Written on 18 May 2025.

A Rebuttal to Bryan Denlinger’s Promotion of Pre-Trib Rapture

Bryan Denlinger has produced multiple videos promoting the pre-tribulation rapture while attacking believers who hold to post-tribulation or alternative rapture views. His tone is often harsh and accusatory, branding post-trib believers as deceived, unsaved, or influenced by Catholic doctrine. After reviewing his transcripts, including The DUMBEST Argument That Post-Tribbers Use, Another Argument Against Deceived Post-Tribbers, and The Coming Rapture Judgment, it is evident that his arguments lack solid scriptural grounding.

I do not believe in a pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation rapture. I lean toward either a post-tribulation rapture or a rapture at the Great White Throne Judgment. While the exact timing remains uncertain, one thing is clear: the pre-trib doctrine is not supported by direct statements in the King James Bible.

The Core Flaw: No Direct Verse Proves Pre-Trib

Denlinger relies heavily on inference and interpretation. He often cites Revelation 4 and John's calling up as a supposed type of the rapture. Yet, nowhere in the KJV does it plainly state that the church is raptured before the tribulation begins. Denlinger also claims that the wrath of God starts in Revelation 6, but that is an interpretation, not an explicit teaching.

He frequently references Ephesians 1:13–14 to affirm the eternal security of believers, which is true. However, that passage does not establish a pre-trib rapture.

Mischaracterizing Post-Trib Believers

Denlinger accuses post-trib believers of:

Being influenced by Catholic doctrine.
Believing that suffering is required for salvation.
Lacking joy or assurance of salvation.
Looking for the Antichrist instead of Jesus.

These are false generalizations. A believer can fully trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, be eternally secure, and still believe that the church may go through the tribulation.

God has repeatedly protected His people without removing them:

Noah was preserved through the flood.
The Jews hid from the Philistines in the rocks (1 Samuel 13:6).
Angels delivered Daniel and his friends without removing them from testing.

The same God can hide, shield, or guide a saint through the great tribulation without compromising grace or requiring works.

The Rapture as a Separation

In The Coming Rapture Judgment, Denlinger describes the rapture as a judgment that separates the saved from the lost. This is plausible in theory, yet he takes it further by insisting that those who deny pre-trib are either lost or condemning themselves by their own words. That is an excessive conclusion. Saints throughout history have differed on prophetic timelines.

If someone believes they may go through the tribulation, it does not mean they believe salvation is earned. It simply reflects a different interpretation of prophecy.

Rebuke of Pre-Trib Tradition

I rebuke Bryan Denlinger’s promotion of the pre-trib rapture as being based more on the traditions of men than the pure words of the King James Bible. His emotionally charged claims, personal attacks, and interpretive leaps are not sufficient to override plain scripture or the reasoned convictions of other Bible believers.

Post-trib is more consistent with scripture in my view, and even the possibility of a rapture at the Great White Throne Judgment should not be disregarded without careful study.

Rather than stirring fear or causing division, let us be prepared to suffer if necessary, remain faithful unto death if required, and trust that God can protect His saints without removing them from the earth before tribulation.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.