This world gets crazier by the day, so who doesn’t need to find some words that are comforting to us? The best source for those is God’s word, the Bible. It was written by God himself, and written down by men as the Holy Spirit guided them.

Let’s look into the “end times” (eschatology) and see what we find. There is much written about the Day of the Lord, which describes the end of the “Church Age” that we are now in. I hope that you will read and study the book of Revelation, which is the uncovering or revealing of Christ Jesus, and we are promised a special blessing for reading it.

There are many viewpoints about the timing of events of the end of the age. Christians agree that Jesus is coming back, but disagree about when, and that event’s timing in relation to the rapture, the Millenium, etc. Professionals who studied at liberal seminaries generally have views that differ from those who studied at conservative ones. A pastor from the former may, for instance, regard all of the dates in Revelation as allegories and not as being literal, since there is a lot of allegory in that book.

My view is that the Bible means just what it says, and should be taken literally unless there is clear evidence otherwise. Some believe that the Tribulation has already begun, but will get much worse. But, the Tribulation is said to last for seven years, with the second 3 1/2 years being the Great Tribulation. Some believe that we Christians will go through it. I will give you my view which I believe fits the scriptures and is comforting!

Personally, I don’t believe that the idea of us going through the Tribulation is at all comforting! Look at I Thessalonians 4:16-18. These are words to comfort us, and they describe the Rapture (see also Matthew 24:36-44) and it fits perfectly with the pattern of the Jewish wedding ceremony where the Groom (Jesus) appears suddenly to snatch away his bride (us, the church), and take her away to spend a week (7 years) at his father’s house (Heaven) where he has built a place for her.

Some who believe that we are in the Tribulation now say that we are facing trials and tribulation, but these are from other people not from God. We have not been appointed to God’s wrath. (I Thessalonians 5:9) God’s wrath is so much more severe than any from men! If we go through the Tribulation it makes no sense that God would protect us through those seven years while all of the thousands of new Christians who refuse to take the mark of the beast have their heads cut off around us (Revelation 20:4). Not very comforting!

Jesus himself promises that we will not go through the Tribulation. In Revelation 3:10 he says, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.” The hour of trial refers to the Tribulation. (the “hour” here is not literal, as the Tribulation is said to last for seven years.) He promises to keep us “from” it, not “through” it.

The Rapture is the prelude to the Tribulation because when we Christians depart from the earth the Restrainer, the Holy Spirit, is removed, which opens the gate for the Antichrist to appear on the scene and for the Beast System to be enacted in full. That system is already here today in the form of the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, the UN, and others. Large populations are under surveillance by their governments and are punished for resisting the official narrative. This is true even in Canada today.

God’s word promises that at the end of the seven years of tribulation Jesus will return (the Second Coming, Matthew 24:29,30) to the Mount of Olives from which He ascended in the same manner, and will set up the thousand year reign from Jerusalem, the Millenium. At the end of that period of time the Battle of Armageddon takes place, this earth is “melted away”, and the New Jerusalem, our new home, comes down. (Revelation 21:1)