Are You Rapture Ready? Part IV

Contrary to what some folks believe, I truly wish that there would be a pre-tribulation Rapture.

After all, who wants to be a Christian in a hostile world where Christians will be brutally persecuted and martyred for their faith?

And who wants to be a Christian in a world where Christians will be given the ultimatum to either worship the leader of a world government as God or be killed?

Certainly, no one wants to be a Christian in a world such as that one. Unfortunately, many Christians are going to be in that world and they're going to suffer brutal persecution.

Therein lies the true motivation behind the popular belief in a pre-tribulation Rapture--the desire to escape persecution and death.

Most pre-trib Rapture proponents will tell you that the reason why they believe the Rapture is going to occur before the advent of the Antichrist and his world government is because of a warning Jesus Christ issued concerning His return: "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Matthew 24:42-44)

Pre-trib proponents claim that the Rapture can't take place during the middle or at the end of the Tribulation period because we would be expecting His return during that horrific time. They reason that the Rapture has to occur during a time of peace and calm on the earth when no one would be expecting Christ to return. 

However, consider this: If the Rapture fails to occur prior to the seven-year Tribulation period and the Antichrist appears and orders his government to begin rounding up Christians and executing them, then many professing Christians who believed that they would not be around to experience this will lose their faith. 

They will believe the Bible to be a fraud and Christ to be a liar. And they will no longer expect His return. And tragically, many will submit to the Antichrist and receive his dreaded mark that will condemn them to an eternity of damnation. (Revelation 13:16-18)

And so, the question that begs to be answered is this one: Just when will the Rapture occur? According to Christ, it will occur at the very end of the Tribulation period. Christ stated: "Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." (Matthew 24:30-31)

The apostle Paul, who understood the Rapture, wrote this: "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Paul also reveals that the Rapture is going to occur at the very end of the Tribulation period. And his revelation indicates that there won't be many Christians left on earth when Christ returns.

But is the Rapture indeed going to occur at the very end of the Tribulation period? 

Apparently, according to the ancient Hebrew prophet Daniel, there will a period of 45 days where God is going to unleash His terrifying wrath across the world for its wanton sin and rebellion before Christ returns to establish His kingdom. (Daniel 12:11-12)

When the Antichrist abolishes the daily sacrifice and sets up an abomination in the new Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, there will be a period of 1,290 days. At the end of that time period, the Rapture will occur.