The Church Does Not Enter The Tribulation – Reasons That Prove It – Part 4 Of 4 Series

THE CHURCH DOES NOT ENTER THE TRIBULATION – REASONS THAT PROVE IT – PART 4 OF 4

Earlier back I wrote a three Part series on this subject that is on SermonCentral in the Series on “ESCHATOLOGY, RAPTURE, BIBLE PROPHECY and CURRENT AFFAIRS”. I thought that was the end, but some more thoughts occurred to me, and a couple of readers mentioned a bit extra. Consequently I have written a Part 4 in this series. We carry on from Part 3.

[16]. THE DAY OF THE LORD REGARDING THE THIEF

A reader has asked me about a Thessalonians passage so we return to Thessalonians. {{1Thessalonians 5:4 “but you, brethren, are not in darkness, THAT THE DAY should overtake you like a THIEF.”}} Paul assures his readers, the saints at Thessalonica, that that terrible day (the Day of the LORD), [“that the day”] will not break upon them like a marauding thief, and he tells them why. They do not belong to the darkness. That is so definite. We are sons of light, not of darkness. Light has nothing to do with darkness. The thief belongs to the night, to the darkness of the world.

Part of what I said to that reader is this:-

“We need to look at one other reference to the thief – {{Matthew 24:43 "but be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into."}} In the context of that verse we have two in a field and two at a mill, one taken and one left. The whole of Matthew 24 is in the Tribulation and Second Coming. None of it is referencing the Rapture. None of it is in our age; it is all post-Rapture = Tribulation. Jesus comes as a thief and the reference is to the Second Coming. The world is in darkness and the thief image is an apt one. The thief comes when unexpected and Jesus will come in judgement when not expected. This has nothing to do with the Rapture.”

What Paul means when he says – {{“but you, brethren, are not in darkness, THAT THE DAY should overtake you like a thief.”}} is that we just won't be here, for the thief's coming to affect us. The Day of the LORD comes as a shock and lasts for 7 years. When the Rapture happens, it will be a shock to the world but not to the Lord's own. The Day of the LORD is not for Christians/the Church. The Church can not enter the Tribulation, a time of God’s wrath against the accumulated sins of the world, and against unrepentant inhabitants. There is no way the Church is connected with that.

Peter qualifies it even more – {{2Peter 3:10 “but THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL COME LIKE A THIEF in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”}}

Peter is not a prophecy teacher like Paul but knew all about it. He speaks of the Day of the LORD in a general sense but looks at it at the end - the Second Coming when Messiah comes as the thief to a dark world prepared at Armageddon to exterminate Israel. Then he moves to the new heavens and earth the same as Revelation 21.

{{1Thessalonians 5:3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child and they shall not escape"}} Notice the wording "come upon THEM" and not "us". This will not be for the Church and is the Day of the Lord heralded by the breaking of the first seal in Revelation 6. The Day of the Lord begins with the breaking of the first seal in Revelation 6 when the Church is already in heaven - chapter 4 and 5 is the great scene in heaven of the Church. The world will be saying peace and safety because the troublesome Christians have disappeared. Then The Day of the Lord hits them for 7 years and they will not escape.

The Church has been raptured and is in heaven with the Lamb. The Church can not enter the Tribulation.

Then we come to the next 4 verses which make the distinction of light and darkness even stronger. Paul has just said that the Day of the LORD will not overtake us as a thief, and continues – {{1Thessalonians 5:5-8 for YOU ARE ALL SONS OF LIGHT AND SONS OF DAY. WE ARE NOT OF (THE) NIGHT NOR OF DARKNESS, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober for those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night, but since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on THE BREASTPLATE OF FAITH AND LOVE, AND AS A HELMET, THE HOPE OF SALVATION.”}}