Here's the thing,
I can understand how many would love the idea of escaping the great tribulation. I would too. But it shouldn't cause me to take scriptures and turn it upside down.
I don't really do well with classifications so I'm not a
pretribber,
posttribber or whatever other classifications exist, the only classification I need is being a child of God and as such, I let the Holy Spirit teach me all things. So I'll try to simplify this as much as possible.
Scripture is clear enough as to that fact that the rapture occurs on the same day as Christ's second coming,
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17,
"According to the Lord’s word,
we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." (NIV)
Notice that it says Christians alive will
in no way be raptured before the dead. So on whatever timeline you decide to place your rapture theory, you have to include the resurrection of the dead. Fact 1 established.
Notice also that
Christ comes on that day. So factor this into your theory. Fact 2 established.
So have you decided to place the rapture somewhere before the great tribulation (the last three and half years)? Well, Paul says you can't.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4,
"
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way,
for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction." (NIV)
KJV uses the word,
falling away but that rendering can be a bit confusing. However NIV uses the simpler word,
rebellion. Because the rebellion marks the falling away
. GNT has it as
final rebellion. Meaning the antichrist's rebellion which reveals who he truly is, mid tribulation, where he exalts himself above God with the
abomination of desolation.
The last highlighted part is practically saying, that day will not come until the rebellion which reveals who the antichrist truly is occurs, that is, mid-tribulation.
Daniel 8:13,
"...How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the
rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the Lord’s people?" (NIV)
So you're forced to place the rapture somewhere after mid-tribulation? So you're possibly saying immediately after the abomination of desolation, mid-tribulation, the rapture would occur?
Let's analyze this a bit shall we? If Christians are raptured at that time, who then would go through the great tribulation? The newly saved believers? Are they the holy people to be trampled underfoot in Daniel and Revelation? So why did scriptures bother to warn us about such times in Daniel, Revelation and Isaiah to mention but a few? Even the pseudepigraphical literatures and apocrypha pointed to such times. What was the point if we would escape them? Where all these meant for the new subsequent believers? Mind you the reason they're left behind is that they aren't saved at the time of the rapture. So they most definitely still aren't saved now, given that we aren't mid-tribulation yet and the rapture hasn't occurred. Therefore they most likely know little or nothing about what's coming for them. And by the time they're saved after the rapture, they barely have time to go through scriptures to know what they ought to know and the mark of the beast is already upon a bunch of ignorant Christians?
Common people! All these should already sound disconnected by now.
Still persist? Okay.
If the rapture occurs at that time then you have to include fact 1; resurrection has to occur on the same day as well.
But what of the new believers who are saved after the rapture, refuse the mark of the beast and are killed in the process? Don't they get their own resurrection? They do? Okay. So it would appear that the resurrection that occurs on the rapture, mid-tribulation, is the
first resurrection. And the resurrection involving newly saved Christians who refused the mark of the beast afterwards is the
second resurrection? Right?
So why this:
Revelation 20:4-6,
"...And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God.
They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and
reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)
This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the
first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will
reign with Him for a thousand years." (NIV)
It clearly states that the resurrection involving those who refused the mark of the beast
is the first resurrection. If that is the first resurrection, it meant there is no other resurrection before it. Right? No? Still persist?
Okay, if we include fact 2, which of those resurrections does Christ show up? You tell me because I don't know.
Again, common people! Isn't this all confusing by now? Is God the author of confusion?
"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." 1 Cor. 14:33
So you still decide to place the rapture somewhere in between the great tribulation; somewhere in between the last three and half years?
I can't even address that because it's just plain ridiculous.