Why the church will not go through the Great Tribulation?

Introduction:

I have told you this many times, but I think I fell led to remind you of this ever so often.

The Book of Revelation is a book of reality. It is the only book that has attached to it a blessing for those who read it, study it, and cherish it.

Revelation 1:3 “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

Now, one of the great question that many in Christian circles ponder is whether or not the church will go through the terrible events, known as the Great Tribulation, described in the Book of Revelation. I think, no I know, it is important for any Christian to know, biblically, why he or she believes something in the Scripture. What do you think?

There are three schools of thought regarding whether or not the church goes through the Great Tribulation, and there are fine Christians that believe in each of the three schools of thought.

As one old preacher said: “I am not on the planning committee, but I am on the welcoming committee.” AMEN!

I do, however, believe that you and I are supposed to think about Christ’s return, and I know we are supposed to know what we are talking about.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.”

1 Thessalonians 4:18 “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

We are not to be ignorant or uninformed about the church’s future, and we are to comfort one another with the glorious truth concerning that future. As for the three schools of thought:

(1) Post-Tribulationists believe that Christ returns for the church after the events of the Great Tribulation that are recorded in the Bible in Chapters 6-18 in the Book of Revelation.

Post-tribulationists view the events of 1 Thess. Chap 4 and Rev. Chap 19 as the same events. 1 Thess. Chap 4, the Rapture Chapter, and Rev. Chap 19, the Armageddon Chapter, as being the same event.

(2) Mid-Tribulationists believe that Christ returns for the church during the middle of the Tribulation. They believe that since both Daniel and John divide the tribulation into two distinct 3 1/2 year periods of time that Christ must return for His church in the middle of that time.

(3) Pre-Tribulationists believe that Christ will return for His church before the tribulation begins.

Now, I am a pre-tribulationist, but I can understand why the mid-tribulationists believe what they believe. My belief in a pre-tribulation rapture comes from hours of study. I believe the pre-tribulation rapture most accurately reveals God’s grace toward those in this Age of Grace who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.

What school of thought do you embrace? Are you a pre-tribulationist because that is what I teach, what Bro. Jerrell taught, and what my dad taught? Are you a pre-tribulationist because you have the scriptural knowledge to back what you believe? The same holds for the reasons why you might be a mid-tribulationist or a post-tribulationist. Do you know why?

Tonight, I am going to give you my scriptural reasons for being a pre-tribulationist, and hopefully, you will be able to defend what you believe about the church’s future scripturally also. By the way, if you cannot defend a viewpoint using the entirety of Scripture, you better change your viewpoint.

2. A Pre-Tribulation Rapture goes along with the Doctrine of Imminence.

This is very important.

Everything in the Bible is imminent.

Salvation is imminent. 2nd Corinthians Chap 6 v. 2, says that now is the time of salvation. Death is imminent. James Chap 4 vv. 13-14 say that no one knows what tomorrow holds. Judgment is imminent as stated in Hebrews Chap. 9 v. 27.

Our Christian lives should reflect the imminent return of the Lord. I believe one of the reasons we try to ignore the imminent return of the Lord is because that ignorance gives us an excuse to sin whereas if we believe Christ could return any minute, instead of looking to sin, we would want to serve and we would be looking for Christ.

Imminent in the Bible does not mean soon. Peter tells us that a thousand years is as one day with the Lord and one day is as a thousand years. Our schedule and God’s schedule and our concept of time and God’s concept of time are totally different.

Imminent, however, in the Bible means something is impending, likely to happen any moment, or approaching.

In the New Testament, Paul, Peter, James, Luke, John, and Jude all wrote about the imminent return of the Lord. As a matter of fact, Paul wrote several times that he was expecting the Lord while he was alive. That expectancy in the imminence of Christ’s return produced a desire in Paul to not only share the gospel but to live in victory, power, peace, and contentment.

The imminent return of the Lord should motivate us to be busy doing the work of Christ. If we believe in the imminent return of Christ, we would be looking for the Son instead of signs.

Have you ever heard bunch of Christians talking about signs of the future? Their motivation is in the wrong place. They should not be looking for signs. They should be looking for Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4:14–15 “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.”

Paul, one of the greatest Christians ever, was looking for the return of Christ. If Paul was looking for that imminent return, who am I to say that there needs to be some kind of sign fulfilled first?

3. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture is outlined in Revelation and the other writings of John.

Revelation 1:19 “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.”

I could give you many, many verses that say what John saw.

In general, the things John saw are described in the gospel of John and Revelation Chap 1 with John’s vision of the glorified Christ.

“The things which are” refers to the Church Age.

John wrote about the Church Age in his three epistles and in Chaps 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation. Actually, all the letters in the New Testament from Acts to Jude describe the things which are.

“The things which will take place after this” refers to what happens after the Church Age ends.

Notice these verses.

Revelation 3:21–22 “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” 

Revelation 4:1 “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.””

To me, this passage is one of the greatest scriptural proofs of a pre-tribulation rapture. After the church age, John is called up to heaven as the door to heaven has been opened to him and all church age saints.

When the church age is finished, the church is raptured to meet the Lord. The church age will be finished when the body of Christ is complete. When the body is complete, the church age ends, and Daniel’s 70th week begins.

In the Book of Revelation, the church age ends with Chap. 3. In Chaps. 4-5, the church is in heaven. The true church on earth is not mentioned anywhere in chapters 6 through 18. Why? Because the true church is in heaven during the tribulation.

4. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture reflects God’s grace for those in the church age who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

God’s wrath is coming, but I do not have to worry about it or fear going through it because, through God’s grace and mercy and my faith in Jesus Christ, I have been saved from wrath.

A mistake many people make is to assume the judgments mentioned in the Book of Revelation are symbolic.

Well, let me tell you. They are not symbolic. They are literal. During the tribulation, God’s wrath will be unleashed upon a sinful world, and that wrath will be unleashed through nature itself, and there is only One capable of doing that.

Hebrews 1:3 “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus Christ unleashes and unseals God’s wrath. The same Jesus Christ who has saved me from that wrath.

5. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture leads to Israel’s salvation.

WHAT? Listen very carefully to these verse, and I am going to use the Phillips translation because it explains this greatly and succinctly.

Romans 11: 25-29 (PHILLIPS TRANSLATION)

25-27 Now I don’t want you, my brothers, to start imagining things, and I must therefore share with you my knowledge of God’s secret plan. It is this, that the partial insensibility which has come to Israel is only to last until the full number of the Gentiles has been called in. Once this has happened, all Israel will be saved, as the scripture says: ‘The deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins’.

28-29 As far as the Gospel goes, they are at present God’s enemies—which is to your advantage. But as far as God’s purpose in choosing is concerned, they are still beloved for their fathers’ sakes. For once they are made, God does not withdraw his gifts of his calling.

This is a perfect explanation for what has happened to Israel. Israel rejected Christ and persecuted the church.

As they rejected God and embraced ungodliness, God, through Christ, elected a new body, a body of Gentiles, to be the body and bride of Christ, but God still has not forgotten Israel.

As long as the church is on the earth, God will work through the church, and Israel will remain blinded. There are, however, many promises God has made to Israel that as of yet have been fulfilled.

Think about it scripturally and logically.

One of the things that marks the tribulation is global antisemitism.

Matthew 24:9 ““Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”

Jesus is not referring to the church in this verse. He is referring to the Jews.

Do you think there can be global antisemitism as long as the church is on earth? No because the church loves the Jews because Jesus Himself is a Jew.

When the church is removed and as the events of the tribulation unfold, millions of Jews will be saved, but only a few will escape the executioner’s sword.

Zechariah 13:8–9 “And it shall come to pass in all the land,” Says the Lord, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.”

Only 1/3 of the Jews will come to Christ, and most of them will die. Some theologians say, and I cannot say it one way or the other, but it is possible, that the only Jews remaining on earth when Christ returns at Armageddon are those 144,000 Jews that were sealed before the tribulation begins.

Revelation 14:1 “Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

Matthew 24:22 “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

There is much more I want to say, but I will save it for my book I am writing about the Book of Revelation.

In conclusion, why is this important? Well, it is important for you to know why or what you believe about Scripture.

Most importantly, however, it is important for this reason.

If you are sitting here lost refusing to accept Christ, and Christ returns for His church at this very minute, you will never have another opportunity to be saved, and you will go through the horrible tribulation and die and go to hell. Do you want scriptural proof?

2 Thessalonians 2:10–12 “and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Listen to me, dear friend. I am not blowing smoke. I am as confident in what I shared tonight as I could possibly be. My confidence is not in me. My confidence is in Jesus Christ and His Word. I know what God has said about the church’s future.

If you are lost knowing you need to be saved, if Christ’s returns and finds you in your lost condition, you are going to be in heap big trouble kemosabe!

If you are lost, I beg you to get saved while you still can.

Romans 10:9–10 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

You can be saved now, but I cannot guarantee you that you can be saved tomorrow. I do not know what is going to happen tomorrow, but I do know the One who does, and He wants to save you, but if you reject Him, He will not act contrary to His Word, and He will give you what you deserve.

That is my big problem with post-tribulationists and mid-tribulationists. They are almost saying that a person has plenty of time to get saved, yet I do not believe that to be biblical. You can remove all doubt by coming to Jesus tonight. Will yo do that?