I was recently asked, 'If Revelation 3:10 isn't a proof text for a pre-tribulation rapture then what is it referring to?' Before answering, I'll attempt to sketch what the terms mean.
The word 'rapture' isn't a biblical term, just like 'trinity' isn't a biblical term. That's okay. It's fine to use non-biblical terms as long we define what we mean by them and show that the reality behind the term is a biblical reality. What I mean by 'rapture' is simply, the catching up of believers into the air to meet Jesus when he returns. The place that is most explicitly taught in the bible is 1 Thessalonians 4:17, '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'. Whilst we're used to the events surrounding the end of this age being shrouded in imagery like that found in the book of Revelation and Daniel, I don't see any reason to doubt the literalness of these words in 1 Thessalonians 4. So, I do believe in a rapture of the Lord's people.
The 'pre-tribulation' part of the term is simply one way of placing the rapture in time. There are at least 3 different views about the placement of the rapture and all of them place the rapture relative to an intense period of suffering on the earth at the end of the age called 'the great tribulation' (Revelation 7:14). Jesus in Matthew 24 (see also Mark 13 and Luke 21) says to his disciples that before the end comes (v.14) 'you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me (v.9). For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equalled again' (v.21).
The view I hold is that the rapture will happen after this great period of tribulation and therefore, I believe, that Christians who are alive at that time will pass through that period of distress and then Jesus will return with the angels and every eye will see him, and the believers will be raptured into the air to meet him. The most prominent alternative view to that, is that Jesus will return secretly before the period of great tribulation and rapture believers from the earth, taking them back to heaven for the period of tribulation, and thus sparing them great distress and pain and suffering. Then after the tribulation is over, he will return with his people in splendour, on the clouds of heaven, when every eye will see him.
I do think that Revelation 3:10 is a hard text to deal with from a post-tribulational rapture standpoint, but I don't think it's decisive in settling the debate. Revelation 3:10 says, 'I will keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth', which sounds like Jesus is saying that he will in some way take his servants out of the way for the period of that great hour of tribulation coming upon the whole world. Some post-tribulationalists have tried to explain away this text by saying that Jesus means he will keep his people from the 'faith destroying effects' of the hour of trial. Taking Revelation 3:10 on it's own, that interpretation is not an easy one to prove - certainly the context doesn't demand that interpretation. So we need to be careful.
What I find compelling is what the thrust of other new testament texts are pointing to, which I believe are much clearer. Here are three texts in which the order of events surrounding the rapture demand that the rapture follow the tribulation not the the other way around. Square brackets contain my commentary.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, 'we tell you that that we who are still alive [christians] who are left until the coming of the Lord [could be referring to a first return of Christ for rapture - we don't know at this point] will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep [in other words we won't have an advantage over the dead in christ because we're still alive]. For the Lord will come down from heaven with a loud command [not secretly but audibly] and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up [raptured] together with them [the resurrected] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So, according to this text, the rapture is a part with the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the visible and manifest return of Christ, and those who are left until his appearing - in other words they haven't been taken out of the way already. They are still bodily present on the earth when Jesus returns in all his fanfare - not secretly. A pre-tribulation rapture demands that these christians be in heaven not on earth, and yet Paul tells us they are on earth - left until the coming of the Lord.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 & 8, 'Concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him [raptured], we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us...asserting that the day of the Lord [the day of rapture] has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day [the day of rapture] will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed...(v.8) whom the Lord will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming [visible].
So the rapture is going to happen after the appearing of the man of lawlessness, when Jesus comes visibly in all his splendour - in other words when every eye will see him. When will the lawless one appear? According to Jesus in Matthew 24, the Abomination that causes Desolation - which I believe to be another term for the 'man of lawlessness' - will appear during the time of 'great distress unequalled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equalled again'. So the man of lawlessness is simultaneous with the great tribulation, and according to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 the rapture won't happen until after the man of lawlessness appears - therefore, until after the great tribulation.
And lastly, 2 Peter 3:10, 'The day of the Lord will come like a thief...since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat'.
That sounds to me like believers should expect to live here on earth until the day of the Lord (not be snatched away), when everything will be destroyed - not merely a secret appearing of Jesus. It doesn't sound like believers are going to be secretly taken out of the way before a day comes when the heavens are destroyed with fire.
So what does Revelation 3:10 mean? Well, in John 17:15 the same greek phrase for 'kept from' is used as appears in Revelation 3:10. Here's what Jesus said, 'My prayer is not that you take them [his disciples] out of the world [relieve them of suffering (v.14)] but that you protect them [keep them from] the evil one'. In Revelation 3:10 the sense is that the whole world is going to be tempted away to the evil one and that Jesus will protect his own from falling foul of that temptation, not by taking them out of the world, but by enabling them to resist the devil. May the Lord help us to resist satan, because when we do, he will flee from us (James 4:7).
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