Conclusion: We have gone over the differences between the Great Tribulation and the Wrath of God. We’ve seen that during the Great Tribulation, God’s children, the church of believers, the followers of Jesus Christ, are present on the earth. They are the recipients of the persecution meted out by the forces of Antichrist. However, during the Great Tribulation, God promises to protect and supply for His children, even as some “shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days,” Daniel 11:33b.
At the beginning of the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist shall stand up. He shall place the Abomination of Desolations, or the Image of the Beast, in a Holy Place, perhaps on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. He will make the Mark of the Beast obligatory for all the nations he rules over. Those who do not accept the mark shall be hunted down like domestic or foreign terrorists. It will be a period of intense persecution similar to what Christians have suffered in the past under Rome, under Stalin, under Mão, or what the Jewish people suffered under Hitler.
The six trumpets of tribulation sounded out in Revelation 8-9 shall fall upon the followers of the Antichrist and his forces. The trumpets will bring various plagues of a dimension of one-third on the earth. One-third of the trees shall be burnt up. One-third of the sea shall become like blood. One-third of the rivers will become poisonous, etc. The seventh trump, the last trump, found in Revelation 10:7 is, in fact, the rapture/resurrection event spoken of by the prophets throughout time memorial.
During the Great Tribulation, the true believers who know their God shall be strong and do exploits. They shall instruct many, Daniel 11:32b.33a. Those that endure to the end, that overcome, that keep His works unto the end, to them will He give power over the nations. They will be clothed in white raiment and shall not have their names blotted out of the book of life. He will give them a crown of life. Revelation 2:26, 3:5, 2:10b. After the rapture/resurrection event, begins the Wrath of God.
The Wrath of God, we remember, is that 75-day period succeeding the Great Tribulation. It is during the Wrath of God that the seven vials of God’s wrath are poured out on the wicked and unbelieving. The destruction that takes place during the Wrath of God is more complete, more intense. Instead of a one-third destruction, we find a complete destruction. All the sea becomes blood. All the rivers become poisonous. The sixth vial is the gathering together of the armies of Antichrist to the mountains of Israel for the final Battle of Armageddon. The seventh vial brings the great earthquake and the destruction of Babylon and the cities of the nations fall.
God has promised His followers, the church of true-believers, to escape the wrath that is to come. We escape if we are worthy to be received by Him in the rapture/resurrection event. The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 seems to indicate that only half of the church is in fact following Jesus with all their heart, soul, body, and mind. Five of the virgins will be shut out of the marriage festival with the bridegroom. Only five will get in, those who have oil in their lamps. They stayed busy about the Lord’s work until the end. They kept their relationship with Jesus in first place. Others, it seems, never knew their Lord, but were in the ministry for show, for the praise of man, for financial gain.
The true believer can hang unto to God’s promise found in Revelation 3:10 given to the church of Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love. The Lord says the following:
Revelation 3:8&10 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, (He didn’t shut them out, like he did the unfaithful virgins), and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
You may feel weak and insignificant, but if you are holding unto God and His word, and not denying His name, He’s got a place for you in His heavenly kingdom. Don’t faint in your mind. Be thou faithful unto death and you shall receive a crown a life and hear His welcoming voice one day, saying to you: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” Matthew 25:21.
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