A MID-TRIBULATIONAL RAPTURE

There is no such thing! And those who think so are just plain hostile to the biblical Pre-Tribulational rapture as given in Scripture.    The reason some wrongly hold to such a view has various reasons: (1) some think the church must go through part of the tribulation in order to be purged and "cleaned" up for going to heaven. Or, (2) they totally misread what the Bible teaches about the entirety of the rapture and the issue of the tribulation itself.    Those who hold to a Mid view don't read very well. They fail to see 1 Thessalonians 1:10 where Paul writes "Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." There is only one wrath. It can be seen in two parts but it actually is One wrath. In Jeremiah 30:7 it is "the great day" (a singular) and it is the birth pangs as with a woman in child birth (v. 6).    Paul calls the blowing of the trumpet for the rapture "the last trumpet" (1 Cor. 15:52). Some foolishly tie that to the "seventh trumpet" in Revelation 8:2, 8 and 11:15-19. The "last" trumpet means the "ending trumpet" that calls the workers home from the fields, that is, the saints into heaven in the rapture. This has nothing to do with the seven wrathful trumpets of the tribulation period. They are wrathful trumpets that bring destruction upon the earth and they have nothing to do with the rapture of the church. With the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:15) comes even more wrath upon the nations and in heaven there will be "the flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm" (v. 18).    The rapture is Good whereas the seventh trumpet is Bad!    Some argue that the seven bowls of wrath have to do with the wrath that the church is rescued from. They say that there was no wrath at the first of the tribulation from which the church had to be rescued from. But this is dead wrong. Wrath starts in Revelation 6 which is virtually the beginning of the seven year tribulation. The church is raptured before this. The lost will scream for the rocks to fall on them and hid them from "the wrath of the Lamb" as the tribulation is beginning (v. 16b). Because "the great day of their wrath (the wrath of God and of the Lamb) has come; and who is able to stand [up under it]" (v. 17). Also, in no part of the book of Revelation, when you get to chapter 6, the church is not seen or mentioned in the book. There is no mention of "church" saints or elders or deacons. The church from chapter 6 and on is gone!    God's wrath then begins at the first of the tribulation and the church is rescued from this entire period beginning in Revelation 6.    The seventh trumpet of Revelation 11 is not the last trumpet of Scripture. According to Matthew 24:31, the elect will be gathered at the coming of Christ to establish His earthly kingdom "with a loud trumpet call." Walvoord says "It is not too much to say that this one reference alone (Matt. 24:31) spells the doom of midtribulationism."    --Dr. Mal Couch (10/10)