The pre- and post- Tribulation Rapture argument
When considering this questions, some bring forward objections including the accusation that pre-Tribulation view is not preparing people for time of trouble that is coming.
Those who believe in the pre-Tribulation Rapture will find themselves in time of trouble instead of being raptured away to paradise. As a result many will lose their faith, deny the Lord or even take the Mark of the Beast. Therefore, they say, this is a dangerous doctrine which will lead people to hell. To be clear, the criticism is that those who teach the pre-Tribulation Rapture are heretics. There is a video called ‘Left behind of led astray’, their main being that the pre-Tribulation view will leave you vulnerable and likely to lose your faith when you find yourself up against the Antichrist in the Great Tribulation being persecuted for your faith.
Is this the case? I agree that there are dangers in some pre-Tribulation teaching if it is taken to implies that we will be ‘whisked out’ of the way before anything bad happens, and spared all suffering, and taken to be with the Lord before anything bad happens. This is especially the case in the light of the fact that people all over the world are suffering now some terrible things in wars, famines, natural disasters, persecutions etc.
In my view, we should be ready for both – a sudden end to our life on earth (either by death or the rapture) and for the possibility of suffering for our faith in the Lord. In either case the one preparation that matters is that we repent of our sins and believe the Gospel, that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day, and that we commit our lives to following Jesus, no matter what other people think of us or what happens to us in this life.
Having Christ in us, the hope of glory, we trust Him to help us through our present troubles and we look forward to the eternal state in which we will be with Him for ever. We are assured of salvation from eternal death and suffering in hell.
In which case we can know the peace of God in all circumstances as Paul wrote in Philippians 4:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus… for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4.6-13
If we learn how to do this now, we will be well prepared for whatever is to come in our lives, for good and for evil.
The big issue with the Great Tribulation is that it is a time when those who believe in Jesus face severe persecution at the hands of the Beast / Antichrist and even death for their faith.
Revelation 13 says,
7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10 He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
According to the pre-Tribulation view, these saints are those who are saved after the rapture as recorded in Revelation 7.
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honour and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7.9-17
According to the post-Tribulation view, they are Christians like us who are living at the time when it happens.
Generally, both groups believe that current events are leading the world towards the time of the Antichrist (as I do). So, this is not just an academic debate.
How will we face up to such a time of trouble?
Firstly, the question does not just affect Christians. According to the literal reading of Revelation and the Olivet discourse, the last days trauma will affect everyone on earth as wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes devastate the earth and the world comes under the control of a dictator known as the Beast or the Antichrist.
At least half the world’s population will die at this time, based on figures in Revelation 6.8 (a quarter of population die) and Revelation 9.15 (one third of mankind killed). That’s the very least. It won’t be a nice time to be around.
Specifically for believers in Jesus, at the midpoint of the tribulation, 3 ½ years into it, they will have to make a choice over taking the Mark of the Beast and being able to participate in society or refusing it and becoming outcasts, unable to buy or sell. Those who take the Mark will be damned. So when it becomes clear what this is, don’t take it.
How will we prepare for this?
The question came to me and my first wife Nikki back in 1970s. Suppose these guys do take over or someone like them? How would we cope? Nikki became quite worried that under persecution, she might crack and deny the Lord. She was actually a very courageous and bold Christian and I am sure she would have managed. We prayed about it and decided that the Lord’s wisdom was in Jesus’ words:
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6.33-34
In other words, get on with life now, invest in God’s Kingdom, and trust Him for what is to come.
There are enough troubles in the here and now. God will provide what is needed at the right time.
At the time, we watched ‘The Hiding Place‘, a movie concerning Corrie Ten Boom and her family and their arrest and deportation to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. As they contemplated what was before them Corrie recalled an incident as a child when she asked her father,
“‘What is it like to die?’ He said when I take you on the train from Haarlem to Amsterdam do I give you the ticket days before we go, or just before you go through the ticket inspection?’ Just before, she answered. So with our Heavenly Father, He will give us what we need at the time when we need it and tells us not to worry about the future or about dying‘”.
The Hiding Place
As it happened sadly Nikki died at a relatively young age in 1998 from multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer. So, she did not live to see either the Rapture or the Tribulation. But I am confident that she will be there at the resurrection, when the dead in Christ are raised and meet those who are caught up in the Rapture event.
Coming back to the question about the Rapture and the Tribulation. Today, there are already many situations where people are facing enormous trials, Christians facing persecution, people in general suffering from wars, famines, plagues, dictatorial governments.
In the West, we see a growing antichrist agenda, woke ideas, imposing itself on every area of society, including parts of the church, with a deep hostility to biblical Christianity. We have to train ourselves now to discern good and evil, truth and error. Primarily, we do this by knowing the Bible and keeping in touch with the Lord by the Holy Spirit within us.
Clearly, the Bible and the experience of Christians down the ages and today shows us that we are not exempt from facing trouble in these times. But we do have a great advantage over non-Christians in that we have someone who has been through it Himself in Jesus and His suffering at the cross.
He has said He will be with us always and that He will never leave us or forsake us.
“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
As long as we have grasped these principles, no matter what we face in the days to come, we will be overcomers in the days of evil. If we have been hoping in the pre-Tribulation Rapture and we find that it has not happened and we are in circumstances which line up with the description of the Tribulation (Revelation 6-19), we just have to change our thinking a bit and get on with it. It’s not the end of the world (quite).
If we die in the process, then we die in faith, knowing that a glorious resurrection and future awaits us in Jesus. We know from our study of the scripture that we must not under any circumstance worship the image of the Beast or take the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13). Whatever that may turn out to be.
16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. Revelation 13.16-18
If we understand the basic principles of the Gospel, we should be able to work out what is of Christ and what is of Antichrist. The fact that a lot of the church seems unable to do this is not because of a failure of the Gospel or the Holy Spirit, but the blindness and unbelief of so much of professing Christianity.
12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3.12
5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. 2 Timothy 4.5
See also 1 John 2.18-22, 2 Peter 2.
A primary way to avoid the deceptions which are a feature of this age and leading to the greatest deception of all in the coming of the Antichrist is to know the truth in Jesus.