The Return of Christ

Luke 21:25-28

The rapture of Christians from the earth begins the tribulation period which lasts for seven years and closes with the return of Christ to the earth called His second coming. The tribulation is called that because it is a period of wrath, judgment, indignation, trial, trouble, destruction, darkness, desolation, and punishment like the world has never seen before. There is not a passage to be found in the Bible to reduce to any degree the severity of this time that shall come upon the earth. This period will witness the wrath of Satan in his animosity against Israel (Rev. 12:12-17) and of his puppet, the Beast against the saints (Rev. 13:7). Rev. 14:7, 19; 15:7 tell us it is not the wrath of Satan but the wrath of God.

God’s purpose for the tribulation is to bring about the conversion of a multitude of Jews (Matt. 24:14, Malachi 4:5-6). Multitudes of Jews and Gentiles will be brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ during the tribulation (Rev. 7:1-9). The second purpose of the tribulation is to pour out judgment on unbelieving man because of his godlessness (Jer. 25:32-33, Isa. 26:21, II Thes. 2:12).

We believe that the period of Tribulation lasts for seven years and ends with the second coming of Christ to set up His millennial kingdom. That will have to be the topic of another discussion.

I have shared this brief explanation with you because I believe it is important that we are aware of what God has revealed to us about the future. It is worthy of further study, but not something that should consume us. We can be thankful that we will not have to live through this tribulation period because Christians will have been called home to heaven by Christ at the time of the rapture. We should be motivated to share our faith with others by realizing that those who do not know the Lord and are living at the time of the rapture will go through this dramatic time of wrath and destruction. We believe that the rapture of Christians is imminent; that is, there is no other prophetic event that needs to take place before it occurs.