(Psalm 91:14, Matthew 24:37-42, Revelation 3:10)
The word rapture excites some, but angers others. There are three beliefs pertaining to the time of rapture that divides the church of Christ: the pre, the mid and the post tribulation beliefs. Although we are considered to have the same faith, we are far apart in understanding this important time line of when the rapture will take place in the consummation of time. Seemly, the majority of Christians are not waiting for the Lord, but for the antichrist and the tribulation. Many are physically preparing for it by storing extra foods and everything else necessary according to their knowledge of the situation, with the help of tele-evangelists. These televangelists misinform the people and bring in them a feeling of fear and panic, when they should be rejoicing with the promised deliverance through the rapture. They convince many who are not knowable of Scripture to believe a lie and persist in selling their expensive foods and other amenities. Some Christians have gone all the way financially to prepare for every situation the tribulation will bring, forgetting that when one is under the wrath of God there is nothing one can do to escape it. One cannot fight against God and prevail. If when the rapture happens, you are found to be left behind, there will be nothing you will do to alleviate God’s painful judgments. The only group of people protected at that time will be the 144 thousand, who will be chosen to evangelize the world. Revelation 7:3-8 says: …Harm neither the earth nor the sea nor the trees, until we have sealed the bond servants of our God upon their foreheads. And then I heard how many were sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel: there were 144,000. These will be the only people on earth who will not suffer the consequences of the tribulation because they are sealed or marked with the protection of God. It will not be because they have prepared themselves for the event, neither because they put themselves in that privileged position. God was the one Who chose them. Why would God seal His Jewish servants and not His Gentile bride? The fact remains that the tribulation is the precise reason why the rapture will take place before it happens. The tribulation is called Jacob’s trouble. It is directed to the unredeemed Israel and to all who rejected the Son of God. It will be for the purpose to purge the nation. We read in the book of Jeremiah 30:7: Alas! For that day will be great, so that none will be like it; it will be the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he will be saved out of it. To the church of Philadelphia YAHSHUA promised to deliver her from “the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world.” He rewards the Philadelphia church because she has guarded and has kept His word of patient endurance (Rev. 3: 10). What is this hour of trial, if it were not the great Tribulation? The word of God says that the way to escape His wrath will be by faithfulness to His word and endurance of faith. It will not be by means of physically preparing oneself to go through His judgements, for there will not be tribulation for His bride. There would not be a rapture if there would not be a tribulation. The word of God never commanded us to be prepared for the coming tribulation. Instead He warns us to be ready for His coming. Paul said this to the Corinthian Church: ….That you are not falling behind or lacking in any special spiritual endowment or Christian grace, while you wait and watch for the coming of our Lord YAHSHUA and (His] being made visible to all (I Cor. 1:7); and to the Thessalonians, And [how you] look forward to and await the coming of His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead- YAHSHUA, Who personally rescues and delivers us out of and from the wrath which is coming [upon the impenitent] and draws us to Himself (I Thess. 1: 10). If there will not be a tribulation, there will not be a need for the bride of Christ to be rescued and delivered from it. If the bride of Christ must go through God’s wrath, then there would not be the promise of hope and of comfort for His bride.
Light from the Word 