The pretrib rapture theory is a commonly taught end time myth. This false myth got it’s start in 1591 with a Jesuit priest who’s goal was to stop the reformers from teaching the Catholic church was the whore of Babylon. The theory evolved through time with the aid of Manuel de Lacunza, Edward Irving, Robert Norton, Margaret McDonald, John Darby and CI Scofield. C. I. Scofield decided to include the erroneous theory in the annotated Bible he was working on. Sound Bible scholars of the day (like A. J. Gordon, Charles R. Erdman and W.G. Morehead) tried to dissuade him. Three members of Scofield’s revision committee resigned over Scofield’s unswerving support for the view and it was incorporated into the Scofield Bible. Over the following decades the Scofield Bible became the most widely read Bible in the English language, resulting in a myth becoming a commonly taught false doctrine.
There is much Scripture that proves this doctrine false but due to constraints of time and space I will only try to provide a brief but Biblically sound rebuttal to the false doctrine.
Mat 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all
the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Rev 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the
things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and
the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Rev 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,
the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Notice the verse (1Cor15:52) clearly states that we are taken at the LAST trump. Therefore it would have to include the seven trumps of Revelation. Scripture does not lie so the trump of 1 Cor15:52 can’t come before the seventh trump of Revelation or it would not be the last. Either the trump of 1 Cor15:52 is the same trump as the seventh trump of Rev or it would have to come after. We can rule out the possibility that it comes after the seventh trump of Revelation because Revelation 10:6 & 7 tells us that when the trump sounds “that there should be time no longer” and “the mystery of God should be finished” So clearly according to Scripture (God’s inspired word) we are taken at the last trump and at the last trump there is time no longer and the mystery of God is finished. If the mystery of God is finished and there is time no longer how can the tribulation come after that? Besides doesn’t Matthew24:29-31 tell us the Lord returns and gathers the believers after the tribulation? A pretrib rapture would directly contradict the Scriptures quoted. Many churches today still promote the myth of a pretrib rapture but it is so counter to the plain statements of the Bible (particularly the last trump) that I can’t help but wonder how it has gained such widespread popularity.
2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.