I'll Fly Away Not the Song - The Truth is Still Stranger than
Fiction
Three views about when the removal of believers takes place are
held by most Christians throughout the world. Those who think we
are taken at the beginning of the great tribulation are
pre-tribulationists. Those who think the snatching away takes
place in the middle of the great tribulation are the mid-trib
folks. Finally there are the post tribulationists, which is self
explanatory.
Anyone holding one of the three views mentioned has an ample
supply of proof texts to support their views. Very few proof
texts are available for the post tribulation theory and it is
barely supportable. Most people are on the side of the
pre-tribulation rapture; unfortunately it is often for the wrong
reasons. Many people view a pre-tribulation rapture as an
enormous escape hatch. When the going gets rough the
pretribulationists just get going, or just get gone. The fact
that their views may be correct doesn't diminish the fact that
it is the view most likely to leave the believer unprepared.
It is human nature to take the path of least resistance but it
is high folly to think it will be available right at the point
when things start really getting rough. The bottom line for the
unprepared is that they can only hope their views are right. But
hope is a long way from preparedness.
Many Christians have failed to do the math, not to mention
engaging good sense. It is easy to see why this could happen
considering that no one really wants to see their world torn up
from the roots, and in the vast sticky quagmire of apocalyptic
interpretations and speculations it is easy to get confused. As
a result they have not noticed that one of the simplest ways to
know when the rapture will take place is clearly provided in
scripture. It is not so much when, but it is the latest point at
which it could happen, and also a promise that it can't happen
before a specific event.
The prophet Daniel spoke of it hundreds of years before Christ.
Jesus reiterated it with a few more details. Finally the book of
Revelation shows it as a pivotal event in the judgment to come.
Simply put the event is the abomination of desolation. When ye
therefore shall see the abomination desolation, spoken of by
Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let
him understand.) Mt 24:15 And arms shall stand on his part, and
they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take
away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination
that maketh desolate. Daniel 11:31 And from the time that the
daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that
maketh desolate set up, there shall he a thousand two hundred
amid ninety days. Daniel 12:11
The time is halfway through the last seven years in which the
antichrist rules the world. The result is the pouring out of the
wrath of God. Rev 16:2. Without getting bogged down in
eschatological theory, semantic word games or other second
coming hype here is the picture in all of its blaring
simplicity. Since the wrath of God is not poured out until the
antichrist does the abomination of desolation that means this is
the last point we could possibly be on the earth according to
the promise of I Thessalonians 1:10. Because this is true, that
puts the mid-tribulationists at the top of the list of those who
are most likely to have it right. This kind of interpretation
comes under the heading of... if the scripture makes plain
sense, seek no other sense.
I always appendage my teaching on the rapture with this equally
important fact, the rapture could come at any time God chooses
to make it happen. All theology is subject to the ultimate
sovereignty of God. The pre-tribulation theory is the most
petted, preferred and defended for a reason. The reason is that
believers fail to differentiate between who and what is causing
the tribulation in those last days. The antichrist makes trouble
for the believer, and then God makes trouble for the antichrist.
We are promised that God will not pour his wrath out on his own
but we are never promised that we can escape the troubles
incurred at the onset of the rule of the antichrist. Rather, we
are told to resist his rule which of itself implies trouble Mk
8:35.
In a country where we are waiting for more of Gods unbridled
blessings it is hard to teach believers that they may not only
have to give something up to fight evil, but ultimately that
something, may be their lives, literally. If your rapture
theology includes the possibility that you may have to give up
your life, you may he happy to find out that even if you held
the wrong view you couldn't possibly lose anything. More
importantly if you are not wrong at the very least you will be
prepared.
Being ready is part of Gods plan for us when it has to do with
his return. In fact it is a command and an expectation that our
Savior has clearly made known to all of us. Therefore be ye also
ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh. Mt 24:44