Article by: Kenneth J. Ester

Tribulation Saints

       When the rapture happens, there will be many who know the Word of God, but never truly believed it. There will be plenty of atheists who studied the Bible in order to debate with Christians. All of these will recognize the rapture when it happens. Many of them will then know without a doubt that God is real and the Bible is true. The rapture will have proved it to them. They will then becomes the first of the new Christians we refer to as the Tribulation Saints. They are the ones who will be persecuted first by the one world religion and later much worse by the antichrist.
       These Tribulation Saints will then begin preaching to others. They will show them the scriptures in the Bible about the rapture and many more will turn to Christ and believe.

Now this part is my belief. It is not in scripture but I truly believe it makes sense of some scriptures we misinterpret.

       Early on the One World Religion (OWR) will be pushing that all religions are paths to the same God. This is already beginning to be taught by the Pope and others. True Christians (both Catholics and Protestants) will take a stand and insist that the OWR is wrong and leading people to hell. That only Jesus will save you. At one point the OWR will start naming Christians as hateful and dangerous. We see this type of behavior already happening in the world where if you dont agree with certain groups, you are labeled hateful and even racist. After the rapture, the devil and his angels will be going rampant. The OWR extremists will even start killing Christians. This is why the 5th Seal speaks of those in heaven who were killed for their testimony in Jesus. It never mentions anything about the beast or the mark at this point.

Revelation 6:9-11 (NASB)

9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?” 11 And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told that they were to rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were to be killed even as they had been, was completed also.

​       The Bible tells us that at the midpoint of the tribulation, the antichrist will enter the temple and claim to be God. It also tells us that the beast will persecute the Jews and when they escape to the gentile nations, he will turn his attention on the other children. The CHristians. At this point their numbers will have grown enough that they will be a thorn in his side. So the AC will persecute them at a whole new level over what the OWR did.
        When the False Prophet pushes the mark of the beast, he will make it so nobody can buy or sell without it. This will make life very hard for the Christians. The Bible is clear that they will go to hell if they take the mark. They will not be able to buy food and many will see their own children or loved ones growing week from hunger. They will have to make a choice of taking the mark and buying them food, or staying right with the Lord and watching their loved ones die.
       Many Post-Trib believers will try and push that Pre-Tribbers are setting themselves up for failure because they are not preparing themselves mentally to deal with the tribulation. They think because of that the Pre-Tribbers will cave in and take the mark. This is hog wash and a ridiculous argument. IF they are right, the Pre-Tribbers will stay just as strong as they will and maybe even stronger. Whether one caves in to the mark or not will have nothing to do with how prepared they are mentally, but instead on how strong your personal relationship with the Lord is. The fact they believe they will have to be mentally prepared says they think they will have to depend on their own courage instead of faith in Christ to survive. Faith in Christ will win every time over ones faith in themselves.
       In the end, the majority of the tribulation saints will die. The persecution on them will be the worst this world has ever seen. Worse than 70 AD and even worse than the Holocaust. But in the end, a few of the Elect will survive and still be alive when Jesus returns.
       When Jesus does return, He will first wipe out the armies of the world. He will have the antichrist and false prophet cast into the lake of fire. Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years. Then Jesus gathers everyone who is still alive in front of Him and He holds a judgment. This is commonly known as the judgment of the Goats and Sheep. The Goats will be on his left and they will be killed and cast directly into the Lake of Fire. The Sheep will be welcomed into the Millennial Kingdom. Never in any place in the Bible are unbelievers called sheep. This is what it says about the sheep in this judgment...

Matthew 25:33-40 (NASB)

33 and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’

       The Tribulation Saints who died for their faith in Christ will come to life and join the bride on thrones....

Revelation 20:4 (NASB)

4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

​       These Tribulation Saints who are welcomed into the Kingdom, will keep their flesh and blood bodies. They will repopulate the land. They will live much longer lives. A child who dies before 100 years old will be believed to be accursed. This thousand years will be of peace. The Lion will eat grass alongside the sheep and the ox. There will be no killing or war. 
       As the survivors of the Tribulation (The Tribulation Saints) die natural deaths, there will be no more eye witnesses of the Second Coming left. As the thousand years comes to an end, their descendants will still believe but not very strongly. Then the devil will be let loose for a short time.
       Scripture does not say how long the devil will be free. Only that it is for a short time. A thousand years to us is a day to God, so there is not much evidence for how long that time might be. However, if it is a short time compared to the thousand years, one could guess that it could be anywhere from a year to one or two hundred years.
       A hundred years where there is little death and he works on the same people continuously, will be plenty of time for the devil to do his work. With no witnesses alive, he will convince them all they were just myths and the people in the holy city are keeping them down. He will turn them against the Holy City. When they fill the plains of the land, God will rain fire down on them and destroy them.