Of all the arguments for a Pre-Trib rapture, the one that is the most misleading and dangerous is that which claims the rapture isn't a "blessed hope" if the saints must endure the Great Tribulation first, as if the escape of earthly suffering should be our hope.

"The groom won't drag his Bride through the mud before the Wedding Day" is the trite quip often used. This is not only an ignorant scoff, it spits in the face of the entire New Testament witness about sanctified suffering for the people of God. The entire Bible is full of myriad teachings and examples of saints who suffered unjustly under wicked men, and we are repeatedly taught to not only accept it as coming from God for our good, but that it serves a crucial, necessary role in conforming us to the image of Jesus. "looking to Jesus...who for the JOY SET BEFORE him ENDURED the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." "I want to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the FELLOWSHIP OF SHARING IN HIS SUFFERING.. This is in alignment with what it means to be "in Christ." Baptized into his death Raised with him to life We follow him on his path of earthly suffering And like him, we "attain the resurrection from the dead." And we rule with him in the Kingdom Our lives align with his. Just as Jesus was given over to the "hour when darkness reigns," (Luke 22:53) then came resurrection, so too will the Beast empire be given reign over His Body for "one hour," and then comes resurrection. (Rev 17:12)

He was "made perfect through suffering" (Heb 2:10), and so we endure the hour of suffering that will make us "perfect and complete" (Jas 1:2-4) "so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing...holy and without blemish."

Our missiology (theology of missions), martyrology (theology of suffering and martyrdom) eschatology (theology of the last things) form a 3-fold cord. If you weaken/cut one of those strands, the other 2 will strain and snap. -TJSwoeb