We have learned that the Rapture is the method by which Christ will take that last generation of believing Christians home to be with Himself.
The questions which then arise have to do with the timing of the Rapture. People ask, “When?” The Rapture event is the object of much discussion with reference to the timing, relative to a special era in history which is called “the Tribulation.” Therefore, the question often takes the form of “Will Christians go through the Tribulation?” and “Will Christ come for His own before the Tribulation?” To discover the answers to these questions, we must think concerning the basic question, “What is the Tribulation?” A proper understanding of the day’s of the Tribulation can go a long way toward answering the question of the timing of the Rapture relative to the Tribulation. What then is “the Tribulation” so commonly spoken of in Scripture?
WHAT IS THE TRIBULATION?
The Tribulation is the 70th week of the prophecy of Daniel. (Dan. 9:24). Here we have the goals which God is determined to fulfill in that 70-week period of time that will bring us to the consummation of history.
The Tribulation is the time of Jacob’s trouble. Jeremiah says, “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7).
The Tribulation will, therefore, be a time of great spiritual revival. It will mark the conversion of Israel and great activity by Israel for the conversion of the world (Rm. 11:26, 27).
The Tribulation will also be a time of massive conversion of gentile multitudes (Rev. 7:9).
The Tribulation, then, is the time of the outpouring of the wrath of God upon a wicked world. (Rev. 6:8) (Rev. 9:17, 18).
The Tribulation is the beginning of “the Day of the Lord.” (II Thes. 2:1,2).
Here in II Thes 2:1,2, Paul is saying that, the Day of the Lord was not present because Christ had not yet come and gathered the saints to Himself. He is, therefore, saying that the Rapture of the Church, concerning which he had carefully instructed the Thessalonicans, was the watershed point ending the Day of Grace and beginning the Day of the Lord. In that the Rapture had not taken place, the Day of the Lord was not yet present.
Here, the Apostle Paul gives us a clear line of demarcation between the Church Age, the Day of Grace, and the Day of the Lord, which is the day of divine judgment.
That line of demarcation is the Catching away of the Christians or the Rapture of the Church.
Friend, hear this, the catching away of the Christians or the Rapture of the church event will happen before the Tribulation. The Rapture of the church will end the Day of Grace which we are in and begins the Tribulation which is also called the Day of the Lord which is the day of divine judgment.
What we are experiencing today is a rehearsal of the Tribulation. It is not the Tribulation itself for the Tribulation will not happen until the catching away of the Christians and the termination of the Church Age.
The hope of the Christian will be our next line of discussion.
shalom!
#pstnath.
Jesus is Lord