The Church in Tribulation – Why?

In past two segments we have discussed rapture and chronology of Revelation and other accounts of end times, showing chronology of events. We have discussed importance of two witnesses. We have clearly shown that although church will be persecuted, it will not suffer any judgment or wrath of God. This is an extremely important distinction for those with a pre-trib rapture position. The timeline is clear. But question remains, why is this important to God? Why put us through it? What does it accomplish? In Revelation 1 Apostle John tells us what book of Revelation is: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to word of God, and to testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for time is near…for Word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 1:1,9) The Book of Revelation is all about testimony of Jesus Christ! So what is His testimony? Let’s read on… · Revelation 6:9 says, “I saw under altar souls of those who had been slain for word of God and for testimony which they held.”

The Rapture Question?

The relevance of prophecy to Christians in these days rests on their view of rapture. Whether consciously or not, a person who believes they will rapture before Tribulation, will probably not be that concerned with prophecy or events that are going to take place during Tribulation. I don’t mean to paint with a broad brush and say that ALL Christians will feel this way, but certainly most will. The fact that a fourth to a half of Bible deals with end times prophecy doesn’t seem to mean much in churches today where it is highly unlikely you will hear a message on subject. Action follows belief and vice versa. If you strongly believe you will be gone, you are not likely to be concerned or do anything about it.

The teaching of pre-tribulation rapture has Lord coming for church in a “secret” rapture prior to tribulation and then coming with saints at end of tribulation where they meet up with new saints that have been saved and martyred. The arguments for this position are not based on clear teaching of Word but supposition or what scripture calls “private interpretation”. I’m not going to go into great detail. There are many excellent works on subject by authors such as Dave MacPherson, Marvin Rosenthal, Robert Van Kampen and others that deal with all of arguments pro and con for those who want to study issue in detail.