I do know Him. Have you ever read Acts? Do you realize what Paul and the early Christians went through in order to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ--and even just to live without denying Him? If your view of God persists in being so narrow, you are at great risk for disowning Him.
Please don't! Read the book of Acts. Do a word study on persecution in the New Testament. Read Revelation and see how most of the faithful are given into Satan's hand to be killed.
You ask what is the purpose of the Church suffering intense persecution. Just because you don't understand doesn't mean there isn't a good reason. It builds character and identification with Christ. We suffer as Jesus did. The gospel spreads faster by the blood of the Church. Do you realize God used persecution to spread the gospel initially? Jesus commanded them to go into all the world and preach the gospel, in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Persecution is in part what caused people to go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth with the gospel. When confronted with death, the blood of Christians testify to the world that following Christ is more important to them than anything. They know they have an eternity with Christ on the other side of death. People take note of their joy and their willingness to follow Him wherever He leads. It transcends normal human behavior and testifies to the Spirit of God working in their lives.
Persecution and wrath are not the same thing. Persecution is promised to all believers. Wrath is poured out on the wicked. In the trumpet/bowl judgments, the 144,000 sealed Jewish believers in Jesus are protected from the wrath. Initially, the trumpets/bowls affect only those with the mark of the beast. By the fifth trumpet, they afflict everyone who isn't sealed (that is, everyone except the 144,000). Personally I believe it is impossible for Christians to survive the Tribulation unless they are one of the 144,000, which is something no one should assume. I believe we all need to be ready to pay the price. Jesus died the most horrible death to give salvation to sinners who deserve everlasting death. Who are we to tell Him what He can't ask of us? Who are we to accuse Him of being unloving?
Matthew 13:20-21
20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Don't let your heart be stony ground, iamlamad. It's not worth it. Expand your view of God. He's loving, yes, but He also calls us to take up our cross and follow Him. Sometimes doing that means losing our lives. Sometimes it doesn't.
Matthew 16:
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
What Paul or ANYONE else went through back then has nothing to do with us at the end of this age. There was not "rapture" for any age but our age. We know there WILL BE a catching up because it is written. The choice seems to be on this thread that this catching up will be at the end of the 70th week or at the beginning. So our differences are only 7 plus years. You have to ask yourself, if only 7 years, WHY NOT BEFORE when the other choice is to beat up and Kill the bride? Do you really imagine that is His will?
When we put all the end time scriptures together, we know this catching up will be so that we escape God's wrath poured out. Neither can one hope to live through this time of the 70th week and escape His wrath while being left behind at the pretrib rapture. NO ONE ON EARTH will escape His wrath. I could say "no one under the sun..." When God cranks up the heat of the sun it will affect ALL on the earth. Neither can one say they will escape God's wrath but not Satan's wrath, for they are CONCURRENT.
God's will and word for the DAY will be "the saints will be OVERCOME."
If your view of God persists in being so narrow, you are at great risk for disowning Him.
Not at all. I just know the truth in this matter.
Please don't! Read the book of Acts.
Did you miss the fact that the book of Acts was the first century church? What does that have to do with the rapture which is still future? I will answer for you: NOTHING. Perhaps you don't understand that all that happened to Christian people in the past was NOT God being angry with them. It was Satan's hatred for them. The future rapture will be so the church can escape God's wrath poured out. Perhaps you need to study 1 Thes. 5 again.
Do a word study on persecution in the New Testament.
This would be a non-sequitur. We are at the very end of this age and what happened before in the chuch age has nothing to do with the rapture.
Read Revelation and see how most of the faithful are given into Satan's hand to be killed.
Again a non-sequitur. They are given into Satan's hands because they were left behind when God pulled those that believe in Him out from His wrath. In other words, they set their OWN appointment with wrath.
All your other reasons (in the next paragraph) are only human reasoning that does not fit this discussion. The rapture comes a moment before the judgment where God will judge the entire world. The church - the body of Christ on earth will have no business being judged for we have judged ourselves. This judgment will be God's wrath poured out. If you wish to set your OWN appointment for His wrath, you can, and He will allow it. but don't try to set an appointment for others!
Persecution and wrath are not the same thing. Persecution is promised to all believers.
And the church has lived through persecution for much of the church age. So what? It has nothing to do with the timing of the rapture. We are at the END of the church age, and judgment is coming. God's plan will be to destroy the world and the sinners in the world.
Wrath is poured out on the wicked.
EXACTLY! Good point! The Body of Christ is NOT the wicked. That is why God has planned an escape for us. Did you not read Luke 21:36?
In the trumpet/bowl judgments, the 144,000 sealed Jewish believers in Jesus are protected from the wrath
Another good point. So please explain, if the Body of Christ is still on the earth, WHY would the Jews be sealed for their protection and NOT THE CHURCH? Another good observation that many here don't believe: that God's wrath is in the trumpet judgments.
Personally I believe it is impossible for Christians to survive the Tribulation unless they are one of the 144,000, which is something no one should assume.
Wow! I am beginning to be amazed at your theories! You just said the 144,000 are JEWS. Are you of the "Jehovah's Witness" group that believes ONLY 144,000 will be saved? I surely hope not! Well, they ARE Jews: every one a descendant of Jacob. Meanwhile, most of the Gentile church of today are NOT descendants of Jacob. I guess perhaps you really DO believe that God meant what He said: that the saints would be OVERCOME. Most here simply refuse to believe this.
Who are we to accuse Him of being unloving?
This goes back to the very question I asked of you. God IS love. I can assure you, His love for us would prevent Him EVER submitting His beloved to His own wrath! He is not mad at US! His wrath is for the sinners! God has no reason to punish His beloved. Neither will He. That is simply false doctrine. YOU can escape His wrath if you could only believe. If I were you, I would camp out on Luke 21:36.
The secret of the seed sown in stony ground is "yet he has no root in himself." If someone is born again and immediately begins studying God's word, praying, attending church at every opportunity, they WILL grow deep roots.
You think I am stony ground because I don't believe your posttrib theories? I can assure you, NEITHER DOES JESUS believe your theories.
I guess you just don't know yet that what Paul wrote in 1 Thes. 5 about the TIMING of the rapture points to only ONE place in Revelation and that is just before the 6th seal. The rapture will come a moment before the earthquake. In fact, the earthquake will be caused by the dead in Christ rising around the world. It will be the first worldwide earthquake. It will also be Paul's "sudden destruction." Paul told us that this sudden destruction will be the start of the DAY and the start of His WRATH. Then, John SAW with his own eyes the raptured church IN HEAVEN right after the 6th seal. What more proof do you need? But God gave us still more. We have no appointment with His wrath.
Romans 5:9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
1 Thessalonians 1:10
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:9
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rev 3:10
10 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.
Luke 21
36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
Every one of these verses is proof of a pretrib rapture.