It is no secret that those who wear pre-trib' glasses are minimizing the importance of watching for the signs, assuring us that no one need worry about the signs because the Church will be gone in rapture prior to them.Why did Jesus give the signs at all if he's coming back before them? "The Day of the LORD will come as a thief, in which the skies with rushing sound will pass away, and the burning elements will be dissolved...As everything will be dissolved, what sort of men does it require you to be in holy behavior and godliness as you await and speed up the parousiaon the Day of God, on account of which the skies will be set on fire..." (2 Peter 3:10-12).Armageddon will be a day of melting and fire, rushing wind and cloudy tempest. Not just the mountains and islands, but the sun and stars as well will disappear. Peter is referring to the same post-trib' cosmic event spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 24:29, but with Old-Testament script as an additional basis of his portrayal. The pre-tribbers argue that the Day of the LORD here must arrive before the 70th Week because the Parousia must occur by surprise..."as a thief." They therefore think that it's the Church which is slated to be taken by surprise. But if this were true, then Jesus would not have given the Church signs of his Parousia, for signs are given that we might not be taken by surprise.And so how do the pre-tribbers get out of this? They'll find a way; they always do! Just make the Parousia a two-stage event, with phase one before the tribulation, and phase two after the tribulation. They don't need Biblical support, because they are the special prophets of God.But Paul writes: "You yourselves accurately know that the Day of the LORD will come like a thief in the night...But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this Day should overtake you as a thief..." (1 Thessalonians 5:1, 4).There you have more confirmation that the brothers were to wait until the Day of the LORD for ultimate salvation? Again, we see why it is so absolutely necessary for pre-tribbers to interpret that Day as the entire tribulation period. But how can the Day of the LORD arrive and settle over the world prior to the anti-Christ's reign of 3.5 years? Is it not understood through common sense alone that the Day of the LORD cannot arrive until the day that Christ destroys the anti-Christ, at which time only He sets up the Kingdom of the LORD on earth? The great tribulation is hardly the Day of the LORD, but the Day of Satan. God himself sanctions the final 1260 days as the Day of Satan. The tribulation is best called "the 70th Week" (from Daniel 9). In being a mere seven years long, all saints who initially come to faithin it are going to be mere babes in Christ when heavy-handed Globalistic powers persecute them in the name of the "Beast." In other words, we are supposed to believe that all the Church Christians are up in the heavenlies merely watching on for seven years as these mere babes are slaughtered alone. It is said that God loves the Church Christians too much to allow them to endure the horrors of the tribulation, so he raptures them out before it begins, but He must not love the group called the Tribulation Saints as much, or it's just tough luck for them, because they are going to pass through the period most assuredly...as their penalty for coming to Christ late.But, you see, here is the contradiction: pre-tribulationists recognize that the woman of Revelation 12 must endure a full 1,260 days in and around Israel, divinely protected in a special wilderness out of the anti-Christ's reach (Rev. 12:14). Well, if pre-trib' advocates can freely accept divine protection of Jewish believers while they live on earth during the more-violent half of the seven years, why do these same pre-tribbers suggest that it's absolutely necessary to remove the Church from the earth for that same period? The Incredible Cover-up," Dave MacPhersonFifty Ways to Leave Left Behindhttp://www.tribwatch.com/roots.htm http://www.christianforums.com/