With all respects, Bob, RE: your post 69, the History Channel is not the place you should go to get to the bottom line on this issue.
True, God’s people are not appointed to God’s wrath, but tribulation from men is not God’s wrath. God’s people have had to endure persecution from men all along. Read Acts, Paul was persecuted by the Jews at every step. Was it the wrath of God? Of course not, likewise the persecutions by the pagans and the Papists.
The tribulation is not the wrath of God, the wrath of God is poured out on the ungodly at the end of the tribulation...and on those who have taken the mark of the beast. Hence, if you do take the mark, having been deceived by the pretrib rapture doctrine, you will not be the “God’s people” you were referring to.
God’s people are people of truth above all, the pretrib rapture is not the truth, but a damnable lie.
[[With all respects, Bob, RE: your post 69, the History Channel is not the place you should go to get to the bottom line on this issue.]]
I donb’t go there for biblical insight- I sinmply said they weren’t too far off from actual biblical texts- and it was interesting to see a visual of how things ‘could be’ during the tribulation- that’s all
[[The tribulation is not the wrath of God, the wrath of God is poured out on the ungodly at the end of the tribulation...]]
The wrath is unleashed during all the seals- not just after the sixth is broken- there are two schools of thought here- one beign that the seals up until the 6’th are the ‘wrath of the lamb’ then specifically become the wrath of God after that- God will use the persecution by Satan as judgement on the people,.
The tribulation begins after the hurch is caught up- Israel is the one that will undergo the ‘refining’ during that period according to some- it is the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’- when they “Pass under the Rod; “ Eze 26:34 - In Eze. 22:19-21 we see God bringing them into a ‘metling pot’ to ‘refine them’ during this time because the strayed from Him all these years
The wrath of the lamb is set upon the earth’s inhabitants from the first seal onward- and this happens during the tribulation- or rather is the tribulation period- The whole perios is judgement and wrath- which God states we will be spared from because we are not under His wrath
I’ll respond more tonight- too tired right now to think-
I’ve gone back and forth over whether the church will have to endure the tribulation, and heard from many fine teachers both pro and con- Both sides have compelling arguments, however I believe pretrib wins the day with a bit stronger evidence In the end