What do you mean when you say the Church “does not belong” in the Tribulation Period? (1) 1 Thess. 4:13-18

This is in response to recent questions we have been asked on the matter of a pretribulational rapture.  We have said that our primary reason for holding to the view that the Church will be removed before the 70^th week of Daniel begins is that the Church doesn’t belong there.  

Many people assume, and perhaps some believe this, that the primary reason we hold to the pre-trib position is that we just want to avoid tribulation.  Jesus did, in fact, promise that the Church would escape the wrath to come (1 Th. 1:10).  Thus whatever view you have (post-trib, mid-trib or pre-wrath rapture, you must make sure that the Church is not on the scene or is somehow protected after Rev. 6:17 when the great day of His wrath has come.  But of course Jesus also promised tribulation to all who follow Him (John 16:1-4,33; 2 Tim. 3:12).  So no rapture will enable us to escape tribulation.  

Let me say also that I do not ascribe to every supporting argument given by pre-trib scholars.  Years ago John Walvoord’s book The Rapture Question ended with a section called 50 Reasons for a Pre-Tribulational Rapture (or something similar to that).  I agreed with some of his reasons; he’s a good man.  But some I felt were over-statements or misunderstandings, in my opinion.  For example, some equate Rev. 4:1 (when John is called up into heaven) with the rapture as many of us believe this passage occurs at the outset of the time of Jacob’s trouble.  That may be coincidentally true.  But I don’t see it as evidence of a pre-trib rapture.  It just says John went to heaven to see things that from God.

One more thing.  Every Bible student must have a view of the rapture.  Tribulationists often hear such things as “rapture is not in the Bible” or “the rapture is a recent theological invention by Darby and his followers.”  Rapture is not in the Bible like Trinity is not in the Bible.  The specific word is not there but the concept is there.  The catching away (as some like to call it) in 1 Thess. 4:13-18 is a return of Christ event for the Church; it is when the dead rise and those who are alive and in the Church also rise to meet Him.  But it is not the second coming itself or the revelation of Jesus Christ described in Rev. 19:11-16.  Jesus welcomes them in the air, not on the Mount of Olives or anywhere else on the earth.  There must be an explanation for how the marriage supper of the Lamb (which of course involves the Church, His bride) occurs BEFORE His return in Rev. 19.  So I am just saying, you cannot ignore it.

And as for Darby, truth is not just an issue of how long we have known about it.  If it’s true, then it’s true.  I understand that new truth should always be suspect.  But the way to deal with any idea is not simply to ignore it or deny it ONLY because it is new.  The way is always the Berean way, to search the Scriptures and either deny or defend it on that basis (Acts 17:11).