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.
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...
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...
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).
"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).
... and the dead without coming into contact with that which exists in between. What is both present and absent looms like the messiah in every moment and yet no moment in particular. There is constantly something “out of joint” as well as constant human struggle to ameliorate the disjointure. Be it attempting to segment time or the allocation of rights and laws to achieve justice, that which exists in a disjointure cannot have a definite deconstruction. As such, the messianic cannot be constrained into something with definitive definitions of time or justice. The makeup of the messianic and of our existence allows for the coming of an untouchable and unknown other. The messianic signifies our existence as constant waiting. It is a waiting and never ending acceptance of a future that can never be confined by the meanings we bring to thrust upon that conceivable future.
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...
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
At the Rapture, we, the believers, will meet Jesus in the air. During the Rapture, Jesus will call for all of the believers who have died, give them glorified bodies, and take them from the Earth along with all of the believers who are still alive. The apostle Paul describes the ordering of this snatching away event in 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV, "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. After that, we who are alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we shall be with the Lord forever." Paul goes on to further describe the timing of this sequential, rapturous event in 1Corinthians 15:51–52 NIV as being instantaneous, "Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." The Rapture is nothing you should fear, rather God wants us to "encourage each other with these words," as we are told in 1Thessalonians 4:18
...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!
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
Verstraeten, J. Scrutinising the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007.
No other book of the Bible and its interpretation is more controversial than the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation, written by John, is the last book in the New Testament and perhaps the most important book of the Bible. Revelation enforces the importance of faith and obedience to the concept of Christianity by describing God’s plan for the world and his final judgment of the people. Revelation answers the question of what the future holds for this planet and its inhabitants. While it is a sobering reality for those who have fallen astray, it can be a great comfort for believers. The book of Revelation is somewhat troubling to read because it is a forecast of God’s wrath upon humanity, and it is filled with warnings to the church to remain loyal and obedient so that they may avoid eternal damnation. Most other books in the Bible are concerned with teaching the church how to live in such a way that we will be at home in the New Jerusalem. The book of Revelation, however, tells the church why it is important to live according to God’s will in hopes that the church will be on the favorable side of God’s judgment.