Articles:  Pre-trib Fib | Kingdom Dominion Lie | Rob Job | Pre-trib History | Rapture book | U-turn

The Exact Timing of The Last Trumpet: It's in the Bible!! | Graph: Time-line of Final Years    New!

As a Thief in the Night--Not for Me! | The Collapse of Dispensationalism: the Seven Churches Myth

We love all these articles, but if you're in a rush, read this article -- it's tiny! [CLICK here to access]

I N T R O D U C T I O N: The Timing of The Rapture

"I  pray  not  that  thou  shouldest  take  them  out  of  the  world,  but  that  thou  shouldest  keep  them  from  the  evil."   ~   Gospel of John 17: verse 15

Our Goal: To Resolve a Divisive Issue and Get on with the Gospel

We must not avoid the controversial rapture issue. We cannot repress the Truth for the sake of a superficial unity. True unity comes through agreement on essential truths. Jesus is the Truth personified; He wants you to know Himself; He wants you to know the Truth. Anything LESS than the Truth is NOT the fullness of the stature of the Son. This fullness will come to pass before the rapture of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. If one obeys the voice of the Spirit, such a person is internalizing Truth. Let no man dare to say that the rapture is a non-essential doctrine, nor that those who press the issue are strife-causers in the body of Christ. When error conflicts with Truth, confrontation results. Debate is necessary in order to show whom God has approved.

Ye know not the day nor the hour.

This is a fact upon which both pre-tribbers and post-tribbers agree on. The time of Armageddon is unknown. The post-trib rapture is at that time. The pre-trib rapture is supposedly 7 years earlier.

Disclaimer:

Many pre-tribulationists assume that all post-tribbers are involved in Kingdom dominion theology. However, Kingdom dominion people compose less than 1% of the post-trib camp, and the Kingdom dominion ranks are on the decline as the world waxes worse and worse, and knowledge is increasing.

Both the Pre-trib theory and the Kingdom Dominion theory are intemperate polemic extremes. The two views, though seemingly opposing, have a common thread in that they are both man-pleasing teachings designed to satisfy itching ears. Proper balance is found somewhere in between--God's spotless Church will be a persecuted, post-tribulational Church.

Nothing Jesus does is theoretical. Jesus is the Truth, not a theory. There's one Way---Jesus-----and He's coming back just one more time:

"Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation" ~ Heb.9:28

The Holy Ghost convicts a person of Truth; the Holy Spirit does not convict a person concerning theories. On the highway of spiritual growth, pre-trib is a transitional phase that some go through, a phase which will eventually be rejected as they press onward. You will often meet a post-tribulationist who was once a pre-tribulationist, but you will seldom, if ever, meet a pre-tribber who was formerly a post-tribber.

God is not the author of confusion

Many people are confused about the timing of the rapture. This is not God's desire. All Christians agree that Jesus will be here definitely at Armageddon. Therefore, you need to bet on the sure thing--the rapture at the time of Armageddon, and leave the theorizing behind. If you do so, confusion will vanish.

The Sure Rock

Make sure you have "spiritual insurance" ... Wise men prepare themselves to go through the tribulation. Get ready for the worst, and hope for the best. Don't be like the sinner who hopes that there is no Hell or tribulation. Praise God! We're spared from Hell (1 Thess.5:9)---but build your house on the Rock, and prepare for tribulation.

All Pentecostals should be post-trib (and one day shall be). We have experienced decades of various forms of evangelism, prayer meetings, church-growth fads, power-through-praise seminars, deliverance teachings, revivals, Christian pep-rallies, and miscellaneous change-the-Church/change-the-world cure-alls. Though these events have imparted sprinklings of blessings and revelations, nevertheless, there has been only slight change in the Church-at-large, and the world is not being impacted by the Church nearly enough. In order for the explosive superlative personal and corporate prophecies spoken concerning the Church to be fulfilled, it is absolutely essential that the world and the Church be catapulted together into a sudden tumultuous traumatic historic upheaval---the Tribulation. It is the "last-days" anointing that we need most of all. It will be a sudden outpouring (Ezek.38:22), not a gradual increase. This comes when the sun is black and the moon is red. The outpouring which turns upside down the physical realm must coincide with a massive manifestation in the spiritual realm called the Spirit of Elijah. Elijah ministered during three and a half years of famine (Lk.4:25; Jam.5:17) and Elisha, with a double portion of the anointing, ministered during seven years of famine (2 Kings 8:1.) It is no coincidence that the tribulation is seven years and is also ravaged by famine and other pestilence. Related articles (top of page)

Rapture book: There are many, but we recommend "Not Afraid of the Antichrist: Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture" by Craig S. Keener and Michael L. Brown at Amazon.com or cut shipping cost at ebay.com

Return to Reading Room

Ezekiel 38 War Signals the Tribulation!

Graphic Time-Line of End-Time Events