"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (Philippians 3:20-21) Once again the apostle Paul described first-century Christians (including himself) as eagerly awaiting the Lord's return, and Paul said that our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like the Lord's glorious body. This is the event which Christians often refer to as "the Rapture," as we can see by comparing the above passage with 1 Corinthians 15:51-53: "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:51-53) So in Philippians 3:20-21 (above) Paul described the Rapture, when the Lord will return for us and transform us from mortality to immortality, and Paul described the first-century Christians as eagerly awaiting this return of the Lord. Some Christians feel that Jesus might not return for hundreds or thousands of years, which essentially gives them no reason to be "eagerly awaiting" the Lord's return. In a similar way, the mid-trib and post-trib views teach that the Lord will not return and Rapture us until years after the Antichrist signs a treaty with Israel. There is no real evidence that the Antichrist is about to sign this treaty with Israel, and therefore (according to the mid-trib and post-trib views) the Rapture of the Church is always many years away, up until the moment when that treaty is signed. So the practical effect of the mid-trib and post-trib views is that there is no reason to be "eagerly awaiting" the Lord's return until after the Antichrist signs a treaty with Israel. The pre-trib view is the only view which allows for the Lord to return and Rapture us at any moment, and the practical effect of the pre-trib view is that Christians can and should be "eagerly awaiting" this return of the Lord, just as Paul described in Philippians 3:20-21 (above). The Greek expression that Paul used for "eagerly awaiting" is actually made up of two Greek words which together have the meaning of "intense expectation" (The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, p.210). This "intense expectation" of the Lord's return for us can only realistically be experienced with the pre-trib view of the Rapture. For example, kids usually love birthday parties, but a month after their birthday they are not "intensely expecting" their next birthday party. But when their next birthday is just a few days away, that's when they are "intensely expecting" their birthday party. It's the nearness of the event which causes us to have that "intense expectation" of it, and the pre-trib view is the only view of the Rapture which says that the Lord's return for us is always "near" or "imminent" or "at hand."
