Updates with new topics will come up later  -  State: December 26, 2024

Saved from the coming Wrath. And from the Tribulation?


Summary

The church is saved from the coming wrath - but not from the great tribulation (of the saints). Wrath and tribulation are not the same thing.



1 Thess 1:9-10 9 For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

 10 and to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the coming wrath.



According to the pre-tribulation doctrine, the 7-year tribulation takes place at the same time as the wrath of God.

1 Thess 1:10 "… who delivers us from the coming wrath" is therefore synonymous with "who saves us from the tribulation to come".

And because the church is not destined for wrath, the Christians do not come into this tribulation.




Answer


By the expression "the coming wrath" / "the wrath to come" could be meant:

a) the temporary wrath of God upon the ungodly on earth

b) the eternal wrath upon the ungodly in hell

c) both together, i.e. first the temporary wrath, then the eternal wrath.



a) the temporary wrath


Even if the "wrath to come" mentioned in 1 Thess 1:10 means the temporal wrath of the bowl judgments, this verse would not be an argument for the pre-tribulation doctrine. For the church does not enter into these judgments of wrath anyway. The Christians will be raptured in time before the wrath, see the following diagram:




The great tribulation concerns the persecution of the saints. The wrath of God (= bowl judgments), on the other hand, concerns retribution against the ungodly.

The great tribulation is thus not - as is claimed - the wrath of God.


The church comes into the great tribulation, but not into the wrath of God.


For detailed explanations, see:


Basic Argument: Shaking of the Universe


Tribulation = Wrath?


Remark:

The first five seals are opened by the Lamb of God, but they are not yet the wrath of God; for details see the link above "Tribulation=Wrath?".



Salvation from wrath does not mean salvation from tribulation



b) the eternal wrath


The coming wrath in 1 Thess 1 possibly refers to eternity in hell. For the context of the text speaks of the conversion of the Thessalonians to God.


Likewise, 1 Thess 5 is also about the Second Coming and the wrath. Also here, wrath is contrasted with salvation:

1 Thess 5:1-9  1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

 3 For when they say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall by no means escape.

 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,


And also John the Baptist had meant by the "wrath to come" the eternal wrath in hell:

Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?


cf:

Rom 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.



So if 1 Thess 1:10 is about the eternal wrath of God, then 1 Thess 1:10 is NOT an argument for the rapture before the tribulation or before the great tribulation because it is about hell.



c) the temporary and the eternal wrath


It is also quite possible that with the "wrath to come" in 1
Thess 1:10 both are meant: first the temporal wrath on the inhabitants of the earth, and then the eternal wrath of God upon the ungodly in hell.

Updates with new topics will come up later  -  State: December 26, 2024