Part 1: Free-Trip Reward Offered to Joseph Prince & his Supporters & Anyone who can find me an Explicit Text that Proves that Rapture will happen before Tribulation (Pre-Trib Rapture)
Part 2: Joseph Prince’s Use of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 to Prove the Pre-Trib Rapture is Demolished
Conversation between George Ong & Peter Kho
Note: Joseph Prince didn’t preach yesterday on 13 Apr 2025.
(This article was also sent to Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) office, and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.)
In a sermon on 19 Jan 2025, Joseph Prince said:
“So, we have the rapture.
When is the rapture?
It’s before the 7-year tribulation.”
In a sermon on 2 Feb 2025, Joseph Prince said:
“So, when the rapture happens
you are going up there straight (heaven).”
In both sermons,
Joseph Prince said that believers in the church
will escape the 7-year tribulation,
as they will be in heaven during that time.
In a third sermon, Joseph Prince said:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 NKJV
13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
The assertion of Joseph Prince
that believers will escape tribulation
by being raptured to heaven for 7 years
based on 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
is demolished
in a Conversation between George Ong & Peter Kho.
Part 1: Free-Trip Reward Offered to Joseph Prince & his Supporters & Anyone who can find me an Explicit Text that Proves that Rapture will happen before Tribulation (Pre-Trib Rapture)
Verbatim Notes No 1:
“Yes, it is true.
There is no explicit text
that proves the Pre-trib rapture doctrine.
All of their arguments are by inference.
Pre-trib rapture means
that rapture will happen before tribulation.
This fact that there is no explicit text
that proves the Pre-trib rapture
is even admitted by scholars
of the Pre-trib rapture doctrine themselves.”
Verbatim Notes No 2:
“Now, in order to show that I’m dead serious
about the falsity of the Pre-trib rapture teaching
of Joseph Prince,
I’m throwing out an offer.
And the offer is made to Joseph Prince and anyone
that if they can show me one verse or passage
that explicitly proves the Pre-trib rapture
– that the church will be raptured before tribulation
─ I will give them each
a free trip to anywhere in the world.
I’m dead serious about the falsity
of Joseph Prince’s Pre-trib rapture doctrine
that I’m putting my money where my mouth is.
More than that,
I am placing my whole integrity on the line,
should anyone succeed in digging up
just one verse or passage that explicitly supports
the Pre-trib rapture doctrine.
This is not the first time that I have made such an offer.
I’ve already made the same offer
to several thousands of people on previous occasions.
So far, none of these several thousands of people,
and I say again, none,
has come forward to claim the free-trip reward.”
Verbatim Notes No 3:
“Just in case some of you think
I’m being foolish or impulsive,
you are clearly mistaken
as I’ve thoroughly searched the scriptures inside out
and I could not find any such verse or passage.
Now, it is Joseph Prince’s turn
to sweat it out and search the scriptures
for any verse or passage
that explicitly proves his Pre-trib rapture doctrine
– that the church will be raptured before tribulation.
If no one, including Joseph Prince,
can show me what I’ve reasonably asked for,
to show me one explicit text
that proves the Pre-trib rapture doctrine,
don’t you think that one’s belief
in the Pre-trib rapture doctrine is utterly misplaced?
Yet, unbelievably, despite this,
multitudes have been ‘bought over’
by Joseph Prince’s teaching
that the church will be raptured before tribulation.”
Verbatim Notes No 4:
“It is not difficult to see why the Pre-trib rapture position
is so popular.
Its popularity lies in the fact that it is such a palatable
and comfortable message to swallow, isn’t it?
It goes with the flow of easy Christianity.
It is nothing
but another of Joseph Prince’s feel-good theology
that panders to our comfort zone.
Tell me – who wouldn’t want to be raptured to heaven
to escape all the tribulation on earth?
But a popular and comfortable message
doesn’t necessarily represent the tough truth.
So, when someone postures a Christianity
of a crown without a cross,
a victory without a battle,
success without effort,
and rapture before tribulation
your spiritual antennas must immediately be raised.”
Part 2: Joseph Prince’s Use of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 to Prove the Pre-Trib Rapture is Demolished
Verbatim Notes No 1:
“Yes, Joseph Prince frequently uses 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
as one of the key passages
to support the Pre-tribulation rapture doctrine.
He said the passage teaches
that Christ will come for His saints and rapture them
prior to the last seven years before the Great Tribulation.
But this is mere presumption,
because the text contains no indication
when this Pre-tribulation rapture will take place.
For example, 7 years is not mentioned in the text.
The text also does not contain any reference at all
to the Great Tribulation.
I repeat.
The text also does not contain any reference at all
to the Great Tribulation.
While the idea of rapture is found in the passage, yes,
yet, the idea of tribulation is totally absent from the text.
So how can one prove the relationship
between two ideas
when one idea is totally absent?
I mean if you want to prove
that rapture must happen before tribulation,
then both ideas
rapture and tribulation must be present in the text
before you can claim that 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
is an explicit text
to prove rapture happens before tribulation.
So, 1 Thessalonians 4 merely proves
that rapture will happen.
That’s all.
But it contains no proof
that rapture must happen before tribulation
simply because the word or concept of tribulation
is absent from the text.
So, it is clear that Joseph Prince
in interpreting 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
has, as usual, read his ideas into the passage
because Paul didn’t put them there.
Even the key text in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
that Joseph Prince uses to support the teaching
that rapture must happen before tribulation
has fallen far short
and it is a total disappointment.”
Verbatim Notes No 2:
“The reason for Paul’s writing of the passage
has nothing to do, I say again,
absolutely nothing to do
with their concern about being raptured
before the tribulation.
As I had pointed out,
nothing was mentioned about the tribulation
in the text at all.
So what is the context?
You see, the context in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4
was that in the light of Christ’s coming,
the Thessalonians were concerned
about the hope and place of the dead,
that is, those who have already passed away.
Let me read:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NASB
13 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. 15 For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For 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. 17 Then 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. 18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”
I want you to notice:
13 those who are asleep,
14 those who have fallen asleep.
15 those who have fallen asleep.
16 the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them
You notice the concern of the Thessalonians
were those who are asleep,
meaning those who had already died.
The Thessalonians feared that the dead
whom they mourned
would be at a disadvantage at Christ’s coming.
So Paul had to assure them
that they will have the advantage, by assuring them
First V13,
the dead will have hope. What hope?
Second, V14,
they have the hope of being resurrected.
Third, V15 and 16,
they, the dead, will have priority over the living.
How?
Because the dead will be resurrected
before the rapture of the living.
So Paul’s focus was on the resurrection of the dead
rather than the rapture of the living.
While Pre-tribulationists, such as Joseph Prince,
tries to make this passage
more about the rapture than resurrection,
the emphasis of this text
is clearly on the resurrection rather than rapture.
And in the discussion of the resurrection,
Paul included the rapture.
However, Paul establishes the priority
that dead saints would be raised and changed first,
then to be followed by living believers.
So, the emphasis of the text
is about the transformation
of both the dead and living believers
who will both receive their glorified bodies
when Christ comes,
That’s the emphasis.
The emphasis of the text
is not about a secret Pre-trib rapture
to escape the tribulation
because there is nothing in the text that says that.
Yes, it talks about rapture
but it never talks about the tribulation.
It never talks about the fact
that we will be raptured before tribulation.
That is not in the text at all.”
Verbatim Notes No 3:
“Then Paul ends chapter 4 on a high note
In 1 Thessalonians 4:18,
18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”
What is the comfort?
The comfort is not over the fact
that a believer will escape the tribulation
as Joseph Prince would want us to believe.
The chief reason for their comfort
is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18:
17 Then 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. 18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”
In other words,
being with the Lord forever through all eternity,
in 1 Thessalonians 4:17
and not the escape from tribulation
through the Pre-trib rapture,
is the reason for our comfort or encouragement.
This is an “indictment”
on Joseph Prince and the Pre-tribulationists
as the key text 1 Thessalonians 4
that they say prove their Pre-trib rapture
has absolutely nothing to show for.”
Verbatim Notes No 4:
“Joseph Prince and the Pre-tribulationists claim that
when Jesus comes back again in 1 Thessalonians 4,
He is coming to take believers back to heaven.
He uses the argument of the rapture of the saints
to meet the Lord “in the air”
to prove their theory
that Christ does not come to earth at this time,
but returns to heaven.
Joseph Prince teaches that Jesus will pause in the air,
gather the saints, and then go back into heaven.
But what Joseph Prince teaches
is nowhere found in the text.
Although Paul says believers will be snatched up in the air
to meet Jesus,
he never says that Jesus would turn around,
switch direction
and goes back up to heaven for seven years.
Joseph Prince has to insert that into the text
to prove his doctrine.
If I may put it comically,
Jesus will not bungee jump down to cloud level in mid-air,
rapture the Church,
and then bungee back up to heaven
for another seven years.
Does the Bible teach this?
Now, you must remember
that there are already many believers who have died
and their souls are in heaven, in heaven with Christ
even though their bodies are not yet resurrected
until Christ comes.
So, why would Jesus “go through all the trouble”
to bring the dead in Christ from heaven,
leave them in the air for a while,
then make a U-turn
and go all the way back to heaven?
Why would Jesus give the dead a resurrected body
and then bring them back to heaven again?
The reason Jesus is giving them a resurrected body
is to enable the dead (who will be resurrected)
and the living (who will be raptured)
not to live in heaven but to live on earth,
and to reign with Him in His millennial kingdom.
I mean that’s what resurrected bodies are for;
not to live in heaven but to reign with Him on earth.
What this means is that resurrected and raptured bodies
are supposed to be on earth to reign with Christ
in the millennial kingdom
and not go back to heaven.
But I’d tell you why Joseph Prince
would propound such a theory
– the theory that Jesus would bring everybody
to go on a ‘bungee jumping’
and that He would go through all the trouble
resurrecting the dead,
giving them new bodies
and bringing them back to heaven
after having met them in the air.
The reason is this
– because the last generation of believers
wants so badly to escape tribulation
by being raptured out of this earth.
Isn’t that a selfish thing to do?
Just imagine – every believer,
who has died throughout all the ages,
and who belongs to the majority in heaven,
needs to come down with Jesus
and go back up with Jesus again
– only for the minority,
the living believers at the time of Jesus’ coming
to be raptured to safety and escape tribulation.
What a selfish thing to do?
No, a rapture to escape tribulation
is not taught in the scriptures.”
Verbatim Notes No 5:
“Next, let’s examine the word translated as “descend”
in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NASB).
And when the word descend is used,
it always implies a complete descent,
not to hang up in mid-air:
1 Thessalonians 4:16 NASB
16 For 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.
Every other New Testament use of this expression
“descend from heaven”
in the many Bible verses
refers to a descent all the way to the earth.
You can take your time to refer to these passages:
Matt 28:2 NASB; Jn 1:32 NASB; Jn 1:51 NASB;
Jn 3:13 NASB; Acts 11:5 ESV; Rev 10:1 NET;
Rev 21:2 NET.
Other passages are: Lk 9:54; Jn 6:33, 38, 41,
50-51, 58; Rev 13:13; 16:21; 20:9.
Let’s just take two examples: Matthew 28:2 and John 1:32:
Matthew 28:2 NASB
2 “And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it.”
Notice, complete descent, not half way.
John 1:32 NASB
32 And John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.”
Notice again, complete descent, not half way.
So, one can clearly see that when the scriptures
used the expression “descend from heaven,”
they always imply a complete descent.
So, it’s the same with 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
1 Thessalonians 4:16, which records
Jesus descending from heaven is no exception:
16 For 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.
Nowhere in the text of 1 Thessalonians 4:16
or Matthew 28:2 or John 1:32
does the word “descending” imply a reversal.
So, the picture is not Jesus descending from heaven
to meet us in the air;
then He does a reverse gear
and bring the saints to heaven.
No, that’s not the picture.
But rather, it is we meeting Jesus in the air
as He descends from heaven,
and together with us, descending all the way to earth.
So, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 must mean
Jesus descending from heaven all the way to earth
as taught in Post-tribulation rapture,
and not Jesus descending,
then make a U-turn back to heaven
as taught by Joseph Prince.”
Verbatim Notes No 6:
“Next, let’s examine the word “Parousia”
or translated in English as “coming”.
15 “For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming (Parousia) of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
This word, “Parousia” or coming in 1 Thessalonians 4:15
was used in the New Testament times
to indicate the coming of a ruler or official
who was just arriving at a city
to be with the people there.
Therefore, Christ’s Parousia or coming
must include the idea of his “arrival” to earth
in order to be physically present with people on earth.
So, what happens is that
when a great person in Biblical times
in the Middle East area approached a city,
a large entourage of folks from that city
would of course, come out to meet that great person
at some distance from the city.
They would all then turn right around and escort
the great person into their city.
So it was common in Biblical times for leaders of a city
to go out to meet a visiting dignitary
and escort him into the city
and not go back to his home!
Doesn’t that sound just like what we read
in I Thessalonians 4:16-17?
As Christ descends with His angels,
the resurrected and raptured saints ascend,
and, meeting Him in the air,
turn and continue with Christ back to earth
and not to go back with Christ to heaven.”
Verbatim Notes No 7:
“Finally, what is wrong with Pretrib rapture doctrine
has to do with the issue
that 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 states clearly
that the resurrection of the “dead in Christ”
must take place before the “rapture of the living”:
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
So, Paul lays down a principle
that the dead are being raised first
before those who are alive are raptured.
However, according to Pre-trib rapture teaching,
the dead will be raised again seven years later for who?
For the Tribulation saints who make it to faith and died
during the Great Tribulation!
Now This Tribulation saints refer to Christians
who missed the rapture,
but who repent and now are with Christ,
and unbelievers who come to know Christ
during the 7 years of tribulation.
But nowhere does Paul ever indicate
that there is more than one resurrection event
for the saints.
Paul never indicates that some will be resurrected first
while others will be raised at a later stage.
The fact that the dead
are being raised again seven years later (Tribulation saints)
as it is taught in the Pre-trib rapture doctrine,
contradicts the order of “resurrection first then rapture”
as laid down in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4!
In other words, their order is resurrection then rapture,
then resurrection again for the Tribulation saints
which goes against the order of 1 Thessalonians 4.
So, I hope that I have given you quite substantial reasons
why Joseph Prince’s Pre-trib rapture doctrine
cannot be proven
from their key text of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.”
Rev George Ong