Sometimes I come across something another person has written and just wish I’d been smart enough to make the point myself. Barring that, the next best thing is to highlight the issue and give credit where it’s due.
There are numerous sound, doctrinal reasons for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. I’ve previously discussed many of them in my writings and Awaken Bible Prophecy Update videos. I also did an audio series of twelve episodes of Rapture Readings earlier this year. If interested, you can check out the first of these commentaries here. To listen to additional ones, look for the blue background on the title slides on my Rumble channel in this link above.
What I want to relate today is from another blogger’s post written a couple of years ago that I missed or didn’t appreciate when I was reading her series of articles on this subject. The title of blogger Heather’s article is End Times #8: A Pre-Trib Rapture is the Most Merciful Option. Heather is an excellent writer and is best known for her fervent stance against Calvinism. Given her experience with a Calvinist church and her subsequent research, I’d definitely put her in the expert category and would put her up against any committed Calvinist. Because she’s a thinker who also considers approaches to Scripture outside the box, she can be very persuasive.
The case that Heather makes in the linked post deals with those who will be left behind once the Rapture occurs with Jesus coming in the clouds for His true church – His ekklesia of called-out believers.
Here’s the question: What is it after the Rapture that causes untold millions to turn to faith in Jesus? This is one of the most important issues for believers in the various Rapture timing options to consider. Here is Heather:
“If the rapture is mid-trib or post-trib (which is possible if the theologians who believe this are correct), then the believers of the church age will face terrible persecution at the hands of man and Satan. But if this were true, what incentive would there be for unbelievers to turn to God during that time while the Christians are being persecuted? Why would people side with the Christians if there was nothing to prove to them that the Christians are right? They would have no real reason to think that the Bible was true all along or to desire to turn to Christ in the face of such persecution.
But if the rapture is pre-trib and before the mass martyrdom starts, then the world would have the biggest wake-up call ever and the greatest proof that the Bible is true, causing many people to turn to God despite the fact that they know the persecution is coming. The proof of God, the proof that the Bible is true and predicted it all, would be so shockingly clear that they would know that they have no other option than to choose God or choose eternal death. And many people would be willing to choose God then, to face death so long as they know they will have life eternally.”
Process this for a minute. Let’s say the Rapture is mid or post-Trib, or there is no Rapture at all, as some like to hallucinate. EVERYONE enters the Tribulation period (under the assumption that there IS a defined 7-year Tribulation, which some also deny). The UN Agenda 2030, in concert with the World Economic Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution, moves forward according to their schedule and desires. Build Back Better charges ahead at full speed.
So, here we are, fully committed Christians, half-hearted ones, and all the heathens of the world experiencing the wrath of God through the plagues that He begins raining down through the opening of the Seal Judgments. Not only that, but we’re at the mercy of the globalists with their devious endeavors to depopulate the world.
Now, some say that because Christians will go into and through the Tribulation, God will supernaturally protect us as He did with Joseph’s family when they went down to Goshen in Egypt, overstayed their welcome, and had to be delivered through the Exodus via the ten plagues of God upon Pharaoh and his people. That’s a rosy prognostication, but there’s absolutely nothing in Scripture which paints this picture – nothing textual that one can cling to so as to substantiate this hypothesis.
That being the case, what differentiates the Christians enduring this terrible time from anyone else? We’re in the same lifeboat that is being swamped by the massive waves of destruction and death pouring over the sides of our craft. Given this scenario, how is it that so many unbelievers become martyrs in the Lord during the Tribulation? If there’s nothing the pagans supernaturally see about the Christians enduring the same fate they are, why should anyone profess faith in Christ and actually die for Him?
But, as Heather brilliantly points out, the pre-Trib Rapture changes EVERYTHING. Surely there will be many misleading explanations for the sudden vanishing of millions of people worldwide, from aliens to Mother Gaia striking back against those who create such disharmony on the earth. However, word will get out. Many of those remaining will have been evangelized. There will also be those fleeing the chaos and scarcity who end up in the homes of Raptured believers. Since many of us are preparing for that day, these Tribulation refugees will find the Bibles, the videos explaining the Great Disappearance, the letters of greeting to “You who have been left behind,” as well as the stores of food, gold, and weapons.
Yes, these latter items will be welcome and necessary, but because of the confusion that will reign, the spiritual sustenance we’ve provided will draw many and provide the needed answers for their lives. Not to mention the evangelism God provides via His two witnesses, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, and finally, the angel that proclaims the Gospel flying throughout the earth.
The seeking left-behind masses will come to an understanding that it was truly the work of our supernatural and loving God who snatched us from the midst of these horrors. The Holy Spirit will prick their conscience, and they will pursue deeply the things of Christ who sacrificed Himself and gave this astounding gift of sanctuary from the storm in the prelude to eternal life. These seekers will come to know that because of their poor choice of rejecting Jesus, they must partake in this punishment, yet they will also realize that even if they lose their lives for the sake of Christ, they will gain them forever by declaring Him as their Savior and Lord.
BECAUSE we were Raptured prior to all that will come during the Tribulation, many heathens will forsake themselves and choose Jesus Christ. Will it be incredibly difficult and scary? Absolutely. But they will understand that if they continue preferring the ways of the world and submit to Antichrist’s lies, they will be doomed to Death and Sheol. The Rapture will be the initial overwhelming evidence that God is real, the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus is worthwhile, and they too can cling to that hope in the confidence of faith.
The mercy of the pre-Tribulation Rapture is one more aspect of the grace of God – one more opportunity that He gives to this lost and dying world to profess the Name of Jesus.
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Gary Ritter website: books & blog
Kindle Vella story: Tribulation Rising
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099Z462WD