Whom will the tribulation affect?

A:

The Tribulation will not really affect anyone. The concept is a theological invention of John Nelson Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren, in the nineteenth-century. The idea of a 'Rapture' and 'Tribulation' has evolved over a period of nearly two hundred years, but is still essentially the same as originally proposed by Darby. The one significant change is that, whereas Darby opted of a pre-tribulation Rapture, some more recent proponents have opted to delay the Rapture to mid-tribulation or even post-tribulation. So, in Darby's original scheme, only non-Christians will be affected by the Tribulation, whereas in some later versions of his theology, everyone alive will be affected. Of course, even if these events do occur one day, they would only affect a tiny proportion of Christians since nearly all the Christians who have ever lived and nearly all non-Christians would have quietly lived their lives and passed away in the fullness of time, oblivious to any Tribulation.

Barbara R. Rossing (The Rapture Exposed) says that Darby's new teaching was that Christ would return twice, first in secret to "Rapture" Christians out of the world and up to heaven, then a second time after seven years of global tribulation for non-believers, to establish a Jerusalem-based kingdom on earth. Rossing says that according to one critic, the Rapture has its origins with a young girl's vision. In 1830, in Port Glasgow, Scotland, fifteen-year-old Margaret MacDonald attended a healing service. There, she was said to have seen a vision of a two-stage return of Jesus Christ. The story of her vision was adopted and amplified by Darby. There is no good reason to believe there will ever be a Rapture or that the events portrayed by Darby will ever occur. John Nelson Darby has sunk into obscurity, apart from his followers in the Plymouth Brethren, and so should his theology.