WILL TRUE BELIEVERS ESCAPE THE GREAT TRIBULATION?
One of the fantastic teachings about the great tribulation is that true believers will not go through it. But this teaching has been found to be inconsistent with the Bible.
First, whereas Rapture teachers say the Rapture will take place before the great tribulation, our Lord Jesus Christ said the catching up of the saints into the sky (1 Thes. 4:17), which they term the Rapture, will take place after the great tribulation (Matt. 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27). These passages alone have completely rubbished the teaching of secret evacuation to heaven in order to escape the great tribulation. The Rapture teaching is not from the Bible. It came from the false ideas of men, notably John Nelson Darby who started teaching this false concept in Dublin , Ireland circa 1833 AD, and one of his earliest adherents, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield who used his Scofield Reference Bible to popularize the teaching among Evangelicals and Pentecostals.
Jesus Christ, during His earthly ministry, told His faithful followers that some of them will be martyred because of their belief in God and in Himself (Matt. 24:9). But He also said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28 NIV). He assured all His faithful followers that anyone of them who get killed for their faith will be resurrected on the day of His second coming and make then inherit eternal life in God’s kingdom (John 6:36-40). There is therefore nowhere God or His Messiah gave any promise of taking believers to heaven to make them escape the great tribulation.
The pristine believers in Jesus understood this clear teaching. They therefore taught it to others. Apostle Paul, for example, talked about it in many of his teachings. He told the believers in Rome that they should not be intimidated by tribulations (Rom. 8:35-39). He told the Thessalonian believers that Christians are destined for tribulations (1 Thes. 3:3-4). He told Timothy that true believers will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). He and his companions told the believers in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch that believers “must go through much tribulation to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:21-22). (Note that “much tribulation” and “great tribulation” mean the same thing. It should also be noted that when Jesus Christ foretold of “great tribulation,” He did not use the definite article “the,” whichshould have suggested a particular tribulation. Therefore the tribulations He foretold cannot be limited to the end-time persecution of the world by the Antichrist.) Paul also said, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Rom. 5:3-4 NKJV).
The summary of these passages, among many others, is that God will not make true believers escape any kind of tribulation; tribulations are part of God’s will for His saints. In the midst of the tribulations, He gives His true children the grace to go through them without falling to the desires of the Devil, the author of all tribulations. All of Satan’s desires in all troubles is to make us deny God. The worst he does to a believer is to kill him or her. That is why the Lord has prepared our hearts that we should be willing to die than to yield to the desires of the enemy (Dan.3:16-18; Luke 12:4-5; Rev. 2:10).
What Jesus Christ taught in John 16:33 also affirms the truth that God’s people are destined for tribulations. Therefore the teaching of pre-tribulation rapture is antithetical to biblical teaching. It gives false hope to the people of God.
Out of the seven churches Jesus sent messages to in Rev. 2 & 3, two had no rebuke from the Lord. This means they were found faithful and blameless. They were the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia. Now hear what Jesus told the church in Smyrna, “Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the Adversary is going to have some of you thrown in prison, in order to put you to the test; and you will face an ordeal for ten days. Remain faithful, even to the point of death; and I will give you life as your crown. (Rev 2:10 CJB, emphasis added).
“Ten days” is not a literal ten days made up of 240 hours. It is a symbolic figure for a time which is not unduly long. The believers were told to endure the persecution to the point of death, if need be. This is an unimpeachable evidence that God’s saints will go through great tribulations. In fact, a vision of them going through great tribulations was shown to John in Rev. 6:9-11; 13:5-10; 14:9-13. It is instructive to note Rev.14:12 which says, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.” (Rev. 14:12 NIV). The people who are here exhorted to endure the troubles are not unbelieving sinners or “careless Christians.” They are faithful believers who will go through the end-time persecution by the Antichrist. John was shown their victorious and glorious end after the ones killed have been resurrected to life by Jesus Christ (Rev. 7:9-14).
It is instructive to note this point: God gave His only begotten Son over to the Jews and the Romans to be killed because He knew He will raise him up from the dead after 3 days since God has power over death (Acts 2:22-24). The same way, all those He will allow to be killed by the Antichrist (Rev. 6:11; 13:7) will be resurrected to life at Christ’s return to the earth. But Rapture theorists have reduced the Almighty God to a weak rabbit who must hide her young ones in a hole to keep them safe from predatory creatures. The power of the Most High God has been insulted by the teachers of the pre-tribulation rapture.
The Bible does not teach the contrived and convoluted doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture. In fact, neither the word “rapture” nor the theory it teaches is found in the Bible. I need to also mention that 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 do not teach anything about the great tribulation. What is taught in the two passages is the resurrection of the dead which is the hope of those who believe in God (Acts 24:15). Rapture theorists have crudely and falsely linked 1 Cor. 15 and 1 Thes. 4 with the great tribulation.
Many false or fallacious doctrines have been taught to the body of Christ by ignorant teachers (2 Pet. 3:16). It is time for every sincere Christian to begin to unlearn them by doing critical study of the Bible the way the Bereans did in the first century AD.
