Free End Times Book (pdf).. - Rapture Notes

John also spoke often of Christ's appearing:
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that
when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies
himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)
The pre-Tribulation position is the best from this point of view. If the Rapture takes place before the Tribulation, we
can truly expect it "any day." If it is delayed to the middle or end of the Tribulation, we could not honestly have that
expectation now.
Deliverance of the Saints from wrath
Here are some of the passages which indicate that believers of this Church Age will not be left to suffer the
outpouring of God's wrath:
"But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that
are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:36)
…And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us from the coming
wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)
For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
(1Thessalonians 5:9)
And if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made
them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the
sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among
them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to
rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment... (2
Peter 2:6-9)
In the message to the Church of Philadelphia (Missions Period), God said:
Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour
which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)
Please keep in mind that the Bible does not teach that Christians are delivered from persecution, trials and
temptations. In fact, the opposite is true. In 2 Timothy 3:12 we are told, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution." (KJV) The books of James and 1 Peter were written to encourage Christians when
they are called upon to go through trials. Paul himself spoke about his "thorn in the flesh" as a trial allowed by God
in order that God's strength could be shown through him. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Belief in the pre-Tribulation Rapture has nothing to do with a cowardly desire to escape persecution. Scriptural
examples and history itself teach us that, when called upon to suffer for the name of Christ, it is actually a privilege
to die for Him. In fact, we are being reminded today that more Christians have been persecuted and even put to
death in our own generation than in all other periods of church history combined. For two thousand years God has
allowed his people to suffer trials and persecution and even martyrdom. Why, however, should He ask only the final
generation of the church to endure an unprecedented time of terrible destruction which is not intended for the
church, but as a judgment of unbelieving world?
The belief that the church will be delivered from the Tribulation is based in part on the Biblical pattern that when
God pours out His wrath He always gives opportunity for the righteous to escape it. This was true of Noah and his
family, of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot, and even of the pagan Ninevites to whom Jonah was sent.
The church is the Bride of Christ. God intends that she join her Bridegroom for a great wedding feast and after that
share with Him in ruling the nations. Allowing His bride to suffer through the tribulation is inconsistent with the
specific purposes for which He has called out the church from the world, why He has rescued her "from the coming
wrath." (1 Thessalonians 1:10)
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done… 39