Pretribulation rapture
A view held among orthodox Christians
The premillennial view that Christ will take the church from the earth before a seven-year tribulation.
Also called: pretrib, pre-tribulation rapture, pretribulationism, pretribulational, premillennial pretribulationism
What it means
The pretribulation view teaches that Christ's return happens in two stages. First he comes for his people in the rapture, catching up living believers and raising the dead in Christ to meet him in the air. Then follows a seven-year tribulation on earth, drawn from Daniel's seventieth week, in which God pours out judgement and turns again to Israel. At its end Christ returns visibly with his saints to set up his thousand-year kingdom.
Its holders stress that believers are not appointed to wrath, that the church is promised to be kept from the hour of testing, and that the Lord's coming is imminent: it could happen at any moment, with no prophesied events required first. This view is closely tied to dispensationalism and became widespread in the twentieth century through prophecy teaching and popular books.
Other Christians, premillennial and otherwise, question whether Scripture teaches two comings separated by years, since the passages about the gathering of the saints and the visible return seem to describe one event. It is an intramural debate among believers who share the hope of Christ's bodily return.
In Scripture
The dead in Christ rise first, and the living are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
God did not appoint believers to wrath but to obtain salvation.
Christ promises to keep the faithful from the hour of testing coming on the whole world.
Jesus promises to come again and take his disciples to be with him.
Daniel's prophecy of seventy weeks ends with a final week, which this view takes as the tribulation.
Where it comes up
On this site: End times
Related terms
PremillennialismA view held among orthodox Christians
The belief that Christ will return before a literal thousand-year reign on earth.
DispensationalismA view held among orthodox Christians
A way of reading Scripture that keeps a lasting distinction between Israel and the church, and expects God to fulfil his promises to national Israel in a future earthly kingdom.
Midtribulation raptureA view held among orthodox Christians
The premillennial view that the church will be raptured halfway through a seven-year tribulation, before its worst judgements.
Prewrath raptureA view held among orthodox Christians
The premillennial view that the church will endure the Antichrist's persecution and be raptured just before God pours out his wrath near the end of the tribulation.
PosttribulationismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that the church will go through the tribulation and be gathered to Christ at his one visible return at its end.