5 Post-Trib Answers to 5 Popular Pre-Trib Arguments

post-trib answers

POST-TRIB ANSWERS. In these times we face threats of a Chinese global domination and possibly tyrannical AI capabilities. If the great tribulation is coming, does that mean Christians will experience the rapture soon? Many of us have heard each major argument for a pre-tribulation rapture, and the proof-text for each one. But have we heard answers and Scriptures which challenge each argument?

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First, pre-tribulationists argue that believers will not suffer the wrath of God. Therefore God will rapture them before the tribulation. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9).

God’s wrath is real. But it falls on unbelievers, not on believers. And not only in the end times, but at all times. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18-19). During the tribulation, God will pour out plagues on unbelievers so they will repent and turn to Him.

After the sixth trumpet plague, Revelation 9:20 says this: “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands.” (See also their failure to repent in Revelation 16:9,11.) After the tribulation, the seventh and last trumpet sounds and believers are raptured. In the next answer, we will see what is happening to believers during these plagues.

Escape to heaven or to havens?

Second, they say that God will rapture us so that we may escape the destruction that the plagues bring. “But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Yet the Lord provides us with escape to divinely-protected havens, not escape by rapturing us. When the great tribulation begins, Jesus tells people to “flee to the mountains” (Mt. 24:15-21). Not to fly away in the rapture. Likewise, the woman representing Israel “fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God” (Rev. 12:6). She also represents believers because “her children…hold to the testimony of Jesus” (12:17).

In the wilderness havens, He nourishes His people for 1,260 days (12:6). That’s the same number of days that the two witnesses prophesy (11:3). The 1,260 days roughly equal the 42 months, or 3 ½ years, that the Antichrist has authority to “make war with the saints” (13:5-7). That is why God provides havens for believers to escape his persecution.

Destined for destruction or salvation?

Third, they say the Rapture is the first end-time event, because Jesus can come at any moment. “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape” (1 Thess. 5:2-3).

But Jesus comes only like a thief to surprise unbelievers who don’t expect Him. The next verse says that the day of the Lord should not surprise believers. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day” (1 Thess. 5:4-5).

We should expect that the day will come like a thief to bring destruction on unbelievers at any time. But not on us. Why? Already we have seen the answer in verse 9. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Restrained by the church or by angelic power?

Fourth, the church restrains the rise of Antichrist. The Antichrist will not take power until the church is taken away in the rapture. “And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed” (2 Thess 2:6-8).

But verse 3 says “the man of lawlessness is revealed” before the rapture. Paul calls the rapture “our gathering together to Him” in verse 1. “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be…disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction” (2 Thess 2:1-3).

Others say that the Holy Spirit is the restrainer who is taken away. If so, how can anyone get saved or “live by the Spirit” during the tribulation?

So who restrains the Antichrist “until he is taken away”? I think a close study of Daniel 12:1 shows that the archangel Michael “stands guard” over God’s people. When he arises, or is taken away, “there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.” That sounds like the time of the Antichrist and the tribulation.

Deliver us from this world, or deliver us from evil?

Fifth, they say God will rapture us in order to keep us “from the hour of testing”—the tribulation. “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 3:10).

But many other verses in Revelation which says “hour” refer to a time after the 1,260-day tribulation. (See Rev. 11:13; 14:7,15; 17:12; 18:10,17,19.). Even if you make those verses fit the tribulation, what does it mean to “keep you from the hour of testing”? It could mean to prevent you from being present during the tribulation. Or to protect you while you are present during the tribulation.

We see John use the same Greek phrase for “keep from” in John 17:15. There Jesus says, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” That’s why we pray, “deliver us from evil,” not “deliver us from this world.”

Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus say that He will spare us from tribulation. On the contrary. He says, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

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Photo: Rural East Lothian Awaiting The Rapture At Danskine Crossroads by Richard West, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons