I was searching to see if I could find something I heard about a year or so ago. A pastor said, “If there is no pre-tribulation rapture I will lose my faith.”

His exact words. I spent some time searching in the hope I could find the article or a copy of his statement. I haven’t been able to so far. But he said it. His words stuck with me for what is his faith founded upon? Is it founded upon the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the Scriptures? Or in a manmade theory that God won’t let His people suffer and thus will send Jesus to scoop up all the believers to spare them, which would be the Lord’s Second Coming. But then what of a third coming? The Bible only says the Lord will return one more time. Not two more times.

Nor is there one word within the word about the people of God will be spared suffering, persecutions, or trials and tribulations — save for when we are transformed and truly taken up into heaven. Which does not occur prior to the Great Tribulation.

Tragically we live in the last of the last days and the errant teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture where if you say you’re a Christian you’ll be exempt from any suffering or persecution and Jesus is coming to take you to a big party in the sky. While the earth writhes in trivial and tribulation unlike it ever has or ever will again.

The pre-tribulation rapture is not Scriptural. Nowhere to be found in God’s Word. While going through persecutions, trials, suffering, and tribulations for faith in and obedience to the Lord Jess Christ most certainly will come. To be expected. Normal procedure for true Christians.

Tragically, it appears the overwhelming majority of those professing to be Christians are believers of the unsound doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture. They will not be equipped for what is coming.

It is evident those believing in the pre-tribulation rapture are not Bible fluent or literate and only focus on a few words they make mean what they want them to mean in personal interpretation. Because they refuse to confront what it will mean to not be able to buy or sell, or freely move about for not taking the mark of the beast in their flesh, not being branded with the beast’s name in their bodies. They can’t fathom having to make such a sacrifice and become a sacrifice for the faith — as so many before us have.

So far I have been unable to find the recording, the source of my hearing a pastor on the radio a year or so ago clearly say, “If there is no pre-tribulation rapture I will lose my faith.”

Which told me immediately upon hearing him say those words the man has no real faith if his greatest faith is in being swept up in the sky to party and avoid the suffering and persecutions, the sacrifices to come. Truly not conceiving or understanding the SACRIFICE GOD AND JESUS MADE for us wretched and lost sinners!

God and Jesus can make the sacrifices They did for us, but we can’t then endure any pain, trials, tribulation, suffering, and persecution for faith in Them? Even though the Bible is filled with example after example of the sacrifices and suffering endured by God’s people for their faith and refusal to serve the world.

While I wasn’t able as of yet to locate a recording of that radio program and the pastor saying those words to publish here on ACP I did come across the following in my search.

I don’t know when it was written since there was no date on the commentary. But after reading the following it is one of the most spot on pieces regarding why there will not be a pre-tribulation rapture.

Oh, there will be a rapture to come — when the Lord Jesus Christ does return. A Second and Final time. Not thrice. The Day of the Lord. As mentioned frequently in the Bible.

It is my hope and prayer those that may be greatly troubled by the words and thought that there will not be a pre-tribulation rapture, and if they are alive when the Antichrist and his false prophet come to power, and the Great Tribulation begins will turn to the whole Word of God. Humbly. Fervently. Devoted and sincere. Asking the Holy Spirit for guidance. Not adhering to the teachings of man but of God in His inerrant Word. That they would begin to equip themselves now to withstand the days that will come.

Growing stronger in the faith and coming to the understanding we may be beheaded, we may be crucified, we may be tortured endlessly, we may be incarcerated and hunger and endure unspeakable things we may have to die for the Lord, for our faith — just as He died, what He endured in order to make it possible for condemned sinners as we all were, or are,  to be saved and gain the reward of eternal life.

Not being fearful but finally knowing what it means to put their trust in the Lord. In all things. Be thankful in all things. Read what Peter and the apostles did upon being arrested and beaten by the Sanhedrin for preaching the gospel. Let us emulate that rather than thinking unless we’re spared the Great Tribulation we’ll lose our faith. Do we have a faith in not sacrificing, not suffering? Or a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? To the majority, it sounds as though they have their faith in the former and not in the latter.

Whatever we must endure here, no matter what cannot compare to the joy, awe, beauty, painless, tearless, sinless eternal life that awaits for our endurance, our perseverance, our fighting the good fight to the end, and withstanding all that may come.

Grow stronger in the faith and in the Word. Able to withstand anything that may come. As a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a true child of God.

Go to the Bible. Deeply. Continually. Always.

Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Tuesday, August 9th, 2022

3 Reasons Why There Cannot Be A Pre-Tribulation Rapture

By Scott Pruitt

Over the years since I have been a Christian I have had many people try to persuade me that the Bible clearly teaches a Pre-Tribulational Rapture.

For those that don’t know what that means, I’ll offer a brief explanation. Among Christians that hold that the Bible accurately records the past and has predicted and continues to predict the future (I happen to be one of those). There are a majority of believers that hold to the idea that at some point in the future Jesus is going to return to the Earth to judge the world and establish His rule over the Earth for a thousand years. In addition to this belief there is also another belief that prior to His return, God is going to bring terrible judgment upon the world in a similar way that He judged the Egyptians during the time of Moses in the book of Exodus. This period of  judgement is believed to last for a total of 7 years before Jesus actually returns, and this 7 year period is often referred to as the Tribulation or Great Tribulation. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture is a belief that prior to this Tribulation, true Christians that are alive at that time will be unpredictably and instantaneously caught up from the Earth by God, their bodies transformed into immortal bodies and that during the 7 years of judgement and suffering on Earth, Christians will be in Heaven being spiritually married to Jesus and will be enjoying a 7 year feast.

It is the teaching that Christians will not be present during the Tribulation that I take issue with. When dealing with this subject I will be appealing to the Bible to make my case. Some of the examples will be parallel to other stories or types from scripture and others are declarative statements on the subject. All will demonstrate the the idea of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture is built upon weak presuppositions that can easily be refuted.

Reason 1:

One of the main arguments that I have heard to support the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is that a loving God would not allow His children to suffer through such a difficult time.

This argument is foolish. There are numerous examples in both the Old and New Testaments of people that suffered to the glory of God as testimony to those who have gone before and those who will come after us. I think of Job who through no fault of his own suffered terribly while his “friends” rather than showing him sympathy falsely said that Job was suffering for the wrongs he had committed. But in the end he was vindicated and God blessed him greatly. Job did not know it but it was actually God who was vindicated and Satan was defeated.

The book of Hebrews gives a list of heroes from the Old Testament that describes how they endured suffering by faith. These were given as examples to us.

But lets move to the New Testament. Did the Father love Jesus? Of  course He did, but Jesus was crucified and then raised to glory. John the Baptist, beheaded. Steven, stoned to death. The Apostles, stoned, imprisoned, tortured, destitute, murdered.

The early Church was persecuted beyond measure. Parents were made to watch their children be murdered right in front them unless they renounced their faith in Jesus. They were covered in pitch, tied to poles and set on fire to entertain the Roman rulers. They were fed alive to lions and bears in front of cheering crowds. They hid in burial tunnels beneath the city of Rome.

And history is replete with these examples to this very day. If you are raised a Muslim in a Muslim country and become a Christian, often you will be put to death. The Communists have murdered countless Christians because they dare to believe that God is greater than the State.

So let me ask you, does God not love those who have suffered for His Name? That is a rhetorical question. Of course He does. So to say that God will exempt Christians from suffering because we are His Bride is not consistent with the rest of the Bible. Instead we should say as Job did, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him”

Reason 2:

Exodus: A parallel to the coming of God’s Judgement and Deliverance. Moses himself said that God was going to send someone after him that was like him, speaking of Jesus. Pharaoh held God’s people in slavery for generations but the time came when God said enough, I will judge those who oppressed My People. He sent Moses to stand before Pharaoh telling him to repent, and each time Pharaoh ultimately refused. So God sent terrible plagues on the land of Egypt, very similar to the plagues mentioned in the book of Revelation. In Exodus God made a distinction between His people and the people of Egypt when it came to how the plagues affected them, but still they remained in Egypt as God’s judgement rained down.

It was after the plagues and judgments that God caught up His people and took them out of Egypt, but only those who were covered by the blood of the Passover lamb. When Pharaoh pursued them God Himself took Pharaoh and his army and drowned them in the depths of the sea. In the same way, the book of Revelation states that after God’s judgement and deliverance he binds Satan for a thousand years casting him into the abyss. Sound familiar? It was after that that God literally dwelt in the midst of his people. In the same way when we are caught up to be with God we shall always be with Him. These are the things Paul said we should comfort one another with. When do we need comfort? When we are suffering.

 Reason 3:

The Bible explicitly states that the dead in Christ will be resurrected. After this resurrection we are told that we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, what we refer to as the rapture. But when does the resurrection take place? The scripture clearly answers this question. At the last trumpet. In other words after the plagues. I have dealt with this topic in depth in other posts.

Why Am I Writing This?

It’s not because I want to pick a fight. Pre-Tribulationism is a potentially dangerous false teaching. Why? Because it exempts us from suffering and at the same time teaches that a God of love will not allow His children to suffer. As we draw nearer to the return of Jesus our faith must be able to withstand whatever may come because we are told that many will fall away from the faith. Jesus even said “When the Son of Man returns will He find faith on the Earth?” May He not say that of us. Consider our brethren in lands hostile to the Gospel and pray that we will have the fortitude to stand with them when our time of testing comes. Amen.