“There’s s huge difference between the Great Tribulation when it comes and what we face as tribulation while on earth...”
Well, there is certainly a great difference in degree, but Jesus still specifically chose that word to describe the period, when He could have easily chosen a word that meant “wrath” if that is what He wanted to say.
We are still in the period of Grace...yet The Bible teaches that God is perfectly holy. Because of this attribute of His character, He cannot tolerate sin and God must deal with sin, and He does so in one of two ways — either grace or wrath.
(John the Baptist spoke..... “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but ‘the wrath’ of God abides on him”. John 3:36 .....and Paul stated ...“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).)
His wrath against evil will demonstrate His righteousness.....As is written...”A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies.”.....” The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished…Nahum 1:2-3
God demonstrates His mercy in wrath by never pouring out His wrath ‘without warning’.. He tried to warn Sodom and Gomorrah through Abraham.. He warned Noah’s world through the preaching of Noah for 120 years.... He sent both Jonah and Nahum to warn the pagan city of Nineveh.
This characteristic of God’s wrath is demonstrated in the prophecies concerning the Tribulation. Rather than simply pouring out His wrath on the rebellious nations of the world, destroying them in one instant of overwhelming catastrophe, He subjects the world to a series of judgments that sequentially increase in scope and intensity... (Revelation 6,8-9,16).
...different responses to the wrath of God illustrate the point that is often made by Billy Graham: “The same sun that melts the butter also hardens the clay.” The wrath of God melts some hearts in repentance, but it has the effect of hardening the hearts of many others....
Malachi says that when the Lord returns, the day will be “like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff” (Malachi 4:1). That’s the bad news.
But consider the good news: “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall” (Malachi 4:2).