It is an error and a seriously great delusion to believe that God will rescue Christians from having to go through great tribulation.  The Bible teaches that the faithful Christian’s blessed hope is in Christ’s glorious appearing when He returns (Titus 2:13)- not in being rescued out of tribulation beforehand.  The Bible also says in 1 Corinthians 15:19: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

The Bible rather guarantees tribulation in the world for Christ’s people.  It speaks of the need to endure tribulation as a Christian faithfully in order to be prepared to meet Christ as His faithful subject.  Those who are not faithful will be regarded as enemies of His righteous reign and eventually sent to the eternal fire of hell.  Jesus Christ is no partial respecter of persons and He has not promised easy street to anyone on earth- especially not for those who side with Him in truth.  There is no grace given to those who do not side with Him in truth.  One who walks in the light of His Word without compromise learns very well that doing so causes one to enter into tribulation which they likely would have avoided otherwise.  And faithfully following Christ can, and likely will, eventually lead one even into great tribulation.  That is so whether or not the world as a whole is in great tribulation.

Romans 8:17: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

1 Thessalonians 3:1-5: “Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone; And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith: That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.  For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.  For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain.”

See also 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12

It’s not hard to see then that pre-tribulation rapture belief is usually or always accompanied by a shallow gospel which tells people that they can accept Christ as their Savior yet not require and insist that He be obeyed as Lord and followed in all things that His Word teaches.  Such a gospel is false, as well any gospel which doesn’t teach the inevitability of suffering in doing so.  

Pre-tribulation belief goes nearly, if not altogether, hand in hand with a lawless gospel and unconditional eternal security/once saved always saved doctrine.  Pre-tribulation teachers typically don’t teach the need to be faithful unto death for Christ’s sake.  How could they logically do so when their belief about God’s ways makes it necessary that God would rescue Christians from having to face great tribulation?  

The widespread belief in the pre-tribulation rapture is overall a symptom of a false gospel involving easy-believe-ism and the lie of unconditional eternal security, as well as a symptom of the overall disregard within the realm of professing Christianity of what the Bible actually teaches.  

The widespread belief in the pre-trib rapture is (whether the pre-trib rapture advocate knows and admits it or not) also heavily related to the false gospel of prosperity.  Just (supposedly) have faith and God will take away your sicknesses, your problems, and give you your best life now until He takes you to heaven.  This lie fits very well with belief in the pre-trib rapture too. 

There will be Christians on earth at the last trumpet who have gone through the tribulation at the end of the age.  The Bible gives evidence of this rather than teaching a pre-tribulation rapture.  And even more evident is the fact that the Bible teaches that Christians need to live faithful to the Lord, that the faithful will face tribulation in the Lord, and only those who endure tribulation faithfully in the Lord will inherit salvation and enter the kingdom of God.  Taking to heart the veracity of these principles matters more than someone’s belief about the timeline in the last years before Christ’s coming.  However, wrong suppositions about God’s ways can cause someone to not adequately believe these principles; and these suppositions can be derived from an especially corrupt understanding of the end-times.

John 16:33 (Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples here): “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

John 17:14-15 (Jesus is praying to the Father directly here concerning His disciples): “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.   I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” 

Matthew 24:9-13 (Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples directly again here): “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

Acts 14:21-22: “And when they (the Apostle Paul and Barnabas) had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

I will then let Scripture speak below on the timing of the rapture and whether God’s people will be on earth during the tribulation or not.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 says (concerning those in God’s true grace in Christ): “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (and consider this with our next Scripture): for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”  

And then consider Revelation 11:15-19: “And the seventh angel sounded (and the last of the seven angels sounding his trumpet couldn’t be anything besides the last trumpet referred to in 1 Corinthians chapter 15); and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth (those who morally corrupt the earth).”

Revelation 16:13-17: “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.  For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.  Behold, I come as a thief.  Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments (and only truly born-again Christians have garments before God that are worth keeping), lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.  And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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