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The Tribulation will be a time of spiritual
revival for Israel and a time for them to
reach the world.

The 144,000 witnesses in Revelation are
the twelve tribes of Israel that are saved
during the Tribulation and will preach to
the rest of the world.

Israel will spread the Gospel of the King-
dom by their new faith in Jesus Christ as
their Messiah!

The Tribulation will be a time of converting
Israel.

"And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is
written, There shall come out of Zion the
Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob; For this is my covenant unto
them, when I shall take away their sins,"
Romans 11:26-27

God promises to work with His people in
goodness, but will be severe with them
during the Tribulation.

Israel will be brought to a place of decision
and faith.

This is the reason for the silence of God in
relating to His people during the past 2000
years since the death of Christ.

But the Word of God says that He has not
completely cast away His people.

The Bible tells of "the casting away" of
Israel and announces that that produced
the settling of the world.

Then the Bible tells of the receiving of Israel,
which will be life from the dead for the nations
(Romans 11:15). Israel moved into a time of
blindness and isolation from God until a time
called "the fullness of the Gentiles" Romans
11:25.

The Tribulation is the time of Jacob's trouble.
Jeremiah says, "Alas! for that day is great,
so that none is like it, it is even the time of
Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it"
Jeremiah 30:7

Israel is held responsible by the Lord for the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

God hasn't completely forsaken His people.
He has one last round of discipline for Israel.

That time of discipline will come during
Daniel's 70th week, the week of the Tribulation.

During the Church Age, God hasn't had any
specific program with the nation of Israel.

Instead (in this Day of Grace), He has been
calling both Jew and Gentile to faith in Jesus
Christ as the Savior of the world.

All who believe (in this day) are members of
the Body of Christ.

The house of Israel has been left desolate
for nearly 2,000 years now.

The children of Israel have been scattered
across the world and have been through
persecutions and rejection in nearly every
nation of the world.

This period has been a era of Israel being
cut off from the true vine and the Church
has been grafted in.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord."
Matthew 23:37-39

Here is Jesus stating in advance what was
going to happen when the God's chosen
people rejected their Messiah. Their house
would be left unto them desolate.

Daniel's prophecy says that an event will take
place at the end of the 69th week, " Messiah
shall be cut off" (Daniel 9:26).

The prediction of the death of the Messiah of
Israel, Jesus Christ, is given to us by the
prophet Daniel. This event was so stunning
it proved the people's rebellion and sin, that
the crucifixion of the Son of God stops the
clock of prophecy. At His death, the veil of
the temple was split from top to bottom, and
the plan of God for His people, the Jews, came
to a halt.

The Tribulation is the 70th week of the
prophecy of Daniel.

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city, to finish
the transgression, and to make an end
of sins, and to make reconciliation for
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy." Daniel 9:24

Here are the goals God is determined to
fulfill in that 70-week time that will take
us to the completion of history.

We have learned that the Rapture is the
method that Jesus will use to take the last
generation of believing Christians home to
be with Him.

The Bible teaches that the believers will be
physically transported from earth to Heaven.
It is an undeniable fact in the Word of God.

The other way for believers to go to heaven
is by the Rapture, the catching up of the
Church into the presence of Jesus.

The Rapture is so thrilling that we ought to
learn more about it and how we may be able
to participate in it by looking into the Word
of God!

Remember, there are two possible ways
for the believer to go to heaven.

One is physical death. We are not to be
afraid because the Christian does not die!
Jesus has done away with death and He
promises that we will never die.

The Christian, when dying doesn't lose
consciousness, but discovers the truth
that "absent from the body" is "to be
present with the Lord" 2 Corinthians 5:8

The proper attitude of a believer is to
anticipate the joys of heaven, also to allow
the possiblitiy that perhaps it will be today,
or even this very hour, that we will be
caught up into the presence of Jesus and be
with Him forever!

In eternity, the believers, will live their true
destiny. They will be the inheritors and the
rulers of the universe with Jesus Christ.

Believing in Jesus isn't a small thing. It isn't
just an emotional moment; it is to be eternally
joined with God and literally parttakers of His
divine nature, and the eternal life that He, who
can not lie, promised us!

When God has completed the Body of Christ,
which each member is a believer, we will be
caught up into Heaven to be with the Lord.

The bodies of those who have gone before
will be resurrected, and a living generation
of Christians will be caught up without dying
to meet with those who have gone before, to
be taken by Jesus into Heaven.

There is an exact moment when this will
happen. But this moment, at this present time,
is known only to God the Father.

We have learned from the Word of God,
that the Lord has brought about a special
period of time which is called the Church
Age.

During this time, God is making for Himself
a group of believers called the Body of Christ.

The best of this life is not to be compared
with the joy of the future.

This life is not final reality, it is the prelim-
inary to that reality.

The worst circumstances imaginable in
this world are but light afflictions that
lasts but for a moment. Reality, fullness
of joy, comes to us from God when we pass
from this life into the life to come.

Paul has told us in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"For which cause we faint not; but though
our outward man perish, yet the inward
man is renewed day by day. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, While we look not
at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal.

It is true that one gets joy from the promises
of the word.

The believing Christian knows that temporary
joy is fleeting and are counted as little by the
comparison to the joy that awaits us when we
step into the presence of Jesus.

This truth became a real joy to the early
church. We know that they were called
to live for Christ in the middle of adversity.

Sometimes they were severely persecuted,
even martyred. Still, because of the hope
of which they were instructed, they could
receive the Word in much affliction, and
continue to rejoice in their circumstances.

It then becomes clear in the Word that God
has put together a special group in the world,
the body of Christ.

And for that special group, He has a special
destiny. That destiny is to inherit all things
and to take part in the rulership of the world
and the universe.

The message of the coming of the Lord was
no mystery; the Thessalonians knew this
well.

The mystery was that the church, in the form
of the last generation of living Christians, was
to be instantly transported and transformed
without experiencing physical death.

The same message of the Rapture of the
Church, is also in Paul's letter to the
Corinthians. He said,

"Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trump; for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed,"
1 Corinthians 15:51-52

We must notice that the doctrine of the
catching up of the Church was a mystery
which was made known to people who
already knew the general outline of the
prophetic future. This is clear from Paul
saying that,

"But of the times and the seasons, brethern,
ye have no need that I write unto you. For
yourselves know perfectly that the day of
the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night,"
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2

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Paul has given us that famous passage in
the New Testament that tells us that there
is a generation of Christians who will not
die.

They will be caught up into the presence of
Jesus along with the resurrected believers
whom Jesus will bring with Him when He
comes for that last set of living Christians
who will be alive when He comes for His
Church!