I recoiled as I always do from being labeled and thus written off by major portions of the Body of Christ. But I answered him.

“Sir, you can throw any term on me that you need to, but if you mean, am I a Matthew 24-er, and a 2^nd Thessalonians 2-er, I confess that I do take those Scriptures to be literally true. In Matthew I see a catching up of the saints after the horrible Tribulation comes. And in Paul, it is made clear that the day of Christ simply will not come until antichrist comes, and along with him the greatest worldwide apostasy ever known.”

My friend was undaunted and seemed to want a fight. I tensed up a little. This is not really fun, but it’s worth a battle scar or two to get people thinking like they did before the theory of a pre-tribulation rapture was born in the British isles around 1830. Back then, there was only one second coming.

“Can’t you see that there’s no church after chapter 4 in the book of Revelation?” He said it as though it were the Gospel itself in verity.

“Well,” I said, “the word ‘church’ is not there, but that word is not in other New Testament Books.

“In fact there are many, many people that look just like us, and the suffering church of our day, scattered throughout the book of Revelation. They are never raptured up. They are annihilated by the antichrist, as Daniel had foretold centuries before.”

“Oh those,” he smiled his return. “We call those ‘Tribulation saints’. They are not the church. They’re a special class of people who finally get it together after Jesus takes His people home in the rapture.”

“I’ve heard all this before,” said I, “but never read any of it in the Bible. The term ‘Tribulation saints’ is not in the Scriptures. And the willingness of these dear saints of God to give their lives so freely and so often for Jesus lets me know they are my people. They are the church. A special class indeed.”

“But don’t you know that in Revelation 4:1 when John was called up to Heaven, the whole church went up with him?”

“No, sir, I didn’t. Could you show me exactly where that statement is made?”

“Well, it’s not exactly stated. But everybody knows it’s true. God wouldn’t let His people suffer like they will suffer in the Tribulation.”

He had changed gears again. But I was able to keep up with him.

“Oh my. I’d like you to listen to my weekly podcast about the suffering saints of our own day. Tell your story – and it is just a story – to the saints in North Korea, or Muslim lands, or Buddhist and Hindu lands. Tell them that God would never let His people suffer like this.”

He had had enough for this round. Hopefully I won’t run into him again any time soon, but if I do, I’ll let you know how it comes out.

Meanwhile, dear Christian friend, do not believe God for something He did not say. Read it all for yourself. Many have come away from this doctrine and realize that they need to be more serious about serving Jesus. Jesus said to watch. We have been watching the sky for hundreds of years and He has not come. Perhaps it is better for us to watch our lives, our conduct, and in this case, our beliefs. Much falseness has come into the church to lure the people of God into an escape mentality. Some will teach that suffering of any kind is not taught in Scripture. Here they have gone off the rails altogether.

The second coming of Jesus Christ is our blessed hope. How I wish we did not have to fight about it. But we cannot allow the escape doctrine to so deceive our people that they will be unprepared for what is truly coming to this planet. Maybe soon. When antichrist forces marshal all hell’s power against the people of God one day, His coming will indeed be – even more – the blessed hope long foretold.