There are several theories about the return of Christ taught by churches today. One is the pretribulation rapture theory. The pretrib theory was developed in the mid 1800s by John Darby and his associates in England. He made several trips through the United States beginning in 1862, to spread the new theory, which is greatly outdated today. The following is a summary of the pretribulation rapture theory which should shed some light on its fallacies:

Even though the Gospel has not yet been preached into all the world, the rapture could take place at any moment (this is known as the doctrine of imminency). Russia will then immediately march toward Israel. But because God will never allow any nation to invade Israel, the U.S. will be forced to launch nuclear weapons against Russia, which will result in Russia sending nuclear weapons against the U.S., resulting in the U.S. and Russia being destroyed. All to save a few million Jews in Israel who are mostly atheists.

Never mind that there are more Jews in the U.S. and Russia than in Israel! And one of the principle reasons for the invasion is so Russia can take a spoil-- get the minerals and oil, even though Israel has no oil and the former U.S.S.R. was in the top five oil producing nations, and Russia itself has lots of oil and minerals. With the U.S. and Russia destroyed, Israel will sign a 7-year treaty with the European Union.

God will then begin to torture everyone on earth with plagues for those seven years, the last haft being the worst of the suffering, which includes demon locusts from Hell. After the treaty is signed, peace is established overnight with the Muslims. Islam's best chance to defeat Israel since Israel became a nation, and they decide to not only have peace, but to give up one of their holy temples, the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount in Jerusalem-- so the Jewish temple can be rebuilt.

Then in the middle of the 7-year treaty, after 100s of millions of people have been killed to keep Israel from being invaded, God changes his mind and allows the Antichrist himself to invade Israel and kill Jews to his heart's content for 42 months. But amazingly he is only able to kill a few. This Antichrist, who was just a leader in Europe, will become ruler of the whole planet for the final half of the 7-year tribulation. All nations will willingly give up their sovereignty to him-- even communist China! And even nations with nuclear weapons like Brazil and France. He will require everyone to take a mark on their foreheads or have their heads cut off.

During this time, when the Jew-hating Antichrist rules the world, 144,000 Jews will preach the Gospel throughout the world, and accoplish what the Church could not in 2,000 years. The 7-year tribulation ends with nations that don't exist and don't have armies, because there is a one-world government and one-world army, attacking Israel again.

But Christ will return to save Israel, and the nations of the world will point their guns in the air in an attempt to shoot Christ out of the sky. WOW! There is much more faulty reasoning in the pretrib theory, but there is not room here.

P.S. There is a Scripture that may be applied to this subject: Jesus said, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." (John 17:15). This passage might be proof that there will never be a pretribulation rapture.

See my other articles on Daniel's 70th week, and the Coming Great Signs of Christ's Return, and others which also prove there is no such thing as a pre-trib Rapture.