"History established the pattern through world floods, Egyptian plagues, tribulations of all kinds. God leads his people through life's disasters, not around them. First the Antichrist rejects the pretribulation rapture scenario that God will open an escape route so Christians will be spared persecution. Rather, in a complex chain of events Christ will gather the church out of the world only after seven years of intense suffering, when Christ returns to rule. In this close study of church history and debated Bible texts, Bob Gundry shows that the pretribulation rapture is a recent innovation. It is wishful thinking that came to grab the pre-millennial spotlight. But serious scholars are backing away. It just doesn't accord with what the Bible says. In First the Antichrist, Gundry lays out a more biblical (and accurate) picture. First the Antichrist is a much needed contribution to apocryphal and pre-millennial prophecy studies."--Midwest Book Review