Rapture Antagonists.

And Pre-Trib belief antagonists are on the rise. Rapture critics, even among those who claim to believe in the eventuality of a Rapture, just not the pre-Tribulation view of that event, purport to present evidence on every side that our times trumpet the obvious: The world is about to enter the Tribulation. Christ's call to believers, they say, just isn't going to happen before Christians suffer at least part of the terrors of that beastly era.
They offer that anyone with knowledge of issues and events going on should recognize that the New World Order bunch is transforming America and the world into the kingdom of Antichrist. All is about to come together for the Gog-led invasion into the Middle East. As a matter of fact, many hold that World War III has already begun.
Advanced computer and other control technologies and instrumentalities are in place for locking everyone on the planet into fiscal bondage and physical slavery to the final empire as prophesied by Daniel.
Those of us who believe there is coming a supernatural Rapture-escape from these judgments on sinful mankind are just living in fantasyland is the collective message I infer from emails and articles that increasingly assault my senses. That I, and all of you, should begin prepping with food, water, gold, silver, and finding a good bunker in which to hunker down during these upcoming days seem to me to be the things these Rapture naysayers are presenting. Seldom do I hear coming from our opponents on the question of the Rapture the admonition to be trying to witness with all our might the gospel of Jesus Christ. I guess there will be plenty of time for that once the Antichrist regime is firmly in place.
While the Pre-Trib proponent holds at the heart of his effort winning as many souls to Christ as possible so those saved won't go through that time of horrors, many of the anti-Rapture antagonists want to do things to make sure they are more comfortable while trying to survive that hellish time.
Coincidentally--or perhaps not--these just happen to, in some cases of TV and other ministries who openly disdain the thought of Rapture, offer for sale all of these things for survival. The packaged food items invariably are proclaimed to have shelf lives of three decades or longer. So, we can, if we survive, have these supplies to partake of well into the Millennium, I suppose. This, based upon the general theme that they believe the seven-year Tribulation, not the Rapture, is imminent. There have been over the past few years a number of debates taking place on whether there will be the Pre-Trib Rapture or not. The best I've heard was the one at the Pre-Trib study group meetings when Dr. Mark Hitchcock completely destroyed the anti-Rapture arguments of the Bible Answer Man.
There are some such debates scheduled for prophecy conferences in the near future. These will perhaps offer new food for thought, but I doubt whether they will change minds on either side of the controversy.
Personally, I believe the time for debate on this matter is past. It is time now to just offer the assurance of that soon to come exhilarating moment when Christ will say "Come up here!" (Revelation 4:1).
There are so many scriptural assurances of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture that we could fill many articles with them.
I wish to mention only one Rapture factor here, because I believe it is the most reassuring of all truth in God's telling His children that they are not appointed to His wrath. Here we interject the question proposed in our title: Where's the Comfort? By that we ask: What comfort is there in the argument that Christians will go through the Tribulation?
Paul the apostle first assures us of this fact: "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9). But, it is the next thought from the mind of God that should cause warm reassurance in the spiritual heart of every believer: "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Get it? We are to "comfort" ourselves, not wring our hands looking for these things to destroy us or to look for Antichrist. We are to be looking for our "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13).
There is no comfort --nor is there directive in God's Word--to be had in anticipating going through the time of God's wrath and almost certain martyrdom (probably by beheading). There is no comfort in looking for the worst dictator in the planet's history to hunt us down and lop off our heads.
Here is what God's Word promises instead of the dreaded scenario proposed by the Rapture antagonists: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18) --
--Terry

And
I don't get what the attraction to this view is. That goes for Pre-Wrath and Mid Trib views as well. Any view that places the Church inside the seven year period known as Daniel's 70th Week, has some major eschatological and ecclesiological issues. Jesus stated that this period of time would be the most horrifying in all of human history, (Matt. 24:21-22) and we have huge swaths of Christian's today who think we are either already in it (but they can't say for sure when it started), or they think we have to go through it (because we deserve it). The good thing about our God is that He is merciful beyond any human definitions of the word. If we all got what we truly deserved, we'd all be doing head stands in the lake of fire.

Look, Pete Garcia didn't invent the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Jack Kinsella didn't invent the Rapture. Hal Lindsey didn't invent the Rapture. John Nelson Darby didn't invent the Rapture. The Apostle Paul didn't even invent it. God put that on Paul's heart to unveil this mystery that even was hidden from the disciples when they walked with Christ. To believe that the Rapture was just a sly deception put on by Paul, is tantamount to saying his epistles aren't part of Holy Writ or else we deny divine inspiration. Peter stated that what Paul wrote, was in fact scripture (2 Peter 3:14-16)...so if Paul was wrong, then so was Peter. You can see how this unravels from here.

But we had pictures (and types) of this in the OT and NT with the likes of Enoch, Elijah, Jesus, Paul, and John, who all experienced their own supernatural catching up. Examples of being supernaturally transported from one place to another would be with both Ezekiel and Philip. All of that to say this...that it is an undisputed fact that God has easily and repeatedly demonstrated His ability to supernaturally move people from one place to another.

And Jesus told His disciples that they would not know the hour of His return. Because the Lord repeated himself four times in the space of a few verses and added the story about the 10 virgins to illustrate the point, there can be no doubt the Rapture will be a surprise event.
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36).
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42).
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).
“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13).
As we get closer to the Tribulation, it is likely that events related to Bible prophecy will be preempted by the Rapture. We know from (2 Thessalonians 2:4-7)