When I was a kid growing up, one of the really popular Rock Groups at that time was a group from Chicago that went at first by the name of The Chicago Transit Authority. Unfortunately the real Chicago Transit Authority didn’t like them using their name and sued them over it. So to avoid any trouble with the law, from that point on they just shortened the name of the band to “Chicago. They were different from most bands at that time because of instead of just electric guitars, bass, drums and maybe a keyboardist, they also incorporated a horn section in their music. Their first album included a song entitled “Does Anyone Really Know What Time it Is?”
The lyrics from that song reminded me of a hot controversial topic within the Body of Christ today and that is the timing of an event commonly referred to as the Rapture of the Church. Some folks are vehemently in the pre-tribulation camp while others are mid-tribulation and others still who are post tribulation. They even got folks who divide it even further and support a theory called the “post tribulation pre-wrath” timing of the event. One thing they almost all seem to have in common is that they’re almost all certain that those who aren’t in their tribe are in deep kimchee when the end times finally get here.
But are they right? Does it really matter when the rapture takes place just so long as we’re ready for it? Well, if you’re in that “Pre-Trib” tribe, you might be thinking that tearful trip you took down the sawdust trail at that tent revival meeting you got dragged to so many moons ago and that heartfelt sinners prayer you were led into reciting was all it took to get you that all important “Get out of Hell Free” card! And why not, you’re not alone in thinking that way. There are whole congregations who believe that and even whole denominations that teach that!
Speaking for myself, I was first taught to believe in the Pre-Trib Rapture theory and if anyone said otherwise, I was told that they were a heretic and not to listen to them anymore. I know a few people who have lost close friends over this issue and some who were even excommunicated from their church because they thought differently. People in ministry have lost their jobs over this and in my personal case I've been called a “heretic” by some. Why? Because, over time and as the result of a lot of reading, I started thinking that the timing of the rapture might be different from what I was originally taught! Worse yet, I started to think that the timing of the rapture isn't even the most important thing we need to be fretting over.
That’s right, I’m saying that the number one issue that professing Christians fight over these days isn't even that important to begin with. There are much more important issues regarding the rapture and I've come to the conclusion that what you think about Rapture timing really doesn't matter all that much in how you should prepare for the return of Jesus! At a minimum, it isn't the all-important end all, be all, issue so many make it out to be.
If it is true that Christians escape the tribulation period, they'll also escape being battered and escape all the hard times. If the rapture is Pre-Trib, as it would appear a majority of professing Christians believe, then nothing bad is going to happen. This is where I think the church may be getting it wrong. As a matter of fact, I think they may be getting it dangerously wrong! In my humble opinion, the Bible indicates everyone gets battered before the Rapture, even if the Rapture is Pre-Trib. I think the last few years have shown all of us that we're in the hard times right now and it would appear that these hard times are only going to get harder.
There's a lot of teaching within the pre-tribulation circles that IMHO either has been not rightly delivered or just misunderstood. I say that because of how many people who just think that because they are Pre-Trib, they’re not going to have to go through any of it. But, the Bible doesn't promise us those things! Look at China. Christian’s in China suffer greatly for their faith. There’s a threat of severe persecution in Iran. In many countries around the world and throughout the history of the church, since Pentecost, tribulation has always been there.
Western Christians, in particular, have really been living in a bubble. The Western world Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US aren't expecting to have to live through persecution, the loss of their nation, the loss of Financial Security. And people really get upset with me if I say, “Hey, what if the Rapture doesn't happen for five years? What if it doesn't happen for ten or fifteen?” That rocks a lot of people who then say well how much worse can it get?
Well, in 2015 the Pope said this:
“There is urgent need of a true world political party, one authoritative source of oversight and coordination which lays down the rules for admissible conduct in light of the global common good.”
Things said like that tell me that the end times are closing in on us and we if Christians, specifically the ones who believe in Bible prophecy, need to wake up and realize just where we are on God’s prophetic timeline and warn others. We can easily wake up in a world, in the not too distant future, where we have digital currency, vaccine passports and social credit scores like they do in China that dictate when and where we can go and what we spend our money on. Question: Is that the mark of the beast?
I think that Pre-Trib Christians, particularly those in the Christian West, need to wake up and see where we are and know that escape from all hard times that are coming was not promised in the Bible. This fact is proven by these other countries who have to live through even tougher times than we had to live through the last three-four years or so as a result of the pandemic. We can see the pressure that others are enduring through. I totally agree the whole system of the Beast is being set up before our eyes and Satan needs this world to be ready for his man, the Antichrist, to be installed.
Rather than focusing on escaping, many of the teachers I know are now focused on the threats from the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, the United Nations and one world government they are busy bringing about. They’re focused on the trans-humanists, the LGBTQ radicals, the crash of the economy, the wars and rumors of wars, etc., as they should be. To them, the Escape comes second, persecution comes first and that is where we should focus all our attention. Focusing on the escape is an old teaching that is dangerous in today's world.
So, the issue isn't so much about pre or post tribulation vs. wrath, etc. It's will we be persecuted first and what must we do if we are? If you're ready for that, if you’re ready for imprisonment, for the loss of your houses and livelihoods, even for martyrdom, then you're ready for anything. Even if you're wrong about the timing of the rapture, you can go into the tribulation knowing you're prepared emotionally and spiritually for all the things that may it entail!
But now that you’re here and you’ve come this far, let's look at what scripture says about hard times before the rapture. In First Thessalonians 4:17 and in Revelation 3:10, verses that the pre-tribulation rapture camp all agree apply to a pre-tribulation rapture. In Revelation 3:10, it promises hard times before the Rapture!
“Because you have kept my word about patient endurance I will keep you from the hour of trial that's coming on the whole world to try those who dwell in the Earth.”
Now practically every Christian reads this verse and sees what they want to see about the protection aspect, but did you ever notice this protection is dependent on Christians doing something? It's a contingent phrase. Jesus said “because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour.” Jesus is telling the Church of Philadelphia that this church will have patiently endured for the cause of Christ prior to being protected from the hour. Every single member protected will have endured first. Everyone raptured will have patiently endured, everyone, no one escapes scot-free. I think that's the takeaway lesson that is missing in the church in America.
Let's look at the words “patiently endure.” In Greek it's “Hupomone’.” Thayer's Greek Lexicon says it is unswerving steadfastness in the face of even the most severe trials and suffering. That is what Jesus tells us. All those raptured will have shown steadfastness in the face of trials before the tribulation and for some after the tribulation because in order to be steadfast you have to have a trial to be steadfast against and because Revelation 3:10 says everyone will have patiently endured. This means a generalized time of trial has to take place first, a trial every believer endures. Revelation 3:10 proves hard times are coming for all Christians. If you believe Revelation 3:10 is a Pre-Trib verse, it says that those expecting a pre-tribulation rapture will be persecuted first.
This word Hupomone’ is found in some of the most famous bible passages like Romans 5:3 “We rejoice in our suffering knowing that suffering produces endurance (Hupomone’) and endurance produces character and character produces hope.” God uses suffering to produce this patient endurance. This is just like James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy my brothers when you meet Trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness (and that's the word Hupomone’ again or patient endurance) and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”
So, God uses severe difficulties to grow us! He doesn't protect us from tribulations, he protects us from his punishment, from his wrath. Later in James 5:11, he uses this word to describe Job of all people. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, haven’t you? This is the trait God tells us everyone who is going to be raptured will have. They will have the endurance of Job. Why? Because times will get hard before the rapture. That's the takeaway lesson!
Here's how John defines patient endurance in Revelation 13:10. “If anyone is to be taken captive to captivity he goes, if anyone is to be slain with the sword he must be slain, here is a call for the endurance (Hupomone’) and Faith of the Saints.”
Again, not easy things, yet this is exactly the word Jesus uses for all those who are raptured even if the rapture is pre-trip. You see it isn't a timing issue, it's what to expect before the rapture and it isn't “Your Best Life Now! It's Hupomone’ or patient endurance in the face of adversity! We're All in This Together! We're going to need each other and we can't be arguing about the timing of the rapture. We need to be preparing for what is to come before that rescue.
Let's look at another famous verse, First Thessalonians 4:17: “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord.” Again, everyone in the pre-trip Camp agrees that this is about the rapture but, what is unusual about this verse is the first phrase, “alive and remain”. The Greek words here have a different meaning than our English ascribes to them. The first word does mean alive but the second word more properly means “Left Behind” or “those who survive.”
Left Behind? Isn't that interesting! Left Behind from what? Survived what? It implies something happens that takes the life of many in the body of Christ before the rapture and leaves only a few alive and remaining. Jesus asked when he returns will he find faith on the Earth? Why did he ask that? Maybe it’s because most Believers die prior to the rescue. I guarantee you that is not what we're hearing in our churches. Is it perhaps this is what the prophecy of mystery Babylon is speaking of?
In my opinion, most of the church is completely confused about that as well. The church is expecting there to be one coming World Government. They expect it to be the Beast or Antichrist. But, if you read Revelation chapter’s 17 and 18, it is the Beast that destroys Mystery Babylon. Mystery Babylon comes first. Mystery Babylon comes before the Beast and almost assuredly before the tribulation. And we are told that Mystery Babylon is drunk on the blood of the Saints and enslaves the souls of men. By not seeing this critical piece of the puzzle, that the entire church will be persecuted by Mystery Babylon before the Beast arises, that same old escapism thinking comes into play.
I can't tell you how many people think the coming New World Order is the Beast Empire. What if it is not? What if it is Mystery Babylon that comes before the Beast? According to the scriptures, this is an empire that is run by the world’s oligarchs, its Merchants, who use “Pharmakia” to come to power. That tells me that there are two evil Empires that will rule over the kings of the earth in the last days and mystery Babylon, the first one, kills Christians, gets drunk on their blood and it’s very likely that all of this is prior to the tribulation and prior to any rapture.
Nearly everyone believes that the story of Noah is a symbolic picture of the rapture. The Pre-Trib folks believe it, so do the Pre-Wrath folks as do the Post-Trib folks. Everyone of them agree the flood is the wrath of God and the Ark is the rapture that lifts Believers above the Earth. In the days before the flood, the world was filled with violence. This means that back in his day, Noah and his family were enduring violence. So the days of Noah in the future that Jesus tells us of will be like the original days of Noah. The days before the rapture that will come will be days of violence also. I believe that is the major takeaway about what “the days of Noah” line is teaching us.
The days of Lot is another rapture analogy that Jesus gave us. Look at what was happening to Lot when the angels visited his house. The people of Sodom were trying to break down the door and threatened to do extreme violence to Lot and the angels visiting him. In this case, the violence was going to be sexual in nature, all before the rescue that Jesus said would be like the days before his coming. We are entering the days of Noah and the days of lot, days of violence before the Rapture. So for all these reasons, we should be expecting challenging times, days of violence, ahead of the rapture.
I think over the last several decades, Satan has been causing all of us to fight amongst ourselves about the timing of the Rapture. The real issue he didn't want us to see or prepare for is persecution. If you're infighting you aren't preparing. The “Pre and Post-Trib” folks are all fighting against each other instead of preparing for persecution. Now if you are prepared for persecution and economic collapse, then you're prepared for anything. The persecution of the Great Tribulation is just a more widespread and maybe a more intense version of what’s happening elsewhere and honestly, that may be how God is going to prepare his people for more difficult days.
It's like exercising. You lift lighter weights at first and then the weights get heavier as you get stronger. God allows you and I to experience less intense hard times and then we are more able to experience the more severe hard times and that should not surprise us. Look at what the Apostle Peter said about it: “Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” 1st Peter 4:12-13
So, Peter tells us don't be surprised when we're in the midst of these hard times but rejoice instead.
A verse or two later he explains why we have these fiery trials: “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 1st Peter 4 17. Peter is saying the same thing we are, judgment happens to God's people before it happens to the ungodly. So rapture timing really doesn't matter!
So what does all of this mean? It means that all of us, regardless of our belief in rapture timing need to prepare spiritually, emotionally and physically for very difficult times that will come before the rescue and these hard times may be coming sooner than you or I think.