How interesting: you say His wrath is poured out at the end of the tribulation; but John tells us the day of His wrath starts at the 6th seal! This is before John has even started the 70th week - much less arrived at the midpoint!
My guess is, you WILL BE left behind. Jesus is coming for those watching for His coming. But in the case of the pretrib rapture, being left behind is the worst thing that could happen. From that point on, the ONLY way into heaven is to refuse the mark and lose your head.
When you are dealing with the seals and their opening... and the 70 weeks... I know of NO OTHER topics in the bible with more answers being thrown about. Here is my belief on the trib... accept it or reject it is up to you. But I don't think you can kill off every point made:
Caught Away of Left Behind
A number of years ago while still attending a Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY, I had a friend of mine come in gleefully ready to pull the backing off a new bumper sticker which read, “In case of rapture this vehicle will be unmanned.” At the time I had just begun my exploration into this doctrine of a pre-tribulation rapture, and I had little to share with this friend at the time. The one thing I did have, which I pulled out and read, was the parable of the Wheat and Tares found in Matthew 13. It is shared with us as both a parable and as plain speak, meaning, there is little room for error in interpretation. The story goes that the wheat (children of the kingdom) are in the field (the world) and growing up along with them are the tares (children of the wicked one). At the time of the harvest (the end of this world or age), the man who sowed this seed into the world (the Messiah) will tell the reapers (the angels) to gather together “first the tares” and then the wheat. In this parable the children of God’s Kingdom are not taken first, the children of the wicked one are. The following verse should be noted:
Matthew 13:30
Let both grow together until the harvest:
This is significant because Matthew 13:39 tells us plainly, “the harvest is the end of this world.” If the righteous are taken before the tribulation begins, leaving the sinners to wreak havoc on what is left of the world, how can both the Children of the Kingdom of God and the children of the Wicked One be growing together until the end of the world?
This is not the only time we see this in scripture. Yeshua (Jesus) likens the time of his return to the days of Noach and Lot. In the days of Noach, his family was given a place of safe haven during the time of wrath. Noach and his family were not removed from the earth however, and the ones taken were not those in the ark, it was the unrighteous, or the tares if you will, who stood outside the ark and were consumed by God’s wrath. Those that were “left” remained safe in the ark. Likewise, Lot and his family were moved away from the place of wrath. He too was not removed from the earth, rather brought to a place of safety. When the wrath came it was Lot who was “left behind” and it was the unrighteous, again, the tares... who were taken.
Another set of verses used to teach that the righteous are taken first is found in Luke:
Luke 17:34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. (35) Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. (36) Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
However, the very next verse has the disciples asking the Lord where the ones taken are taken to, and Messiah’s reply is, “
wherever the body is will be where the eagles are gathered together.” In other words, where you see the scavenger birds eating the bodies, that’s where they were taken.
Does this mean that there is no rapture at all? Well, not necessarily, there are some verses that would indicate a catching away, but are we really being taken to where so many teach we are taken? Billions of dollars have been made through books and movies centered on the idea that Christians are taken to heaven and everyone else will be left behind. But if Yeshua clearly states that the wheat and tares grow together until the end, then it is time to reevaluate our understanding, prayerfully of course! Scripture tells us that the meek inherit the earth, not heaven. Heaven wasn’t made for man, the earth was. Yeshua is returning to set up a Millennial Kingdom here on earth. After that time, the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and fills, for the most part, all the land promised to Abraham and his seed. In other words, with a Millennial reign on earth, the New Jerusalem on earth, the meek inheriting the earth, why do we think we go to heaven? We are forced to grab a hold of a story like Enoch and say, “this represents the church” because we have nothing else in the Tanach (OT) that ever points to an event of this magnitude. We forget that God has always used tribulation to draw His people closer to Himself, to refine us, to mold us.
The following verses are very much linked:
1 Cor. 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Thes. 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Mat 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (31) And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
We are “changed” (made incorruptible, perfected) when the dead are raised, and the dead are raised at the “last trumpet” not before the first. One can then make an argument for a rapture that occurs at the end of the tribulation, not before. Yet it is at the end when Yeshua returns to reconcile all his people and restore all things, to sit on the Davidic throne.
This is why “my personal view” runs along these lines...
When the Eunuch came up out of the water, Phillip was “caught away” to another city. This is of course the same word used for “caught up” in the 1 Thes. verse above, it is the word many call the "rapture." Yet Phillip was not removed from the earth, he was moved from one place to another. I believe we are not appointed to God’s wrath, and like Noach, at the appointed time, I believe we will be given a place of safety:
Isaiah 26:20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over-past. (21) For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
History will indeed repeat itself, not just as it was in Noach’s day (not that we end up in an ark mind you) but also when it comes to the exodus:
Isaiah 11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. (16) And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria;
like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
“As it was in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt,” is a reference to something that happened before and will happen again. The Egyptian Sea will again go dryshod, God’s people will again make that trek, and there will be a “wilderness experience” as there was before. (You might reference Revelation 12:6-17 here) Like Moses who couldn’t possibly understand the magnitude of what would happen when he held his rod over the sea and it parted, I too do not know how this will all ultimately unfold. There appears to be a second exodus, there appears to be a wilderness experience and those in the wilderness are those who “keep the commandments of God AND have the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah.” (Rev. 12:17) Whatever it is, it is... but I am thinking that if we are "raptured" it will be when we are moved from where we are to a staging ground where the Isaiah 11 second exodus will take place.
