EVIDENCE #7 - THE BLESSED HOPE

From: http://www.geocities.com/stat23mj/prophecy/pretrib.html

The Rapture is called THE BLESSED HOPE. Paul calls it this in Titus 2:13. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:18, "Therefore encourage each other with these words." THE BLESSED HOPE should be a comfort to us and to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. The Rapture can only be a blessed hope if it is before the Tribulation. If we expect the Rapture during or after the Tribulation then it would be a BLASTED HOPE as Tim La Haye in his book NO FEAR OF THE STORM calls it. We would expect to die from martyrdom not being translated in the TWINKLING OF AN EYE! Only the PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE has the rapture as a BLESSED HOPE. Other theories have the Church waiting for death, the 21 judgments (or some of them), and the Antichrist. The Church is waiting for JESUS CHRIST when he descends from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God and the dead and then the living are CAUGHT UP to be with JESUS in the clouds and then be with him forever and forevermore (1 THESSALONIANS 4:16-17).