Dear friends:
 
Occasionally in one of my e-mail messages or Web posts I may mention the word “rapture.”  Out of several thousand readers, invariably I get 1-2 responses from someone who feels the need to “educate” me on the subject, insisting from their vast knowledge (or maybe a recent popular book or e-mail they read) that there will be no pre-trib rapture.
 
Even though I have studied what the Bible says on the subject for over 30 years, I admit I still need to be educated.  There are mysteries about the subject none of us may fully understand.  I do not pretend to know all the answers and exactly how it will all come down, and we may all have some surprises coming.  But we have to go with what we see in the Word, and not someone’s opinion. 
 
My main calling is not to defend the pre-trib rapture, but sometimes I enter the fray because it is one of the most important subjects in eschatology.  A proper understanding determines whether or not a person has a “blessed hope,” or no hope but to go through the greatest tribulation and agony in all human history. 
 
In the 1970s I started out as an ardent pre-tribber.  A few years later I came under the influence of Christian leader who was a post-tribber, and without really studying out the subject on my own, I began to think he might be right. Sadly, this caused me to look for the antichrist instead of the Christ.  Then a few more years later I decided to study the Word myself and come to my own independent conclusion, after which I firmly switched back to the pre-trib position, where I am now.
 
The idea of a rapture, or sudden “catching up” out of this world into infinity and eternity, is a mind-boggling one, defying the imagination of our finite minds.  That may be why natural minds have trouble grasping it.  But so is “salvation” itself, and the idea that the death of a Person 2,000 years ago and our faith in Him could affect our eternal destiny, or that He can live inside of us.  So, by faith we accept what God says on this and any subject.
 
Overall, I believe the pre-trib position is the most biblical one, all things considered.
 
Post-tribbers usually try to argue four main points to me, which I will briefly address.
 
1.  Matthew 24.  They claim Matthew 24 proves there is no pre-trib rapture, as it includes a countdown of calamities, then afterward reveals the coming of the Son of Man (v. 30-31).   Sounds logical.  However, they fail to mention that vs. 37-40 in that same chapter are suddenly inserted, seemingly out of sequence, that describe a time of apparent normalcy, as “in the days of Noah,” when some people are mysteriously removed.  Such a time of normalcy would not follow the disastrous events in verses 1-31 where about one-half of the world’s population is killed.  Verses 37-40 must be talking about a rapture before those previously described tribulation events.  Not everything in the Bible is in chronological sequence.

2.  “It’s not fair!”  In an emotional but not scriptural argument, some claim it will not be “fair” for some to be raptured while others have to go through the Tribulation.  What about the fairness of the millions suffering and dying in Sudan vs. the comfortable Christians in the industrialized West?  God decides what is fair, not us.  We can only rely upon His Word, and thank Him for His mercy and blessings.  God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Romans 9:14-15).  We should not try to impose our faulty “fairness doctrine” on God.  He knows what He is doing, and He is always just and right. 

3.  “We need to go through the Tribulation so we can be purified!”  This is one of the most disturbing arguments because it says the blood of Jesus is inadequate to purify us.  But Hebrews 13:12 makes it clear that we are purified (sanctified, made holy) by the blood of Jesus, the same blood by which we are also justified (Romans 5:9), redeemed (Ephesians 9:12; Hebrews 9:12), atoned for (Romans 3:5), and washed (Revelation 1:5).  I remember the famous quote by I believe Dr. Roy Hicks, Sr. or Oregon who said, “If the blood of Jesus is not enough to purify you, then persecution, starvation, or getting your head chopped off won’t do it either” (paraphrased).

However, there may be a bit of tragic truth to this post-trib argument, and this is why:  The Bible says we are sanctified by faith in His blood.  “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25).  Those who do NOT have such faith in His blood may, indeed, have to endure the Tribulation.  If they survive the antichrist and half the world’s population being killed, at the end of the Tribulation they may be standing there looking over a bleak, smoking landscape, dazed, dirty, bloody, bruised, and starving, and suddenly have the shocking revelation that after all that, in their own flesh they are no more purified than they were when the Tribulation began!  They may finally realize, as they should now, that they are only purified by faith in the blood of Jesus.  It will be a hard lesson, but a needed and necessary one to enter His presence, where one may only enter “by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8), and where “no flesh should glory” (1 Corinthians 1:29).

4.  The pre-trib rapture is only a recent doctrine.  I thought this myth had been totally discredited but it is still thrown out there occasionally by some who are quoting someone else but who have not bothered to research it themselves.  See http://www.his-forever.com/rapture_taught_in_early_church.htm
 
If you really want to study this subject more, I have discovered the following Web sites, which may help you.  (By the way, I choose not to argue this subject as I have found such arguments usually futile and non-productive.  Please do not contact me on this subject until you have memorized word-for-word each of the Web sites below! :))

http://www.raptureme.com/ttcol.html Collection of 16 essays.

http://www.raptureready.com/rap61.html Defending the Pre-trib Rapture.

http://members.aol.com/RSy2717/pretrib.html 50 Evidences of the Pre-trib rapture.

http://home.netcom.com/~horse/pretrib.html The Pre-tribulation Rapture of the Church.

http://www.tbaptist.com/aab/pretribcoming.htm The Imminent Pre-trib Coming of Christ.

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/mar2003/donnac328-1.htm Awesome Challenge for Post-tribbers

http://www.his-forever.com/rapture_taught_in_early_church.htm Pre-trib rapture taught in early church

http://rapturealert.com/sixteenproofs.html Sixteen Proofs of a Pre-trib rapture

http://watch-unto-prayer.org/rapture.html

http://www.abbasway.org/messages/018e.htm

Keep looking up for that blessed hope!

God bless you,
 
Jim