[BuckeyeTexan]

I’ve studied both sides of the rapture debate and therefore read verses quoted in support of it and in opposition to it.

So far I have not found an answer to the question of why God would shorten the time of tribulation if the elect had already been taken up. If only unbelievers are left to endure the tribulation, why shorten it for the sake of the elect. If they’re in heaven, they’re unaffected by earthly matters.

Matthew 24:22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.

Mark 13:20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.

[caww]

There are those who are people that will be saved in the Tribulation.....if God did not shorten the time they too would perish....... We cannot begin to even imagine the wrath of God that’s to come....it will be violent and catastrophic in every sense of those words......so the elect at that time will be those saved in the Tribulation....where the 144,000 Jews witness.

What I do question is or not those who had been presented with the Gospel ‘before the rapture’ and ‘rejected it’...will they or not have opportunity in the Tribulation to do so???.....so far I lean toward they will not have another opportunity if they rejected him before the Rapture.

[MHGinTN]

The 'elect' during the Tribulation are not the same as the Elect of the spiritual church of Jesus Christ, the Bride of Christ. Before the tribulation period there is no differentiation between Jew and Gentile, as the little spat recorded in Galations 2 denotes. During the tribulation the distinction is most pronounced, with Jews and 'earth dwellers', or those that dwell upon the earth.

The Church is referred to many times in Rev 1-3. But the Church is not referred to again after three until the end of the Revelation when it returns with Jesus as His Bride. The Church, the spiritual body of Christ believers is in Heaven durign the tribulation and especially durign the last 3 1/2 years known as the Great Tribulation.