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I realize I'm coming into this discussion late, but I'll voice my thoughts anyway on timing. :-)

I'm a pre-tribber who is open to the slight possibility that Rapture could occur after the Tribulation has begun, but before the Great Tribulation (the second half of the seven-year Tribulation) is seriously underway.

My reading of scripture is unequivocal on its depiction of a scene in which saved and unsaved people are working side by side, one taken, one left behind. I don't believe this scenario is even possible very far into the Great Tribulation. Once the mark of the beast (MOTB) requirement has been globally implemented, saved people will be very quickly driven underground. They certainly won't be working side by side with the unsaved.

Thus, Rapture must occur prior to implementation of the MOTB. In fact, thinking logically, I think many Christians will be underground well before the MOTB. Many Christians will know it's coming and will want to prepare in advance. I have not studied in depth the expected timing of the MOTB program, but my general reading of scripture does not IMMHO indicate the likelihood that the MOTB program will be instituted right at the end of the seven years.

This is of course just one element on which I base my belief as a pre-tribber, but I think it's one of the stronger points from a biblical perspective, even though I virtually never here this topic addressed. Thoughts on this issue welcomed!

I love God.

Hi Mississippi Man, and thanks for joining in. And don't worry, we're all very late into this conversation, as the Apostle Paul was talking about it almost two thousand years ago... :-)

You were saying ...

Thus, Rapture must occur prior to implementation of the MOTB. In fact, thinking logically, I think many Christians will be underground well before the MOTB. Many Christians will know it's coming and will want to prepare in advance. I have not studied in depth the expected timing of the MOTB program, but my general reading of scripture does not IMMHO indicate the likelihood that the MOTB program will be instituted right at the end of the seven years.

Well..., I look at it another way, for me, anyway. I will do nothing to prepare for it. I won't be stocking up on food or getting a place to "wait it out" or be prepared to defend myself in some kind of war or whatever else comes down the pike... :-)

I'll be depending totally on the will of God to preserve those in His care, as we come up on that time of the Tribulation. And also, this applies inside this time period (the Tribulation), during which time He has foreordained for the Antichrist to take control of the world and to overcome those who are God's own (except for those who He has mentioned specifically, like the two witnesses, the 144,000 witnesses from the 12 tribes of Israel and the remnant of the nation of Israel whom God protects until the time of the Messiah's return).

The only thing I'll be concentrating on..., is not self-preservation in the long run, but to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in the understanding of the times that we are in, which also leads one to the Gospel of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and what is to come.

God is the one who is going to be taking care of my well-being during these coming days. I can't figure that out as well as God can Himself and He has promised to do so, in any case. If it comes to be my time to go, prior to that Rapture, then God will take care of that, as it's only by His will that this will be done for me or anyone else, no matter who they are. So, who am I to be concerned about that... :-)

For anyone else around me, that I'm concerned about, the best thing I can do for them, is to get them to realize what is coming and for them to trust in the Lord God Almighty as the only one whom they can depend on and who guards over all of His own.

Oh..., and one more thing, MississippiMan... :-)

For the revealing of the Antichrist and for his ability to very quickly take control over the world's systems and governments, I think it's going to be necessary for all the resistance to such a person to be removed from this earth. That would be all the Christians.

With all the proclamation of the Gospel and the warnings and the resistance from the Christians in the world, I can't see how it would be easy for the Antichrist to take control.

I know one thing..., for me, at least, if I were to see certain things being done by a person that describe the actions that will be taken by the Antichrist, I would be yelling that from the housetops to warn everyone. I can imagine that a lot of other Christians would be doing the same, also.

That would alert a lot of people to what is going on, and it would work against the "strong delusion" that God will send upon the world at that time. So, Christians would be working against God's "strong delusion" that He sends upon the world, during that time.

I don't think the Christians will be doing that (i.e., "warning people"), because they won't be here -- they won't be around to recognize that a certain leader is the one whom the Bible has spoken about, as being the Antichrist, or be around to protest and to warn a lot of other people around them.

So, the removal of the Christians is a necessary component to facilitate the coming of the Antichrist on the world scene.