Quote Originally Posted by Tractor1
These before the throne are the tribulation saints which have been martyred (Rev. 7:13-14) for their testimony of Jesus and the Word of God (Rev. 20:4). They have no part in the Church, and will be resurrected into the millennial kingdom at Christ's return (1 Cor. 15:23-24).

Your theology is all over the map. When Scriptures concerning Israel, the nations, and the Church are co-mingled nothing but confusion results.

In Christ,
Tracey
Christ's return begins with His parousia at the beginning of the last week, not the end of it. Your theology is all over the map, yes. You ought not to comingle Israel, the nations and the Church, but keep them separate for God does.

Rev. 7:13-14 doesn't say the Tribulation saints for the Tribulation has yet to follow in the Trumpets which begins in Rev. 8. Moreover Rev. 20:4 doesn't include just those martyred in the Tribulation, for those that shall reign will be from all previous dispensations as indicated in verse 4. And of course they are the Church, included in such categories. How strange to exclude the Church.

Your confusion can easily be solved by understand the term Great Tribulation. The phrase “the great tribulation” is not the Great Tribulation of three years and half duration. The reasons are as follows.

(1) At the earliest, the Great Tribulation should commence at the sounding of the “woe” trumpets, the first of which is the fifth (8:13, 9:1a). Yet in 7:9 is an intimation of a rapture having taken place before the seventh seal. Some of these people must have arrived at the throne without passing through the time of the “woe” trumpets.

(2) The Great Tribulation cannot begin before Satan is cast down to earth. Satan will be cast down at the sounding of the fifth trumpet (9:1); and before the horrible situation of the 42 months prevails on earth (13:5), the man child is already raptured to the throne (12:5). Though this man child may not include all the people referred to in 7:9, nonetheless we dare say that it embraces a part of that great multitude.

(3) As soon as the seventh bowl is poured, the kingdom arrives. During the kingdom age we do not see the temple in heaven, instead we see the temple on earth as described in Ezekiel. Who will have the time and opportunity to serve God during the Great Tribulation? Yet in 7:15 clearly states that God’s servants serve Him day and night.

(4) There cannot be so many people saved at Great Tribulation. Since the great multitude mentioned in 7:9 is said to have come out of the great tribulation (7:14), this great tribulation must be different from that which comes at the fifth and sixth trumpets.

(5) According to 11:1, there are those who worship in the temple of God in heaven. Aside from the people cited in 7:9, where can there be found any who worship God in heaven? For at that time the Great Tribulation as predicted in the book of Revelation has yet to begin. In the new heaven and new earth, no temple is seen (21:22) because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. (God and the Lamb form the center of the new city. Following the mentioning of the temple of God in 3:12 are found the words “he shall go out thence no more”, for the simple reason that God and the Lamb are the temple in the new heaven and new earth.)

(6) The Bible expressly says that there are believers who do not pass through the Great Tribulation (for example, Luke 21:36 and Rev. 3:10).

(7) Suppose these people mentioned in 7:9 did in fact pass through the Great Tribulation of three and a half years; then they must have died at the time when the temple is trodden underfoot by the nations. But according to what is given in 11:2 it is impossible to include the church therein. So how can it be held that the multitude cited in 7:9 comes out of the Great Tribulation of three and a half years?

(8) The Great Tribulation of three years and a half spoken of in Revelation is especially related to the Jews. Both Daniel 12:1 – “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and that time thy people shall be delivered . . . “ – and Matthew 24:16-18 depict particularly the situation of the Jewish people. God’s primary purpose is to make use of the Great Tribulation to deal with the Jews. “The time of Jacob’s trouble” spoken of in Jeremiah 30:7 manifestly points to the Jews. But in the book of Revelation reference is made to the subject of tribulation several times in connection with the church, such as in 1:9 and 2:9-10,13.

According to John 16:33 tribulation seems to be the earthly portion of the church for she must pass through a prolonged duration of sufferings.

Accordingly, this tribulation may also be described in the same way as Revelation 7:14 itself literally does in the Greek original, namely: “the tribulation the great”.

The great tribulation cited in Revelation 2:22 is very different from that of 7.14, nor is it the same as that of the three and a half years mentioned elsewhere in Revelation. (The words “through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God” in Acts 14:22 has reference to the common experience those who enter the kingdom of God will share on earth.)

“And they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb” (7:14b). “Robes” is in plural number, and these robes signify righteousnesses, even the righteousnesses of the saints (the church). They do not refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteousness. Indeed, the robe (singular) is righteousness (Is. 61:10), and it is the Lord himself (Jer. 23:6), for Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). We are clothed with Him as we come before God. But this righteousness has no need to be cleansed by the blood.

So you see those who are raptured at Revelation 7: before the throne are raptured because of their works, their readiness, their watchfulness, their abiding in the word of His patience and keep the conduct of Matt. 5-7.