The Right Rapture Attitude

Around six months ago after we had finished church service on Sunday, I was standing in the entrance talking to my pastor. We were talking about the antichrist potentially being the Islamic "Mahdi".
I have been very thankful to have a pastor who has closely considered the idea and the implications.
We were standing there talking when one of the ladies of the church approached us and asked what we were talking about. We told her that there's a good chance the antichrist will be a Muslim and then, I'll never forget this, she made this barking laugh and practically shouted, "I don't care about that. We won't see the antichrist anyway! LOL"
It was bizarre and I was taken aback. She acted like we were talking about all that snow in Michigan or something.

Now... I have yet to hear anything that convinces me in anything other than God's Church being removed from this world before He judges it with His wrath. That being the case I have no reason to dispute a scenario that has a catching up of the Church before the antichrist confirms a seven year covenant with Israel, (Daniel 9:26-27).
I remain a pre-trib rapture believer.

But this reaction on the part of this sister genuinely filled me with disgust. Agree with her statement or not I have to say I did not feel sympatric to her attitude. This is a dead serious matter to me and will be for anybody that suffers greatly through it.

Then the thought later occurred to me, "Have I helped encourage this flippant attitude?"
Perhaps I have. I hope not but I might have.

I have yet to come to any place where I would advise anyone to get ready to endure God's tribulation on "those who dwell on the earth" but... We truly need to prayerfully and seriously consider a day when we will be compelled to man up and refuse to bow to Islam, political correctness, hate crime accusations or compromise.
More and more those whom we defy and resist will become more vicious in their harassment and assaults.

Do you know why Christians died in the Roman Circus? Not because they worshipped Jesus. They died because they would not also worship the emperor. All they had to do was throw a pinch of incense on some coals to the emperor and they were free to go. Some did. Many said no. They died for that.
Hundreds of thousands of Christians in the western world would have zero problem tossing a compromise to the world and call you an idiot for being too dogmatic about it.
We are an entire culture grossly unprepared for persecution and I don't think that's Biblical.

2 Corinthians 8:1-2
1 Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: 2 that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.

The Church used to prepare for it and were neither dismayed or troubled by it.

1 Peter 4:12
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;

James 1:2-3
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

I am sitting here writing this and thinking of the many faces of people I know who are unprepared for persecution and would fold like a lawn chair.

Do you know who did not accept pre-tribulation rapture? Corrie Ten Boom. Have you ever heard of her? She hid Jews from the Nazi's in the Netherlands during WWII. They kicked in her door and took her and her family to death camps. Her sister died at Ravensbrück.
She felt strongly that pre-trib rapture doctrine left the Christian Church ill-prepared in times of great persecution.

And I gotta say, even as a pre-trib rapture adherent, I think she's right.

My line of reasoning for a pre-trib rapture comes from a systematic understanding of God's dealings with Israel being unique from the Church (Romans 11:23-26) and His past track record of sparing His people from wrath. (By that I mean Noah and Lot.)

Romans 5:9
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Removing His people, I say, before HIS wrath. God has never promised anybody freedom from MAN'S wrath.

People who disagree have completely forgotten all the brother's and sister's dying for their faith in North Korea and Iran and Rwanda and India and Indonesia and Viet Nam and Pakistan and Egypt. And, oh yes, they are going through watching their children suffer and die.
And from what I'm reading they have their hearts prepared for that day.

NOBODY that I personally know in the United States is considering a day when they could be fired or jailed or beaten and killed for standing up for Biblical truth.
I have personally been rebuked by people who feel strongly that no Biblical truth is worth getting into a fight over. Period, dot.
If they will not consider it something worth defending in times of calm how strongly will they stand for it when they have a gun to their head?
The only people I read about considering it are the post-trib guys they are not the majority.

Folks... We are at the end. Pre, mid, or post. This train ain't stopping.
And it is HIGHLY likely we'll see gas at $5.00 this summer and perhaps our dollar bottoming out soon. Egypt's fallen. The Muslim Brotherhood will be cutting off the tours to the Pyramid's soon and dynamiting the Sphinx. Libya will be radical if Gaddafi loses. (Not that I'm rooting for the guy.)
Whole states right now are desperate to balance their books and it ain't going to happen. Not without heavy cut backs and probably tax increases. Cut backs that hopefully will not be made in law enforcement.
The folks that will have a life preserver are the Christians who have a Church family to share with. Satan will attack that and get it closed with hate crime laws.
The TRUE Church will probably go back to meeting in homes and then the arrests and the traitors and the cowards and the back stabbing will begin.

All that BEFORE a Rapture. Because God's wrath will have yet to fall. This will be man's doing.

So, although I remain in my convictions I certainly don't what to give a false sense of security to people who truly need to be mindful of the times.
We're still in enemy territory and this world is not our home.

I have begun to meditate and seriously consider how I am going to give an answer in the hour of testing. Am I in or am I out?
And I don't laugh like an idiot about the last days. It ain't funny.