All through the centuries of Christian persecution, the torture, the horrible deaths by burning and killing, can you honestly look into their faces and tell them the persecution you've gone through? The material things, no starvation, no depredation of any sort. The access to medicine, hospitals the outright enjoyment of life. You can look those people in the face and tell them how bad you had it? I would rather suffer through the anti-Christ and all it entails and be able to hold my head high and say "Yes, I've suffered as you have" - not enjoy what I have now on earth and say that I've suffered as you have.
On the other hand, the biblical teaching of the first resurrection is more straightforward. On the day Christ returns to earth to establish His Kingdom, the dead in Christ will rise first, and those who are alive and converted will follow. They will meet Him in the air and immediately return to earth as a vast army of spirit beings to defeat the Beast and False Prophet in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Revelation 19:14; Joel 3:1-2; Zechariah 14:1-5).
We who live in the USA in modern times, will never know the persecution of our belief, like those from past centuries....
We do not know what it is like to be a Martyr and killed for our belief in this country...
GOD IMO looks at *Us* in this country in how we help other’s in those persecuted countries.....
Lastly:
With the millions of Christians all over the planet, how is GOD going to pour his wrath on the world??
144K are the ones to preach the Gospel after the Rapture of the Church....
The seven-year Tribulation is a specific event; a judgment on this world that is controlled by and sent by God.
Christians will have tribulations but we will not go through the God-sent judgment known as the Tribulation.
OK how can you reconcile the fact that in The Bible in Daniel ch 12 we are told the very day Christ is to return? If we're here we'll have 7 years warning actually. We would know because The Bible says so. Those are literal days not symbolic ones that represent weeks months etc.
If the believers and dead in Christ all being The Bride are called up with His Shout from the heavens those who would know scripture are no longer here or would be blinded to it. Still no one would know the day or hour because they did not believe. Yes some who are left here will come through the Tribulations a small number likely.
When Noah went into the Ark people were being given in marriage till that very day. Marriages in The Biblical accounts are festive events lasting days. Times of joy and happiness and celebration. In the Great Tribulation weddings won't likely be happening most likely but rather a focus on survival.
GOD called Noah out and into the Ark before passing judgment. He called Israel out of Egypt before passing judgment. He called Lot before that out of Soddom and Gomorrah simply for Abrahams sake. Why doubt Christ will call out His Bride The Church? Yes if we are indeed intended to remain and live through it He will still be with us. But will His Bride face the Judgement upon earth in the Tribulations?
The percicuted you speak of will indeed be rewarded in heaven. Now remember the parable Christ told of the man who hired workers and paid them all the same paying the man he hired last first and the man he hired first he paid last the same wages? What was the answer? The workers who were hired first thought it unfair right?
Matt ch 20
13“He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14Take it and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be angry because I am kind?’ 16“And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then.”
One event ignored by most churches likely set the irreversible terminal clock and picked the generation to see Christ Return. May 11, 1949 is likely the most prophetic day in history since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Israel reborn in a day and recognized as a nation by the world. Those who are old enough to see it may well be the last generation or rather meaning their generation shall not pass until all prophecy is fulfilled.
The next event might be the Temple construction in a physical sense or that may be a spiritual revival in Israel to worship The GOD of Abraham followed afterward by a demand from Islamic nations forcing the worship of Islam upon Israel.
Israel's signing of the treaty with the antichrist which our leaders have been so bent on obtaining and the last several presidents almost forcing Israel to sign the wretched treaty starting with Carter IIRC will start the final clock and from that point you know the very day.
There is every reason to think Christ will call out His Bride on the command of His Father before the tribulations begin.