What About The Church?
View daily reading plan: 1 Thessalonians 5.1-11
Will the church go through the Great Tribulation? This question has troubled some people but the answer to the question is No. Christians will not even go into it. Here are just a few of the reasons, based on Scripture itself.
The descriptions of the Great Tribulation are all within a Jewish context. It is called “the time of Jacob’s trouble” in Jeremiah 30.7. In Daniel 9.24 the 70 weeks of years are for God’s dealings in judgement with Daniel’s nation, Israel.
In 1 Thessalonians 1.10 we read that those who “turned to God from idols” are waiting for “His Son … Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath.” (JND) This is not the punishment of hell but the tribulation wrath of God on earth (see Revelation 6.16-17). in 1 Thessalonians 5. 3 it is made clear that the “sudden destruction” of the Day of the Lord (v.2) will come upon “them” not “us”. We read in v.9 that “God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ”.
In the description of the Lord’s coming in 1 Thessalonians 4 those who are to be raptured are those who “believe that Jesus died and rose again” (v.14). 1 Thessalonians 3.13 tells of the Lord Jesus Christ “coming with all His saints”. We cannot come with Him out of heaven before He has come to take us there.
Friday, 14 June, 2024