Author: The Rapture Pre-Mid-Post Tribulation, Why The Debate?

Why is there so much debate about the Rapture? In this message, Pastor Jack Hibbs walks through the three main views—Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Tribulation—showing how each one shapes the way we read Bible prophecy. You’ll explore Daniel’s 70th week (the seven years concerning Israel), the role of the Antichrist and the mark of the beast, and common pitfalls like blending the Church and Israel or overlooking God’s promise of deliverance. Most of all, you’ll be urged to live ready for Jesus’ return and faithful today.

What we cover:

• Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Trib: strengths, challenges, and key texts

• Daniel’s 70th week: why the seven years matter for Israel

• Antichrist & the mark: how Scripture frames deception and endurance

• Church vs. Israel: avoiding category errors in prophecy

• Living ready: hope, holiness, and gospel urgency—no date-setting

The Rapture Pre-Mid-Post Tribulation, Why The Debate?

Hey everybody! What’s coming up in this podcast is we’re going to finish looking at the Pre-Tribulation rapture view, and then dive into the Mid-Tribulation rapture view and the Post-Tribulation rapture view. So get your Bibles ready—let’s get into this.

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Now, open your hearts to what God’s Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.

Listen, we are here looking at your questions—predominantly on the rapture. This is our third podcast on this topic. We covered some of the Scriptures regarding the Pre-Tribulation rapture view: how it’s literal (the other views are not), how it allows Scripture to build upon Scripture (the other ones do not), and how you take the Bible at face value as given (the other ones do not). But let’s look at the other views. We’re going to reduce it down right now to these two: the Mid-Tribulation rapture view—sometimes known as the Pre-Wrath view—and the Post-Tribulation rapture view. The answers I’m going to be giving will certainly apply to either view.

Let’s define, as best we can, the Mid- or Pre-Wrath view. It’s this: the church sees the Antichrist come on the scene. The church is basically prospering with the rest of the world, based on Daniel 9:24–27 and other portions in the Book of Daniel (chapter 8), where the Antichrist—the beast that is to come—deceives the world with peace and prosperity. During the first three and a half years, the church is doing okay. It must endure its normal hardships, but it’s doing pretty well. The Bible puts it as the first 1,260 days, or the first 42 months. Everything is pretty much okay. It’s not yet “the Tribulation” as such; the “Great Tribulation” is the last half of that—the other 42 months, the other 1,260 days, the other three and a half years. Remember from before: the combined seven years are based on a Babylonian calendar—360-day years—a biblical year from Genesis to Revelation that stays the same.

So the Mid-/Pre-Wrath folks view the wrath happening in the last half, so the church is okay until then. You say, “What’s wrong with that?” Everything’s wrong with it. Here’s why:

Why the Debate

The seven years are promised to the nation and people of Israel, not the church. It completely upends Revelation 4, when John is lifted up off the earth and his vantage point is from heaven to earth during the entire seven-year Tribulation period (Revelation 4:1). Think that through for a second. You might say, “Jack, that’s just John reporting from the scene.” Well, John’s looking down from heaven (Revelation 4:1) at what’s going on on the earth and records the advent of the Antichrist—from heaven. Then, in Revelation 19, John basically turns around and says, “I saw heaven opened, and behind me was the church. We were on white horses, following Him whose robe is written ‘King of kings and Lord of lords.’ Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword—the Word of God—with which He should strike the nations.” Read Revelation 19 on: it’s Christ in the Second Coming. The Pre-Wrath/Mid-Trib view doesn’t fit. It doesn’t work that way. You’ll have to do gymnastics with Scripture and say, “See, right here it says ‘saints.’” Yes—but remember: I mentioned this before. There are Old Testament saints, Church-Age saints, and Tribulation saints. Technically, there are three categories of saints. (You could even push into the Millennium, where there will be those who come to faith—call them Millennial saints—but that’s not our focus.)

The 7 Years

What’s important is that both camps—the Post-Tribulationist and the Mid-Tribulationist—understand that the seven years are specifically owed to Israel. There’s no mention of the church anywhere in the seven years on earth, Old or New Testament. In fact, what’s very cool: if you’re Jewish right now and you read Genesis to Malachi, skip the entire New Testament, and then start reading in Revelation 5—certainly chapter 6 on—you’d think you were reading the Old Testament. It’s amazing.

Daniel 7:21 says power will be given to the Antichrist to destroy the saints on earth—he’ll kill them. Where do you hear about that in the New Testament? You don’t see that prior to the Pre-Tribulation rapture. You have the church standing as light and salt, in righteousness, preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth—what we’re doing now. We certainly have demonic opposition and persecution, and we’re going to see that escalate—that’s normal. But you have no global order given by a central figure declaring war on the church of Jesus. You don’t see that at all. But you do find, moving from Daniel 7:21 to Revelation 13, that the very same one Daniel’s talking about John is talking about. He says the Antichrist is given power to overcome the saints. That’s the chapter, by the way, of the mark of the beast—666—and all that. Nobody will be able to buy or sell without his number.

There will be those in the Tribulation who won’t accept the mark. They’ll either be born-again Jews like the 144,000 men—Hebrews, read about them in the Book of Revelation—12,000 men, virgins, who speak Hebrew (among, obviously, other languages), who are saved and empowered by the Holy Spirit. They preach the everlasting gospel—12,000 from each tribe, 144,000 total—and they deliver the gospel to the ends of the earth. From those who preach, a number of Gentiles saved cannot be counted. Those who get saved also wind up being beheaded, the Book of Revelation tells us, because they refuse to give allegiance to the Antichrist.

Credit Cards

I’m going to get hate mail for this one, but it’s okay. I’m old enough to be your dad. I remember when credit cards came out. They didn’t even have a magnetic strip in the early days—just a number on the front. You’d lay the card down, and they’d run it through a machine, keep the receipt, you’d keep your copy, and they mailed it in to MasterCard. Eventually they got paid. Then came the magnetic strip. I remember people at church (Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa back in those days) saying, “That’s the mark of the beast—throw away your credit cards!” People freaked out. Then they calmed down—because later that day they were hungry and wanted to buy lunch. It meant nothing.

Then came the hologram. Then chips. Now you can tap. Imagine if they put this technology in your head and you tapped your head at Starbucks. It doesn’t work. But what does come close is the chip that could easily go under your skin. In L.A. County, all your dogs and cats have a chip in the back of their neck. “Oh my gosh, it’s the Antichrist!” No—it’s not the Antichrist.

Even with all the talk about a global medical passport issued by the World Health Organization, and “you won’t be able to travel anywhere without it”—that’s still not the mark of the beast. What if they come out with implantable chips tomorrow? Still not the mark of the beast. What if they put it on your forehead? Still not the mark of the beast. You have to willfully accept the number. You have to willfully pledge allegiance to the Antichrist. If you do that, then you “win” the devil’s social-security-number prize: 666. Imagine your SSN, and because you play by his rules, he issues you a prefix—like your area code before your phone number. Imagine that prefix in front of your SSN. You’ll have to accept it and pledge allegiance: “I bow to the Antichrist; he’s awesome—and I want to eat.” People are going to get in line. They’re going to love it. So don’t panic over the technologies—just know we’re getting near the end. It’s pretty awesome.

Post-Tribulation

Post-Tribulationists believe that when Christ comes back—when He descends from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ rise—there is a rapture at the end of the Second Coming, when Christ is coming. Remember, John’s with Him—and the saints are with Him. In that view, a group pops out of the ground, then those who are alive are raptured and meet Jesus in the air, and then keep coming down—like a yo-yo. Jesus lands with everybody and establishes His kingdom.

The Post-Tribulation rapture view is not found in Scripture. In most cases (I used to be one), it originated by mixing the church and Israel together as “the saints.” It confused the saints that make up the Bride of Christ (the believing church) with believing Israel, and made them the same saints. Big mistake. Why? Church-Age saints are called the Bride of Christ. Nowhere in the Bible is Israel called the Bride of Christ. She is the bride—or wife—of Jehovah. God the Father is “married” to Israel (read Jeremiah; Hosea). Jesus is engaged to the church at this moment.

The Post-Trib view also has another problem: if you have the church surviving the Tribulation and at His Second Coming He picks her up only to bring her right back down, what is He delivering her from? There is no deliverance from “the hour” that will engulf the earth. There is no Luke 21:36—“escape all these things that will come upon the face of the whole earth.” None of it.

Frankly, the Post-Tribulation rapture view (as it was with me) can be rooted in a kind of spiritual pride: “I’ll take one for the team.” As if a Pre-Trib rapture view is for wimps. It’s not. A Pre-Trib view doesn’t lack faith. I’ll submit this to you: it’s harder to be waiting for Him now than it will be to die for Him later. I don’t see Jesus. I can’t hear Him. I just have His Bible—but I’m ready. A Tribulation saint is going to have all kinds of things going on on earth, watching what’s happening. They’ll have faith, obviously—but they’ll be seeing stuff.

A Post-Trib view makes no consistent interpretation throughout Scripture. God says, “I’m going to deliver you from wrath.” How does He do that? You can’t make “wrath” mean hell. That’s not the word. The Bride of Christ has to get to John 14:1–3. The Post-Trib view has no John 14:1–3, no deliverance. It can become works-based: “I must suffer to participate in what Jesus has done for me. He suffered for me, so I must suffer for Him.” No. You owe Jesus your undivided faith and attention—now—that He could come for you today.

You might be Post-Trib right now, but are you ready to meet Jesus now? You might slip on a banana peel—or you might go visit San Francisco; that’ll put an end to you. Be careful. Be ready now, without any indication, because the Bible says, “Be ready.”

It Doesn’t Work

The Post-Trib view is very weak. It doesn’t take much faith, because it’s filled with signs and wonders indicating, “Here He comes—any minute now” (see Daniel 12). It doesn’t work. Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation to put an end to the assemblage known as the Battle of Armageddon. He brings His church with Him. Tribulation believers die for their faith by beheading (Revelation 13). The Mid-/Pre-Wrath and Post-Trib raptures don’t align with that.

I know I just ruffled a bunch of feathers. I love you anyway. But you need the Blessed Hope inside of you—the looking forward to “the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” That could happen any day now. Are you ready to meet Him? “No, I don’t think it can happen.” Okay—if you’re trusting in His work at the cross, that’s fine. But are you still ready to meet Him?

Your position on the timing of the rapture is not a salvation issue. But the Bible does say that when He returns, you don’t want to be goofing off so that you’re ashamed at His coming. You’re going to go up, but you’ll be red in the face, as it were. No—be ready today. Let’s do this. Let’s get up. Let’s get going.

Outro

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