Increasing world tension and the present trend of events fill many with fear, and there are even sincere believers in Christ who fear that perhaps the βGreat Tribulationβ of prophecy, with all its horrors, is at hand.
It is true indeed that even Paulβs epistles warn this world of the judgment to come. ββ¦The Day of the Lordβ, he says, βso cometh as a thief in the nightβ.
βFor when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escapeβ (I Thess. 5:2,3).
But before this time comes, the Lord will recall His ambassadors, as the apostle tells us in the following passage:
βFor the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these wordsβ (I Thess. 4:16-18).
This is the event with which βthe dispensation of the grace of Godβ will be brought to a close. Then will follow βthe day of His wrathβ, but even as Paul goes on to tell about this in the passage which follows, he reassures the members of Christβs Body that they will not be included amongst those to whom the Lord will come as βa thief in the nightβ.
βBut ye brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of lightβ¦God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for usβ¦Wherefore comfort yourselves togetherβ¦β (I Thess. 5:4-11). source
