26 Nov 2013
Revelation 13:7
Revelation 13:7: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”
There are some who say that there is no rapture. They claim that when God says He will deliver the church, what He actually means is that He will keep them safe through the Tribulation. That theory is quite wrong. As you can see, God gives the antichrist the power to overcome the saints, and he will ruthlessly hunt them down and murder them by the millions. (Of course, by this point in the Tribulation uncountable millions of saints have already been martyred; we know this because we saw them in Heaven a few chapters ago.) The fact that the world is able to slaughter Christians by the millions directly contracts the idea that God will keep them safe during the Tribulation! So that is a false theory. God is indeed going to keep the Church safe – by Rapturing it out of the world before the Tribulation begins. That was His promise, and He is going to keep it.
The antichrist was on the world scene when the Tribulation began, but it is not until the midpoint of the Tribulation that he gains complete power over the whole world, including over the saints. There is no nation or people that he does not control. He now has everything, and no one can stand against him – not even God’s people.