It is not uncommon to hear anti-pretribulationists discount pretribulationism because the Bible teaches that Christians will suffer for Christ. Since pretribulationists teach that the church will not go through the tribulation, some attempt to equate this with a view that Believers will never experience hardship of any kind during the current church age. This is a distortion of our views. Pretribulationism teaches, by God’s grace and decree, the church will not go through the time of God’s wrath because the tribulation is designed for purposes which do not include the church.

With the revival of premillennialism during the post-Reformation period, there have been a number of two-stage second coming theories postulated. There are numerous claims or suggestions of pre-trib rapture statements that have been made down through recent history. However, I think many of them should be grouped into a category that could be better described as “a two-stage second coming.” In other words, this species is not pretribulationism which is composed of the rapture of the church, followed by a few years of the tribulation, resulting in the second coming of Christ to earth. Instead, this variety occurs at the end of the tribulation and may have two stages involved in the second coming. Such a scenario is posttribulational and may have as many as a 45-day interval between the two comings.