God's wrath and God's people

God's Wrath and God's People:
A Case of Collateral Damage¹
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2009

The assertion, as some advocates of a pre-tribulation rapture contend, that believers will not be present when God pours out His wrath on the wicked, fails on two counts.² First, it lacks the support of examples from scripture when God has removed the righteous from the scene of His judgment and, second, it does not account for counter-examples in scripture, those times when the Lord executed judgment against the ungodly despite the presence of the godly. Such instances are always when the wicked significantly outnumber the righteous³ and, whereas the focus of divine anger is against the wicked, the righteous community is not necessarily spared from unpleasantness and may even suffer collateral damage.⁴

• When God brought the flood on earth's wicked, He did not remove earth's righteous, who had to endure the flood,⁵ albeit from the safety of the ark.⁶

• When God brought the plagues against Egypt, He did not remove the Israelites, who had to endure at least some of God's judgment.⁷

• When God brought Canaanite forces against rebellious Israelites, He did not remove righteous Israelites, and some may have suffered.⁸

• When God brought the Assyrians against rebellious Israelites, He did not remove righteous Israelites, and some may have suffered.⁹

• When God brought the Babylonians against rebellious Jews, He did not remove righteous Jews, and some did indeed suffer.¹⁰

These cases of divine judgment illustrate that God does not necessarily remove the righteous before (or when) He punishes the wicked.¹¹ If He did not do so in the past, it is false hope to expect that God will do so in the future, that He will rapture the saints before pouring out His wrath on the wicked.¹² Nevertheless, the saints will still enjoy a qualitatively different fate than the unrighteous: a blissful eternity with God.

For the Bibliography and extensive Endnotes, see the pdf here.