Tribulation Saint Wannabes

You folks probably have no idea how many times a day I receive e-mail messages from tribulation saint wannabes who write to encourage me to rethink my belief in the pre-trib rapture. Because Rapture Ready is now one of the leading sites on the subject of the rapture, I'm constantly receiving messages that challenge my pre-trib view.

Many of these people rant about how I'm setting all my readers up for the big Antichrist deception. I'm constantly being told that the pretribulation rapture doctrine is the "great apostasy" and that anyone preaching this view is an agent of the devil.

Most of these people are so much in love with the idea of a post-trib rapture that they don't even bother to validate their view with Scripture. I would estimate that 90 percent of the people who write me never quote a single verse from the Bible.

If for some odd reason the rapture fails to occur before the tribulation, they believe despondent Christians will mistake the false messiah for the real one. Of course, nowhere in the Bible does it say this type of scenario will take place.

For the sake of the argument, granting the possibility that the rapture transpires at a later time, there's no logical reason for a Bible-believing Christian to be tricked into following the Antichrist. It's normally the post-trib folks who are the most vocal about their predictions of mass defections from the faith.

I think telling the difference between the Antichrist and Jesus Christ will be as easy as telling the difference between a $5 watch sold at Wal-Mart and a $5,000 watch made by Rolex.

Because the Bible teaches we will be raptured to meet the Lord Jesus in the air, no man on earth could possibly qualify as the Messiah. I would simply say, if you haven't been raptured yet, keep waiting for the real Savior.

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Th 4:16-17).

Because Revelation proclaims Jesus will return with great power and majesty, it's pure folly to follow after a political leader that appears on the scene via a humble stage door.

"And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev 6:14-6).

More at: http://www.raptureready.com/rr-tribulation-saint.html