Interesting post. This passage indicates we should consider it a gift to suffer for Christ:
Php 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
So does this one:
Act 5:41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
And this one:
Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
Luk 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
In Jesus’ High Priestly prayer in John 17 there’s also these tidbits:
Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
So Christ is praying for believers at that time in verse 9, then He prayed for all who would ever believe in verse 20. In between, in verse 15, He specifically prayed that the Father (absolutely) not take them out of the world, but to guard them from the evil.
So I see insufficient evidence for a pretrib rapture. On the contrary, I see that Christians are supposed to be prepared to suffer for Christ’s sake, and consider it a gift, because of the eternal rewards involved.
i agree. God doesn’t pull his people out of harms way, ever. we are the leaven that keeps the message here while we are here. All over the world Christians are slaughtered. we here in america invent the escape part.
Those verses have nothing to do with the Rapture or the Great Tribulation...
Joh 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Joh 17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
The suffering that we see or experience is NOT the suffering that is going to be inflicted during the Tribulation...The apostle Paul describes the suffering that Christians go thru:
o 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
1Co 4:10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
1Co 4:11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
1Co 4:12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
1Co 4:13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
1Co 4:14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
Some of us may lose sight of the fact that there are Christians all over the world and many of them do suffer persecutions that we have never experienced...
AMEN.
That is the reality, that we Christians are going to have to suffer for the Lord. As the Lord suffered so will we.