Christians who disagree about the timing of the rapture can still affirm that Jesus will return bodily and visibly. The disagreement concerns when He gathers His Church in relation to the future Tribulation. The post-Tribulation view joins that gathering to His public return after the Tribulation. I believe Scripture places the Church’s gathering before that period begins and distinguishes it from His subsequent return to establish His kingdom.
By rapture, I mean the catching up of resurrected and living believers to meet the Lord, as Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 4. We should allow each passage to make its own contribution. Neither an isolated phrase nor our preference about avoiding suffering can settle the question.
The Real Question and the Coming Wrath
In the post-Tribulation understanding, believers remain on earth during the final distress, rise to meet Christ when He comes, and accompany Him as He descends to reign. Matthew 24:29–31 is central to that argument because Jesus places the gathering of His elect after the Tribulation. John Piper’s explanation of the post-Tribulation position gives a representative statement of this reading. The question is whether that gathering and the catching up described by Paul are the same event.
Tribulation means affliction or distress, and Christians have experienced it throughout the Church’s existence. Paul taught that believers enter God’s kingdom through many tribulations. Faithful people have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed. A pre-Tribulation rapture gives us no basis for claiming that Christians will escape persecution now.
The future Tribulation refers to the final seven-year period I understand as Daniel’s seventieth week. Jesus describes an unprecedented intensity of distress following the abomination of desolation:
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
The issue is whether the Church is appointed to pass through that future period of judgment. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians speak about the Lord’s coming in connection with deliverance from wrath:
And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Thessalonians were already suffering for their faith. Paul therefore could not mean that belonging to Christ spared them every painful trial. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10, they wait for the Son from heaven, who delivers them from coming wrath. In chapter 5, Paul describes the Day of the Lord bringing sudden destruction on people who are saying “Peace and safety.” He distinguishes the people overtaken by the Day from believers: “They” are overtaken, while “you” are sons of light and sons of the day.
I understand these promises to include deliverance from the coming Day of the Lord, rather than only forgiveness of sins with no bearing on the Lord’s return. In Revelation, the Lamb opens the seals, angels sound the trumpets, and the bowls are expressly identified with God’s wrath. These judgments proceed under heavenly authority. Human persecution and Satan’s hostility occur during that period, but neither accounts for everything that happens. God is judging a rebellious world.
Christians who hold the post-Tribulation view generally do not claim that the Church must suffer God’s condemnation. They distinguish believers’ suffering from the wrath directed against unbelievers, arguing that God can preserve His people while judgments fall around them. He is certainly able to do that. Our disagreement concerns what He has promised. I understand the next passage to promise that Christ will keep the Church from the whole period.
Jesus made this promise to the church in Philadelphia:
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.
The words keep from should still be read in their setting. In John 17:15, Jesus asks the Father to guard His disciples from the evil one without taking them out of the world. The wording by itself therefore cannot prove physical removal in every passage.
In Revelation 3:10, however, Christ promises to keep His people from the worldwide hour of testing. I understand that as deliverance from the period itself, rather than preservation of their faith while they remain within it. The trial comes upon those who dwell on the earth. Revelation repeatedly uses that expression for the world in rebellion against God.
Daniel’s Seventieth Week and the Time of Jacob’s Trouble
Daniel 9 identifies the people and city to which the seventy weeks relate:
Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
Daniel’s people are Israel, and his holy city is Jerusalem. These weeks are understood as units of seven years. The prophecy traces the Messiah’s coming and His being cut off. It then foretells the destruction of the city and sanctuary by the people of a coming prince. The final week includes a covenant and an interruption of sacrifice halfway through:
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.
I understand the one confirming the covenant here as the future ruler who opposes God, with the final week still awaiting fulfillment. The seven years are tied to Israel and Jerusalem, and the midpoint brings the cessation of sacrifice and the abomination of desolation. The study on Daniel’s seventy weeks develops the chronology and the reasons for treating that final week as future.
The Church is one body in Christ, made up of believing Jews and Gentiles. Its existence does not cancel God’s promises concerning Israel’s national future. Nor do those promises imply that the Church is less loved or receives an inferior salvation. I understand Daniel’s final week to complete what Gabriel announces for Israel and Jerusalem. Those remain the subjects of the prophecy, and passages that draw on Daniel need to be read with that setting in view.
Jeremiah describes Israel’s coming distress and deliverance:
Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.
Jacob is brought through this trouble to the restoration God promises. The passage joins severe distress to deliverance for Israel. It does not say that the Church must be placed under God’s wrath to become fit for Christ.
The Blessed Hope and Revelation’s Sequence
The Church is taught to look for Christ:
Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Both pre-Tribulation and post-Tribulation believers can look forward eagerly to His appearing. My question concerns what Scripture requires to happen before He gathers the Church. I understand the New Testament’s expectation as imminent, meaning that no revealed prophetic event must occur before that gathering. Believers are not instructed to await the coming ruler’s covenant, the abomination, the mark of the beast, or the bowls before they can expect to be received by Christ.
Imminence does not entitle anyone to set a date. Jesus expressly rules out claims to know the day or hour:
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
Matthew 24 also describes signs preceding the Son of Man’s public appearance. I distinguish that revealed sequence from the Church’s expectation of being gathered to Him. Post-Tribulation believers can affirm watchfulness even while expecting preceding events; the command to watch alone does not disprove their position. My difficulty is with making the whole sequence of Daniel’s final week a necessary prerequisite to the Church’s gathering. I believe the combined promises direct us to expect Christ without first identifying our place within that week.
Jesus’ promise to His disciples directs their attention to the place He prepares and to being with Him:
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
He names the Father’s house and assures the disciples that He will come again to receive them to Himself. The passage does not give every stage of the prophetic timetable, but it promises a place He prepares for His people and a future with Him. I understand that promise to fit naturally with Christ gathering His people to Himself before He later descends in public judgment.
Revelation supplies further context, although we should not ask one verse to establish the entire doctrine. John is called into heaven:
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”
“Come up here” addresses John, who is being shown a vision. I do not regard that command as an explicit description of the Church’s rapture. The larger movement of the book is more significant to the argument. The churches are addressed in chapters 2 and 3, the scene shifts to heaven, and worldwide judgments unfold in chapters 6 through 18. Believers appear on earth during those judgments, but the Church is not addressed there as it was in the opening letters. I understand these believers as Tribulation saints, people who come to faith during that period.
The presence of saints therefore does not prove that the Church has remained on earth, but neither does the absence of the word Church prove its removal by itself. I read this structure together with the earlier promises. By Revelation 19, the marriage of the Lamb is announced before His public descent:
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.
And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.
The bride is made ready, and heaven’s armies follow Christ. I understand the redeemed Church to be with Him before He descends to defeat His enemies. That order fits the promise of a place in the Father’s house, the judgment seat and rewards described in 2 Corinthians 5:10, and the bride’s readiness. Revelation does not say how long each heavenly event takes. My argument concerns their place before the Lord’s descent, rather than a claim that they require a prescribed number of days.
Matthew 24 and Paul’s Gathering of the Church
Jesus’ disciples had asked about the temple, His coming, and the end of the age. In Matthew 24, His answer draws on Daniel’s abomination of desolation and includes instructions for people in Judea to flee, with specific concern about the holy place and the Sabbath. These references locate the instructions in Israel’s prophetic setting. Jesus then places this gathering after the Tribulation:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
I accept that sequence. The Son of Man appears publicly after the distress, the nations mourn, and angels gather His elect. In the setting Jesus has described, I understand this gathering as connected with His public return, Israel’s deliverance, and the establishment of His kingdom.
Paul describes the Church’s gathering this way:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
The Lord Himself descends. The dead in Christ rise first, and the living are caught up with them to meet Him in the air. This includes resurrection, not simply the removal of Christians who happen to be alive. The transformation of living believers is explained further in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52.
The two passages share features, including clouds, a trumpet, and a gathering. Post-Tribulation believers see these as descriptions of the same coming, with believers meeting Christ and accompanying Him to earth. I do not think a difference in the details mentioned, by itself, proves two separate events. My conclusion comes from reading those details with the promises concerning wrath, Israel’s final week, and the Church’s reception by Christ.
Matthew emphasizes the public appearance after cosmic signs and the angelic gathering of the elect. Paul comforts the Church with the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the meeting in the air. He does not mention the Tribulation signs as prerequisites in that explanation. I understand these as distinct gatherings within God’s unfolding purpose. Christ receives the Church before the Tribulation; the gathering associated with His public return follows that period. The study on the pre-Tribulation rapture examines the positive case more fully.
Revelation 20 then describes the resurrection of people killed during the Tribulation for their testimony:
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
These martyrs refused the beast, his image, and his mark. They live and reign with Christ for a thousand years. The description “the first resurrection” must be read alongside Christ’s resurrection as the firstfruits. I understand the first resurrection as the resurrection unto life, which unfolds in more than one stage. It contrasts with the later resurrection of the wicked to judgment and the second death.
The timing of the Church’s resurrection follows from the passages considered earlier, while Revelation 20 identifies the martyrs raised to reign. I understand the resurrections to unfold in phases: Christ rose first, the dead in Christ rise at the Church’s gathering, and the Tribulation martyrs rise to reign when He establishes His kingdom. The wicked dead are raised after the thousand years. I find the post-Tribulation reading less satisfactory because it brings the Church’s reception, the heavenly preparation and rewards, and the return to reign into the same closing sequence.
The Millennial Kingdom and the Comfort of Christ’s Coming
The literal thousand-year kingdom raises a further question about the people who inhabit it. Scripture describes glorified saints reigning with Christ, but also people living ordinary mortal lives. Jesus says this about those who have been raised:
For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.
They do not become angels; Jesus compares their condition in this respect with that of the angels. Resurrected saints do not marry and establish families as people do now. Yet Isaiah describes children, long life, and death under exceptional circumstances:
No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.
I understand Isaiah’s description as life under Messiah’s earthly reign, before the eternal state in which death is gone. The kingdom therefore includes mortal subjects alongside glorified saints. That raises a difficulty for the post-Tribulation view: if every living believer is caught up and glorified at the end of the Tribulation, and unbelievers are judged and excluded when Christ comes, who remains to enter the kingdom in a mortal body?
In the pre-Tribulation sequence, people come to faith during the Tribulation after the Church has been gathered. Those who survive until Christ returns enter His kingdom in mortal bodies, and their children continue mortal human life under His reign. This objection rests on a literal earthly millennium with both mortal subjects and glorified saints. An explanation must account for both groups while preserving the promised resurrection and the judgment at Christ’s return. I believe the pre-Tribulation position does so more coherently.
Putting these passages together, I believe Christ will gather His Church before Daniel’s final seven years. He will later return bodily and visibly, defeat His enemies, deliver Israel, judge the nations, and establish His thousand-year kingdom. The Tribulation martyrs will rise to reign with Him. The study on the end-times timeline follows that sequence more fully.
The purpose of Paul’s teaching should also govern how we use it. The Thessalonians were grieving for fellow believers who had died and needed assurance about their future with the Lord. Paul explained that the dead in Christ would rise and the living would join them. He then instructed the Church:
Therefore comfort one another with these words.
The comfort rests in the Lord’s faithfulness to His people. Those who have died will not miss their inheritance, and those alive at His coming will not leave them behind. All will be with Him. I also understand the wider promises to assure the Church that Christ will receive us before the coming hour of wrath. That expectation should steady us when the present world becomes frightening and strengthen us to carry out the responsibilities God has given us.
If I use prophecy to justify neglecting my work, ignoring a struggling believer, or spending my days making predictions, I am disregarding the conduct Paul commands in these same letters. We should work faithfully, grow in love, encourage the fainthearted, warn the unruly, and remain sober and watchful. Expecting Christ gives us reason to obey Him today. It should also make us eager to tell people about the Savior they need. The study on the blessed hope develops that expectation.
My Final Thoughts
I remain convinced that the post-Tribulation view brings together events Scripture distinguishes. The promises of deliverance from coming wrath, Daniel’s focus on Israel and Jerusalem, the Church’s expectation of Christ, and the order of the heavenly and earthly events lead me to a pre-Tribulation gathering.
That conviction should make us faithful, not presumptuous. We have no revealed date to announce and no promise of freedom from persecution in the present age. We do have the Lord’s assurance that He will receive His people and keep His promises. I want us to wait for Him with confidence, care for one another, and continue the work He has entrusted to us.