This page is part of an overview of all the major end-times views held by faithful Christians. Each view gets the same structure and the same care, with no winner declared. Start with the overview for what every view shares, then read the others alongside this one.
In a sentence: The Church goes through the tribulation, and believers are gathered to Christ at His one visible, glorious return at its end.
How it reads the story: Holders who expect a future final period often understand the tribulation as a seven-year period drawn from Daniel’s seventieth week, though some read it more broadly. Either way, the Church remains on the earth through it, kept and sustained by God. At the end, Christ returns visibly on the clouds, the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ are raised, and living believers are caught up to meet Him. Many holders point to the word Paul uses for “meet” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, a word used in that world when a city’s people went out to welcome an arriving king and escort him back. So believers rise to welcome Christ and return with Him as He comes to reign. There’s one return, not two stages.
Key texts: Matthew 24:29–31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–3; 1 Corinthians 15:51–52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; John 17:15; Revelation 3:10, 7:14, 20:4–5.
What its holders are most careful to protect: Post-tribulation believers are most careful to guard the faithfulness of a God who walks with His people through the fire rather than always removing them from it. They want to stand in solidarity with believers through history who have suffered for Christ, and they place great weight on reading the order of events the way Jesus Himself gave it, with the gathering coming “after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29).
Questions others ask: Some ask how this view fits 1 Thessalonians 5:9, that God hasn’t destined us for wrath. Holders typically answer that God protects His people in the middle of judgment, the way He set apart the land of Goshen during the plagues of Egypt (Exodus 8:22) and sealed His servants in Revelation 7:3, so wrath falls around them but isn’t aimed at them. Others ask about expectancy: if signs come first, how can believers live ready? Holders answer that Jesus gave signs and still told His disciples to watch (Matthew 24:32–44), so readiness is about faithful living, not about nothing needing to happen first. A third question comes from premillennial believers: if every believer is gathered and glorified at the return, who are the ordinary mortal people who live in the thousand-year kingdom? Premillennial post-tribulation holders usually answer that it includes those of Israel who look on Christ and turn to Him at His coming (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:26), along with people from the nations who survive. Others notice that the word “church” doesn’t appear in Revelation 4–19, and holders answer that God’s “saints” and “servants” appear throughout those chapters, and that the whole book was given “for the churches” (Revelation 22:16).
Who has held it: Many early church writers, such as Irenaeus, expected the Church to face the Antichrist before Christ’s return. In the twentieth century, George Eldon Ladd, Robert Gundry, and Douglas Moo were well-known premillennial defenders of post-tribulation timing. As the overview notes, amillennial and postmillennial believers generally hold a single return that is closest to this timing.
Every View Stands on the Same Foundation
Every view described in this overview affirms that Jesus Christ reigns as King right now, that He will return bodily, personally, visibly, and victoriously, that the dead will be raised, that He will judge with perfect justice and make all things new, and that the day and hour of His return are known by the Father alone (Matthew 24:36). These questions don’t decide whether someone who trusts Christ is your brother or sister. Your pastor and your local church are the right people to walk through them with you.
Faithful Christians read this question differently. Here’s how Last Days Living handles questions like this.
Explore the Other Views
Overview: The Major End-Times Views
When are believers gathered to Christ?
What is the thousand years?
A related term