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“What tribulation is in the Tribulation is from GOD, not ‘the world’.”

These things are merely a regurgitation of pre-trib thought, but not evidence. Again, I’m not saying this makes them wrong. I’ve been taught pre-trib all of my life in every church I’ve been a part of, including my current one. I respect that godly Bible teachers have espoused this view. I’m quite familiar with its tenets. It has an internal logical consistency. But it is still wrong and is based on a system made by John Darby rather than the Bible.

No one has ever exegetically demonstrated a pre-trib rapture from the Bible. It is all anecdotal and proof texts (like the way cults nit-pick the Bible to support their erroneous views). Historically, all of the early church fathers taught we will face antichrist. The New Testament warns of the coming of the antichrist. I don’t mean to be harsh in my criticism of pre-trib, but it has lulled the western church to sleep with regards to the rapture. It’s the kind of doctrine that sets well with an easy-believism, Laodicean, western church that has forgotten that suffering, persecution, and tribulation are normative for the church.

“BTW, in the Greek ‘where the word ‘mansions’ is used the Greek refers to rooms, like the rooms of an Inn, not permanent mansion.”

Hebrews 12:27
Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Hebrews 13:14
For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.

The Lord is not preparing a temporary dwelling place. The purpose of His preparation of a place for us, in His Father’s house (again, wedding analogy) is for us to be with Him. At the rapture the church will go to be with Him. She will return with Him to the earth, and remain with Him, reigning with Him on the earth.

But there is no indication that this will be during the entirety of Daniel’s seventieth week. It is simply argued from anecdotal evidence that because the church is distinct from Israel (though Paul and the other apostles were Israelites) then we will not be here when God continues His work in Israel for the final seven years. But when does the “time of the Gentiles” begin and end? It began in 70 A.D. decades after the church began. The temple was still standing when the church began. Temple ceremonies were still going on. And Jewish believers, including the apostles, continued to participate in the temple activities until 70 A.D.

When will “all Israel be saved” as Romans 11 describes? At the beginning of Daniel’s seventieth week? Certainly not. Christ said they will receive one who comes in his own name (i.e. antichrist). When will the veil be lifted from the eyes of Israel as a nation? When will the purpose of Daniel’s seventieth week be fulfilled? At its inception or completion?

Daniel 9:24
Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.

When will Israel “look on Him whom they have pierced” AND fulfill the second part of that prophecy by mourning and completing the national repentance ?

Zechariah 12:10
And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

If Daniel’s seventieth week begins with Israel and the world falling for the deception of antichrist, as he rises to power, where do all of those persecuted for Jesus and His word come from?

Matthew 24:9
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

Revelation 6:9
When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

Revelation 7:9, 14b
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands... These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

How are there innumerable followers of Christ in the middle of “strong delusion” and the Holy Spirit and church removed? With the church raptured out, who evangelizes and converts these multitudes to become followers of Christ? How can they hear without a preacher? If the Holy Spirit was poured out with signs and wonders and fire and smoke and dreams, visions, and prophecies BEFORE the Day of the Lord, and the world rejected this, how are multitudes converted DURING the Day of the Lord?

Romans 10:14
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Keep in mind, this is NOT a proof text. I’m NOT taking this out of context to serve my own purposes. This passage is in the middle of Paul’s discussion of Israel’s national repentance, her present blindness, and his exposition of Joel’s prophecy concerning the time when “whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved” which is the same passage that discusses the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the subsequent Day of the Lord.

“We will be in Heaven with The Lord during the seven years God is pouring out His wrath in increasing degrees upon the earth, persuading the Jews of Messiah’s soon arrival upon the Earth WITH we who were caught up along.”

The wrath of God is what is contained in the scroll which only the Lamb is worthy to open. The seven seals are NOT the opening of the scroll. They must be broken before the scroll can be opened and God’s judgment and cleansing of the earth by fire can commence.

The seven seals correspond exactly to the seven signs of the Olivet discourse. The “tribulation” in the verse above (i.e. Matthew 24:9) coincides with just before the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week. We know this because the abomination of desolation is part of the events in this discourse (in verses 15-24). What follows is the greatest tribulation of all. Yet the Lord tells His disciples the “End” is not yet? Well, when is this time called the End that they asked about? How does Jesus describe His return immediately AFTER the days of tribulation, in which saints are gathered by angels, yet there is no description of all of the many judgements of the seven trumpets and seven seals that happen before Jesus returns to set up His kingdom?

Rather than relying on the pre-trib paradigm, it is best to stick to the sequence of events in the actual scriptures. When we compare the passages we find a sequence that does not fit into the pre-trib paradigm. And, indeed, we should not try to force it to do so. The Biblical sequence is that the Great Tribulation begins in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week. This is when Michael, the restrainer, kicks Satan out of Heaven, and Satan comes to earth with great wrath. This is when antichrist begins his reign of terror with the abomination of desolation. But this great tribulation is “cut short” by a divine, cosmic intervention—a cataclysmic celestial event that darkens sun and moon and forces earth-dwellers to take refuge underground. This disrupts their persecution of Christians, the great tribulation ends, Christ returns for His bride which is taken out, and then the wrath of God contained in seven trumpets and seven bowls is poured out in flaming fire on the earth. After this, Christ returns and sets up His kingdom on the earth which He restores. His bride comes with Him to share in His reign.