[THREAD] Of all the arguments for a Pre-Trib rapture, the one that is the most misleading and dangerous is that which claims the rapture isn't a "blessed hope" if the saints must endure the Great Tribulation first, as if the escape of earthly suffering should be our hope.

"The groom won't drag his Bride through the mud before the Wedding Day" is the trite quip often used. This is not only an ignorant scoff, it spits in the face of the entire New Testament witness about sanctified suffering for the people of God. /2

The entire Bible is full of myriad teachings and examples of saints who suffered unjustly under wicked men, and we are repeatedly taught to not only accept it as coming from God for our good, but that it serves a crucial, necessary role in conforming us to the image of Jesus. /3

"looking to Jesus...who for the JOY SET BEFORE him ENDURED the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

"I want to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the FELLOWSHIP OF SHARING IN HIS SUFFERING..." /4

This is in alignment with what it means to be "in Christ."

Baptized into his death
Raised with him to life
We follow him on his path of earthly suffering
And like him, we "attain the resurrection from the dead."
And we rule with him in the Kingdom

Our lives align with his. /5

Just as Jesus was given over to the "hour when darkness reigns," (Luke 22:53) then came resurrection, so too will the Beast empire be given reign over His Body for "one hour," and then comes resurrection. (Rev 17:12). /6

He was "made perfect through suffering" (Heb 2:10), and so we endure the hour of suffering that will make us "perfect and complete" (Jas 1:2-4) "so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing...holy and without blemish." /7

Our

missiology (theology of missions),
martyrology (theology of suffering and martyrdom) eschatology (theology of the last things)

form a 3-fold cord. If you weaken/cut one of those strands, the other 2 will strain and snap. /8

We should be charitable towards pre-trib believers

but

if you are under a teacher who uses the "drag the Bride through the mud" quip, my counsel is to lovingly confront, and then perhaps leave. That teacher is not ready to lead you or your family or anyone through suffering. /9

Addendum: I'm not encouraging church splits based on rapture theology. I have been in a local body whose pastoral staff were pre-trib, but they didn't mock godly suffering. Dissonance between our eschatology and theology of suffering may be ill-informed, but not subversive.

Second Addendum: It's also possible to make an idol out of persecution and martyrdom. We don't pray for suffering or run to it in some sadomasochistic way. Even Jesus avoided arrest until it was "his time," and then asked the cup to pass Embracing suffering = "thy will not mine."