What if there is no Rapture of the Church prior to the Tribulation?

This is the question that has absolutely consumed me for the last week or so. A very dear friend of mine (and brother in Christ) let me borrow a book that he had read entitled, “The Rapture Question Answered: Plain and Simple.” In this book, the author makes the case that the rapture (the catching away) of all true believers by Jesus Christ at His Second Coming is not prior to the tribulation period, as many scholars teach, but rather is somewhere in the middle of the last half of the 7 year tribulation period. It is a position that he calls “Pre-Wrath” position, a reference to the wrath of God that will occur in the end times.

All my life, I have been taught that the Pretribulational rapture position was the most biblical position because it was based on taking the Bible literally and not symbolically or allegorically. And with End-Times teachings and Prophecy being so hard to begin with, I have never really fully studied it for myself, but just accepted the word of those I trusted to be men of God and good Bible scholars.

Even in seminary, we were taught all about the different positions… postmillennialism verses amillennialism verses historical premillennialism verses dispensational premillennialism…
Post-trib verses Mid-trib verses Pre-trib… But in all my studies, I don’t recall ever once being told about the Pre-Wrath Rapture Position. And I must admit that before reading this book Matthew 24 never made a lot sense to me; I couldn’t figure how it all worked. Because in that teaching, Jesus begins to tell his disciples about the end times. And in that teaching, He talks about different signs in the heavens and the revealing of the man of sin (the Anti-Christ), the great persecution, and the great falling away (the apostasy of the church), but then in the middle He talks about something that sounds like the rapture. Now, like I said, that never made sense to me before, but now it does. In fact, its making more and more sense to me the more I read it.

What if the rapture of the church isn’t at the beginning, but rather near the end? What if we are destined to go through the hour of great testing at the hands of the Anti-Christ (assuming of course we’re still alive when all this happens)? What if all of us who claim to be God’s people will suffer terrible persecution; a persecution so bad that Jesus says this about it. “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt.24:21)

And to be honest, it makes sense… if Christians all over the world are suffering persecution right now... being jailed, beaten, tortured, and killed… why then should we think that we here in America will somehow escape all these horrors and more? It is very, very sobering to think about. Will I be strong enough to withstand the persecutions for the name of Christ? What will happen to my family? Will I have to witness unspeakable horrors upon them?

I haven’t come to my own conclusions yet… but it is definitely worth researching and studying! Obviously God wants us to be equipped and prepared… He wants us to know… otherwise why would He have ever given it to us? Is the teaching about the things to come really so hard, complicated, confused, and hidden or have we (man) made it this way? Could it be this plain and simple? If it is… may God’s grace be abundantly with us… b/c we will need it!!