Pretribulationist View On Pre-Tribulational Rapture

Mid-tribulation believers hold a belief that the church will still be on Earth the first three and one half years of the tribulation. They believe that the first half of the tribulation they will go through, as well as the second half (the worst half), will send them to heaven to join God's army.

The rapture is a event that is tied into the tribulation because the Great Tribulation is based on when the rapture occurs. The rapture is a event where all non Christians will be left on earth while and all believers will go to heaven. Jesus will come to earth but will not physically touch ground instead he will remain in air and return to heaven with the church.

A big part of the end of the world in the Christian faith is something called the rapture. The rapture is when Jesus returns to take all those who believe in Him up to heaven and away from the earth. Those left on the earth are the people that rejected God and/or are part of different religions. When the rapture occurs, the Holy Spirit, God’s believed spirit that resides on the earth, will leave the earth and there will be nothing holding back evil. The time at which the rapture will occur is a subject of conflict among the Christian churches. The first and most popular theory is the “Pre-Tribulation” theory; the people in this group believe the rapture to occur right before the Tribulation. In this theory the rapture itself is sort of the “starting pistol” for the Tribulation. Next is the “Mid-Tribulation” theory, these people believe that Christians will have to suffer three-and-a-half years or halfway through the Tribulation. They believe that Christians are exempt from the wrath of God but are not exempt from the sufferings of the Tribulation. Similar is the “Post-Tribulation” theory; in this belief Christians are not raptured until the end of the Tribulation for much the same reasons as the “Mid-Trib” theory. Some also believe that even though Christians’ sins have been atoned for they still have to be punished with suffering in the Tribulation. The last and least commonly heard of theory is the “Pre-Wrath” theory. This group

This prophecy got concerned and when Jesus was alone with the disciples on the Mount of Olives in verse 3, they asked him, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" What follows in Matthew 24–25 refers to the future, seven-year tribulation period and the second coming of Christ at the end of the tribulation. During that time, God will complete His chastisement and purification of Israel and after the judgment of the whole world (Daniel 9:24-27; Revelation 6–19).

One could be asking the question, “What is the Great Tribulation?” The Great Tribulation is a period of time foretold in the Bible. According to JW.org, the Great Tribulation is the end of the system of things we live in today. How long it will last is unknown, but it will be very severe and something unlike any event that’s happened today, as seen in Matthew 24:21. To emphasize the severity of the event, the article describes its seriousness by looking at

John wrote the book of Revelation and he was not a synoptic gospel. The fact that John was chosen to be the author of this book speak volumes of what God wanted for him. The book of Revelation is hope but not many people can see that through the doom and gloom that it screams at you. It seems as though it will be a scary time when the end comes but it shouldn’t be for the believers. We constantly deal with what we do not know and we want to make to know what is going to actually happen. I always wonder who the anti-Christ is going to be and I think every year I guess someone new. It’s a scary thought but the end result of the Revelation will be us in heaven with our Father. We will go through the hard times to get to the end which is our hope for the future. The Charles Manson documentary was scary too as I was just watching him think he was doing everything right. He justified what he was doing by the readings from the Bible. Many can interpret this book wrong and Charles Manson was one of many that took the book completely out of

The purpose of this paper is to research and analyze the preterist and futurist views of interpreting the Book of Revelation and determine which view provides the most accurate Biblical interpretation. As Richard L. Mayhue states, the "word 'preterist' comes from the Latin term praeteritus which basically means 'past' in regard to time." A preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation, therefore, asserts that incidents described therein have already come to pass. A futurist interpretation, on the other hand, suggests the opposite namely, that Revelation is a prophecy of things to come.

Throughout the book of Revelation, we see through Johns visions how God will fulfill his promises in the second coming. He beings the chapter by saying, “Just as God fulfilled his promises in the first coming of Jesus, so he will fulfill his promises about his second coming. Jesus will come again and complete God’s eternal plan of salvation; he will introduce the perfected kingdom” (147). At the end of Revelation, we see a glimpse of how magnificent the second coming of Christ will be. Those who are saved, will never experience pain, sadness, or death ever again; Christians will be reunited with the Father. While all of this is yet to come, we must remain faithful to God and anticipate his second

Although some passages of the Bible can be ambiguous in their nature and meaning, Scripture should be interpreted literally. Since this is true, all Scripture concerning the end times should be studied as being literal. If someone took the time to study the prophecies of the end times literally, they would most likely agree with a pre-tribulation futurist; one who believes that some of the prophecies contained in Scripture have been fulfilled, but the prophecies regarding the second coming of Christ, and the end times are yet to be accomplished. A pre-tribulation futurist would also believe that the rapture of the Church will occur before the seven year span of time known as the “Tribulation”, the time appointed when God will judge mankind and the earth. This view would line up with a literal

In the fourth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he expounds on The Rapture of The Church, (1 Thess. 4:16-17) an event where Christ comes to take His bride, the church, to heaven in the twinkling of an eye (an instant). Suddenly, without warning, all Christians either living, or who have died in the Lord, will be bodily resurrected. Members of Christ’s church will receive their glorified “heavenly” bodies, similar to Christ’s resurrection body. Many, including myself, believe this event will take place before the seven-year Tribulation Period when The Antichrist rules the world, and God’s judgment rains down on the earth. This Rapture view is called, “Pre-Trib Rapture” (takes place “before” The Tribulation). Some Christians interpret the timing The Rapture to take place half way or

The rapture in this case is a synonym for escape; an escape from a world true believers are undeservingly trapped in. The question that emerges while analyzing rapture is whether true believers are utterly freed from desires in heaven. Humans are determined to desire something and therefore it appears unlikely that after being taken to heaven, these desires completely vanish. Another reason for apocalyptic desire in terms of the rapture is hope for a better life. People that feel incomplete, that cannot bear competition, that are harrassed or even people that are alone may desire to be taken away from a miserable place. God's existence and his presence in heaven would save them. Faith and hope motivate discontented people to cope with everyday life. Furthermore Crawford Gribben explains that: “[...] dispensational premillennialism appealed to those evangelicals dissatisfied with the theological prevarications of mainstream Protestantism, as well as those, […], whose disappointment with the possibilities of mission work was both a cause and a consequence of their increasingly pessimistic millennial point of view.” (Gribben 5) The irony of his statement nevertheless is that in terms of a pessimistic millennial point of

The Catholic Church, even though they do not speak of the Rapture (McBride & Praem, 65) believes that we will be with God someday. They are not sure though how this will happen (McBride & Praem, 58). The second question a millenarian would ask is “What about the years of tribulation?” A millenarian says that there will be seven years of tribulation. They base this claim on the happenings in the book of Revelations. In the Book of Revelations the number seven is used several times like, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and so on. Nevertheless, millenarians are not sure when all of this will happen. The Catholic Church believes though that the tribulations will come along with the Second Coming. The third question is “What, exactly, is meant by millennium?” In the American Heritage Dictionary, millennium is defined as “ In the NT, a thousand-year period in which Jesus is to reign on Earth.” (American Heritage Dictionary, 529). This same definition is found in The Book of Revelations 20:1-6 (McBride & Praem, 61). Millenarians believe that after the seven years of tribulations and the Battle of Armageddon, comes the millennium as described in Revelations, will come. The final question is “ When can we expect the Second Coming?” Millenarians believe that the Second Coming is the last criteria for the end of the world. Not only

The first of these two Advents is witnessed in the Incarnation of Christ, depicted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The second of these two Advents is prophesied in great detail in the Book of Revelations, as described by John. The Bible, in all its books, is ultimately directed towards God's message, centered on Christ in His coming as the Redeemer of Man and, finally, in His coming as the Judge of Man at the end of time. Thus, in the various Biblical prophecies (abundant in the Old Testament but culminating in the New with Revelations), the "Divine Purpose," as Chafer calls it, is clearly outlined (165).

Well…. Most will say that the person responsible for the rather widespread acceptance of Pretribulationalism and Dispensationalism among Evangelicals is Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921). C. I. Scofield published his Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. This Bible, which espoused the doctrines of Darby in its notes, became very popular in Fundamentalist circles. In the minds of many a Bible teacher, fundamentalist pastor and multitudes of professing Christians, Scofield’s notes were practically equated with the word of God itself. If a person did not adhere to the Dispensational, Pretribulational scheme he or she would almost automatically be labeled a modernist. Today there is a whole plethora of books advocating the pretribulation rapture

The study of eschatology attracts the attention of many believers. It’s a fascinated subject to Christians as well as non-Christians. Unfortunately many people are misled by the false teachings on the return of Jesus. The emphasis should not be on the date of Jesus’ return but on preparing for His return. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have given as many as nine incorrect dates of Jesus’ return from 1874 to 1984. Many of you may recall the predicted end of the world on December 21, 2012 as cited by the Mayan calendars. Oh how they were wrong! Only God knows when the end of the world will take place and Christians are not appointed to sit on the planning committee for the return of Jesus but rather on the preparation committee. In chapter