What did Jesus mean in Rev 3:10 when He said, "I will keep you from the hour of trial?" Do you recognize He was talking about the Trib? Do you also recognize there are two groups referred to in that verse? The "you" are believers. When He said "those," He was referring only to unbelievers. The complete reference He made was, "those who dwell on the earth." If you check what that phrase means, in the context of the Trib, you will find it only means "unbelievers." One of the earliest examples in the Trib is Rev 6:10, that proves those who dwell on the earth are vicious murderers. Now, does that sound like believers? How about Rev 11:10? Are those who dwell on the earth, believers? Let's go to Rev 6:4. Folks on the earth will be made to kill each other. Is that anything God would subject us to? We aren't there in Rev 6:4, because Jesus promised to keep us from the hour of trial.
If you doubt the pre-Trib rapture, please read Rev 4:1. Let's also see that apostle John never left the island of Patmos during the whole time he received his vision on Revelation. All that John heard and saw in his vision was shown to him by one angel. That is what John says, in his own words, in Rev 22:8 (ESV): I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,
Therefore, Rev 4:1 is a future event, the pre-Trib rapture of the Church. Unbelievers are left behind, and only they enter the Trib.
There's great debate about who the 7 churches are symbolically today since the original 7 churches written to were located in Turkey and no longer exist today.
-7 different types of Christians
-7 different types of churches all throughout the world
-7 continents (each continent has its own type of church)
And Revelation 3:10 is part of a letter written to 1 of the 7 churches. It's not talking about ALL Christians seeing as there are those who are murdered during the Tribulation:
Revelation 20:4 (ESV)
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and THOSE WHO HAD NOT WORSHIPED THE BEAST OR ITS IMAGE AND HAD NOT RECEIVED its MARK ON THEIR FOREHEADS OR THEIR HANDS. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Revelation 4:1 was talking about John and John alone. There's no reason to think it's a double meaning. Yes, John was in prison but he was having a vision. In a vision you can go anywhere/be shown any place that God wants you to see. "JOHN, ascend into heaven to see this." Is what's being said.
The two witnesses dwell on earth at the time. They're not murderers. They're killed by The Beast. And there are other believers who dwell on earth still:
-the martyrs crying out to God/martyrdom in general is the 5th seal. And God tells them to wait because more Christians still have to be killed:
Rev 6:11 (ESV) Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
-Other believers dwelling on earth during the trib (AT CHRIST'S RETURN):
1 Thes 4:15-17
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who ARE LEFT UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 THEN WE WHO ARE ALIVE, WHO ARE LEFT, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
-Other Christians are dwelling on earth that have the seal of God in their foreheads (as God tells the flying scorpion things to only hurt those who DON'T have the seal of God. He wouldn't have to say that if everyone who has the seal of God is in heaven (the 5th TRUMPET, far into the Trib):
Revelation 9:1, 4
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
-How is Satan/The Serpent/Dragon able to go after Christians during the Trib (while a group of Jews are hidden away in a wilderness) if there aren't any Christians dwelling on earth?:
Revelation 12:6, 13-17a (ESV)
6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 DAYS.
13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for A TIME, AND TIMES, AND HALF A TIME. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman AND WENT OFF TO MAKE WAR ON THE REST OF HER OFFSPRING, ON THOSE WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND HOLD TO THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS.
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