Is the pre-tribulation rapture theology giving a false sense of hope to the church? Is it easy to believe in and hold to, leaving the church completely unprepared for coming events? Has the belief in the pre-trib rapture theology produced self-satisfied Christians who sit around waiting for Jesus to come back before things get too bad? Would God remove the Holy Spirit and rapture His Church, starting over again with baby Christians who have neither the Holy Spirit nor mature leadership to help teach and to train in the ways of the LORD? Without scriptural understanding and with no solid foundation on which to stand would these be as a ship without a rudder or sheep without a shepherd.

Perhaps your theology teaches there will be none saved during the tribulation. I agree it would be most difficult if not impossible to be saved without the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. But….

“He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea:“ Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.”

“…After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice…Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb…. Revelation 7

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

Grabbing a scripture here and a scripture there, it becomes easy to squeeze scripture to fit our long taught beliefs and theological persuasions, just ask Beth Moore, Ken Copeland, TD Jakes, Benny Hinn, Hagin or Roberts]. But if we will take the time to read and study His Word, allowing one scripture to support another, reading the chapter and not just a verse perhaps a different picture will emerge - a picture we had not seen before, but one that needs to be prayerfully considered.
 
“For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be…But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” Mark 13

Was Corrie Ten Boon correct when she wrote:

“We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes - to stand and not faint. I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.”


We should not be dogmatic, stiff-necked nor overbearing in our interpretation of scripture - but as we read and watch with sadness the persecution, kidnapping, imprisonment and slaughter of tens of thousands of believers across the globe is it time to ask ourselves - was Corrie right - “Is there no way to escape it.” Are we next, and if so are we prepared?”