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Answer
Midtribulationism teaches that the rapture occurs at the midpoint of the tribulation. At that time, the seventh trumpet sounds, “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15). The church will meet Christ in the air, and then the bowl judgments are poured upon the earth (Revelation 15—16) in a time known as the great tribulation. In other words, the rapture and Christ’s second coming (to set up His kingdom) are separated by a period of three and a half years. According to this view, the church goes through the first half of the tribulation but is spared the worst of the tribulation in the last three and a half years. Very close to midtribulationism is the belief in a “pre-wrath” rapture, that is, a belief that the church is caught up to heaven before the “great day of … wrath” comes, “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17).
In support of their view, midtribulationists point to the chronology given in 2 Thessalonians 2:1–3. The order of events is as follows: 1) apostasy, 2) the revelation of the Antichrist, and 3) the day of Christ. The midtribulational view teaches that the Antichrist will not be decisively revealed until “the abomination that causes desolation,” “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” (Matthew 24:15), which occurs at the midpoint of the tribulation, “And he shall confirm theCovenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (Daniel 9:27). Midtribulationists refer to Daniel 7:25, which states that the Antichrist will have power over the “saints” for three and a half years, to support their argument. They believe this period represents the first half of the tribulation and that the saints mentioned are the church. Additionally, they interpret “the day of Christ” as the rapture; hence, the church will ascend to heaven only after the Antichrist is revealed.
Another core belief of midtribulationism is that the trumpet mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:52 is the same as the one in Revelation 11:15. The trumpet in Revelation 11 marks the final trumpet in a series, making it plausible to be the “last trumpet” in 1 Corinthians 15. However, this reasoning overlooks the distinct purposes of the trumpets. The trumpet at the rapture is known as “the trumpet call of God” “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:” (1 Thessalonians 4:16), while the one in Revelation 11 signals impending judgment. One trumpet signifies God’s grace towards His chosen ones, while the other signifies condemnation for the wicked. Furthermore, the seventh trumpet in Revelation is not the final trumpet in chronological order—Matthew 24:31 mentions a subsequent trumpet that heralds the beginning of Christ’s kingdom.
First Thessalonians 5:9 states that the church is not destined “to suffer wrath but to receive salvation.” This suggests that believers will likely be spared from the tribulation. However, midtribulPremillennialism interprets “wrath” as only referring to the second half of the tribulation—specifically, the bowl judgments. Limiting the word in such a way seems unwarranted, however. Surely the terrible judgments contained in the seals and trumpets—including famine, poisoned rivers, a darkened moon, bloodshed, earthquakes, and torment—could also be considered the wrath of God.
Midtribulationism places the rapture in Revelation 11, prior to the start of the great tribulation. There are two problems with this placement in the chronology of Revelation. First, the only occurrence of the term “great tribulation” in the entire book of Revelation is in 7:14, before the opening of the seventh seal. Second, the only reference to a “great day of wrath” is in Revelation 6:17, during the events of the sixth seal. Both of these references come too early for a midtribulational rapture, which is timed according to the seventh trumpet.
And a final weakness of the midtribulational view is shared by the other two theories: namely, the Bible does not give an explicit timeline concerning future events. Scripture does not expressly teach one view over another, and that is why we have diversity of opinion concerning the end times and some variety on how the related prophecies should be harmonized.
