THE CHURCH WILL NOT BE IN THE TRIBULATION!

Sometimes little words make big implications in understanding Bible doctrine. This is the case of the Greek word throeo. Though it is used only three times in Scripture it substantiates the fact that the church will not enter the tribulation period. Now there are literally dozens of other proofs for this fact, but this word just adds to the argument!    The word throeo is used in Matthew 24:6, Mark 13:7, and in 2 Thessalonians 2:2. In the Thessalonians passage we read: "'Do not be quickly shaken from your composure' ... as if the day of the Lord has come." The Matthew and Mark passages are the words of Christ, telling the Jews that when they hear in the future of "wars and rumors of wars," this is not the time of the tribulation. "See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end." International catastrophes are but "the beginning of [the] birth pangs" (v. 8). And we know from Jeremiah 30:5-7 that the birth pangs represent the entire period of the tribulation, the seven year time of wrath!    The word shaken, frightened comes from the Greek word throeo. In my Greek commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians (The Hope of Christ's Return) published by AMG, I write: "The word is used of a ship that is shaken, adrift from its moorings and tossed upon a troubled sea, that is shaken of the waves and agitated by a storm." False teachers were trying to frighten the Thessalonian Christians in believing that they were in the Day of the Lord, the tribulation!     The word "composure" means "the mind." The Thessalonians were losing their minds, their reasoning ability was shaken in regard to this particular subject. This came as a shock to the mind and left them greatly agitated. In 2 Thessalonians 2:2 the verb "throeo" is in the Present Passive Infinitive form. The Christians were continually being put in a state of fright, believing that they were in the tribulation, but of course they were not!    Christ uses the word in the Matthew and Mark passages to tell the Jews who would be living during the end times that the wars they are seeing do not signal that they were in the tribulation. The tribulation would follow but various wars do not prove that it had arrived. Lenski says that Paul was quoting Christ. The apostasy of the church must take place first before the tribulation begins with the revelation of the Anti-christ!    Matthew 24:6 reads in the Greek grammar: "Do not be continually "frightened" when you see wars and rumors of wars. And Mark 13:7 reads: "When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; these things must take place; but the end is not yet." Or, "do not let fright be continually overtaking you." Christ adds in verse 8 that it must really get bad internationally. And when it does, "These things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs" or the beginning stages of the tribulation!    Paul makes it clear the church will not go through the tribulation, the wrath. He writes the Thessalonians are "to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10). And, "God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ" (5:9).    Remember too, there is a time of lull when the Anti-christ's peace agreement is signed, when men will say "Peace and safety!" (1 Thess. 5:3a), and "then sudden destruction will come upon them (not us, the church believers) suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child (Jer. 30:5-7); and they (it is not about us) shall not escape" (v. 3b). – Dr. Mal Couch (Oct. 09)