- There is a future seven-year period, and at the midpoint the Antichrist will be revealed and commit the abomination of desolation, initiating his great tribulation against the Church and Israel.
- There is a biblical distinction between the Antichrist’s great tribulation against the Church and Israel and the day of the Lord’s wrath against the ungodly. The latter event happens after the former event.
- The gathering of the elect mentioned in Matthew 24:31 refers to the rapture (cf. Mark 13:27; Luke 21:28; Rev 7:9–17; 1 Thess 4:13–18; 2 Thess 2:1).
- At an unknown day and hour during the second half of the seven-year period, the Antichrist’s great tribulation will be cut short by the Revelation of Christ to resurrect and rapture God’s people, and this will be followed immediately by the day of the Lord’s wrath executed upon the ungodly.
- On the same day the rapture happens, the onset of the day of the Lord’s wrath takes place, just as it was in the days of Noah and Lot (Luke 17:22–37; cf. 2 Thess 1:5–10).
- The second coming (Parousia) is not a simple (instantaneous) event. The second coming is a unified, extended event realizing various purposes of God, beginning with the Revelation of Christ in the sky displaying his glory and power to the whole world, resurrecting and rapturing God’s people, and followed by the day of the Lord’s judgments upon the ungodly and Antichrist’s kingdom, restoring Israel to salvation, and culminating in Christ’s earthly reign.
- Although Armageddon belongs to the unified complex-extended event of the second coming, Armageddon does not initiate the second coming; rather, the second coming begins with the resurrection and the rapture.
- The resurrection and rapture happen between the opening of the sixth seal and the seventh seal.
- The first six seals are not part of the day of the Lord’s wrath. The first six seals are conditional events that must happen before Christ’s return.
- The sixth seal signals the impending day of the Lord’s wrath as recorded in Joel 2:30–31; Matthew 24:29; Luke 21:25–26; Mark 13:23–25; and Revelation 6:12–17.
- The seventh seal pronounces the day of the Lord’s wrath.
- The trumpets, bowls, and Armageddon contain and execute the day of the Lord’s wrath.
- The trumpets, bowls, and Armageddon will not occur before the seventh seal is opened.
- Paul’s “last trumpet” (1 Cor 15:52) is not the seventh trumpet judgment in the book of Revelation.
- Christ’s return to resurrect and rapture God’s people is not imminent (“any moment”), since discernible prophesied events must happen first (e.g., the Antichrist’s revelation and his ensuing great tribulation; the apostasy; coming of Elijah; and a cluster of discernible celestial events). Christ can return during any generation of the Church.
—Alan Kurschner, 08/01/12
