The Two Witnesses and the Great Tribulation Revelation 11. (Coragarry FPC, March 2nd 2015) Since the mid-1800s it has been preached by some that there would be a secret rapture of the Church of Christ so that the saints of God would not pass through the time of tribulation which would flow from the wicked persecution instigated by the Antichrist. Historical pre-millennialism has always rejected that view simply because it is not taught in the Bible. I will set before you two passages which I believe very clearly preclude a secret rapture of the church. "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn," Matt 13:30. "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God," 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4. These verses show that the gathering of the righteous will not take place before the gathering of the wicked nor before the manifesting of the Antichrist declaring himself God in the temple in Jerusalem.