1260 days of the Great Tribulation (which even the Rosenthals do not suggest becomes less than that 3 ½ years), for the elect that time of Great Tribulation on the earth will be cut short. They will not have to go through the part which will be God pouring out His wrath, when according to Zephaniah 1:18 and Revelation 19:21, the earth will be completely destroyed, and all the remaining inhabitants of the earth will be killed.

With regard to the repeated fact that no one will know the day or the hour, to explain the position that the beginning of this day of the Lord is not known other than it is sometime between the midpoint and the end of that period, there is again a scriptural problem. While Jesus did say in Matthew 24:36 and 42 that “no one knows the day or the hour”, this follows His words in the preceding 32^nd and 33^rd verses:

“³²Now learn the parable from the fig tree: as soon as its branch has become tender and sprouts its leaves, you know that summer is near; ³³so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.”

            Furthermore, according to 1 Thessalonians 5:

“²For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night. ³While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that the day would overtake you like a thief; ⁵for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-5)

            The whole point of the admonitions to be alert and sober is to see the signs, and to know when Christ’s return is “near, right at the door”, to be prepared for that day. Ironically the Pre-tribulation Rapturists insist on their doctrine of “imminence”, which even they don’t really believe as they are always pointing to the signs Jesus was alluding to which tell us His coming is near – prophesied events and developments which have to happen before Christ returns (such as the existence of Israel and Jerusalem, for example). According to Joel these cosmic sign events happen “before that great and awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:30-31). According to Matthew Jesus describes the same events as happening when He sends forth His angels to gather together the elect – i.e. the rapture of the church (contrary to the Pre-trib. interpretations). If we interpret that in light of what Joel revealed we understand that those cosmic sign events must precede Christ’s appearance and the rapture of the church.

However, such unique and portentous events and processes as described by both Joel and Jesus would seem to be the sixth Seal, and in turn the first few Trumpet events of Revelation. Would this not be another indicator that those cataclysmic cosmic events related to the cosmic intruders, the “stars” or “asteres”, probably comets and meteors, are occurring before that great and awesome day of the Lord – not included in the day of the Lord? If such is the case, would not the rapture be after the 6 Seals, and the first six Trumpets and Bowls?

This “thief in the night” metaphor of 1 Thessalonians 5:2 gives us another indicator about the timing of this “day of the Lord” event, if we let scripture interpret scripture. We see it first in Matthew 24:43, which in context is about when the rapture and the second coming of Christ will occur, which according to 24:29-31 is “after the tribulation of those days”. Then we see it again in 2 Peter 3:10 where it is explicitly described as the time “in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be discovered.” That doesn’t happen until Christ actually returns, and the battle of HarMagedon occurs, which is exactly where we find the last appearance of this same metaphor, Revelation 16:15, between the sixth bowl and the 7^th bowl – the consummation, the end of the whole Tribulation Period. According to the Pre-wrath view per Drs. Marvin and David Rosenthal (both father and son), this “thief in the night” should be occurring before the first bowl, not after the sixth bowl, if 1Thessalonians 5:2 is to be believed (and for that matter Revelation 3:3), that it happens at the resurrection/rapture, at the second coming of Christ.  

Again, the Pre-wrath Rapture view is by far the most scriptural and logical eschatological view since at least the very early church – probably, from all recorded indications the view held by that first church. Whether the day of the Lord and thus the rapture begins before the Trumpets and Bowls of Revelation, thus before the end of that Tribulation Period, may not be all that clear from the explicit texts, as either view involves considerable human logic and interpretation. Similar to the big problem with the Pre-trib Rapture view, it may not be a matter of much consequence for most of us living now. It may also not be of much consequence to those living during that end time period, except that those who will be expecting Christ to return before all these cosmic disasters begin to happen may become very confused, even disillusioned if they are in fact still here when such catastrophic disasters are all happening. If they are indeed raptured before they begin to happen, it won’t really matter which interpretation they will believe, they will have been mentally prepared for something they won’t have to face. But the alternative may be fatal to their faith and hope in the face of the worst trials they will ever have to face.