Great Tribulation & Millennial Reign?
Great Tribulation & Millennial Reign - When?
The Great Tribulation...millennial Reign. When and what will it be like?
There will be no other period of time in human history (past, present, and future) in which there will be so much suffering and destruction as during the seven years that will be known as the Great Tribulation, as outlined in Revelation chapters 6 through 19.
The Tribulation will be a time of judgment on the nations of the world beginning with Israel. The Tribulation will also be a time of final harvest of souls to God.
Note: The Judgments Will Be:
1. Universal - This is obviously stated throughout Revelation beginning with chapter 6 of Revelation.
2 .Personal - This is painfully clear in Revelation 9:3,6.
3. Final - There is nothing man can do to save himself. Revelation 18 and 19 suggest they do try to save themselves by virtue of Religion (ch. 17) and Riches (ch. 18).
The purpose and pursuit of the Great Tribulation is to exact judgment on unbelievers and their hostile rejection of Jesus Christ. Simultaneously, nonbelievers are given an option of entrance to heaven by not rejecting Christ, rather by accepting Him at the cost of their lives. That makes evangelism in present-day, by the churches, all the more important. It could be said that evangelism today is the one activity that all churches need be involved in prior to the Great Tribulation. Churches failing to do so are deemed apostate, (refer to Revelation chapters two and three).
The Great Tribulation will commence with the Rapture of the Church, not those merely professing to be Christian, but exclusively Born-again Christians. Simply put, the Tribulation could very well start NOW!
The only answer to the consequences of sin (death/separation from God) is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
When the tribulation concludes, will those who will be preserved into the millennial be in their human bodies? Matthew 25:31-46... The redeemed Gentiles will receive this offer, “When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of world.” (v.34). They enter into the kingdom age alongside the redeemed Jews. This explains the kingdom of Daniel 7:14 that is made up of “all people, nations, and languages.” And the “many nations” that come to Jerusalem as seen in Micah 4:2.
The redeemed (both Jew and Gentile) who go from the tribulation into the kingdom age
will still have human bodies. During the kingdom age, they will produce children and dramatically increase the population of the earth (refer to Jeremiah 30:19-22; Ezekiel 47:22).
Although these brought into the millennial are sealed by the covenants and their sins are forgiven, their offspring will be born with a sin nature since they are still physical descendents of Adam. This explains a number of things about the kingdom age. It will require the full enforcement of the law of the kingdom as seen in Matthew 5-7.
Even with this strict enforcement, nations will at times rebel and will need to be brought into line by the withholding of rain (Zechariah 14:16-19). Christ as king will rule with a rod of iron (Psalm 2:7-9). And, finally at the end of the millennial age the devil will be able to gather an immense army of rebels against Lord (Revelation 20:7-9). It is apparent they will be deceived into thinking that they will subdue and even destroy Christ and His kingdom.