WILL THE CHURCH GO THROUGH THE GREAT TRIBULATION?

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JESUS TAUGHT THAT THERE WAS A GREAT TRIBULATION COMING!

 

Their shall be great tribulation...such as not been from the beginning of the world, until now and , no and never will be.    And   if  those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved"  (Matthew 24:21,22 ESV).

THE FOUR POSITIONS ABOUT THE CHURCH AND THE GREAT TRIBULATION

 

1. The church will be raptured (resurrected) before the Tribulation.  This is due to the fact that God is now doing something the church was not geared to perform:  bring the nations to worship the Lord (Rev. 15:4).  This will be a time of judgment and the appearance of the Antichrist, the ultimate evil leader and government of the world. He will be defeated by the judgments of the Lord and the nations will submit to the coming Lord from Heaven, Jesus Christ!  I've held every position on this at one time or another, but I've settled on this as the best representation of what the New Testament teaches.  Remember our Lord stated that no one knows the day or the hour of His coming, Matthew 24:36.  The Lord now can come at any time or day, and we should be ready for Him.  We do not have to wait for seven or three and half years before He comes for us.

 

2. The church will  go through a short tribulation and be raptured before the time of wrath.  This has been called the Mid-tribulation or Pre-wrath position.  This was taught by Dr. Buswell (my old theology professor) Dr. Barten Payne, and recently by Dr. Rosenthal.  I agree with Dr. Rosenthal that we should not give the impression that the church will escape all tribulation.  Look at the faithful who are facing beheadings, bombing, death etc. from the Muslim extremists.  Acccording to Papal records there have been more martyrs for Christ in the twentieth century than any century in history!

However, I do not agree that the tribulation is different than the days of the wrath of God.  Jesus taught and Revelation demonstrates that they are the same.

 

3. The church will go through the seven years tribulation.  Again, I look at the imminent coming of Christ as presented in the New Testament and just cannot see that we have a seven year period before the Lord could come back for us.  No, He comes "suddenly" see the book of Revelation.

 

After 50 years of teaching the Word of God I don't expect Christians will be uniform in there conclusions about when the rapture comes about.  However, a lady in our church emailed me this discerning comment.

We should be ready to meet the Lord at any day, and also be prepared in this life to face tribulation.

 

Next time I will pursue more the reasons why I believe in the any moment coming of Jesus!   

 

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