What are the raptured wearing? Their birthday
suits?
Jesus did not pray for us to be taken up and away out of the world before the tribulation. Jesus prayed that His Father should keep His followers from the evil one during tribulation. Paul and James taught that we should resist the devil's (snares) and then he would flee from us.
This thread I started about the need to live watching in the Spirit. This also causes the devil to flee from us.
So we need to live in His presence watching or the devil will not flee from us.
Some will be heeding the exhortation to watch. They have learned to live so that they overcome the devil.
That is why a minority remnant will be ready for rapture before the great tribulation. Why wait to watch
until Satan becomes so strong on earth?
John 17:14-16 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
This thread again I started to encourage saints to live as if the Lord might come unexpectedly at any moment.
That was not the invention of man. That was Christ's exhortation.
Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes. (Matt. 24:42)
See? It is the teaching out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus.
For this reason you also be ready, because at an hour when you do not expect it, the Son of Man is coming. (v.44)
See? It is not the daydream of those wanting to avoid trouble. It is the teaching of the Lord Jesus.
Now, yes His mighty prayer in John 17 is for His people. He asks the Father to keep them from the evil one.
I do not ask that You would take them out of the world, but that You would keep them out of the hands of the evil one. (John 17:15)
This thread is about our cooperating with the Lord's petition that we live so as to be kept out of the hands of the evil one.
The warning to watch is one that can be heeded by Christians or ignored by Christians.
Why would it surprise us that a remnant of heedful believers living to keep out of the Devil's hands would be raptured?
At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. (Matt. 24:40)
The Christian taken is the one living so as to be free from the hand of the evil one.
The Christian left needs to learn the hard lesson of living to be free from the hand of the evil one.
Throughout the history of God dealing with His people, some heed the importance of sanctification.
And others procrastinate the need for it. Typically those who heed are in the minority.
And this not because they are an elite or particularly previledged. They simply take seriously the need to be normal Christians.
Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. (v.41)
The Christian taken is the one living in the presence of the Lord overcoming the Devil's hand.
The Christian left is the one who needs to learn the hard way to do so.
So to watch, to be vigilant, exercised unto godliness in a way in which normal work duties
do not distract you from loving the Lord needs to be practice. It needs to become habitual.
This not only meets the taken one's need to be taken. It meets the Triune God's need that His people be filled with His life.
And to be filled with His life is the request of the Son in John 17.
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. (v.17)
The Christian who is taken has cooperated to be so sanctified in their daily living.
That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,
that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me. (v.21)
The Christian taken has learned that they can be built up in oneness with other believers in His life.
And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one;
I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. (vs. 22,23)
In His request to the Father the words perfected into one implies a process - perfecting.
It should not surprise us that some submit to this perfecting process early and others submit late.
The example of Enoch is instructive. He was taken out of the earth because God wanted to
vindicate to the others that it was possible to live such a life. Enoch obtained this testimony. And God took him
and left others for His acknowledging that Enoch bore the testimony of being
well pleasing to God in the world.
By faith Enoch was translated so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he obtained the testimony that he had been well pleasing to God. (Heb. 11;5)
It is the same before the great tribulation. A remnant of normal overcoming saints will be raptured as a corporate Enoch.
And why? Yes, they watched rather than neglected to bear the proper testimony.
At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left.
Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes. (Matt. 24:40-42)
The only scenario of pre-tribulation rapture which is unreliable is the
one teaching that whether the believer watches or does not watch he will be ready to be taken.
Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes.(v.42)
2 Timothy 2:24-26 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
This is a tremendous verse. This thread is about building up a habitual practice of such escaping the snare of the devil.
Just before the great tribulation the Lord will demonstrate that some of His people are ready to be taken as Enoch was.
His teaching in
Matt. 24:40-42 is that OUR LORD ( implying the saved ) watch even in the daily humdrum to live a sanctified life.
Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes. (v.42)
James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. (Matt. 24:40)
Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. (v.41)
We should daily practice to live with hearts turned to the Lord.
We should go about our daily responsibilities as of our Lord may come at any time.
This kind of living causes the Devil to suffer loss if he tries to damage us. So he flees.
This kind of living meets not only the believer's need or desire to escape the hour of world-wide great tribulation.
It meets God's need to have such a testimony and for His people to be so saturated with His Spirit.
How then can we lose? Whatever your view of eschatology is this is a winning stragedy.
Jesus warns us to be faithful to Him through all tribulation. If we do not deny/disobey Him even to the point of our death, we will then be saved/inherit eternal life. If we disobey His commands, we deny Him our love and we will not be approved to inherit eternal life.
If you think on it a little pre-great tribulation rapture is a reward to those who have learned the lesson before those 3.5 years begin.
This is the word out of the mouth of Jesus.
Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth. (Rev. 3:10)
Please notice the condition. It is not
"Because you are redeemed" or
"Because you are born again" or
"Because you have the gift of
eternal life".
The only scenario in which pre-great tribulation rapture is unlikely is the one in which regardless of one's spiritual walk
they would be taken out of the hour of world-wide trial. Here some are rewarded for such an event because
they have already learned the lesson.
Some take their daily trials each day to endure in the grace of Christ. Since they have learned how to habitually live this way
some of the church will be raptured. The lesson of endurance for His kingdom was ALREADY learned. For example, like John.
I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Rev. 1:9)
He took seriously his need to be wherever he was
"for the kingdom and endurance in Jesus."
He took seriously his need to be "in spirit" through
"the tribulation and kingdom".
Compare now John's normal Christian overcoming life with the exhortation to the brotherly love church Philadelphia.
Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth. (Rev. 3:10)
Matthew 24:9-11 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Indeed this has happened throughout church history to some Christians.
But it puzzled me whenever people claim
"he who endures to the end shall be saved" is some kind of proof of
there not being any pre-great tribulation rapture.
There is the daily lesson of enjoying the Lord's grace through our trials and tribulations.
We all have them. Those who learn the lesson of His endurance will one day be taken out of the hour of world-wide great tribulation.
Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth. (Rev. 3:10)
The Lord is growing a crop on the earth. It is God's life sown into people's hearts.
There is the growth, maturing, development, and readiness for Harvest as a process.
Every farmer knows that some of the crop - a minority, ripen early as
firstfruits.
And most of the crop ripens latter as full
harvest.
And He said, So is the kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth,
And sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and lengthens — how, he does not know.
The earth bears fruit by itself: first a blade, then an ear, then full grain in the ear.
But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he sends forth the sickle, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)
Since we are His crop on earth all of which will
eventually arrive at harvestibility, it is no
suprise that some, a minority, will have early ripening. The Lord warns of such. So we should
watch - meaning live in the Spirit.
This meets the farmer's need. And early readiness of pre-tribulation rapture meets God's need.
The only scenario which is not reliable is that no matter how the Christians live pre-great tribulation is promised them.
Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes. (v.42)
Revelation 2:10 Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
This is another passage that puzzles me why it serves as proof of no pre-great tribulation rapture.
Why is it hard to understand that
some might possess a crown of life already during the church age?
They just have to be wary that they do not lose it.
I come quickly; hold fast what you have that no one take your crown. (Rev. 3:11)
Look at the previous verse 10 when reading this.
Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth. (v.10) 
