Q&A on Post-tribulational Rapture w/ Dr. Albert Mohler

On the Wednesday, March 31, 2010 "Ask Anything Wednesday" radio show, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, responded to the question of whether he is a "post-tribulationist" with the following:

You have so many warnings about the church continuing through tribulation, you have assurances that the Lord will protect His church through tribulation.

And actually the biblical evidence for a Rapture before the Tribulation is very scant; you have, basically, one kind of chosen way of reading the passage from 2 Thessalonians, and then- of course- you just are kind of assuming that the Lord would remove His church and claim it before the Great Tribulation. The problem with that is you have Christ coming and then Christ coming again and, to tell you the truth Robert [the name of the caller], the biggest problem I have with that understanding [is that] when it comes to understanding the distinctive understanding of the Rapture of the premillennial dispensationalists: that's a VERY recent phenomenon in the Church. Basically, there's very little evidence that ANYONE in the Church EVER believed that until, say, the last 200 years or so. And so when you look at that- I'll just say that the most natural reading of the text (and I'm obligated to the most natural reading of the text) is to assume that the Church will be, indeed, on this earth during that time of Tribulation, that the Church is told to endure and to continue in faithfulness, and the Church is promised that the Lord will protect and preserve His church during that. I would find it very difficult to know what to do with all those passages unless, indeed, the Church is there [during the Great Tribulation].