Pretribulationists are fond to cite Pseudo-Ephraem as support for a pretrib rapture. Charles Cooper has written the following article (Pseudo-Ephraem), which reveals that the author actually places the return of Jesus for the Church after the Antichrist has already arrived, not before.
This document is also a teachable example for pretribs. The MO for how pretribs (ab)use church history is to glom onto any reference to the word “tribulation” regardless of its context, assuming that the Antichrist’s great tribulation is the same event as the day of the Lord’s wrath. This is a fallacious anachronism by pretribbers, because the church fathers could use the general term “tribulation” to refer to either the Antichrist’s great tribulation or refer to the day of the Lord’s wrath. The context determines which referent they had in mind.
