There are some very good “arguments” concerning both points of view. Will the “catching up” of the saints occur before God pours out His wrath on the earth, and the antichrist rules, or will it happen at the end, or even in the middle?
I personally think it will happen BEFORE the tribulation. Here is my main reason: born-again believers are the church, the church is described as the bride of Christ throughout the New Testament (Revelation 19, Matthew 25, Ephesians 5). Since Jesus is the bridegroom and His church the bride, why would He “beat up” His bride before bringing her to Himself?
Furthermore,
10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness Romans 1
9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thessalonians 5
The wrath of God that is to plague the world during the tribulation is described in Revelation as “the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth”. It is God’s final attempt to get mankind’s attention, if you will. It is NOT a time for the purification or testing of the body of Christ. It is not a time of preparation before meeting the Lord. If it were, then why did Jesus have to die? We are made righteous through His blood, and all who abide in Him are made pure through Him, not through persecution and suffering.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1
To the church in Philadelphia, Jesus promised
10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Revelation 3
This promise extends to all born-again believers. What does it mean to persevere? To abide in Him; to walk by the Spirit, not the flesh, to keep His Word and not deny His name, holding fast to Him.
I cannot see the Just, Righteous God subjecting His purchased (by Jesus’ blood) children to the trials of the great tribulation.
Could I be wrong. Sure. Could it be we are not raptured pre-trib and have some kind of Divine protection from the various plagues, such as the locusts and boils? I suppose so. We know that the antichrist will put to death those who do not worship him or take his mark. I see this referring to those who are commonly referred to as the tribulation saints-those people who accept the Truth during the tribulation.
Regardless, the important question remains: Are you Ready for whatever the future holds, both on earth and in eternity?
A Mom Looking Up 
[Hi Marcia. Just found your good blog. BTW, here’s a piece I saw on the web.]
PRETRIB RAPTURE STEALTH !
Many evangelicals believe that Christ will “rapture” them to heaven years before the second coming and (most importantly) well BEFORE Antichrist and his “tribulation.” But Acts 2:34, 35 reveal that Jesus is at the Father’s right hand in heaven until He leaves to destroy His earthly foes at the second coming. And Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven with the Father “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. (“The Rapture Question,” by the long time No. 1 pretrib authority John Walvoord, didn’t dare to even list, in its scripture index, the above verses! They were also too hot for John Darby – the so-called “father of dispensationalism” – to list in the scripture index in his “Letters”!)
Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening (Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! The “rest” for “all them that believe” is also tied to such destruction in II Thess. 1:6-10! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who’d be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the end of trib “death” (15:54). (Will death be ended before or during the trib? Of course not! And vs. 54 is also tied to Isa. 25:8 which Scofield views as Israel’s posttrib resurrection!) It’s amazing that the Olivet Discourse contains the “great commission” for the church but not even a hint of a pretrib rapture for the church!
Many don’t know that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 this “rapture” was stretched forward and turned into an idolized separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which evangelical scholars overwhelmingly rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” [“gathering”] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!). Google “Walvoord Melts Ice” for more on this.
Other Google articles on the 183-year-old pretrib rapture view include “X-Raying Margaret,” “Margaret Macdonald’s Rapture Chart,” “Pretrib Rapture’s Missing Lines,” “Edward Irving is Unnerving,” “The Unoriginal John Darby,” “Catholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture,” “The Real Manuel Lacunza,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Pretrib Rapture Secrecy,” “Deceiving and Being Deceived,” “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty,” “Famous Rapture Watchers,” and “Morgan Edwards’ Rapture View” – most by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” (the most accurate and documented book on pretrib rapture history which is obtainable by calling 800.643.4645).
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