Having espoused the pre-Tribulation Rapture for a number of years, via numerous published articles, my books, video Prophecy Updates, and in person, I can tell you that this position is in a minority within the church and in Christian media circles. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten and what I’ve seen at large, there simply is little interest in the pre-Trib Rapture. It’s as though the proverbial wet blanket has been thrown over this concept and most people have been convinced it’s not viable. As a result, they dismiss it as escapism, or worse, as a Satanic delusion.
Those who don’t believe in this sound Biblical doctrine primarily fall into the mid- or post-Trib Rapture camp, or take the stand that there is no Rapture. Another group is that which spiritualizes much of the Bible and/or believes most or all of Bible prophecy has already been fulfilled – thus a coming Rapture, Tribulation, and even Millennial Reign of Christ is generally off the table with them.
I’m not sure it matters which cohort people fall into who disparage the pre-Tribulation Rapture, but the one thing that seems certain is that none of them truly appreciate how awful the 7-year Tribulation will be.
Transcript:
Awaken Bible Prophecy Update 4-13-22: They Don’t Understand
Having espoused the pre-Tribulation Rapture for a number of years, via numerous published articles, my books, video Prophecy Updates, and in person, I can tell you that this position is in a minority within the church and in Christian media circles. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten and what I’ve seen at large, there simply is little interest in the pre-Trib Rapture. It’s as though the proverbial wet blanket has been thrown over this concept and most people have been convinced it’s not viable. As a result, they dismiss it as escapism, or worse, as a Satanic delusion.
Those who don’t believe in this sound Biblical doctrine primarily fall into the mid- or post-Trib Rapture camp, or take the stand that there is no Rapture. Another group is that which spiritualizes much of the Bible and/or believes most or all of Bible prophecy has already been fulfilled – thus a coming Rapture, Tribulation, and even Millennial Reign of Christ is generally off the table with them.
I’m not sure it matters which cohort people fall into who disparage the pre-Tribulation Rapture, but the one thing that seems certain is that none of them truly appreciate how awful the 7-year Tribulation will be.
A recent discussion I watched between a self-proclaimed Bible teacher and the owner/host of a growing conservative media outlet illustrated this fact. I won’t name the two participants in this article, but you can watch the discussion for yourself here:
https://www.brighteon.com/9d1e00f0-6dfa-4544-92a2-2d8f1fa94502.
Those who dismiss the pre-Tribulation Rapture commit at least three errors that I’d like to highlight, to which the folks in the above video seem as though they fall pray. They are:
- A lack of understanding as to the severity of the Tribulation
- Ignorance or dismissal of past and present persecution around the world
- Obliviousness as to God’s character and His promises
There are certainly other problems I could discuss, but these rise to the top in my estimation. We’ll take them one at a time.
- A lack of understanding as to the severity of the Tribulation.
Much of the talk in both secular and Christian circles focuses on a Great Awakening of one type or another. The belief is that the rising consciousness of many people – both secular and Christian – will cause such a backlash against the global elites perpetrating their nefarious Great Reset agenda that the good guys will overcome the bad actors.
Interestingly, many who hold to this Great Awakening are extremely perceptive as to the ruthless efforts to kill and maim people. Not only that, but they see the transhumanist successes and know that a significant program is underway to change the very nature of man from that which God created to something supposedly better. Many such folks are also aware that we’re in a titanic spiritual battle, i.e. our adversaries are not simply humans, but demonic entities. They even acknowledge Ephesians 6:12, which cautions:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Despite the reality of the spiritual aspect of this war, the optimism of the Great Awakening adherents, and their confidence in mankind to overcome these obstacles, is resolute and absolute.
But here’s the issue: Wars, plagues, persecution, the Lord’s angels hurling down catastrophic plagues upon every aspect of the earth and life as we know it, supernatural beings and occurrences that torment and kill billions of people, are all coming. Not only that, but a superman of sin in the person of the Antichrist and his sidekick in wickedness, the False Prophet, are on their way to deceive the whole world. How is it that mankind is supposed to fight back and stop all these things?
Through the flesh, of course! Note that this victory over the forces of darkness – whether human or spiritual – comes all through the efforts of awakened humanity. With their eyes on the world in order to overcome, their rallies, lawsuits, election reversals, possible civil conflict, the takedown and hanging of the globalists, and even with a few prayers thrown in, men and women in the natural will destroy the established order. They know the Deep State is powerful, but in their thinking, the power of the people is greater.
Throughout all this excitement of millions of people opening their eyes and joining the fight, one little thing seems forgotten. What they plan and hope to attain is completely against what Scripture says will happen in the last days.
How do you miss the plain reading of the text that tells of world war, planet-encompassing famine, persecution unlike any ever before known, and deaths on an unprecedented scale (e.g. spoken by Jesus in Matthew 24 and outlined in Revelation 6-18)? What about the literal unleashing of hordes of demonic beings from the pit of hell? Is there any acknowledgment of the fact that all these plagues are intended to redeem Israel and to punish the unbelieving world in order for God to make the way for the Millennial Kingdom, which will only admit those who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord?
All this is a necessary cleansing. It is also entirely a work of God. Once more it seems as though a human works mentality has blinded people. There is a spiritual purpose in the Tribulation that God will bring about – both for the good of those who love Him and the bad for those who choose to reject Him. Conquering the Seven Mountains of the culture or any other such concept in which righteous man is the victor in this world is simply foolishness. The Tribulation will the worst time the earth and its inhabitants have ever known. No Great Awakening will change that.
- Ignorance or dismissal of past and present persecution around the world.
The church has suffered persecution since its inception. Jesus said in John 15:18 that:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”
Not only that, in John 16:33 Jesus tells His disciples, and us:
“In the world you will have tribulation.”
We who follow Jesus should expect these things. They are a natural part of serving the One true God. In fact, for much of the 20th Century, and now the 21st Century, persecution throughout the world has been more severe than at any time in the past. It’s most clearly seen in the broad swath of the 10/40 Window, which encompasses most of the Islamic, Hindu, and even Communist nations, where the cost of being a Christian is exceedingly high.
Just to give you a flavor of the persecution our brothers and sisters in Christ experience, here are several brief examples from Voice of the Martyrs:
- Jelem is a Fulani who gave her life to Christ in 2020. When her family discovered her newfound faith, they harassed her, beat her and eventually disowned her.
- Mariam, 18, and Sarah, 16, grew up in a Christian home and trusted in Christ at a young age. In 2020, the sisters were threatened and beaten after sharing the gospel with a Muslim coworker. Though the coworker responded eagerly to the gospel, others complained about Mariam and Sarah to their manager, who warned the girls to stop sharing their faith. He also took them to some Muslim men, who demanded the girls renounce their faith. When the girls refused, one of the men bloodied Mariam’s nose and locked up the girls. Mariam and Sarah eventually escaped and hitchhiked home. Since then, Mariam has suffered poor health, and the family has struggled financially because of the loss of income.
- Three Christians were killed on Feb. 25 in an attack on a predominantly Christian community in eastern Nigeria, near Chibok. The attackers, thought to have been members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), also destroyed a local church building. The Chibok area has experienced ongoing Islamist attacks, in which many Christian women and children have been kidnapped.
Let me give you one more example from a book I’m currently reading. It’s called Shackled – by Mariam Ibraheem. Mariam grew up in a Sudanese refugee camp – a Christian initially because of her mother’s faith in Christ – under the legalistic constraints of Islamic Sharia Law. As Islam and its hateful dictates pressed in on Mariam, she never denied Jesus. In fact, she stood on His Word and believed Him when He said that He would never leave or forsake her.
Mariam was unjustly accused of crimes against Islam and was sentenced to prison while pregnant along with her one-year-old son who lived in the prison with her. Because the Islamic authorities believed her possessed by demons for her steadfast faith in Christ and absolute refusal to bow to the demands of Islam, an Imam was sent to the prison to perform an exorcism on her to drive out the Christ Spirit within her. I’ll read you a little of what Mariam wrote concerning this experience:
As the Imam screamed more Koranic scriptures at me, he reached down and pulled up a leather whip he had been keeping nearby on the floor. “Leave her!” he cried, then whipped me across the back.
. . .
As the imam struck me repeatedly with his whip, I wondered if he had ever stopped to think about the fact that Muhammad never suffered for his sake. Muhammad’s words did not give love, they gave hate. Muhammad’s teachings did not bring hope to Sudan; they brought suffering.
During his life on earth, Muhammad acted only for his own benefit. He inflicted suffering on others but never accepted it for the sake of others. He killed, enslaved, raped, and punished.
However, Jesus, during His life, submitted Himself to pain, rejection, persecution, torture, and, ultimately, crucifixion. I was not experiencing anything that He Himself had not also suffered. He knew the anguish and hardship I was going through because He, too, had been persecuted and beaten, and He would never leave me.
The imam developed a rhythm in which his prayer and his whipping were in sync, the whip snapping at my back between each stanza. He went on like this for another hour. He would pause for a moment to check whether I had tears in my eyes, and when he didn’t see any, he would resume with even greater fervor, convinced that my lack of tears was a result of demon possession.
Inflicting pain on me seemed fully justified to him. As an infidel in his eyes, I merited the pain I was suffering, and he was earning adoration for his piety in carrying out my punishment. Yet, of the two of us in the room, he was the one to be pitied. His adherence to Islam earned him no grace. In order to obtain mercy, he had to deliver punishment. He had to disown his humanity to abide by his duty. A sober mind might have stopped him from beating a pregnant woman, but his god demanded compliance. While Jesus taught love for unbelievers, Muhammad taught death to infidels and contempt for all those who would show them mercy.
I prayed for the man beating me. He, too, was a prisoner.
When he finished, my back was so raw that I was almost unable to stand. When I moved, each stripe on my back bit into my flesh and shot excruciating pain to my brain.
. . .
Praying for the imam was one of the hardest things that I had done in my life, but I knew that it was the will of the Father. My pain would last for a moment, but, without Jesus, the imam’s pain would last for eternity.
We can chronicle thousands and thousands of such circumstances and worse. The point is that extreme tribulation has been and is occurring – and most of the western church is unaware. In fact, many in the church don’t want to know about such things. In my days of volunteering with VOM and speaking to churches, there were many that had no interest. Or, in those places I could go to speak, a number of people told me it was more than they could bear to hear and wouldn’t listen. Life as a believer in America, and the West in general, is easy compared to that of our brethren elsewhere. Because of this ignorance, the pre-Trib Rapture deniers figure that we must go through the Tribulation. I presume they think that somewhere along the line, America has to experience the suffering that Scripture denotes for believers in Christ. What they neglect to see is that the Bible specifies quite clearly that THE Tribulation is not for the purpose of cleansing those who choose wisely to follow God.
In my Rapture Reading 12 Rapture or Wrath (video link below with transcript at my Rumble Awaken Bible prophecy channel), I explain how God intends the Tribulation as a means for Him to judge and punish those who have rejected His Lordship. In this post I quote Isaiah 13:9,11 to illustrate who is the target during these awful seven years:
Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
To emphasize this point, here is Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 who says:
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
It should be quite clear from these verses that THE Tribulation is the time God sends His wrath and righteous anger upon the unbelieving world. How do we know this? Listen to the language. The Day of the Lord, i.e. the 7-year Tribulation is for sinners, the world for its evil, the wicked for their iniquity, the arrogant, the ruthless, those who are perishing, the ones who refused to love the truth and so be saved.
God has already dealt with us who follow Jesus Christ as true believers; that was the whole point of Jesus shedding His blood for us. Those who think we must go through the Tribulation are essentially looking to crucify Jesus all over again. It’s like they’ve become Catholics who see the crucifix with Jesus still on the cross and determine that they have to finish the work of salvation because what He did wasn’t adequate.
For us in the West who aren’t experiencing the persecution in the 10/40 Window, we should rejoice that God has spared us. It doesn’t mean we won’t go through little “t” trials and tribulations – we do. However, they are largely less severe than those which others endure. We still have terrible illness and other issues that cause us distress, but remember, there were seven churches Jesus spoke to in His letter in Revelation. There was one church – Smyrna – that was explicitly known for its persecution. Some of the others also experienced it, but not to the extent of Smyrna. We could say that Smyrna is an archetype of the suffering church, i.e. the particular peoples of God, whose faith is tested through the extreme. This pattern applies to those believers suffering in the 10/40 Window.
Are you familiar with the legal concept of Double Jeopardy? Here’s Wikipedia’s definition:
Double jeopardy is a procedural defense (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction.
Would God require the persecuted believers in Smyrna to be acquitted through the sacrifice of Christ, then require them to again be judged and punished? Do you think that those who truly follow Jesus elsewhere in the world and have experienced His complete redemption will once more be accused and suffer in the worst of all possible times? The thinking that God requires persecuted believers to experience Double Jeopardy by also going through the depredations of the Tribulation is absurd. And, if we believe all whom God intends to Rapture will go up at the same time, then surely persecuted believers in the 10/40 Window won’t go up pre-Trib while the rest of us go mid- or post-Trib. That makes no sense.
Here’s the bottom line regarding this: If we don’t suffer from the hands of sinful men; we inevitably suffer from the results of sin in some way. It may be violent; it may be passively distressful. None of it matters nor impacts the work of Christ on the cross who redeemed us from sin of all kinds.
We have our own challenges here in America. Because salvation has been easy, most of us have not counted the cost as must those who live under Islam, Hinduism, or Communism, and any other persecuting ideologies. But don’t think we escape. We may not face death for our belief, but we must resist the satanic lure of the Prosperity Gospel, the Social Gospel, Hyper Grace, the New Apostolic Reformation, and all the other ministries that teach anything but the true Word of God. The message of these movements causes many people to miss the basis of salvation. Often, they don’t teach repentance, since sin becomes almost a forbidden word that each of us must acknowledge about ourselves. Our need for a Savior is lost amongst the worldly teachings that keep peoples’ focus anywhere but on the true Gospel.
This can be our best life now; everyone of us should have a healing touch; speaking prophetically is a gift that can be taught; the problem isn’t the person, it’s the system; since God forgives all our sin, we can sin to our heart’s content; God intends for us to gird our loins and push back against the darkness that’s coming in the Tribulation. We CAN overcome!
None of this is found in Scripture.
- Obliviousness as to God’s character and His promises
I’m not the only one who makes this point; I know Terry James has also voiced it. God’s character and His promises are incredibly important to consider when examining this issue of Rapture versus Tribulation and whether or not the church of true believers is destined for this time of horrors.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God showed the two sides of His character: that of love and mercy, and that of wrath and judgment. It took the coming of Jesus to bring about the fullness of the demonstration of God’s amazing grace, yet it was always there in the past for those who sought the Lord and rejected the allure of false gods. For those who chose to exalt themselves and the idols of the day, presuming that God would overlook these sins, the prophets made quick work of such foolishness. They made it abundantly clear that such people were the object of God’s anger and they must turn from their evil ways. Those who didn’t, suffered the consequences of the broad road of destruction. Anyone who revered God, gave Him his heart, and walked in His ways was blessed. In the OT, blessings came through physical possessions; in the NT blessings became the understanding and promise of eternal life in the presence of God.
A concept I appropriated from Dr. Michael Heiser is that of believing loyalty. All that God ever really wanted from His people was their hearts, i.e. for them to believe in Him as the One true God and to shun false gods and their worship. This was exactly what David did, and why he was considered a man after God’s own heart. Despite his sins, David never wavered from his belief that Yahweh was the only God; that all others were pretenders to the throne. Those false gods were myriad and were followed under the names of Baal, Chemosh, Molech, and many others. Our false gods today are seemingly less visible because we don’t make statues of them as idols, but they are just as real in the form of lust, greed, hunger for power, and much more. Where is our believing loyalty? Is it for God or is for something other than Him?
This is the crux of the matter. For people who reject Jesus, that side of the coin marked with wrath and judgment is the one which lands with its side up. When that is the case, Deuteronomy 4:24 comes into play for them:
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
A consuming fire is one that destroys completely, leaving nothing but embers and ash. Looking again at Isaiah 13:9,11 and those who practice that which God calls out in these verses, their end is assured and justified. In our consideration of whether or not believers go through the Tribulation, this is the defining issue. To repeat from what I said earlier: the 7-year Tribulation is for sinners, the world for its evil, the wicked for their iniquity, the arrogant, the ruthless, those who are perishing, the ones who refused to love the truth and so be saved. God’s character as a righteous judge demands this.
On the other hand, why would a just and honorable God make those whose believing loyalty is steadfast to Him endure such atrocities as will be perpetrated in the Tribulation? Even more pertinent, why would a loving Father tell the children He adores that they must walk through a burning building to prove they really love Him? When Jesus said on the cross: “It is finished,” was there a caveat? Did He say: “Except for those believers in the 21st Century just before the Tribulation”? Or perhaps He neglected to inform us that “Those of you who believe in Me in the end-times aren’t as saved as My people previously were. Your salvation isn’t as effective as it was for believers in 1820. It won’t really be finished for you.”
Somehow, I missed those precious Words of His in my numerous readings of the entire Bible. Maybe they’re in apocryphal writings somewhere? They surely aren’t in canon.
The point is that there is no justifiable reason for true believers today to go through a time in this world where literally everything is destroyed because it’s meant for: 1) the redemption of those who will be redeemed, and 2) the punishment for those who won’t as a precursor to the eternal fires of hell.
It is because of the very nature of God – just as He’s always consistently said and demonstrated through the ages – that those who disobey His holy commands will suffer for their rebellion. In the same manner, those who through faith give their heart, soul, mind, and strength to the Lord in believing loyalty, He will shower upon them His favor and blessings. Trust me when I say this: It will not be a blessing to enter the Tribulation.
God’s character – His very Word – is at stake in this issue. Can we trust that He will keep us, even as He said, from the wrath to come? Will He preserve us, the true church that has little power, just as He declared, from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth? Can we truly take encouragement knowing that He will deliver us by coming in the clouds for those who love Him?
Or has this all been a ruse, a massive game for believers, in which a cruel god gets the last laugh because he made us think placing our faith in Christ actually meant something special?
Ultimately, those who think we’re headed for the Tribulation must have a very low concept of God and Christ’s redemption. Their understanding of His character is significantly flawed.
I for one choose to believe that He will indeed come as a thief in the night for His Bride and whisk us away to the mansions He has prepared for us.
Conclusion
Over the years Satan has worked his evil deeds by infiltrating the church at large and the institutions that are supposed to deliver pastors steeped in the Word of God. At first it was the Catholic Church that did all in its power to keep Bibles from the common man. When that effort was foiled, the Vatican initiated the Inquisitions to kill those who sought to make Scripture universally available and who actually preached what it said, as opposed to that which man declared.
Of course, persecution caused the church of true believers to grow. As a result, Satan and his minions corrupted the teaching in seminaries, and their students propagated the lies in the pulpits, leading to errors-filled congregations.
A major satanic initiative continued from the past was to convince people that they could rely on their preachers to tell them what God wanted for their lives. Over time, fewer churchgoers read God’s Word. Today, a distinct minority has any true Biblical literacy.
Another falsehood that is satanic at its core is the deception that the pre-Tribulation Rapture is an idea birthed through John Darby in the 1800s. According to this myth, Darby conceived of his ideas through the influence of a young, charismatic mystic by the name of Margaret MacDonald. This has been proved a complete lie time and again, but those who advocate anything but a pre-Trib Rapture inevitably bring up Darby as supposed “proof” that this is a new concept.
The Bible text is clear that Jesus and Apostles Paul and John all believed in a pre-Trib Rapture. Because they did, so did the majority of early Church Fathers. Satan couldn’t have the people of God eagerly anticipating the soon return of Christ. That would make them more holy, and thus untouchable by him. He couldn’t have that! As a result, the Father of Lies concocted the Darby defamation. And look at how successful Satan has been! The majority of the church doesn’t believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture.
Of course, if pastors actually paid attention to the 1/3 of the Bible that pertains to prophecy, they might actually see the bigger picture of God’s plans and purposes for this earth and His creation. But they neglect Bible Prophecy like it’s molten iron. “Can’t touch it! We might get burned!”
That brings us to the sad state of affairs now present in Christendom. The end-times with the 7-year Day of the Lord is something seen as mild and required for believers to overcome. The Person of God and His holy demands are minimized. Those in the church are confused and non-committal because they don’t want to be seen as questioning authority, regardless of whether their pastor is adhering to Biblical truth or not.
The only antidote to this is for believers to diligently and regularly read God’s Word – all of it – from Genesis to Revelation. Pushback I get in this regard is that people don’t like to read and get distracted. That’s an issue in itself, but let’s not forget what the Bible says in Romans 10:17:
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Hearing God’s Word was the way people learned in the days when printed material was rare. Listen to it and live! There’s no excuse for us not steeping ourselves, one way or another, in what God has to say – especially in these perilous times! Smartphones are ubiquitous; Bible apps are plentiful. Reading plans are available everywhere for the asking.
In my 4-volume series of Awaken Bible Study Notes, (linked below), as well as in my companion 4-volume Awaken Bible Commentary and Reflections (linked below) I include a favorite reading plan of mine. These books bring to your attention the amazing deliverance in the Rapture that God plans for His children, as well as the incredible supernatural aspects of Scripture that most people simply miss.
The bottom line is that there is no reason anyone should misunderstand or deny God’s intent to Rapture the church of true believers before the Tribulation. Understanding why God will soon remove us from this world and anticipating our Lord appearing for us on the clouds to call us home should be the greatest joy believers can have, aside from the fact of salvation itself.
Are we of the world and focused on it? Or are we strangers in this strange land desperately desiring no longer to be here?
I know what I choose. How about you?
Note: Sources are available on my Rumble channel at:
https://rumble.com/v10u3th-awaken-bible-prophecy-update-4-13-22-they-dont-understand.html