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It is better to rely on the explicit teaching of the Bible than all of the most brilliant arguments of people. The last generation of church-age believers will face the Antichrist.

I John 2:18 NKJV
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.

The Church has faced...

-deceivers
-wars
-famines
-diseases
-natural disasters
-persecutions
-antichrists

These are the part of Daniel’s 70th week that the church will face. They are the specific signs Christ gave us of His imminent return. Only when these things all come to pass, will He return.

The revealing of the Antichrist at the abomination of desolation comes BEFORE the Day of the Lord:

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 NKJV
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Elijah comes BEFORE the Day of the Lord:

Malachi 4:5 NKJV
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

The signs in the heavens which include a simultaneous solar and lunar eclipse, and earth-shattering meteors forcing everyone underground comes BEFORE the Day of the Lord:

Joel 2:31 NKJV
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

But this comes AFTER the Great Tribulation:

Matthew 24:29-30 NKJV
Immediately after the tribulation 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 the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

The Day of the Lord is bookended by two events: the rapture and Christ’s return to the earth. Between these two events God’s wrath will be poured out on the earth. It will be the literal end of the world.

The Day of the Lord = the second coming of Christ. They are the same exact thing:

Matthew 24:42-43 NKJV
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 NKJV
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

2 Peter 3:10 NKJV
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Revelation 16:15 NKJV
Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

There is confusion made between the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. Read the Matthew 24 passage above (as well as the other accounts of the Olivet Discourse and the passage in Revelation 6 that speaks of the same signs). The Great Tribulation and “beginning of sorrows” contain the signs of Christ’s imminent return. The solar and lunar eclipse I pointed out clearly comes AFTER the Great Tribulation but BEFORE the Day of the Lord. This solidifies the sequences of events. The judgment by fire by the holy angels FOLLOWS the rapture in ALL of these passages. See 1 Thessalonians 1 for more.

The Day of the Lord will include the global destruction of the world by fire. It is similar to the flood of Noah in scope, but similar to the judgment of Sodom in means.

Church-age believers will NOT experience the Day of Wrath because it will be a Day of Salvation and Day of Christ, having been rescued from the earth following the cataclysmic events of the heavenly signs marking the end of the Great Tribulation. But believers who live until the final generation will face the Antichrist. Many will die, and many will survive until the rapture.

Revelation 12:11 NKJV
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Daniel 11:32-35 NKJV
Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many; yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering. Now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help; but many shall join with them by intrigue. And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify them, and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time.

The assertion that Christians must be gone from the earth during Antichrist’s reign, because of the scope of his power and control, ignores many scriptures that tell us otherwise. Do not be deceived and lulled to sleep in thinking that the rapture will come before ANY of the bad stuff of prophecy happens. Otherwise you may find yourself unprepared for the reality of what God forewarned us will certainly come to pass. Christ and Paul both earnestly warned not to be led astray and deceived with such “vain words”. OVER and OVER and OVER Christ warns to be prepared for these things.

Luke 21:34-35 NKJV
But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.