The Tribulation

What becomes of the Jewish remnant after the rapture of the Church?

During the great tribulation a remnant out of all Israel will turn to Jesus as Messiah, and will become His witnesses after the removal of the Church (Rev. 7:3-8). Some of these will undergo martyrdom (Rev. 6:9-11), some will be spared to enter the millennial kingdom (Zech. 12:6; 13:9). Many of the Psalms express, prophetically, the joys and sorrows of the tribulation remnant.

Will those who have rejected the gospel and are alive when Christ comes, have a chance then to accept Him?

Revelation 7 makes it clear that after the rapture of the Church and during the tribulation not only an elect number of Jews, but also “a great multitude which no man could number,” of Gentiles will be saved, and there is no Scripture passage which excludes from the possibility of that salvation those who do not receive Christ before the rapture. But 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 gives the characteristics of those who will be judged at the return of the Lord in glory. The Scriptures make it manifest that often there is a point, however, in this life, where men become hopelessly hardened in the rejection of truth, and no man can say when he may pass that line. The fact that there will be salvation during the tribulation, therefore, gives no individual rejector of the gospel any ground for hope.

Does not the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins warrant the assumption that pre-rapture hearers will be excluded from salvation after the rapture — i. e., during the tribulation?

The wise and foolish virgins are tested and separated by the coming of the Lord into the air for saints; none but professors are before us in that prophetic parable; the “‘door’’ is shut to those only who have taken the place of profession without reality.

After the departure of the saints, salvation continues up to (at least) the glorious appearing; and, (on the authority of Revelation 7) the number saved includes some out of every “nation,” and therefore some out of the so-called “Christian nations.” The same enumeration is used in Revelation 5:9, where, beyond all question the praising ones are largely out of the nations of so-called “Christendom.” We may search in vain for a single word of Scripture which clearly excludes from the possibility of salvation between the rapture and the return in glory of those who have heard, but have not accepted, the gospel before the rapture. Nothing, as to the exclusion of such hearers, can be predicted upon Revelation 14, for the preaching of the “everlasting gospel’ follows the fall of Babylon, and has no connection with the preaching of the remnant; especially during the first three and a half years.

This post-rapture salvation is not a question of inclusion in the body and bride; that “door” is the one which is “shut” in Matthew 25:10. The tribulation saints have their own blessing in Revelation 7.

Will any of the saved pass through the tribulation?

There will be many of the saved in the tribulation, and they will pass through it, but probably you mean the Church. None of the saved of this dispensation will be in the tribulation. That many Christians live carnal and worldly lives, is unfortunately true, but we are saved by grace, through faith, and the first resurrection is not a reward for the faithful, but the time of the removal from the earth of all that are Christ’s. (1 Cor. 15:20-23; 1 Thes. 4:14.) The result of carnal and worldly living is stated in the 8rd chapter of 1 Corinthians to be a loss of reward. This condition has existed throughout the entire church age, and if the tribulation is to be a kind of purgatory for the unfaithful Christians at the very end of the age, the question arises, why should they be thus dealt with while all other unfaithful Christians have already gone to heaven and only await the resurrection of their bodies; it would be a discrimination against those who happen to be alive at the time of the Lord’s return. The great thing to hold in mind about all this is the absolute unity of the body of Christ. There are many unnourished and undeveloped members of that body, but they are all members of the body, and they have part in the first resurrection because the word is “afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.”