“Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days…” (Matthew 24:29).

I hate lies. It’s as simple as that. I truly do hate lies, no matter how big or how small.

Whether it’s an enormous bald-faced lie from the pitch black depths of hell, or whether it’s a tiny, seemingly insignificant “white lie” (and specifically called “white,” the color associated with purity, because those who speak them like to deceive themselves into thinking that such lies are perfectly justified to tell), it doesn’t matter.

I hate all lies.

And my reason for hating all lies is likewise very simple. If something is a lie, then I know the author of it: Satan, he who is “the father of lies” (John 8:44). Lies are the exact opposite of the Word of God, that which is the perfect “truth” (John 17:17), and the truth has the power to “set [souls] free” (John 8:32). If the truth has the power to set souls free, and if lies are the exact opposite of the truth, then the power of lies would therefore be to bind, chain, imprison, and ultimately destroy.

Jesus even directly associates the power of lies with murder, saying, “He [Satan] was a MURDERER from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Equating the power of lies with murder? Why?

Because just as God saves souls through the liberating truth of His Written Word (the Holy Bible) and Living Word (Jesus Christ), so Satan seeks to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10) through the proliferation of his lies. For anyone foolish enough to believe the devil’s lies, Satan can ever so carefully feed them lie after lie, falsehood after falsehood—little by little, year after year—until at last he has brought them down to destruction and murdered their everlasting soul.

So, I say again, I hate lies. I hate them because they’re evil, and all those who love YeHoVaH God have been commanded to hate evil.

“Let those who love YeHoVaH hate evil” (Psalm 97:10).

And one such lie I’ve been seeing more and more of lately is the lie of the “pre-tribulation rapture.” Just in this past week, I’ve seen literally dozens of people sharing the false doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture online.

One of these online posts said:

“GET READY. JESUS COULD BE COMING BACK TODAY.”

To which I replied: “No, he couldn’t. Jesus Christ must fulfill every word of his Father, every ‘jot and tittle’ (Matthew 5:18). There are still numerous prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled, including the 3-1/2 year period of great tribulation. It is literally impossible for Jesus to return today. He can’t return today, or tomorrow, or even several years from now.”

Concerning the subject of the rapture, it needs to first be noted that the term “rapture” itself isn’t found in English translations of the Bible. It comes from the Latin word “rapiemur” (from “rapio,” meaning to seize or snatch away), which is used only once in the Latin Vulgate of 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be CAUGHT UP (‘rapiemur’) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

The rapture itself is very much a true doctrine, a glorious event that will come on a future Day of Trumpets when Christ returns and the faithful saints are “caught up… to meet the Lord in the air” and are rewarded with everlasting life. It is a beautiful doctrine that we must “encourage one another with.”

The rapture itself isn’t a question. The only question is WHEN does this glorious event occur?

Does it happen BEFORE or AFTER the great tribulation?

The fact is the pre-tribulation rapture idea cannot be found within the confines of the Holy Bible. It is a false doctrine created in the 1830s by a theologian named John Nelson Darby. Darby, a key figure in the Plymouth Brethren movement, introduced dispensationalism, which segmented biblical history into distinct periods or “dispensations.” This theological framework allowed for the idea that God deals differently with humanity at different times, leading to the belief that the church would be removed before a period of great tribulation upon the world.

The belief in a coming pre-tribulation rapture is a doctrine that must first be believed and then read into the text of the Holy Bible. It is not a doctrine that you can get simply by reading the text itself. On the contrary, when one simply reads the words of the Bible and allows the Bible to speak for itself, it becomes crystal clear that the rapture is an event that happens immediately after the great tribulation.

“Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. THEN will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).

The timeline presented by Jesus Christ himself is explicitly clear. The period of great tribulation comes first, and it is only AFTER the tribulation that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and Jesus sends out his angels to gather his elect from all over the world.

Put simply: Pre-tribulation rapture is a lie.

The true doctrine of the rapture is post-tribulation.

But we should ask ourselves: Why have so many millions of God-fearing, God-loving Christians come to believe in the lie of the pre-tribulation rapture?

The answer is easy. Because lies are very comforting to the carnal mind—this one in particular. With its promise of escaping horrendous hardship, who wouldn’t be comforted by the idea of being whisked away to heaven before the onset of a period of human history so awful, so terrible, and so dreadful that our Lord described it as a period of “great tribulation, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again” (Matthew 24:21)?

I know I certainly don’t want to see or experience such a horrific period of human history. It’s a very comforting thought to be entirely removed from the equation before all hell breaks loose.

However, the notion of escaping from hardship is precisely the opposite path our Lord commanded us to walk, saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24), and also “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14). The word “narrow” from Matthew 7:14 is the Greek word “thlibo” (θλίβω), which literally means “to be compressed, afflicted, distressed, suffer affliction, persecuted” (Strong’s Greek Concordance #2346).

In other words, the road that leads to eternal life is small and filled with hardships and tribulation. Jesus promised his disciples that this is the reality of living a godly life in this fallen world: “In this world you WILL have tribulation” (John 16:33).

God’s people going through tribulation in this world isn’t an option. It’s a guarantee! And that’s something that the saints of God shouldn’t run from, but rather voluntarily embrace with courage.

Eternity’s greatest rewards require God’s people to courageously face the most harrowing of challenges, not to run from them. True growth often comes through trial, not the avoidance of it. It is through the fires of tribulation that we have the hope of our character being refined like gold. As the chaff is burned away in the flames of affliction, we have the opportunity to grow and become more and more like our Father in Heaven.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).

Understanding that Christ will not return until “Immediately AFTER the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29) may be more difficult to accept than the comfort provided by the pre-tribulation rapture. But that comfort is a lie. It’s a false comfort—empty and completely unable to satisfy. Like the wanderer dooming himself by stumbling further out into the desert after the mirage of an oasis on the horizon, so, too, all lies ultimately leave people empty and unsatisfied in the end.

Hundreds of millions of Christians are falsely expecting Jesus to return literally any day now, but every last one of them will be sorely disappointed when future times get unimaginably difficult—and not a single one of them has been raptured out of here. Not one. Zero.

Many, in fact, will be so disappointed that they’ll likely become disillusioned with God’s promises, lose their faith in the Word of God, and become one that falls victim to the deceptions of the Antichrist of the last days.

“At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time” (Matthew 24:23-25).

I hate lies—even if they’re comforting.
I love the truth—even if it’s unpleasant.

And why? Because a comforting lie still leads to bondage, while an unpleasant truth still has the power to set souls free.

My friends, the unpleasant truth we all must face is that we have some very challenging times ahead of us. We will all go through great tribulation.

No one’s got a free ticket outta here.

But instead of comforting ourselves with the false, empty hope of a pre-tribulation rapture, let us rather face the future courageously and in faith, being encouraged with the real and lasting comfort that while we absolutely will have tribulation in this world, our Lord overcame the world and in him we have the strength to do all things (see Philippians 4:13).

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

May the peace of our Lord grant you strength and courage to face the future and endure faithfully to the very end. Amen.