Are You A Pre-Tribber?
[Note: I am a 50 year Pre-Tribber. While it might be difficult to change my mind (and my writings, books, etc.) now, we want to be faithful to the truth. (Don't we?) There seems to be some scriptural support for a rapture later than we would want it to be. We might go farther into Daniel's 70th week than I originally thought. Even so, may we still look for His Appearing today!]
Do you believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture? I think it is probably the biggest camp of End Time prophecy students. There is, however, a large number of Bible scholars who do not identify as Pre-Tribbers. I want to show you something that may reveal that more people are actually Pre-Trib than they may realize. It has to do with definitions and assumptions.
The above chart shows a timeline that represents coming events. We have been in the Church Age for about 2,000 years now. I believe this age is going to come to a close soon. The prophet Daniel was told by the angel Gabriel that God was going to use 70 Sevens of time to deal with His people Israel as well as the rest of human government. These sevens are not days but rather years. 69 of these sevens have already ended with the death of Jesus about 30 A.D. There remains one more set of sevens to finish God's dealing with Israel and the world. We are to soon enter the last 7 years of the time of human government.
The 70th and last prophetic week (of years) is commonly known as The Tribulation. Actually, this period of time contains several smaller significant periods of time. One of them is a small period known as The Great Tribulation but the 7 year time itself is mistakenly assumed to be the same as The Great Tribulation. None of these 7 years are fun for anyone but parts of it are more or less routine for many. Persecution has always happened on the earth. Things have always been bad for some people. Now with the start of the 70th week, persecution is going to be more widespread. Things will go from bad to bad, bad.
[Note: When I speak of the days of the end of human government as getting more difficult, I mean they are trending downward. Like a chart of gold prices or the stock market, its general, overall, long term movement is down. Housing prices nationwide may go down, they go back up, and down again from day to day. Over a longer period of time, however, one can see that they have trended up or down.]
Will the Church go through The Great Tribulation? This is a question that has been debated for centuries. I do not mean to insult anyone but the question itself is a little bit embarrassingly nonsensical. 10 of the original Apostles were slaughtered in the first century. Christians have had their houses and church buildings set on fire in recent times. Many believers have been beheaded lately for their love of Jesus. Will the Church go through tribulation? The question is almost ridiculous.
We Westerners live in an artificial environment. We even turn persecution into entertainment. Movies about the End Times have Christians on the payroll of the Anti-Christ and having the adventures of a lifetime.
The word tribulation can mean pressure, persecution, or trouble. The start of this 7 year period will be recognized by a treaty made with many nations. The United Nations looks real suspicious. As I said earlier, No part of this 7 years is fun but the first half of it (42 months) is like a birthday party compared to what is coming. The first significant thing, that we are told about, happens at the midpoint of this week. In other words, after 3 and a half years.
This is a very significant point. Things go from bad, bad to bad, bad, bad. The Anti-Christ drops all the political inhibitions and reveals what his real agenda is: The annihilation of the Jews. Jesus said that if the difficult days were not shortened, no one would even survive. Since these events continue up to the very end, the shortening of the days has to be at the other end. In other words, delay in starting the most severe days.
[Note: Although these are terrible days, in a sense, there is a parallel story going on at the same time. The Joel 2 revival occurs in the last days. We have never seen this in its fullness. The wheat and the weeds are coming into harvest at about the same time.]
God seems to be delaying the most severe persecution so that some people can survive them. At some point a unique persecution starts. This is called The Great Tribulation. Things were bad before but now they are going to be bad, bad, bad, and bad. However, by comparison things are still pleasant. There is one more small section of the 7 year timeline remaining.
Now, tribulation in the sense of persecution has ended. There is no more persecution because a much greater concern has taken over the inhabitants of the world.
The Wrath of God and of the Lamb
The world now sees something it has not seen before on a world-wide scale, since the days of Noah: Tribulation in the absolute sense. It lasts at least 5 months. One of the plagues lasts for 5 months (Rev 9:5, 10). This is exactly the length of time that the flood waters of Noah's day prevailed upon the earth, 150 days (Gen 7:24).
This is hell on earth. Death backs away. People want to die, thinking it will relieve their suffering. Some shoot themselves in the head. Now they have a bullet lodged in their brain with indescribable pain. Some slit their throats with a knife. They suffer with blood seeping for months from the wound but unconsciousness never comes. Some take poisons but it just produces unbearable abdominal pains. The One who controls Death is removing its normal cessation of consciousness and death is changing into its future unending experience of torture, the second death.
Are you a pre tribulationialist or are you a Pre-tribulationialist or a Pre-tribulationialist or perhaps a Pre-Tribulationalist? You are probably a Pre-Tribulationalist. Any true believer that survives will be taken out of the world before the Wrath of God comes, since we have already been delivered from the wrath of God. If you believe that you are raptured at any time before the Wrath of God is poured out, you are a believer in the pre-Tribulational rapture. That is, a rapture before the real trouble (tribulation) begins.
Is there no good news? We, who are living in these days, are privileged beyond all other people from history. Jesus is coming again and His reward is with Him. He thinks you are capable of living in these very last days of the last days. You may think that you will not be able to endure. Jesus thinks you can.
He tells us that if we could see what awaits us we would leap for joy like a small child. They cannot contain their enthusiasm at times because of the greatness of some temporal thing that is presented to them. If we could see the things that await us we would laugh at our small troubles and leap for joy at the goodness of God.
Jesus promised to receive us unto Himself. In the midst of anything that faces us, we are to “comfort one another with these words” (I Thess 4:18).
Apr 7, 2024