OPINION (Charisma) – Dr. Irvin Baxter, a Pentecostal minister and post-tribulation end-times scholar, says there is no biblical evidence for a seven-year tribulation or a mid-tribulation rapture. “First of all, there’s no such thing as mid-tribulation,” Baxter told Jim Bakker on The Jim Bakker Show. “That’s predicated on there being a seven-year tribulation. There’s not one Scripture in the entire Bible for a seven-year tribulation. Even though everybody teaches it, all the commentaries teach it, not one Scripture. But there is six specific Scripture that teaches a three and one-half-year tribulation.”
Baxter cites Daniel 7:25, Revelation 13:5 and Revelation 12:5-6 as proofs that the Great Tribulation will last precisely three and a half years. “Every single reference to the great tribulation in the Bible is three and one-half years,” Baxter says. “There is a seven-year period called Daniel’s seventieth week, but the Great Tribulation does not start until halfway through. Jesus taught that explicitly. He said in Matthew 24:15, ‘When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet’—which Daniel said happens in the middle of the week, in the middle of that seven-year period—’when you see that then, if you’re in Judea, flee, because then will be great tribulation such has never been before nor ever again shall be.’ READ MORE
The term ‘elect’ can mean either Israel or the Church (and some angels too, as in 1 Tim 5:21), so it does not automatically mean the Church anymore than it means Israel. The Bride is already gone in the beginning of the week. If this is not so, then the Scripture saying that no man knows the day or the hour but the Father is not true, because that Day is exactly known as being 1,260 days, or 42 months, or 3 1/2 years from the abomination of desolation. The gathering of the elect is a similar event, but it’s focused on the Jews, as is the entire Period. In both you have the firstfruits and then the general harvest, and the gleaning is at the end of the seven years. The seven years is the beginning of the week. The middle of the WEEK, as you said, means there is a beginning period of another 3 1/2 years before the start of the GREAT tribulation, or it wouldn’t be the MIDDLE. There is first a period of great upheaval, which are only the ‘beginning of sorrows’. AT the Second Coming of Christ, every eye will see Him, but at the Rapture it’s a secret, and quick. The Rapture ends the Dispensation of Grace and starts the new Dispensation of Wrath. There are several harvests and the Body of Christ is the firstfruits of one, and the 144,000 Jews the firstfruits of another. It’s concerning that you learned this doctrine from your father, when you should only be teaching what you have received from the Holy Spirit as He opens your understanding. As long as any of us THINKS we know, we prohibit the possibility of advancing in our understanding. You should’ve asked God to explain it to you and it sounds like your Dad just picked it up along the way too. He is available to answer our questions. Regarding the first resurrection, Rev 20:4, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”, you missed the first part of it…those that sat on the thrones and given judgement…THOSE are the ones that were raptured. All together with those beheaded for refusing the mark…THEY ALL comprise the first resurrection.
I agree with Mr Baxter, Jesus said in Mathew 24, immediately after the tribulation he will come back, he didn’t say I’ll come get people, then wait awhile and come get the rest, he said every eye shall see him coming in the clouds, even those who aren’t Christians will see him. So it doesn’t seem to me that it’s very secretive like the sudden rapture, remember friends, the tribulation is not the wrath of God, it’s the final amount of time that Satan has to make war with the faithful, and if you read in king James Bible it says 2 men lying in one bed, the one taken, the other left, right? Well we all know that homosexuality is not Godly, so that scripture is not talking about 2 people, it’s 1 person, flesh, spirit so it’s not a secret rapture, don’t be fooled my friends, just go with what Jesus said and not someone’s misinterpreted scripture. God bless!