Nothing should unite God's children into a closer fellowship than the
blessed hope of the coming of our Lord. This was the case, when the
Holy Spirit, almost a hundred years ago, restored to His people this
hope, and brought about a revival of the study of prophecy. The
midnight cry, "Behold the Bridegroom! Go ye forth to meet Him," was
then sounded, and those who heard and believed the blessed hope
separated themselves from all which is not according to sound doctrine,
and in so doing manifested once more the oneness of the body of Christ,
the church, and the fellowship of the Saints. Such ought to be the
results of a real faith in His coming.
One of the questions which has agitated believers in the premillennial
Coming of our Lord is the question of the relation of the true church
to that final period of our age, which is designated as the great
tribulation. When the blessed hope was first again brought to light,
clear distinction was made between the Coming of the Lord for His
Saints (1 Thess. iv:13-18) and the Coming of the Lord with His Saints
(Zech. xiv:5; Rev. xix:14). The imminency of His Coming was a
prominent part of the prophetic testimony of those bygone days. Then
the teaching was introduced by some that the Lord cannot come at any
time, that the church is destined to pass, like the rest of the world,
through the great tribulation, suffer under Antichrist and experience
the judgment-wrath of God. This theory has caused much division and
strife among believers in the Return of our Lord, and does so still.
In taking up this question concerning the church and the tribulation,
we shall first see what the church and the destiny of the church is,
and then examine the teaching of the Word as to the tribulation.