The case for a sequence the church has missed.

In Settling the Rapture Debate, John Wiertzema brings nine major prophetic events to bear on a single, sustained exegetical argument. It is written for those who have studied the rapture question seriously, want to engage the text more closely than most popular treatments allow, and are willing to follow a careful argument to its conclusion. Pastors, teachers, and theologically engaged believers will find it a sustained piece of biblical reasoning rather than a survey of existing positions.

Listeners will work through:

1. What the falling stars of the sixth seal actually depict—and why the day of the Lord and the rapture cannot be pulled apart without interpretive cost

2. Why the "great tribulation" is far shorter than the full seven years, or the last half, it is almost always equated with

3. Whether a rebuilt temple is genuinely required to fulfill the prophecy, or whether that expectation rests on a misreading of the abomination of desolation

4. How the seventh trumpet and the "last trumpet" of 1 Corinthians 15 are connected

5. Who the sun-clothed woman of Revelation 12 really represents and why her exaltation occurs in connection with the coming of Christ's kingdom.

6. Why the male-child of Revelation 12 is not who most contemporary teachers say it is—this is one of the most insightful exegetical studies that surfaces in the book.

7. Why the imagery surrounding Mystery Babylon, the great prostitute, is not depicting any single nation, city, or institution. Rather, it reaches deep into the Bible's symbolic world for the purpose of describing the fall of Satan's kingdom, his authority over the nations, when Christ's kingdom comes at His return.

8. Why the prewrath position makes real exegetical moves in the right direction but does not finish the argument

9. The midweek case that emerges when all nine events are read in sequence

For those who want the question handled with care, this is the place to begin.