Revealing RevelationSample

The Church During the Tribulation
Where is the church during the tribulation? Thankfully, a pre-tribulation rapture isn’t just wishful thinking. It’s biblical.

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole, world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 3:10).

The promise of Jesus, the Groom, is that He will deliver His church from the coming wrath. We will be delivered from “the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world.” Where are we delivered? To heaven, of course—the place that our Bridegroom promised to prepare for us. He will come for His bride and take her to His Father’s house.

The Purpose of the Tribulation
With just a little investigation, we can see that there are three major reasons why God is going to bring His wrath to this world.

1.The tribulation will prepare Israel for her Messiah.

The tribulation is a time of turning the people of Israel to the Lord. No one will be saved apart from a personal acceptance of Jesus as Savior and Lord. All of Israel will finally recognize what they have been missing all this time, and each Jew will take that individual step to receive Jesus and trust Him to save them.

2.The tribulation will bring an end to the times of the Gentiles.

The Jews must endure this period so that they will finally turn to the Messiah. The unsaved Gentiles will face it because it is the just punishment for their sins. But for those who have already given themselves to Christ, salvation has come and all in the church have already been fully purified by the blood of Jesus.

3.The tribulation will punish mankind for sin.

He continues to patiently wait for mankind to respond to Him. But as time goes on, there is more and more expectation of God and more hatred expressed toward one another. The time is coming when God will say, “Enough!” Then he will pour out on this planet the judgments of the seals and the trumpets and the bowls that are found in Revelation.

Heaven’s Open Door
After the dead in Christ have been resurrected to Him, those in the church who are still alive on earth will be “caught up” with our formerly dead brothers and sisters in the Lord and we will meet our Savior in the clouds. When the time comes, the church will be removed from the earth as Jesus fulfills His promise to His bride to “come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).

Johns gives us a sneak peek at what being caught up looks like when he writes, “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’” (Rev. 4:1).