What exactly is "the tribulation"? The bible speaks about "tribulation", not "the tribulation", which infers a specific one, so, what is THE tribulation?
IS THE RAPTURE BEFORE THE TRIBULATION?
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Revelation 7:14 (WEB):
(14) I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.
The Gospel of Christ
Well-Known Member
The Tribulation Isn’t What You Think — and Jesus Never Taught a Rapture Escape Plan
Scripture mostly talks about “tribulation” (thlipsis) as something believers experience. But Jesus does describe a final period of unparalleled distress — and He tells us exactly how it ends.
The problem? Modern churches have been fed Scofield’s fan fiction, not Christ’s words.
So let’s walk through what the Bible actually says.
1. Tribulation is for believers — not just “the left behind.”
“In the world you will have tribulation (θλῖψιν) — but take heart, I have overcome the world.”
— John 16:33
“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”
— Acts 14:22
Tribulation isn't some Jewish horror flick after the Church "vanishes" — it's the furnace believers have always gone through. It’s been happening since Acts — and it will culminate right before Christ returns.
2. Jesus does mention a great tribulation — but the righteous are still there.
“Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world... and except those days be shortened, no flesh would be saved.” — Matthew 24:21–22
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days… He shall send His angels… and gather His elect.” — Matthew 24:29–31
So when does Jesus gather His people? AFTER the tribulation — not before.
No secret escape. No early flight. No Kirk Cameron 'Left Behind' Hollywood nonsense.
Left behind” isn’t a threat — it’s a promise. Just ask Noah.
3. “But what about being taken like in Noah’s day?”
People say this like it’s the reward — but Jesus says it’s the judgment.
“As it was in the days of Noah… they were eating and drinking… until the flood came and took them all away.
So shall it be when the Son of Man returns.” — Matthew 24:37–39
(Also Luke 17:26–30)
Look again — who gets taken in Noah’s day?
Not Noah. Not the righteous.
It’s the wicked who are swept away in judgment.
And Jesus says it’ll be just like that again.
The ones “taken” are the ones judged.
The ones “left” are the ones preserved.
Left behind? That’s the blessing. Just like Noah, just like Lot.
That means modern Rapture theology has Christians begging to be swept away in judgment — while calling it their “blessed hope.” That’s not faith. That’s deception — straight from the Pit. They’re under a veil… and cheering for their own destruction as the architects of this deception laugh from the shadows of Hell — watching the Church pray for its own judgment, and call it salvation.
4. Revelation confirms: the saints go through it.
“I saw the souls of those who were beheaded for their witness to Jesus… and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” — Revelation 20:4
Who are these saints?
Not “tribulation extras.”
They’re the faithful Church — those who endure.
There is ONE resurrection. (John 5:28–29, Daniel 12:2)
5. Daniel backs it up:
“There shall be a time of trouble such as never was… but at that time your people shall be delivered — everyone written in the Book.”
— Daniel 12:1–2
“Many shall be purified and made white and tried.”
— Daniel 12:10
Not beamed up — purified, tried, delivered.
Through fire, not around it.
6. There’s no escape hatch. But there is endurance — and glory.
“Here is the endurance of the saints… those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
— Revelation 14:12
“But he who endures to the end will be saved.” — Matthew 24:13
The Satanic Lie: “The Tribulation” is a Jewish-only horror story.
This was invented by John Nelson Darby in the 1800s and stapled into your Bible by Scofield.
They taught the Church is removed before things get rough, and the Jews get one more shot during a special 7-year tribulation.
There’s only one problem:
That’s not what Jesus taught.
Final Truth:
There is a final period of tribulation — a real, global time of distress before Christ returns. But Jesus was clear:
The righteous aren’t removed beforehand — they’re refined.
The wicked are “taken,” not the saints.
The elect are gathered after the tribulation.
There is one resurrection — at Christ’s visible return.
And every believer who endures will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43).
Summary:
"The tribulation" is real — not just future, but already unfolding. It intensifies before Christ returns. But believers go through it — not around it.
The “rapture” happens after the tribulation (Matt 24:29–31).
The ones “taken” in Noah’s day were the wicked — not the saved.
Jesus says it will be the same way again when He returns.
The ones ‘taken’ are the damned. The Rapture, as the misled modern churches teach it, is actually a death sentence disguised as deliverance.
The righteous are left — sealed, rescued, preserved, just like Noah.
So when modern Christians start begging to be “taken”…
they’re literally praying to be swept away in judgment.
That’s not the blessed hope.
That’s spiritual suicide — with Scofield footnotes.
Scofield’s fantasy isn’t in the Bible.
Endure like Noah. Obey like Lot. Shine like the saints.
No one is raptured before it. The righteous are gathered after (Matt 24:29–31).
Saints will suffer, resist the Beast, and be resurrected to reign with Christ. (Rev 20:4)
The whole “pre-trib rapture” thing? Invented in the 1800s. Not Bible. Not Jesus. Not apostolic.
If anyone tells you we’ll be “raptured out” before things get hard, just ask:
“Where’s the verse that says that?”
(Spoiler: there isn’t one.)
The Cross wasn’t an escape plan — it was a war path.
Jesus doesn’t rapture cowards.
He refines warriors.
Not one apostle taught a pre-tribulation rapture.
Not one early Church father believed Christians would disappear before the time of trial.
There is zero historical record of any secret escape doctrine in the first 1800 years of Christianity.
Paul didn’t teach it.
Peter didn’t teach it.
John — the one who saw Revelation — didn’t teach it.
Irenaeus didn’t preach it.
Polycarp didn’t preach it.
Ignatius didn’t preach it.
Jesus didn’t teach it.
So where did it come from?
John Nelson Darby, 1830s.
Scofield Bible, 1909.
Then Hollywood — and Satan’s global elite minions — ran with it.
They sold Christians a false escape hatch — and called it “the Blessed Hope.”
The real Church never believed in a “left behind” evacuation plan.
That idea didn’t come from the Bible.
So ask yourself:
If the apostles didn’t preach it…
If the early Church never taught it…
If Jesus never mentioned it…
Then who did?
Because deception this deep doesn’t come from ignorance — it comes from below.
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