When will God Devastate the Earth – and Who will Escape His Righteous Fury?
Down through the ages, the Rapture of the Church has been one of the sustaining and most anticipated events in all of Christendom. Simply put, the Rapture is the singular event when Jesus Christ, at His second coming, will gather His elect from the four corners of planet Earth to meet Him in the sky, as outlined in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
“…is committed to the proclamation of the Gospel and the preparation of God’s people for Christ’s return and the end of the age.
“Zion’s Hope is a Bible-based ministry whose purpose is to proclaim to Jewish and Gentile people throughout the world their need for personal salvation through Jesus, the Messiah of Israel.
“We also have a passion to help Christians increase their knowledge of the prophetic Scriptures and deepen their understanding of the importance of Israel in God’s prophetic plan. To that end, we teach Scripture in historical, geographical, and cultural context to prepare God’s people for end-time events and the return of Jesus Christ.“
Sealed in Christ 
Thank you very much – this is certainly very interesting (and quite NEW to me also.) Please could you comment specifically on Revelation 7 verse 14 where an elder in Heaven says to John “These are the ones (entering Heaven) who have come OUT OF (the) great tribulation” which begs the question in my mind ‘How can they come out of great tribulation, unless they’ve been in it to begin with?’
If I’ve heard this video correctly, I hear you say the ‘Great Tribulation’ begins when the ‘Abomination of desolation’ takes a seat in the rebuilt Temple, claiming to be God, THEN the ‘Wrath of God’ follows later (hope I got that right?) I can’t quite get my head around why the revealing of the Final Antichrist ISN’T considered a part of God’s Wrath, which therefore means i’m still stuck at a “mid-Trib” viewpoint. Sorry to be longwinded, but thanks for trawling through this question and answering it. God bless+++
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Hello Bryan! So sorry for my late reply. We were out of town for the long weekend – it was so nice to have a little normalcy with all that’s been going on. 🙂 Thanks so much for your questions. Please know that I am putting together an answer and I hope to have this out to you today. 🙂 Have a wonderful morning! Dee
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Hello Bryan! Before I begin, please know that I am only featuring these Rapture & Wrath videos, they are not mine. They are the work and property of Zion’s Hope @ ZionsHope.org. That said, I am of the same mind when it comes to the content, which is why I am sharing them.
To your question regarding Revelation 7:14. This verse, I believe, is speaking of all of the Saints from all ages immediately following the rapture of the Church out of the great tribulation, which takes place at the opening of the Sixth Seal.
Notice in Revelation 6:12-17, upon the opening of the Sixth Seal the sun, moon, and stars cease to shine and all those on the earth hide themselves and cry out to the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come”. If you do a cross reference study of Revelation 6:12-13, you will see that this is a reference to the commencement of the Day of the Lord, or the wrath of God. Which is the one thing we have been promised we will not endure.
In Matthew 24 and Luke 17, Jesus compared His coming for the Church with the days of Noah and Lot when they were rescued and judgment was poured out on the very same day. It will be the same when He comes for the Church. We see this pictured in the Sixth Seal. The seal is opened, the Church is removed, and the Day of the Lord begins (as recorded in chapter 8).
Admittedly, the rapture event isn’t recorded during the opening of the Sixth Seal. But we can clearly see that it has happened, by the fact that the Fifth Seal depicts the martyrs, then Revelation chapter 7 begins with the angels still in place after the rapture, ready to seal the 144,000. Suddenly, we see Saints from every tongue, tribe, and nation standing before the throne. All of this is included within the opening of the Sixth Seal. Not only that, Jesus Himself affirms this timeline in Matthew 24:29-31, which we will look at below.
Many refer to these final seven years as the ‘Seven-Year Tribulation’, however this is inaccurate and not at all what the Bible teaches. In Matthew 24:15-22, Jesus calls the events correlating to the first four seals the Beginning of Birth Pains. He goes on to tell us that the Abomination of Desolation begins what He calls the Great Tribulation, which most believe happens at the opening of the Fourth or Fifth Seal and is evidenced by the martyrs under the altar in Revelation 6:9-10. After this, Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:29-31:
“Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
This passage clearly coincides with the events of the Sixth Seal, supporting a Post-Tribulation, Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church that occurs at the Sixth Seal, immediately prior to the beginning of the Day of the Lord, or the wrath of God.
Which brings up your second question.
If the revealing of the final Antichrist is part of God’s wrath, wouldn’t it stand to reason then that God Himself is killing His own Saints who are crying out for justice in the Fifth Seal: “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” Since God’s wrath is poured out by Him, through the angels, and only on the unrighteous, we cannot and should not assume that His wrath begins before the Sixth Seal is opened and the Church is removed to safety.
And this is exactly what we see happening:
In Revelation 8, upon the removal of the church, the Seventh Seal is opened and there is silence in heaven for about half and hour – likely due to the solemnity of what is about to happen. Then the Seven Angels with the Seven Trumpets prepare to sound, bringing upon the earth the beginning of God’s wrath for those who remain.
I hope this has sufficiently answered your questions. I know you’ve asked other questions in Part 2A of this series, which I will answer in that post. God bless!
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Is this a brand new series from them? I could only find 2 videos in the series. (I tend to get impatient☺) Loved both of them.
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You’re not supposed to watch ahead! LOL Yes, only two so far. But the third one is coming! I’m also impatient, I totally get it. 🙂
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I couldnt help myself! Lol 😁
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I don’t blame you.. I did too! So good!!
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The ministry for which I work! Much thanks, Dee!
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Thanks David. I’m a big fan of Zion’s Hope! And I loved Marv’s book, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church. I’ve actually believed in the pre-wrath rapture since before I knew it was a thing, or had a name. Then I read, The Sign by Robert Van Kampen and realized I wasn’t crazy. Or maybe we both were. LOL. Have you read it?
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Hi Dee. I read Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church way back in 1990 when it came out. It really revolutionized my thinking. I have not, however, read The Sign as I was already content with Marv’s explanation. Of course, Robert Van Kampen is the one who convinced Marv of the Pre-Wrath viewpoint, so here at Zion’s Hope we hold him in high regard!
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I read The Sign many years before Marv’s book. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a book by Marv until my friend lent it to me a couple years ago. I like both books, but they are very different in some ways. And one is all you need really, to get the gist of it. God bless!
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