During World War 2 Corrie Ten Boom and her family were arrested by the Germans for the crime of helping Jewish people hide. She was sent to a concentration camp and endured great hardships, but she survived.
In 1974 Corrie Ten Boom wrote the letter shown below to warn Christians about the false teaching of the pre-tribulation rapture. This teaching is very popular in America, even though there is no scriptural basis for it. Many believers have bought into it because they have heard it taught by their pastor or by other Christian leaders, but we must study the scriptures for ourselves.
God has promised to deliver His people from the wrath of God, which will be poured out near the end of the seven-year tribulation period. However, there is a big difference between the persecution of Christians and the wrath of God. God never promised us that we would be protected from persecution. In fact, He promised us we would be persecuted just as Jesus was also persecuted.
The pre-tribulation rapture is a dangerous teaching because it will cause believers to be confused and even abandon their faith when they see tremendous persecution coming upon them during the tribulation. Many will fall away at that time, which is also foretold in the Bible. It is called the apostasy. I am posting Corrie Ten Boom’s letter to help warn people while there is still time.
CORRIE TEN BOOM’S RAPTURE WARNING:
The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.
Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.
My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.
We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.
Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said,
“He that overcomes shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.” (Revelation 21:7)
This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.
Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.
“Yes, the Lord will heal me,” Betsy said with confidence.
She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.
It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.
There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.
In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,
“We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution, rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes, to stand and not faint.”
I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.
Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart.
When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. (1 Peter 4:14-15)
I found myself saying, “Hallelujah! Because I am suffering (for the name of Christ), Jesus is glorified!”
In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation”, but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.
Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.
The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”
The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.
“When I was a little girl, I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.”
“Tell me,” said Father, “When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?”
“No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.”
“That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need, just in time.”
My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, “In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.”
Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.
But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.
How can we get ready for the persecution?
First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, and make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.
Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not an optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.
In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life.
Many are fearful of the coming tribulation. They want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.
When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down.
Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. (Job 13:15)
I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!
– Corrie Ten Boom – 1974
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Author: James Bailey
James Bailey is a blogger, business owner, husband and father of two grown children. In 1982, he surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2012, he founded Z3news.com to broadcast the message of salvation by reporting end time news before it happens.
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Obviously none of you have it figured out. And those of you that think you do sound so arrogant. I’m sick of this debate. Just continue to follow Jesus. He will be the same no matter if we are raptured or not. Her encouragement is excellent. None of us here have ever been persecuted to the extent she has or many of our brothers and sisters have – as we sit comfortably behind our computers and or cell phones debating the rapture. How ridiculous we are. This is one of those times we should shut up, sit down and take notes. Listen to the older saints who have been used mightily of God. I have been encouraged by her words today. I will not go around believing all is wonderful because I will be raptured. I want to be a Christian ready for whatever comes. If I’m raptured GREAT. If not, I want to remain faithful.
Awesome reply
What insight! The Bible is so clear that there is no pre-trib rapture that I am forever surprised why so many people believe in it.
Explain Revelation 4:1??????
Revelation chapter 4 clearly states for John to be shown as to what is to come…..it has nothing to do with the “rapture” of the church…if you read the rest of the chapter you will see that….dont do yourself a grave disservice by cherry picking scriptures
I disagree with her point. I believe she is confusing men’s evil torture for the tribulation. The tribulation and the antichrist will make Hitler look like an alter boy. We will suffer persecution but not tribulation. We will not go through one part of Gods wrath. We are saved from Gods wrath. God saved those he found righteous. Noah and his family. Lot and his family. Remember what the angel told Lot. Go quickly for we cannot do anything until you are safely there. We will not go thru the tribulation. We will be safely raptures out prior to the outpouring of Gods wrath.
The Bible promises to deliver us from the wrath of God, but never promises to deliver us from persecution or tribulation, which is the Greek word thlipsis, which literally means pressure. In fact, the Bible promises us we will have both persecution and tribulation in this life. Jesus promised we would be persecuted in John 15:18-20 and again in John 21:18-19. He also promised we would have tribulation (thlipsis) in John 16:33. The Apostle Paul recorded all of the tribulations he endured in 1 Corinthians 4:11-12, 2 Corinthians 2:4, 6:4-10, 11:25-27, so it would be foolish for us to think we are somehow exempt from tribulation. History proves Christians have endured both persecution and tribulation from the beginning and continue to face these today. So it is important to understand what God has promised and what he has not promised. He has only promised to deliver us from the wrath of God, which is coming during the great tribulation. According to Jesus, the great tribulation begins after the son of perdition takes his seat in the temple, which is the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15-21). The Apostle Paul reveals the rapture will not happen until after this same event (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4). Daniel reveals this event happens in the middle of the final seven-year period (Daniel 9:27). That means the rapture happens during the second half of the final seven-year period, which means believers are still on the earth during the first 42 months of the final seven-year period. During that time we will endure tribulation and many will fall away from the faith (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4). So the idea that believers will not have to go through tribulation is not scriptural and contradicts historical facts, which is the point Corrie Ten Boom was making.
Being delivered doesn’t mean being removed from the earth…Noah, Daniel, etc….only in Christ will we be saved, delivered…..
Jesus said we would be caught up to meet Him in the air (Matthew 24:29-31). Paul said our mortal bodies would put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:50-53). Both of those would qualify as being removed and delivered from the earth. However, we will be coming back.
Being delivered doesn’t mean being removed from the earth…Noah, Daniel, etc….only in Christ will we be saved, delivered…..at the last day
I came across something in my studies. When it says we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17), there is no mention of where we go afterward. It does say we will be with the Lord from then on, so many assume we just go with him to heaven. But I would like to suggest that assumption may be incorrect. In the other NT passages where this word “meet” is used (Matthew 25:1,6; Acts 28:15) it is used of someone who knows a friend or acquaintance is coming to their town or city, so they go out to meet that person in order to welcome them and escort them back to where they live. This is very clear in Acts 28:15-16 where people in Rome find out that Paul is coming to Rome, and they go out of the city to find him and welcome him to Rome. So even though there is no mention of where we will go when we are resurrected and meet the Lord in the clouds, based on these other uses of the word “meet,” I think the purpose may be to welcome him home and to escort him back to earth. Just something to think about as we all seek the truth.
Great point! I am inclined to agree with you. Debra Walker made a similar comment a while back and I have been thinking about it ever since. There will be a lot going on here at that time so it makes sense we would be needed here more than in heaven. Since the scripture does not say we go to heaven after the rapture I think it would be a mistake to make that assumption.
The Bible says, that Jesus is coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle. I don’t believe this involves all believers. There’s many carnal Christians. I have always believed even as a new surrendered believer in the 7o’s before I started listening to so much teaching, as I hungerly searched the scriptures, that as over comers, we would be filled with the Spirit, walking in the clouds,(so to speak) for above powers, and principalities of powers) and this would certainly include great tribulation!
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Just came across this conversation after a Sunday with television evangelist I like, and most of the 5 went into the rapture. I have never believed it, from a young woman newly minted by the Lord, but just to hear it so blatantly of late had me researching more. Found this site. My husband and I wonder at the wheat and fares. The tares are taken out first…and burned.
Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and Enoch (Gen 5:24) were taken to immediately into heaven without dying and the are the only two people to experience such an event. This is also consistent with the event of the rapture.
The word tribulation means to be pressed into the oil, the anointing. We will need a much greater measure of the Holy Spirit to counteract the evil ahead. Matthew 25. Though evil is increasing, God will release the supernatural to protect some of us (Christians who will have their names written in the Book of Remembrance). The Feasts of Trumpets is also called Yom HaKeseh, which means The Hidden Day. The true righteous will be supernaturally hidden on the earth. The lukewarm believers will have a shock. The latter will be cut out of the covenant (this is what vomit out of the mouth means). Different things will happen to each group of Christians. It will all depend where we are respectively at in our relationship with Jesus. The barley harvest (those who are spirit-filled, the wise in Matt 25) the wheat harvest (the not quite ready, do not have enough anointing, they have a partial revelation of what is coming but love the Lord, the foolish in Matt 25), the grapes harvest (the ones who love the Lord but have no revelation and no anointing) are not the same. This article is right. Get your relationship with Jesus ready in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is a long bible study. I will stop here. With much love.
1 Cor. 15: 52 which trump is mentioned here??? It is KEY!
The answer is found in the verse you referenced. It says the last trumpet.
wrath of God and tribulation are two different things, Rev. 14 and 15 we see the words wrath poured out ect….and the reaping’s in ch 14 I believe happen after all the rest….
Thank you James for this piece. I understand how hard it is to help the North American Christian to understand that their comfort zone is about to be disrupted. And those who, when they do understand, think that buying guns is how they can protect themselves and belongings. I pray that our faith will not fail us in our day of testing.
It’s uncanny how I had JUST written a 6 page letter and sent it to another Christian friend who had questions on this same subject! I truly believe the Holy Spirit is spreading His Word as fast as He can due to all the influx of “movies”, books and other ‘GOOD people from the pulpit’ who have been lead astray! This LIE has been taken over in nearly every non-denom church….. and spreading like fire! Satan has been very busy as the father of lies and deceit to fool the masses…. even within the church. Thank you for this!!!!!!! I never knew about it!!! If they only knew that “LEFT BEHIND” is fiction… and it says so right on the back cover…. and the word RAPTURE is nowhere to be found in the Bible…. and yet so many people have exchanged the Biblical term… “Second Coming” for a MAN MADE word called “rapture”! If they ONLY knew that this “theory” of ‘rapture’ – (Pre-Trib FLOATERS)… was concocted by a Jesuit priest who hated all the NEW reformers, (during the Reformation or Dark Ages), leaving the Roman Church… like Calvin & Luther….more than 500 years ago.. and called it “Futurism”… by trying to confuse the masses and make the NEW Protestors (aka Protestants) look bad… And this ‘theory” has raised its ugly head over and over in different eras, until the MASSIVE ‘Jesus movement’ in the 70’s which started all the non-denom churches….. now has been “gospel” ever since! If they only knew that Satan is the father of confusion… and for everything good and of God.. there will always be a counterfeit! If they only knew that all we want is for them to re-look and pray and stay close to Jesus, and HE will lead them to truth! He… Read more »
Of course there is a rapture. Jesus, Paul, and Peter all preached the snatching away. Please re read your Bible from beginning to end and it will become clear.
The holy Bible contains Jesus Christ’s teaching on tribulation in the End times. Nowhere is rapture mentioned. The King James version is missing 7 full books of the Old Testament and various changes to the New Testament.This is the cause of many disputes and wars to divide Christians. One can say that Satan uses this to divide. He is afterall the Great Deciever. The KJ version is several hundred years old in the midst of the dark ages. That could be the clue many Christians should study. This is a war on the soul, The Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, and God himself. Satan must divide Christians in order to create mass destuction. Our war is not of the flesh, it is a war between God and all that is good and Satan who represents all that is evil. We are the soldiers who must choose which side we belong to.
The rapture is mentioned throughout the Bible. Here are a few examples: Daniel 12:1-4, Matthew 24:15-44, 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10, Revelation 7:14.
Not one of those verses speaks of a rapture. 1 Thess teaches us that we will meet Him in the air and will be with Him forever. That shoots down the false teaching of an earthly reign.
Meeting the Lord in the air is the rapture. Being with the Lord does not disprove reigning with Him on earth because that is where He will be and it says we will be with Him.
not if , but when .
Yeah, there is no better way to get a point across than to link it to some famous, almost worshiped personage. But, such linkage is a ploy to get one’s own opinions more traction than might ordinarily be given someone like Bailey. Less discerning people will fall for it, but it is a typical technique to dispense with pure logic. I don’t mind when someone disagrees with me on the “Rapture”, it is actually inconsequential to me personally, because the only way it affects my life is that because I do believe in the “Rapture”, I see it as giving us disciples less time, therefore a greater urgency to complete our mission. I still plan for the future. I just think those who believe in the “Rapture” should be more cognizant of the legacy we will leave behind. Such thinking only spurs us on toward considering the work of God as very important since time i short. Most people who believe there is no “Rapture”, don’t seem to have enough interest in grouping together for the cause of being “The Resistance”, so they have no idea about fighting for what is right, only thinking of surviving what is coming, just as bad as those who do believe in the “Rapture”, but only think of escaping. So, my problem with those who promote this persecution complex, is they apparently do not believe in the effectiveness of prayer or witnessing, or resisting evil. If someone does not believe in the “Rapture”, then they should be a prepper, and have their robe and sword ready. I still think many of these ppeople hope for an easy way out and desire to live in hiding and then step up at the last minute to get beheaded and say: “See I lived for Jesus”, but… Read more »
You have misunderstood her point. There will be a rapture, but the issue here is the timing. This has nothing to do with famous personalities and everything to do with the scriptures, which I documented in my post, “Ten Things that Must Happen Before the Rapture.”
Great points !!! Thank you !!
I agree with James. Even the chosen translation that “Paul” is using, the Darby Translation was considered “suspect” as it used a version of the Greek manuscript not accepted by the majority of scholars because their inconsistencies and outright mistranslations. Compare for instance the English and Hebrew translations of Daniel 9 between the Darby and the KJV or NKJV. They are “worlds apart” in portions of which completely changes to message to opposite poles of the spectrum. For serious eschatological study of future events and even historical ones, the KJV and the NKJV should be used and even between them both, I choose the KJV on the most critical studies. Why? Because this is the direction the Holy Spirit told me. I refuse to be drawn in to those disputes about the “unreliability of translations”. When you have the Holy Spirit teaching you His truths that issued forth from the Son of God, remember that Jesus IS the Word of God, it is better to TRUST Him and if HE says to use one version above another, then why would one argue with Him. He IS, afterall, the Spirit of Truth! Where one translation alludes to the antichrist who will put an end to sacrifice and oblations, it was Jesus Christ who ended the NEED for any other sacrifice because His sacrifice is now the ONLY one accepted by His Father. When Jesus died on that cross, the curtain separating the holiest from the holy place was ripped in half from the very top. Only God could do that because He was no longer going to make His tabernacle with men through a stone building but now in the hearts of those who truly believe. God tabernacling with man! THIS is the Good News! That “middle of the week” where… Read more »
Very refreshing Jerry. We know that the scriptures say, when He the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead us into all truth. I too have read some of the other interpertations ,of newer word Bibles, that did not have the same meaning the Lord had given me, in instances, that came pass just as the Lord said. I personally stick with KJV. I read the Message sometimes, because I think in this modern age, the early church would have spoken more blatenly like this, but in no way, would I ever substitute it for my KJV, the discussion
Thank you for posting this article. All my life I have heard churches talking about how they were looking forward to the rapture, but when I became a Christian in 1994 and started reading the Bible I realized that I couldn’t find the rapture mentioned anywhere. It’s something I’ve struggled with as a believer for almost 25 years and have always felt that it wasn’t biblical. I see what is happening in the world today and truly believe that the tribulation that is spoken of in Revelation is coming soon and that I will see it in my lifetime. I have to be honest and say that it scares me because in my heart I know we will not be rescued from it as the believers in rapture say but also know that as long as I stay faithful to God’s word that he will get me through it just as Corrie Ten Boom said.
The righteous have nothing to fear in what is coming upon the earth in these last days because God’s wrath is not directed at them. The safest place to be is right with Him. He is able to keep the righteous, even in times of great trouble all around.
Most English Bible translations do not include the word ‘rapture’, but the same idea is communicated with different words, such as caught up, gathered together, or taken away. The English translation comes from the original Hebrew and Greek, so the main thing is to understand the original meaning, regardless of the exact choice of words used in the translation.
The Koine Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 uses the verb form ἁρπαγησόμεθα (harpagisometha), which means “we shall be caught up” or “taken away”, with the connotation that this is a sudden event. That is the rapture. It is found in many scripture passages, including these: Daniel 12:1-4, Matthew 24:15-44, 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10, and Revelation 7:14.
I have always steered toward Pre tribulation, but in believing this view Doesn’t alleviate those who are in Christ from the persecution against the church in 1 Peter 2:21-22 KJVS it says
[21] For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: [22] Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth
[23] Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
If Jesus had to face the onslaught of hatred toward Himself, to where they beat him and opened his flesh the bible says like a ploughed field, even unto death, then how do we think that the Christian life will exempt us from going through tribulation. Most if not all of the disciples were killed in a inhumane way for their walk with the lord. In saying this I certainly don’t desire to face any tribulation, but as you become more intimate with the lord, you will become less concerned of the darkness that’s covering the earth. Always be reminded that the greatest factor in it all is that God knows what he is doing, and those who are His people will overcome, not by their own power, but by the Spirit of God. Psalm 91 is a great psalm for those who choose the secret place of the most high, there is total victory in Him.