“Clearly” isn’t the right word, my FRiend since many who have studied the Bible like I have for almost 50 years see Scripture pointing to Jesus taking us out like God did “in the days of Noah” before all hell breaks loose.
Many who think God wants them to go through even the first half of the tribulation seem to have little realization about what they want to sign up for.
Here’s a taste...
Right off the bat there’s war, nukes, famine and 1/4 of earth’s population (maybe two to three billion) is killed (Rev 6:1-8).
If you survive that, before you know it flying demons that sting like scorpions will swarm the earth stinging and scaring the h*ll out of everyone followed by another swarm of 200 million who will kill 1/3 of earth’s population. Before you know it, HALF (1/4 + 1/3) of the world is DEAD. (Rev 9:1-19).
That’s just the first half. The second half is even worse with the the rest of the world being killed except for a remnant of Israel who are hiding (most likely in Petra).
You don’t want to be there for that and neither does Jesus. It is the time of His wrath on the nonbelievers. If you have accepted Jesus, by grace God’s wrath for your sins has already been executed on Jesus. God is not unjust to judge the same sin twice.
We’ll be watching from the mezzanine Bro, just like John did.
This argument that the tribulation will be full of hardship and calamity, so we shouldn’t “want” to go through it is not a scriptural argument, it’s an emotional argument, so it carries no weight with me.
Also, the tribulation is also NOT God’s wrath on unbelievers. The tribulation is Satan’s last persecution of believers before Christ’s return:
“12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.”
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Here we see that it is the dragon, Satan, who is doing the persecuting, and it is his wrath, not God’s, which is directed as Christians during 3 1/2 years of the tribulation period. These verses also show that God protects us during this time.
God’s wrath does not come to the world until the very end of the tribulation, for it is when signs appear in the heavens, at the sixth seal, just before Christ’s return, that the world realizes God’s wrath is imminent:
“12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
This is the first appearance of the word “wrath” in the tribulation narrative in Revelation, and the signs that accompany the sixth seal are the same signs that Christ spoke of on the Mount of Olives when asked what the signs would be of his return:
Rev. 6:12 - Sun is darkened, Matthew 24:29 - Sun is darkened
Rev. 6:12 - Moon turns to blood, Matthew 24:29 - Moon will not give forth her light
Rev. 6:13 - Stars fall from heaven like figs shaken from a tree, Matthew 24:29 - the powers of heaven are shaken
Rev. 6:14 - The heavens “depart like a scroll”, Matthew 24:30 - A sign appears in the heavens
Rev. 6:15-17 - All the kings and great men of the earth try to hide themselves from the coming of the lamb, which they fear, Matthew 24:30 - All the tribes of the earth mourn the coming of the Son of Man
Matthew 24 makes it clear, explicitly, that these things happen after the tribulation. The verses in Rev. 6 are parallel and testify that God’s wrath has not arrived before that point, which is at the end of the tribulation.