We know that there are many great Christians who love Jesus but simply don't believe that a trumpet is going to blow and Jesus is going to snatch all followers of Him off the earth and give them immortal bodies in the twinkling of any eye. I'm not sure HOW they read 1 Thessalonians 4 and arrive at anything else, but they do.
Some say that the rapture is going to happen after the Antichrist has killed every true follower of Christ during the Great Tribulation. Not sure how they arrive at that except to point to the passage in Revelation that talks about Saints that came out of the great tribulation. Yes, there will be plenty of Saints that do come out of the Tribulation but WE WON'T BE ONE OF THEM! We will have been gone 3+ years before that all happens on earth.
There is no wrath for followers who are currently awaiting the "blessed hope."
We have recently become all too familiar with the phrase “Trust the science” from people in places of power or authority. Yet these same people tell us to accept that you can be whatever you think you are despite the scientific facts about you. Trust, of late, has become something that is not easy to do much of the time. When those who instruct us to “trust what they say” do things that prove they are not trustworthy, trust is the last thing we will extend to them.
Thankfully the object and basis of our trust is in a source that has an impeccable and perfect track record. Not once has it been inaccurate, not once has it asked us to believe in something contradictory to evidence, and not once has it been misleading or proven itself untrustworthy.
Psalms 119:160 KJV – “Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.”
In a season of history when truth is determined by a person’s feelings and emotions, it is good to know that we have a book of facts that records the past, directs us through the present, and foretells the future. This living, powerful, and unparalleled book has told us that born again Christians do not have an appointment with God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). It also tells us that someday the wrath of God is coming upon the whole world (Revelation 16:1).
1 Corinthians 15:50-52 KJV – “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
Born again believers in Christ do not have an appointment with God’s wrath, and this “book of all books” says that in order to enter the kingdom of God we will need to change from mortal to immortal and corruptible to incorruptible. This magnificent book also tells us this will happen quickly, in a mere moment, as fast as it takes for the human eye to twinkle, which is faster than you can blink. It must happen for God’s wrath to come upon the whole world.
Because the track record of the Bible is perfect, we would be foolish to ignore this foretold promise for those of us who are alive and remain until the day of the “twinkling of an eye” experience. While we do not know the day and the hour of that experience, we do know that the tribulation, the time of God’s wrath after we’re gone, will come at a time when the world is crying out for peace and safety. This phrase is interesting as peace can mean “an exemption from war.” However, it also means “harmony between individuals.” The word safety means “security from enemies and dangers.”
We live in a time when people are crying out for harmony between individuals. They want an acceptance of all truths and beliefs, which they believe will bring security from enemies and dangers. One of the enemies and dangers for the “peace and safety” crowd is the Christian faith, which is based on objective truth.
Romans 1:18 KJV – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;”
Why would anyone want to suppress the wonderful truths of God’s word? Because it is that truth that will make people free. Satan desperately wants to suppress it and convince humanity that what they really need is harmony with others through agreement with their feelings and emotions.
The Bible says someday the dead in Christ will rise, those alive and remaining at the time will meet them and the Lord in the air, and from that point on we will forever be with the Lord. We need to be watching and soberly waiting for that day. How do we know it’s coming for sure?
2 Corinthians 1:20-22 KJV – “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”
Do you take His words seriously? Do you understand that in the same manner He came, He will return? Do you understand that in the same manner He resurrected, He will come back again?
Don’t be like the people of Galilee who were amazed although they’d heard over and over again about the resurrection. Don’t be like the people of the world that do not understand that all that can be shaken will be shaken, and only the things of God will remain standing.
Do you understand the times and the seasons? The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11,
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 KJV – “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
Whether you are still alive or you are dead, He will come and take us to be with Him. That will be a shocking thing for the world, because that will mean great tribulations coming to this world while we are gone.
The truth is sometimes hard to digest, sometimes hard to understand. But if you are in the Word and if you are with the Lord, you will understand it. And you will also know that you have to be prepared for it. Let us not sleep as others do. Let us be awake and sober. The Word of the Lord is true.
Here; Born-Again Believers In Christ Do Not Have An Appointment With God’s Wrath | Harbingers Daily
So encourage each other with these words! Jesus will come for us! He took the wrath of God that we deserved! He stood in our place! We are His bride and we will drink a cup of wine in the Father's house after Jesus calls us up into the clouds!
"But Dennis, that's all just too supernatural for me to believe! It just all seems so un-scientific!"
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the folks in Noah's day were saying the very same thing as he spent 120 years building a mammoth boat!
The signs of Christ's soon return are everywhere because the signs of the coming Great Tribulation are everywhere. We don't know the day or the hour but for sure we "aren't children of the darkness that this day should surprise you like a thief."