Will the Church Go Through the Tribulation? (Part 2)
By Larry W. Cockerham
In the last article, we looked at some direct statements concerning the absence of the church during the Tribulation period. In this section, we will focus on some indirect declarations.
From the Book of Romans to Philemon the Tribulation is not mentioned even once. It would seem that something so important as seven years of hell on earth would be part of Paul’s teachings to the church if it was to pass through this time. Yet there is not one word of instruction or warning. Such an important time would be front and center of Paul’s teachings.
In Revelation 1:19, John states: “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” Here John is giving us the key to the book of Revelation. The “things which thou hast seen” (past), concerns the vision of the glorified Christ seen standing in the midst of the golden candlesticks in the first chapter.
Next “the things which are” (present), relates to chapters two and three, the whole of the church age. The church of Ephesus begins the church age and the church of Laodicea ends the age with the church being caught up into the air to meet the Lord.
And, last, “the things which shall be hereafter” (future), takes into account the seven-year tribulation, the millennium, and the new heaven and new earth. Nowhere from chapters six to chapter nineteen is the word “church” or “churches” mentioned. It is only in Revelation chapter twenty-two is the church mentioned: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Other than the marriage of the lamb in Revelation nineteen, the church is not mentioned anywhere beyond chapters two and three.
In Revelation four, John begins the chapter by stating: “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” John, in this verse, becomes a type of the church being taken up prior to the beginning of the tribulation period.
Hal Lindsey once asked the definitive question when he stated that if the church is raptured at the end of the tribulation, then who will populate the millennial kingdom in their mortal bodies? If the church is raptured at the return of Christ at the end of the tribulation, then the saints will be in their resurrection bodies. The wicked will be destroyed according to Matthew 25:46: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
The scriptures state that those individuals who are saved at the end of the tribulation period will enter the millennial kingdom in their mortal bodies. Children will be born during this time and some will die before the end of the one-thousand-year period. This will not be the case for the resurrected saints.
Paul also states in First Thessalonians chapter four: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18). What comfort would we have if we were facing seven years of unprecedented judgments that take place during the time period described in the Book of Revelation?
There are many other reasons that the church will not go through the seven-year period of tribulation in Revelation chapters six through nineteen. John Walvoord states over fifty reasons in his book, The Rapture Question.
The main reason for the church’s absence is because there is a different two-fold purpose for the tribulation: the repentance of the Jewish nation in preparation of the coming of their Messiah and the punishment of the Christ rejecting nations.
