Are Pre-Trib Rapture Believers Escapists?

Believers who await a pre-trip Rapture are criticized for taking an "escapist" view. "Why," critics say, "should we get the easy way out when so many others are suffering all over the world?"

Why? Because Jesus TOLD us to ask for it!
"Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to ESCAPE all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.'' Luke 21:36

This is something he counsels us to do, it's not a suggestion.

Those who are taken in the Rapture are not taken on the basis of how much they have suffered. They are taken on the basis of the church age being closed. The Rapture takes place independently of what any believers have or have not suffered.

Believers down through the ages have encountered the full spectrum of human experience, from the terrible sufferings of those who died of torture, all the way to the opposite scenario such as the sheltered woman who never knew much of any suffering in this life and dies a peaceful death. At times, babies or children are taken without having gone through suffering.

Suffering is not the issue. We're not going to be kept here during the Tribulation because of others who suffered terribly before.

There is a time set, period. Before the last week of Daniel which is determined upon Israel, and when the church age ends, Jesus will come for his believers.

Jesus told believers to ASK for this "escape," to pray for it.

It bears repeating:
"Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.''
Luke 21:36