This is a big topic so we’ll only be able to give a high level overview of it in this article. The reader is encouraged to read Delivered From Delusion for more comprehensive coverage.

To start with, we need to define what the great tribulation is and what its purpose is. To do that we must correctly distinguish between the great tribulation and the wrath of God as these are not synonymous—despite the casual claims of most books on the end times.

Daniel 7 introduces us to the courtroom allegory:

Here we first see the little horn (the antichrist) prevailing against the saints, which is the 42 months the beast was given “to make war with the saints and to overcome them” in Revelation 13:5 & 7, as well as being the 1,260 days in Revelation 12:6 and the three and a half years in Revelation 12:14. This is the wrath of Satan (Revelation 12:12) and is also known as the great tribulation (Matthew 24:21). Just one way we know it is the great tribulation is that the command to flee at the beginning of that time in Matthew 24 is equivalent to the woman fleeing to the wilderness in Revelation 12, but there are many other similarities.

After this we read that “a judgment was made in favor of the saints” and following that the antichrist’s dominion will be consumed and destroyed. This is when the rapture occurs and the day of the Lord begins.

In a traditional courtroom we see the same three phases, where the trial takes place first, then judgement is pronounced, then the sentence is carried out. These correspond to the great tribulation (the trial), the rapture/resurrection (the judgement made in favour of the saints) and the day of the Lord (the sentence). This is not the only way we can know the day of the Lord is distinct from the great tribulation, but it is one of them.

When those in the church of Philadelphia were promised to be kept “from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10b) it is the great tribulation from which they were promised to be spared. We know that these were overcomers because nothing negative was written to that church, and all of them had “kept My command to persevere” (Revelation 3:10a) which is one of the things the overcomers were shown to have done in Revelation 2:26: “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end”.

This is in contrast to those in the church of Thyatira who were told they would be cast “into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds” (Revelation 2:22). It’s beyond the scope of this article to show that all the promises and all of the warnings to the seven individual churches apply to all, but they do.

The faithful Philadelphians are also in contrast to the rest of the woman’s children who also keep the commandments of Yeshua. As those are distinguished from the male child and are not kept from the great tribulation we can infer that they are the wise but sleeping virgins who were not overcomers previously but will become overcomers during the great tribulation (Revelation 12:11 suggests as much).

Returning to Revelation 3:10, what we see depicted there is the overcomers being promised to be kept from the hour of trial—the great tribulation—and those who are not overcomers being subjected to it. The reason the overcomers do not need to go through the hour of trial is because they have already made themselves ready and do not need further testing. This is why they are called overcomers in the letters to the churches—they have already been tested and have overcome. These are the ones Luke speaks of here:

Recall from an earlier article that one thing that distinguished the bride / the overcomers / the male child was that they kept the command to watch. It is they who will “escape all these things”, as Revelation 3:10 also states. This is also confirmed by what happens to the male child:

The word “caught up” in this verse is from the same Greek word (harpazó) used to describe the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. This brings up the question, is the bride going to be raptured prior to the tribulation? Technically this would be a pre-tribulation rapture, but it is also equivalent to what’s commonly called a mid-tribulation rapture by those who (incorrectly) believe the tribulation to be seven years in length.

By “rapture” we are referring to a catching up of those who are still alive, which is how the term is typically used. The problem is, there is no scripture that mentions a catching up of living believers prior to the coming of Christ, which Matthew 24:29–31 places after the tribulation and 1 Thessalonians 4:15–5:1 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1–2 place just before the day of the Lord, which is all in accordance with our earlier discussion. There’s also the issue that the rapture doesn’t occur until after the resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and the resurrection doesn’t occur until Christ returns (1 Corinthians 15:22–23). Therefore, a rapture of the bride before the tribulation cannot be substantiated by the scriptures.

Another point of difference between this event and the rapture is that in Luke 21:36 the overcomers who are counted worthy to escape will “stand before the Son of Man” and in Revelation 12:5 the male child “was caught up to God and His throne”. Both these seem to be describing something distinct from the rapture because those who are raptured will “be caught up [...] to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17), not caught up to His throne.

If the male child is not raptured, that leaves us with a sobering alternative—he must be going to be martyred at that time. In Revelation 12:4 “the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born”. We’re not actually told that he did not succeed in doing that, only that the “Child was caught up to God and His throne” (v. 5). We might assume that being “caught up” means that the child escaped from the dragon and was not devoured, but it is the trials of the great tribulation that are going to follow from which the bride is promised an escape. Martyrdom could well be the means by which that escape comes.

Although the male child being caught up to God’s throne is not consistent with a rapture, there is another group seen in heaven that it is consistent with:

The altar is before the throne (Revelation 8:3) so this is certainly compatible with being “caught up to God and His throne”. Notice too that those under the altar are given white robes, which further associates them with the overcomers (Revelation 3:5). And this takes place some time before the end as evidenced by the fact that there are still a number of their fellow brethren who are to be killed as they were. The fifth seal, then, is most likely opened, and the souls of the martyrs seen in heaven, at the exact same time that the male child is supposedly being caught up. Coincidence?

Although the evidence is strong that the bride will be martyred prior to the beginning of the great tribulation, that is going to be far better than being tested during it. Of those virgins who will be tested at that time only half are going to make it to the wedding—the others are not going to pass the test. This will be because they are simply not prepared to endure the intense deception and severe persecution that they will be subjected to during the great tribulation. Being spared from that trial by any means, including martyrdom, will be a great mercy.

There are two other reasons for supposing the bride will be martyred at this point. In the first article of this series we showed that it is the faithful among the body of Christ that are restraining the revealing of the man of sin. As the bride will remain faithful and not apostatise (as the rest of the church will) it follows that she must also be part of that restraining influence and will need to be removed by other means (such as martyrdom) before he can be revealed.

The second reason is that the bride is promised to sit with Yeshua on His throne (Revelation 3:21) and we also know that “the saints will judge the world” (1 Corinthians 6:2). This is realised in Revelation 20:4 which says, “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.” Following this, those who had been killed for not worshipping the beast or taking his mark are seen, and they’re clearly a different group. The point is, the bride is not among those who will be killed during the great tribulation. Either she will be martyred prior, or she will be protected throughout it until the rapture. While we can’t entirely rule out the latter possibility, the catching up of the male child as well as Yeshua’s question about finding faith on the earth when He returns would suggest the former is far more likely.