Welcome to Prophecy Q & A with Jimmy DeYoung!
I have studied the Word of God and have based my eternal existence on the literal interpretation of God’s Word. When I make a statement, I could not be wrong. I could not be going on error, traveling from church to church and conference to conference and teaching the pre-tribulation Rapture of the church if indeed I did not think that it was absolutely correct from God’s Word, gleaned from studying page by page through the prophetic passages of God’s Word.
Pre-Tribulation means that prior to the Tribulation, the seven-year period of time, there is going to be the Rapture of the church. It seems very evident as you look at the Scriptures. The Rapture is depicted in Revelation 4:1 when John heard “as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither.” That is apocalyptic literature. This is the way the Lord writes in four books of the Bible – Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Revelation. It is a literal symbol that is used to communicate a literal truth. The way the symbol is interpreted is by using additional Biblical information. For example, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says that the trump of God sounds, and we are caught up to be with Him. 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 says that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump we are going to be changed. This mortal body takes on immortality. This is the Rapture of the church. Both passages talk about a trumpet that will have a sound that will indicate a change in our mortality or us being caught up with Him in the air. Revelation 4:1 says that John on the earth is on the Isle of Patmos, moving into the third heaven. Revelation 4 and 5 tell of John, the Revelator, being in the heavens in the presence of God who is seated on His throne. This is an indication that the Rapture will take place before he goes to the heavenlies.
After Jesus Christ shouts, “come up hither,” and we move our location from earth into the heavenlies to join Jesus Christ at the Rapture of the church, it says that He will show us the things which must happen hereafter. If you study Revelation 4-19 intently, you will see detailed information about the seven-year Tribulation period and the events that will unfold. As you study additional biblical prophetic passages, you will see that they all align themselves exactly with what will happen during the Tribulation period.
We are taken out before the Tribulation period. Jesus told the church at Philadelphia in one of the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor in 95 A.D. in Revelation 3:10, “I will keep thee from the hour of temptation (testing or judgment of the Tribulation), which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.” This is an indication that we will be kept from, not taken out of, the hour of testing – the Tribulation Period.
Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 mentions a very similar thing in that the Lord will keep us from this terrible time of judgment to come. When a Gentile or a Jew, during the Church Age, comes to know Christ as Lord and Savior, he becomes a Christian. These are the three members of the human family. In the Word of God, there are passages of Scripture written to each of those members of the human family. Some pertain to all three members; some pertain to only one member; and maybe some to one to two members. You have to study the Scriptures to see, indeed, who the author is talking to when he writes these passages to us.
Jimmy DeYoung was a prophecy teacher and journalist who travelled the country and the world educating the Body of Christ of the future events foretold in God’s prophetic Word. His goal was to equip Christians with the knowledge and understanding of what God’s Word says will happen someday soon, so that they can make better decisions today. Dr. DeYoung went home to be with his Savior on August 15, 2021.
