The tribulation is an eschatological event where the wrath of God will be poured out upon the earth. The Bible, in many areas, describes what the tribulation will bring. Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, told His disciples that at the end of the age, “there will be wars and rumors of war, nations will rise against nations, and famines and earthquakes will happen in various places” (Matt. 24:6-7). In Revelation, the seven bowls of wrath from God will be poured out on all the people. Those on earth will have to suffer through painful afflictions (Rev. 16:2), the seas turning to blood (Rev. 16:3), and earthquakes destroying cities (Rev. 16:18). These traumatic events show how great the suffering will be in the tribulation, near the time of the Lord’s second coming. This great suffering will be brought upon those who have not sought God for repentance for their sin (Rev. 16:10). However, will God allow those who have been faithful to Him suffer through these terrible events, or will He save them from the tribulation? There are three main views scholars hold and they deal with the role Christians will have in the tribulation. Pretribulationism, Midtribulationism, and Posttribulationism each show when the church will be raptured from the earth. Some Factors that contribute to each of these views are the immanence of Christ, the nature of judgments brought upon the earth, and the textual evidence for church’s presence in the tribulation. The focus of the paper will be to examine each view, highlight the aspects of each, and then conclude which view best aligns with scripture and is the most preferred out of the three.
Pretribulationism is the rapture view that is defined as, “A belief which teaches that Christ will come to r...
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...know, in Midtribulationism, that the Lord will return for them at the halfway point of the tribulation. This ability to date Christ’s return removes the doctrine of immanency within this tribulation view. Immanency has the characteristic of being unable to date or expect Christ’s return. Within Midtribulationism and Posttribulationism, there are moments, like the beginning of the tribulation provide a point of reference where time can be measured in determining when the event of Christ’s return will take place. A Midtribulationist would argue that Pretribulationists provide the possibility of dating Christ’s second coming by measuring seven years beyond the rapture of the Church. A Midtribulationist would see the first 3 ½ years of the tribulation as subtle compared to the second half where God’s wrath will be apparent due to the events that will take place.
LaHaye, Tim, and Ed Hindson. The Popular Encyclopedia of Bible Prophecy. Eugene, OR.: Harvest House Publishers, 2004.
The Merriam-Websters dictionary defined tribulation as distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; also: a try experience, the trials, and tribulations of starting a new business. Leaders must expect tribulation; challenges, complexities, and downright “ugly” situation, they will often find that
Martyn, J. Louis. "The Apocalyptic Gospel in Galatians." Interpretation 54.3 (2000). 09 Jun. 2002 http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/tel_a/mmcwml.
To gain a clearer understanding of the tenets of dispensational eschatology, it is necessary to investigate the main non-dispensational perspective, covenantalism. In discussing the foundational differences between dispensational and non-dispensational eschatological system, Dr. Dan Mitchell suggests the main contrast lies in the hermeneutical methodologies each maintains. Covenantalism views prophetic revelation deductively by first regarding the fulfillment of the prophecy and then retroactively constructing how the prophecy was fulfilled. Specifically, covenant eschatological interprets Old Testament prophecies through the lens of a New Testament Christocentric perspective which dictates that all prophecies be fulfilled in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the church. This forced hermeneutical perspective requires a great deal of allegorizing of the prophecies for it to maintain any semblance of cohesion. Dwight Pentecost described this overly allegorized method as “interpreting a literary text that regards the literal sense as the vehicle for a secondary, more spiritual and more profound sense.” The...
The book’s second section is labeled the plan of salvation, and it contains chapters two through four. Section two deals with the decrees of God, which is the decisions God made before creation concerning salvation (19). In chapter two, the author expounds on the Calvinistic view, which dealt with the concept of God, man, and salvation (21-23). The author also defines predestination in the positive, which is the “election to salvation”, and the negative, which is the “by- passing of regenerating” (27-31).
Everyone has his own sentiment of when he thinks the world will end some said it would happen at the turn of the millennium but it didn’t, others have hypothesized random dates throughout history But none have come true as to date. Jesus teaches that many calamities will mark the Second Coming and the Apocalypse. Kevin Knight writes in an article for New Advent and in it he says, “They are meant to foreshadow not to tell the day or the time, and will include. 1) The General Preaching of the Christian Religion. 2) The Conversion of the Jews. 3) The Return of Enoch and Elijah. 4) A Great Apostasy or revolt against the Catholic Faith. 5) The Reign of Antichrist who will be a powerful adversary of Christ. He will seduce the nations by his wonders, and persecute the Church. 6) Extraordinary Perturbations of Nature. 7) The Universal Conflagration. 8) The Trumpets of Resurrection will awaken the dead to resurrection. 9) The sign of the Son of Man Appearing in Heaven or in a wonderful cross of light.”
In addition, almost all of the world’s religions refer to an Armageddon in one form or an...
"This famous prophecy provides the foundation and the core of the central theological teaching of the New Testament," said The Collegeville Bible Commentary on the Old Testament. "It underlies, but without explicit references, much of the 'new life' theology of St. John and is central to the teaching of Jesus in John's Last Supper discourse." (Collegeville 469).
Brooks and A.J Gordon (Balmer 34). Dispensationalism has been gaining followers for many years and its popularity can be seen in many places, such as in the Left Behind series which has captured the minds of many people around the world (Pagels 1). Now with historical context in mind, it is time to see what Dispensationalism teaches. Dispensationalism has three distinct characteristics: Rapture of Christians, Millennium Rule of Christ, and the Unfulfilled Prophecies of the Bible. For the purpose of this paper they will all be examined separately. The Rapture is the belief that Christians will be brought up and not have to endure the Tribulation (Robinson). The term “rapture” does not occur in the Bible but instead comes from a Latinized version of the word arpadzo which comes from “caught up” (Witherington 94). The belief in the Rapture for Dispensationalists is based on 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17 which they claim describes an event where living Christians return to heaven with Christ (Robinson). Secondly, the Millennium Rule is the belief that Jesus Christ will literally rule over earth for 1,000 years after the Tribulation (Robinson). The key here is that (as opposed to the Post-Millennial views) the believers have no part in setting up his reign
I had multiple preconceptions about this article and the book of Revelation. Before reading the book I just thought of it as strictly apocalyptic. In church that...
The word “rapture” does not appear in the Bible. However, the concept of a rapture event or a snatching away taking place is clearly taught in the Scriptures. I will show you why the Rapture is an event that we, as believers, should be anticipating and watching for, as it parallels that of an ancient Jewish bride waiting for her bridegroom's return for her. The Rapture of the church will be the event in which Jesus will remove the church from the Earth before God pours out His impending judgment of great tribulation. The Rapture is not to be confused with the Second Coming! At the time of the Rapture, Jesus will only appear in the clouds to summon for the removal of His bride, the church. It is described in the Bible as being an imminent event,
...es for the thousand year stage. Whether it begin after the resurrection or after the second coming. Instead the postmillennialists will, in my thoughts, take the idiot proof view. They believe that when Christ returns the thousand years is over, then subtract a thousand years and you'll find when the time started. Well duh!
Verstraeten, J. Scrutinising the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007.
The first two parts of the book discuss the kind of theological-historical perspective and ecclesial situation that determines the form-content configuration of Revelation. The first section attempts to assess the theological commonality to and differences from Jewish apocalypticism. Fiorenza focuses of the problem that although Revelation claims to be a genuinely Christian book and has found its way into the Christian canon, it is often judged to be more Jewish than Christian and not to have achieved the “heights” of genuinely early Christian theology. In the second part of the book, Fiorenza seeks to assess whether and how much Revelation shares in the theological structure of the Fourth Gospel. Fiorenza proposes that a careful analysis of Revelation would suggest that Pauline, Johannine, and Christian apocalyptic-prophetic traditions and circles interacted with each other at the end of the first century C.E in Asia Minor. She charts in the book the structural-theological similarities and differences between the response of Paul and that of Revelation to the “realized eschatology”. She argues that the author of Revelation attempts to correct the “realized eschatology” implications of the early Christian tradition with an emphasis on a futuristic apocalyptic understanding of salvation. Fiorenza draws the conclusion that Revelation and its author belong neither to the Johannine nor to the Pauline school, but point to prophetic-apocalyptic traditions in Asia Minor.
The term millennium does not appear anywhere in Scripture. The idea originated from a thousand year period of time that characterizes the reign of the Messiah. In fact, the phrase “thousand years” is stated six times in Revelation 20. There are three main schools of thought based upon one’s view of the thousand-year reign of Christ. These views are: Amillennial, Postmillennial and Premillennial. Over the centuries these prophetic differences have caused conflict within the body of Christ and are still currently widely debated. Instead of the book of Revelation being the basis of comfort (1 Thess. 4:18) among Christians it has become a bone of contention. However, this controversy should not deter Christ’s disciples from receiving the blessings that Revelation has to offer (Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). Rather, one should study prophecy under the Spirit’s guidance and look at the data provided within the full context of the Word assessing each of the views for correct motives and presuppositions. Therefore, this paper will examine the nature, timing, and duration of the millennium as well as the occupants of the millennial kingdom and the relationship of Israel and the Church to the millennial kingdom. The aim of this paper is to address “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV).