Rev 3:10 10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
Now the word that is translated from is the word 'ek' which is defined the Enhanced Strong's Lexicon as ek: prep A primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence action or motion proceeds), from, out (of place, time, or cause)
In other words it denotes a point of origin where action or motion proceeds to some other place or time. Examples would be coming out of a house, moving out of one year into another, or a cause as in being pulled out of a war. Whether you are talking a place, a time or a cause, the definition means being moved from the object of the preposition ( ie; the hour of trial ) to some other position.
Since we are told that the Antichrist will be given power over the saints and he will overcome them, how is promise kept in a post tribulation view?
Rev 13:7 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
And my second question is simply What is the purpose of the tribulation, and how does the church going through the tribulation serve that purpose?
I agree with you that this is what the Scripture teaches. It is reinforced by a type in the Old Testament.
1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. However, nine people, not eight, survived from pre-flood days. The ninth was Enoch, who was taken up to God some time before the flood.
Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Enoch was a type of the church and was removed from the earth before the flood. Noah and his family were a type of Israel, and were saved by being hidden away in an ark during the flood.
In the last days, the church will be taken up before the tribulation: Notice the church is never mentioned after Revelation 3.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. 2Th 2:8 And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming; The Holy Spirit, dwelling in the church (believers) is now hindering and opposing evil, but He will be taken away when the church is raptured and evil will have full sway over the earth (the tribulation). The surviving remnant of the Jews will be saved as Noah was:
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
The
types are important enough to God that Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land for breaking one!
Another evidence is the two harvests of Revelation: Rev. 14: 14 - 16 pictures the church being removed from the earth and kept safe from God's wrath. Rev. 14: 17 - 20 illustrates God's wrath being poured out upon the remainder of mankind, most particularly at Armageddon.
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