For several years I listened expectantly for the trumpet to sound, calling believers home. I listened with excitement to messages of deliverance from the wrath coming upon the earth. With a smile on my face, I embraced those encouraging words admonishing each of us to look up and not out, teaching them to my children. Joy and laughter filled the halls of churches as thoughts of escaping the judgments to come danced across our minds, filling our hearts with the assurance that all was well with our soul.

Several years passed and I rocked on until one night I was radically changed after an encounter with the True and Living God. I matured in my faith, took my Bible and began to read, to study. As the Word commands:

“Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

As I read books by Robert VanKampen, Marv Rosenthal and Michael Pfeil along with studying my Bible, nagging thoughts crept in. My smile became a thoughtful gaze, and I was left to wondered:

“What If?”

What if the PreTrib belief were correct? What Harm?

We had waited with expectant hearts the appearing of our LORD. Standing joyfully on His promises to deliver us from the wrath to come.

What if the PreTrib belief were correct? What Harm?

We as a family, with joy and laughter, had discussed what heaven would be like and spent hours attending prophecy conferences with feel good messages, amid shouts of Maranatha, sharing our excitement with like minded believers.

BUT nagging thoughts refused to go away.

What if the PreTrib belief were wrong? What Harm?

We have spent much time waiting expectantly to be saved from the wrath to come but NO time preparing our hearts and our minds to stand for Him in the fiery furnace of affliction. We have spent little time on our knees weeping before the LORD over the lost within our own families, nor have we cried out to our Father to save, deliver and heal a lost and dying world. We have swallowed and followed but spent no time becoming rooted and grounded in His Word.

What if the PreTrib belief were wrong? What Harm?

We have not examined our own hearts before God, but have chosen instead to embrace easy belief-ism. We have not looked at our own sins nor cried out to God in broken repentance. We have forgotten to look up to a Holy God who said:

“I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:44

There will indeed be a rapture - but whether it is today, tomorrow or a thousand years from now, our LORD has said “occupy until I come."

“…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8