This page is part of an overview of all the major end-times views held by faithful Christians. Each view gets the same structure and the same care, with no winner declared. Start with the overview for what every view shares, then read the others alongside this one.
In a sentence: Christ gathers His Church at the midpoint of the tribulation, after its first half and before its most severe judgments.
How it reads the story: Holders understand the tribulation as a seven-year period drawn from Daniel’s seventieth week, and they give special attention to the way Scripture divides that week in half (Daniel 9:27, 7:25; Revelation 11:2–3, 12:6, 13:5). The first half is seen as a time of rising trouble, what Jesus called “the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:8). At the midpoint, the ruler Daniel describes breaks his covenant, and holders see the Church gathered to Christ at that turn. The second half, which many holders identify with the “great tribulation” Jesus described (Matthew 24:21), then brings God’s wrath on the earth. Many mid-tribulation believers connect the gathering with the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15, where loud voices announce that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of Christ, and they read that alongside Paul’s “last trumpet” in 1 Corinthians 15:52. Christ then returns visibly at the end of the week.
Key texts: 1 Corinthians 15:51–52; Revelation 11:11–15; Daniel 7:25, 9:27; Matthew 24:8, 15–21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4.
What its holders are most careful to protect: Mid-tribulation believers are most careful to take both sets of texts seriously at once: the promises that believers won’t face God’s wrath, and the passages where believers clearly see certain events before the gathering, such as the man of lawlessness being revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:3). They want the structure Scripture itself gives the final week, with its two halves, to shape the answer.
Questions others ask: The most common question is whether Paul’s “last trumpet” is really the same as the seventh trumpet of Revelation, since Paul wrote First Corinthians before Revelation was given. Holders typically answer that the same Spirit inspired both books, and that the seventh trumpet’s announcement includes the time for the dead to be judged and God’s servants to be rewarded (Revelation 11:18), which fits a resurrection. Others ask whether the first half of the week is really free of God’s wrath, since judgments begin early in Revelation. Holders usually answer that the first half is trouble and testing, while the full outpouring of God’s wrath belongs to the second half.
Who has held it: Mid-tribulation teaching appeared in the 1900s as a position between pre- and post-tribulation views. The Old Testament scholar Gleason Archer argued a form of it in a well-known three-view debate book, and J. Oliver Buswell held a related view earlier. It’s held by a smaller number of believers today, and some see it as a forerunner of the pre-wrath view.
Every View Stands on the Same Foundation
Every view described in this overview affirms that Jesus Christ reigns as King right now, that He will return bodily, personally, visibly, and victoriously, that the dead will be raised, that He will judge with perfect justice and make all things new, and that the day and hour of His return are known by the Father alone (Matthew 24:36). These questions don’t decide whether someone who trusts Christ is your brother or sister. Your pastor and your local church are the right people to walk through them with you.
Faithful Christians read this question differently. Here’s how Last Days Living handles questions like this.
Explore the Other Views
Overview: The Major End-Times Views
When are believers gathered to Christ?
What is the thousand years?
A related term