Some Thoughts On The Tribulation

By Dave MacPherson* (1968)

It is practically impossible to find any teaching, before the 1800s, of a secret, imminent, any-moment Pre-Tribulation rapture.

This theory started becoming popular in the 1800s. This was also the century that gave birth to many false cults, that saw misguided persons setting dates for Christ’s Second Coming, that saw many radical changes in one large branch of Christendom, and liberalism creeping into other religions. This century saw many new inventions, the rise of labor unions and industry, and the more man exalted himself the less he exalted Christ and God’s Word, the Bible.

Many well-known Christians have not believed in an imminent, secret rapture for believers, but have believed that the Church will go through the Tribulation. Some well-known Post-Tribulation rapturists are: Henry Frost, of the China Inland Mission; William Erdman and Charles Erdman, the first a consulting editor of the Scofield Reference Bible; George Mueller; Nathaniel West, who has been called the most learned of American students of unfulfilled prophecy; Richard McCartney; Alexander Reese; Benjamin Newton; Miss Edith C. Torrey, daughter of R. A. Torrey; Charles H, Spurgeon, the great English preacher; Hudson Taylor; Dr. Stephen H. Kellogg; Dr. Edward Carnell, Dr. A. J. Gordon; Dr. George Ladd; Dr. Robert McQuilkin; Dr. T. T, Shields; Dr. R. V. Bingham, etc.

Many Christians today are not even aware that there are 3 views of the Second Coming.

The Pre-Tribs, or those who believe we will escape the Tribulation, probably are the biggest group. But most people in this group have been influenced by other men and have not studied this for themselves.

Then there are the Mid-Tribs, who believe the Church will go through part of the Tribulation. Post-Tribs believe we will go through all of the Tribulation and that there is only ONE coming, after the Tribulation. This group is increasing as persons study the Bible for themselves.

The 7th chapter of Revelation tells about the 12 Jewish tribes and the number of persons in each tribe----144,000 persons altogether. Right after this there is, in verse 9, “a great multi­tude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues”. In verse 14 this vast multitude is explained: “These are they which came out of great tribulation.” This is the only New Testament passage in which the definite article is used, in the original, before Great Tribulation, so there can be no doubt that the one-and-only Great Tribulation is mentioned here.

The wrath of the Tribulation is not God’s wrath, as many people believe, but Satan’s wrath. Not only will the Church he saved from this wrath, but even Jewish persons will generally escape it. Jeremiah 30:7 says “Alas: for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” Nobody believes that Jewish persons will be raptured away before the Tribulation, but that they will be preserved through it. If God can preserve Jewish persons at this time, He can also preserve Christians and take them through times of suffering.

And there is no Scriptural reason to believe that true Christians will suffer any more during the Tribulation than they have had to suffer in every age since Christ’s first coming’

To us, this unScriptural, any-moment rapture theory is based only on what certain scholars try to read between the lines of a few obscure passages.

And some preachers say that if we believe Jesus can return to earth at any moment, it is conducive to holy living. But since this theory came out over a century ago, the Church has become more apostate than ever before and needs to be purified! In soul-winning it is just as effective to say to a person: Repent, because you can die at any time. Nobody disagrees with that and it is just as convincing to the lost sinner who may know little about the Bible but does know about death and how imminent it is:

So----believers should know all about the 3 Tribulational views, and then study the Bible for themselves.

* Written by Dave MacPherson in 1968. This was his first article and was published by the Heart Of America Bible Society. Dave is a good friend who is a journalist and historian by trade. He has written several books on the origins of the pre-trib rapture theory.