How can people be saved during the Tribulation?
This one requires some understanding
of the End Times. To be clear, we will not completely understand the End Times
until they occur, but the Bible gives us plenty of information from which to infer
what will happen. There is plenty of information available on others' opinions,
and I will not go into the arguments for my opinions, so look it up for yourself.
With
that in mind, here are my opinions on how the End Times will occur:
• There
are currently no prophecies due before the Rapture can occur
• The Rapture takes
all those who have accepted Christ bodily into Paradise, along with the resurrected
bodies of all those who have died since Calvary - All the Saints.
• I also believe
that those who have not reached their age of being accountable for sins (roughly
those under the teenage years, but each person's circumstance will be different)
will also be Raptured with the saved.
• When the Rapture occurs, the period
of Grace is ended for those left here on earth alive. II Timothy declares that
those left "will be sent a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie". What
is this strong delusion? We are not told, but one obvious example might be that
so many disappeared because of supposed extraterrestrial activity.
• There is
an undefined period of time between the Rapture and the appearance of The Antichrist.
•
When The Antichrist ascends to world power, he will negotiate and sign a historic
peace agreement with Israel that will cause her to lay down their weapons in exchange
for peace. This event begins the countdown for the final "week" of Daniel's 70-weeks
prophecy - also know as the Tribulation.
• Three and a half years into the Tribulation, The Antichrist
will commit the "abomination of desolation" - likely proclaiming himself God, probably
in the newly re-built temple in Jerusalem.
• The last three and a half years
is what is referred to as "The Great Tribulation" described in Revelation, where
the worst parts of the apocalypse occur.
• At the end of the seven years tribulation, Christ,
along with all His saints (us!), will descend from Heaven and defeat and bind Satan
and his angels. We will suffer no casualties!
• At the end of the Tribulation,
Christ will set up His earthly kingdom that will last a thousand years.
• At
the end of the thousand year reign, Satan will be loosed to tempt those who were
born and untempted during the Tribulation (this is important for the discussion
below). The duration of this period of testing is not given in the Bible.
• When all this has
occurred, we will be whisked to our final destination, and the current earth will
be destroyed.
• We will live forever in the New Jerusalem described in Revelation
As
I stated before, all these points have their references in the Bible, and many discussions
and other opinions may be found online. But, these are mine.
There is one item
I highlighted in these points that I want to discuss, and the point of this article.
Here's the question: If the "strong delusion" sent at the time of the Rapture
is true, and those alive at the time are doomed, then who is there on earth who
can be saved after the Rapture?
I believe there are some interesting possibilities
we might infer from all this information:
1. There is a period of time between
the Rapture and the Tribulation sufficient enough for a new generation to be born.
SOME OF THESE will not have yet been given an opportunity for salvation, so they
will have the opportunity to receive Christ during the Tribulation.
2. Some
born at the end of the Tribulation will not have reached an age of accountability,
so they will be given the opportunity to choose Christ during the time of tempting
immediately following the Thousand Year Reign.
3. Those youth who were taken
to Paradise at the Rapture have not yet reached the age of their personal accountability,
even though tempted by Satan. It's possible they will be the ones also tempted at
the end of the Thousand Year Reign, and they, too, must make their choice.
However
these events play out, the Bible's prophecies will be completely and exactly fulfilled,
just as the prophecies of old were. I may have missed one or more (maybe many)
points in this discussion, but I believe each of these can be backed up by reading
Scripture and inferring each of these based on the Bible.
We will see, and you can
confirm or correct me in Paradise!
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