Additionally, God sparing Christians from his wrath is not necessarily the same as no suffering. That's an important difference.
Anyway, the point I'm making is that Christians around the world are being matyred, being oppressed/suppressed/repressed, seeing their loved ones torn apart, raped and sold, and being imprisoned. In God's eyes those Christians are equal to you as God is not a respect or of persons, yet they get torn apart but in the West people will just disappear?
My point is that even if that is the case, and people are having a Sunday picnic before they just pop away, that it may be a wise thing to look and see what's happening around the world and ask oneself what if that was happening to me? Also, I am reminded of what happened to Christ's disciples ....I believe all but one died very gruesome deaths. It doesn't mean every Christian will go in the same way ....most will not ...but that it CAN happen.
Many thanks for this post and also your #18!
Mid 1960’s Presbyterian and mid 1970’s Lutheran never taught pre- mid- or post-trib rapture; in fact, they never taught it at all.... just the concept of history goes on, and then at some point, there is a Judgment Day.