Day of Wrath or General Wrath?

Pretribbers claim we must escape from the Coming Wrath. But which Wrath is it?

A "Day of Wrath" is coming, which appears to be a day in which the Wicked are sentenced to Eternal Destruction, ie removal from God's Paradise forever.

Rom 2.5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

But there is a more general sense of God's Wrath that presently rests upon those who are doing evil.

John 3.36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

Rom 1.18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

God's Wrath was defined under the Old Covenant as the curses that came from disobeying the Law.

Rom 4.15 because the law brings wrath.

John the Baptist saw Wrath as already approaching Israel in his day, perhaps the Roman judgment to take place in 70 AD?

Matt 3.7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

My point: When we are told by Pretribbers that Christians must not face the time of Antichrist's Reign, they define that Reign as a time of "God's Wrath." But Antichristian Tribulation is not the same as God's Wrath. God's Wrath is defined as the consequences of disobeying God, and those martyred by the Beast are called "heroes," and not victims of God's Punishment!

The Day of God's Wrath is the day when Christ returns to sentence the wicked to Eternal Destruction.

Rom 11.18 The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

2 Thes 1.6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

There is no question that at times, a particular episode of Wrath is poured out on unbelievers when believers are in the path of this destruction. God does not wish them to be victims of "friendly fire." So at times God has warned believers to avoid this Wrath, such as during the 70 AD desturction of Jerusalem, as well as the "hour of trial" the Philadelphian Church was spared from.

But there are other times when the righteous perish with the wicked, not out of God's Wrath directed at the righteous, but only because He sometimes allows there to be innocent victims, casualties of war or natural disaster, ie collateral damage. We cannot think that Christians can escape an entire period of time when God's Wrath is beginning to be poured out on the Kingdom of Antichrist. Believers were delivered from God's Eternal Wrath on the day they were saved by the blood of Christ.

keras said:

The forthcoming great and terrible Day of the Lord's vengeance and wrath, will be a literal day, Isaiah 9:14, Isaiah 47:9, Zechariah 3:9, Revelation 18:8
It will not be the final Judgement or the end of things, but just a huge reset of our civilization, setting the scene for all that must happen before Jesus Returns.
We who study the Prophetic Word should be aware of what the Lord has planned to do with His Creation, which is now in a state similar to how it was in the time of Noah.

Click to expand...

Yes, there will be a specific "day" of Wrath. I can't say it is *before* the Coming of Christ. I posted Scriptures that showed it happening *on* the day of Christ's Coming!

But my point was that there are other uses of the term "Wrath" that occur on a daily basis. When people anywhere on earth consciously oppose God's word they come under His Wrath.

The consequences they pay are evidence of His Wrath in current history. This is not the Wrath that Christians are under. Being in the time of Antichrist's Punishment is not the same thing as Christians being under God's Wrath!