Thanks for all this! The commentary really upends the perception of rapture!
I found particularly interesting the following from Bauckham:
The doubleminded will be ‘hurt’ by the great tribulation and thereby experience God’s wrath. The repentant, on the other hand, will put complete trust in the Lord, face the tribulation with courage, and ‘escape’. It should be noticed that this result is precisely the opposite of what it should be if the great tribulation were simply a period of persecution. In that case, the doubleminded, those who apostatise, would escape, while the faithful would suffer.
With the teaching of the rapture, there’s always the sub-message: “bad things will happen, but it’s ok, we won’t have to experience it. Others will though.” Which is certainly contrary to all the teaching on suffering in the New Testament.
I also found the comparison to Daniel in the lion’s den intriguing when drawing a picture of a possible rapture. Daniel wasn’t saved out of the danger. He was saved because he was steadfast and trusted in God! I’d never really picked up on this perspective beforehand. He had to endure persecution.
To extend Bauckham’s reference to John’s repeated ‘call for the endurance of the saints’, I am reminded of sections of the letter to the Phillipians:
Only lead your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent I hear ⌊your circumstances⌋, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one soul contending side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not letting yourselves be intimidated in anything by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction to them, but of your salvation, and this from God, 29 because to you has been graciously granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on behalf of him, 30 having the same struggle which you saw in me and now hear about in me. Php 1:27–30.
Therefore my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Php 2:12.
This last verse is often used by some to argue for “faith + works = salvation” but in the context that we’re looking at, its all about perseverance of faith, where our only fear is of God (fear of the Lord being a positive thing). If the church is raptured before a tribulation, I see little chance of globally putting this teaching into practice (I appreciate that pockets of Christians around the world always have, and continue to suffer so that they put this teaching into practice).
Which leads to my other thought: shouldn’t the church be building up the body to be steadfast, faithful, turning our faces like flint (Isaiah 50:7) in the face of trouble, knowing we have a hope beyond it all? Is the global (and perhaps especially, Western) church being effectively prepared to be steadfast and true?