Does Revelation 3:10 teach that the church will be raptured before the Great Tribulation (Mat 24:21)?
I read this week that Dr. Richard L. Mayhue said there is only one Second Coming but two events: 1) first the rapture, then 7 years later, and 2) the coming to judge. He believes Rev 3:10 teaches a rapture of the church. Is he correct?
Because you [church at Philadelphia] have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you [all believers everywhere 2000+ years later] from the hour [7 years] of trial [great tribulation] that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. (Rev 3:10)
Am I supposed to read the words “keep you” as “rapture you”? You decide. Notice the play on words in the verse. Jesus says, because you have kept my word, I will keep you—the Greek word is the same: tēreō. This is the same Greek word Jesus used in his prayer for all believers in John 17:15. Let’s look at it. To the Father, Jesus prays for all believers:
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
In John 17:15, Jesus clarifies that He is not asking the Father to remove them from the world. “I do not ask you to take them out.” Jesus plainly says I am not asking you to take them out of the world—don’t rapture them out of the world. Instead, “keep tēreō them from the evil one.” Does Jesus pray one way in John 17:15, I am not asking you to take them out of the world—so for 2000 years, we have not been taken out of the world, but now we are to understand Jesus promises all future believers at some moment in the future they will be taken out of the world? Am I to understand in Rev 3:10 that Jesus is now using tēreō (Gk.) in an entirely different way? Please set your emotions aside and seek to be logically consistent.
Does “keep now” mean catch them up into the clouds (1Th 4:17)? Tēreō is found 71x in 65 verses. I have studied each use. It never means anything remotely close to catching up. Blue Letter Bible online lets you do the same study. The promise in Rev 3:10 is a promise of protection, not evacuation. That idea of protection is consistent with Yahweh rescuing Lot, saving Noah in an ark, saving Moses in a basket, protecting Israel during the plagues, Joseph in prison, Daniel in the lions’ den, and on and on. None of them were removed from the planet. But each was kept (Jude 1).
Why does this matter so much? It matters because it deals with how we interpret Scripture. The technical name is hermeneutics: the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible). Berean, no one gets to lay their theological grid on top of Scripture and make a text say what it doesn’t mean. I don’t, and we don’t. For example, I can’t say the word “temple” in 2Th 2:4 must mean literal temple in Jerusalem, but “church in Philadelphia” (Rev 3:7) means all future global believers. In a time when Christians were being fed to the lions, no believer would have read Rev 3:10 and thought: This is a promise that I will be delivered out of this world to save me from experiencing great tribulation. Ultimately, the issue is hermeneutics, not eschatology. Be a Berean. Be a disciple. Be a self-feeder of God’s word. Don’t let me or anyone else tell you what a text means—study the Bible for yourself.