Search

Fragen und Antworten zum christlichen Glauben

Thema 3: Die Offenbarung

3-9. Which one is right: pre-tribulation rapture, or post-tribulation rapture? Would the saints still be on this earth during the Great Tribulation?

Looking at the history of Christianity, we can see that a countless number of liars have risen till the present time. Interpreting the Book of Revelation and calculating the time of rapture with their own methods, these liars have set a particular date as the day of rapture and used to teach that the Lord would return and the saints would be raptured on this day of their choosing. 
However, all such claims ended up as a dud. One characteristic common to all of them is that across the board, they all advocated the theory of pre-tribulation rapture. Saying to their followers that their worldly possessions would serve no use at all since they are all to be raptured and lifted up to the air before the Great Tribulation, these liars deceived many people and robbed them of their material possessions. 
We must realize that this is Satan’s shrewd trickery, trying to deceive all the people of this world and turn them into his servants through these liars.
What is the most important to the saints, and what they are most curious about, is the question of when the rapture of the saints would come. Revelation 10:7 tells us, “but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” What does it mean when it says here, “the mystery of God would be finished”? “The mystery of God” refers to none other than the rapture of the saints.
After the sixth of the plagues of God’s seven trumpets ends, the Antichrist emerges on this earth, rules over the world, and demands everyone to receive the mark of the Beast. From his persecution, the saints are martyred. This is shortly followed by the sounding of the seventh trumpet, at which point both the martyred saints and the surviving saints who defended their faith are resurrected and raptured. 
When the seventh trumpet sounds, God does not bring a plague to this earth; but rather, this is the time when the rapture of the saints occurs. Following the rapture, God immediately proceeds to pour the plagues of the seven bowls on this earth. As such, when the time of the plagues of God’s seven bowls comes, the saints are not found on this earth, but rather in the air with the Lord. We must all realize that the rapture of the saints comes when the seventh angel sounds the last trumpet.
However, even now many Christians still continue to believe in the theory of pre-tribulation rapture. Because their faith is not prepared for the coming of natural disasters and the emergence of the Antichrist, they would ultimately lose their spiritual war against Satan and the Antichrist, turn into their servants, and be destroyed along with the world.
The first three and a half years of the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation are the time of the plagues of the seven trumpets, when this earth is ravaged by natural disasters. A third of the sun and a third of the stars would be darkened; a third of this earth’s forests would be burnt down; a third of the sea would turn into blood, killing a third of its life forms; meteors would fall from the sky, turning a third of water into wormwood; and many people, as a result, would die from all these. The world would fall into chaos from these plagues, with nations rising against nations, states against states, and war breaking out incessantly everywhere. 
As such, when the Antichrist emerges and resolves all these problems in such chaotic circumstances, many people would follow him, and thereby bring the most terrifying plague on this earth.
This world will therefore see the rise of a politically integrated international organization, a management system that pursues the common interests of the nations. This internationally united state will fall into Satan’s hands with the emergence of the Antichrist, and turn into a state that stands against God and His saints. The ruler of this internationally united state would control and reign over all nations, and ultimately work as the Antichrist. He, who works with the power of Satan, is the enemy of God and a servant of the Devil. 
The Antichrist now reveals his true color, forbidding people from believing in the true God and forcing people to worship himself as God instead. For this, he would perform many signs before them, resolve the world’s intractable and chaotic state of affairs single-handedly with the power of Satan, and thereby capture everyone’s heart. 
In the end, he would make idols after his image and demand people to worship it as God. And to put everyone under his control in this time of tribulations, he would force people to receive his mark on either their right hands or foreheads, and forbid all those who do not have this mark from trading. He would also kill all those who refuse to worship him, no matter how many they might be. As such, everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life would all end up receiving the mark and worshipping the Beast.
However, the saints will neither surrender to the Antichrist nor receive his mark. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in their hearts, no one but the Almighty God can ever be the object of their worship and their Lord. The saints will therefore refuse to worship Satan and the Antichrist and to become their servants, instead be martyred with their faith, and thereby overcome them. 
As Revelation 13:10 tells us, “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” When the Antichrist makes his appearance and forces people to receive his mark, the first three and a half years of the Great Tribulation would have passed, and the second three and a half years would have begun. This is when the saints would be persecuted by the Antichrist and be martyred. 
But the Antichrist’s seizing of power and his persecution of the saints are permitted by God for only a very short while, for the Lord would shorten the time of tribulation for His saints. At this time, the saints would give glory to God by fighting against the Antichrist to defend their faith and overcoming him with their martyrdom.
After going through the first three and a half years of the Great Tribulation, the born-again saints are to remain on this earth until the time of their martyrdom when the second half of the Tribulation begins. They must therefore fight against Satan and the Antichrist and overcome them with their faith. This is why Revelation tells us that God would give Heaven to those who overcome. As such, before the first three and a half years of the Great Tribulation pass by and the Antichrist emerges, the saints must have their faith nurtured within God’s Church, in the protection and guidance of our Lord.
People must therefore be freed from this false doctrine of Satan widespread in Christian communities, called the theory of pre-tribulation rapture, and by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit now, they must all receive the remission of their sins, be born again, and join God’s Church. Only then would their faith be nourished through God’s Church for the first three and a half years of the Great Tribulation, and only then would they be able to have the kind of faith with which they can fight against the Antichrist and embrace their martyrdom when the time of the extreme tribulation comes.