The Rapture And The Great Tribulation
The Rapture. The Great Tribulation. What in
the world are they? Will the Rapture occur before, during, or even after
the Tribulation?
"The Rapture" is, of course, a future event
when Christians living on earth will be caught up in the air with Christ.
They will be transformed, along with Christians who have died, into
sinless immortal men and women. According to the Bible, this event will
occur when "the Lord Himself will come down out of heaven.
The Great Tribulation, as understood by those
who hold the premillenial position is a period of great affliction,
of catastrophe, and even of turmoil which takes place immediately before
the second coming of Christ. Most "premillennialists" believe that it
will be part or all of a seven-year period which is spoken of in Daniel
9.
But when does the Rapture take place? Well,
many of the premillennial persuasion will agree with "Amillennialists"
that the Rapture will occur at the same time as the second coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Most premillennialists of the dispensational
variety, on the other hand, believe that the Rapture will occur at the
beginning of the seven-year period which precedes the Second Coming.
Still, other premillennialists hold modifying positions which place
the Rapture somewhere in the middle of the seven-year period, known
as the "translation."
As you can see, there exists a variety of
views within the Christian community. However, all Christians agree
that during the church age, in varying degrees, the church is going
to experience tribulation, but they also believe the church will be
spared the wrath of God upon an unrepentant and unbelieving world. The
difference is that pretribulationists think this will happen by the
Lord taking the church out of the world before unleashing His wrath
on the earth, whereas posttribulationists think it will happen by God
supernaturally sparing Christians on the earth while God's wrath rains
down on the wicked. Either way, the blessed hope of the church is in
the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which will bring an end to
temporary tribulations and to bring us into our eternal inheritance.
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