Christians in the Great Tribulation?

See the Rapture series here

My perspectives and beliefs on the Lord’s planned resurrection and rapture events are reflected and elaborated in many posts, especially those in The Raptures (Series). I hope this summary will be helpful as you study and develop your own perspectives and beliefs about this complex topic, especially given the rift in Christian communities about the likely timing of the next resurrection/rapture event. 

The Lord has apparently planned several mass group resurrection and rapture events in history. The Bible reveals He has segregated them into several ‘First Resurrection’ events, meaning the resurrection/rapture of His faithful saints to eternal life; and a final, mixed event of every sinner who will have ever lived, plus all saints who will have died and those still alive during the last (6th) age of history on this current version of Earth. So yeah, it’s kinda complex, but here goes:

1. The Bible indicates saints from the 1st and 2nd ages of history were ‘raptured’ (so to speak) into the upper region of hell, pending The Lord’s crucifixion sacrifice. Then, after His sacrifice, they were all resurrected and raptured, likely onto the new, eternal Earth. 

References: Matthew 27:51-53, Psalm 68:18, Ephesians 4:7-9, 1 Peter 3:19, 4:6, Isaiah 65:17 and 66:24, Insights from Matthew 27 and Earth’s Next Versions (Series). 

2. Continuing with His ‘Goshen effects’ and ‘leading captivity captive’ patterns, I believe we saints from the 3rd (post-cross) age, will be resurrected/raptured before the anti-Christ man is revealed.

NB: Saints from the first 3 ages of history apparently are not featured in Revelation chapters 4 - 18. They/we only appear in Revelation 19 and 20, as part of the much larger multitude than the first one John saw in Revelation 7.

References: Romans 1:18, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:13-18, 5:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, and Missed Insights from Revelation 20.

3. I believe most, if not all, saints in the 4th (tribulation) age will likely experience the great tribulation, i.e., The Lord’s wrath on the God-rejecting world, plus the wrath of the Christian and Jew-hating anti-Christ regime. These saints will be resurrected/raptured just prior to the start of The Millennial Reign. This group might likely include many 3rd age saints who will have become lukewarm, then fully apostate in their faith, but who will have RETURNED to strong faith before they died during the 4^th age, or if alive, before they will be raptured.

References: Revelation 7:9-17, 20:4, Audacious Christians (Series), Roads Beckoned, Then Taken (Poem), and Laodicean Lackadaisicalness (Series).

 

4. The Bible is silent on whether there will be a resurrection/rapture event at the end of The Millennial Reign age. I believe there may well be a cloaked, strategic rationale for such silence. Reference: Salvation in the Millennium (Series).

5. I believe saints from the 6th (post-millennial reign) age will be included in the final, mass resurrection and rapture event just prior to The Great White Throne Judgment. Many Christians seem to believe this event will be only for all sinners, dead and alive, from across all 6 ages of history on this version of Earth. Their theology fails to account for saints camped in Jerusalem during  that ‘little while’ age, and any who might be located elsewhere on the Earth. Also, if this final resurrection/rapture event will be only for all sinners who will have ever lived, there might be NO rationale for The Lord to consult His Book of [Eternal] Life. Thus, I intuit He will consult this book in order to segregate this first, mixed group of resurrected/raptured people, i.e., ‘to separate the sheep from the goats’. Did you note my hint that ALL SINNERS will be raptured, not just resurrected?! How else will they stand before The Lord God for His Great White Throne judgment?! This also hints they will all have a brief reprieve, a hiatus from the hot, lower region of hell (hades, Sheol), before they are cast, fully alive and immortal, into the lake of fire, likely in one of 3 geographic zones on the new, eternal Earth. There, in their immortal bodies, they will join the anti-Christ man and his prophet whom The Lord will have cast therein at the end of the great tribulation (the apocalypse) over a thousand years earlier!  

References: Revelation 19:19-20, 20:7 &12, Hiatus from Hades! (Poem), Two Bold-faced LIES! (Poem) and Hades, Twice Robbed, Then Lobbed.

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So re. #3 above, why might The Lord allow Christians to taste His wrath, and the wrath of the anti-Christ regime in the tribulation age?? Here’s what I intuit could be the rationale, based on a clear, scriptural pattern and tactic The Lord has applied.

A. Echoing across Old Testament history are The Lord’s pleas to errant Jews in ancient Israel and Judah, to ‘RETURN TO ME, and I will return to you!’ Most didn’t. Those who did were very likely included in various remnant groups that survived His judgments. In general, in all His judgments (even in those in or day), He promises to extract a remnant intended for righteousness, even though He knows, given human nature, their righteousness will not be sustainable. In Jeremiah 9:24, The Lord reveals this clear strategic pattern in His dealing with humanity. This pattern of protecting righteous remnant groups and those intended for righteousness, was likely suspended when, fed-up, He allowed the lands of Israel (10 ancient northern tribes) and Judah (2 ancient southern tribes) to ‘vomit out’ their populations for millennia, because of their unrepentant sinfulness. 

[For Bible scholars, most (not all) of this period of the absence of significant Jewish residents in Palestine, was the long gap between the 69th and 70th weeks of the prophecy in Daniel 9. Even though some Jews returned to the land in May 1948, The Lord's 70th week in this prophecy is still pending the start of the next (4th) historical age - the tribulation age.]

References: Leviticus 18:25-28, 20:22, Deuteronomy 30:2, 1 Samuel 7:3, 1 Kings 8:48, 2 Chronicles 6:38, 30:6 & 9, Nehemiah 1:9, Isaiah 31:6, 44;22, 55:7, Jeremiah 3:1 & 7, 4:1, 24:7, Daniel 9, Joel 2:13, Zechariah 1:3, and Malachi 3:7.

Jews in modern Israel and across the world, are the descendants of those ancient Jews whom The Lord scattered (i.e., the lands vomited out) across the world, just as He had iteratively promised, because they largely, not entirely, refused His above-referenced RETURN TO ME pleas. The Bible predicts many Jews will embrace Jesus as The Messiah, by faith, during the tribulation age, BEFORE they see Him in The Millennial Reign age, the 5th age of history. They might comprise most of the converts who will be won to Christ by the anointed 144,000 Jewish witnesses during the tribulation age. I believe these witnesses will not only focus on winning Jews to Christ.

References: Revelation 7:1-8 & 9-17, Revelation 14:1-5

What if it might take these Jews being exposed to both The Lord’s wrath, and that of the anti-Christ regime, to convince them to convert and, in faith, TURN TO THE LORD?? Consider the predicted lessons from Ezekiel 38, when Jews, crammed in Israel, and spilling over into Jordan and Lebanon, will have no other help, no alliances to lean on! 

B. Somewhat similarly, since before, and especially after the Covid pandemic, Christian apostasy has reportedly SPIKED to alarming rates and levels across the world! Paul twice predicted such would occur. During John’s vision on the Island of Patmos, Jesus signaled His strongly negative feelings about, and His promised reactions to Christian lukewarmness: ‘So then, because you [the church at Laodicea] are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.’

References: 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and 1 Timothy 4:1, Revelation 3:14-22

Ponder this: Since that was His reaction to lukewarmness, and because He does not change, that remains His reaction to lukewarmness, imagine His reaction to outright APOSTASY! Caveat!!!

What if many of these former 3rd age Christians (a) will survive the pending transition to the next age, (the tribulation age), and (b) will miss The Lord’s next, age-ending resurrection and rapture event at the end of this current (3rd) age?? 

What if, like the Jews noted above, it might take these former Christian’s being exposed to His wrath, and the wrath of the anti-Christ regime, to convince them to RETURN TO HIM??!

If so, VOILA!

The gates of hell will not prevail

against The Lord’s church!

(Matthew 16:18)

Conclusion:

The Lord has promised His faithful saints are not appointed to wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 5:9). Christians who believe all 3rd age, faithful saints will not be resurrected and raptured until the end of the great tribulation might significantly discount this promise. I do not. Yet He promises to say to Israel in The Millennial Reign age:

‘For in My wrath, I struck you,

but in My favor, I have had mercy on you.’

(Isaiah 60:10)

‘I will heal their backsliding/apostasy
I will love them freely…’

(Hosea 14:4)

The parallelisms between ancient and modern Israel, on one hand, and the church, on the other hand, are both wonderfully AND painfully evident. Since Christians are ‘grafted into’ spiritual Israel, can you envision The Lord saying the same thing to former, 3rd age Christians who will be unfaithful to Him at the time of the next, group resurrection/rapture event?? I sure can!  

I recall the story of a shepherd who had an errant sheep. The wise shepherd broke one of the sheep’s hind legs, then quickly bound it up to heal. During the healing process, the sheep stuck amazingly close to the shepherd, and continued to do so long after its leg was fully healed.

So what if the above two scenarios ARE the underlying strategic rationales for Jewish and Gentile Christians in the tribulation age, and especially them being beheaded by the anti-Christ’s regime during the great tribulation, which is the second half of that predicted 7-year age??

Friends, does that possibility move you to redouble your efforts now to help some soul in this 3rd age, to escape reprobation, lukewarmness and outright apostasy? If they don’t, and they survive the next age transition, they might experience the double wrath in the next age! If you may not be so moved, could that possibly be a signal of …….your personal lukewarmness??