A central point of the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine is that the rapture is imminent, that is, it can happen at any time. In the following, we will show that this is not true, because the Bible teaches that there will be a great apostasy and the Antichrist will be revealed before the rapture.

Let’s take a close look at the following passage:

[2 Thessalonians 2:1-4] Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For THAT DAY will not come, unless the falling away comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

The Greek word translated as falling away in this passage is ἀποστασία (apostasia) G646, which can also translated as apostasy or rebellion.

From these verses it’s very clear that the following three events happen on the same day: “that day” in the above passage.

As already mentioned previously, the day of the Lord is the season of God’s final wrath, when Jesus returns and destroys the wicked.

Secondly, the above Bible passage states very clearly that the following must happen before the rapture:

This means the rapture cannot happen before the great apostasy and before the appearance of the Antichrist. Since these two haven’t happened yet, the rapture is not imminent, that is, it cannot happen at any moment as the pre-tribbers claim.

Why will there be a mass falling away from the faith? There are two likely reasons. One is the judgments that will fall during the end times, which will cause most of those who call themselves Christians to blame God and turn against Him. “How can a good God allow this to happen?” Another reason is the severe persecution of the Christians.

Please understand that those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture are a lot more likely to fall away, as they don’t expect to be here when these things happen. Instead of blaming themselves and their false teachers, many of them will blame God, fall away from the faith and take the mark of the beast.

Some pre-tribbers try to twist the above verses by claiming that the Greek word apostasia should be translated as catching away rather than falling away or apostasy, because they want to claim that it refers to the rapture. But that’s complete nonsense.

First, the word apostasia doesn’t mean catching away, no matter how you try to twist it. This word literally means standing off or standing away and in ancient Greek means defection, desertion, revolt, rebellion, often in a political sense, as in breaking away from allegiance or deserting from a previous loyalty.

Second, the above verses wouldn’t make any sense if that were the case:

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him (the rapture), … that day will not come, unless the catching away (the rapture) comes first

In conclusion, the Bible is very clear that there won’t be any rapture before the great falling away and before the Antichrist makes his appearance on the world stage.