Our Divine Protection!
"Because you have kept My command to persevere,
I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall
come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell
on the earth."
Revelation 3: 10
Acts through Revelation focuses on the Church.
Acts documents the spread of the Church, and
the epistles document maturing of the
Church.
The Church is mentioned nineteen times in
Revelation 1–3 but not at all in chapters 4–22.
Why the omission in those chapters?
Beginning in Revelation 4, the book deals with what happens
on earth during the seven-year Great Tribulation. And the
fact
that the Church is not mentioned is a strong indicator that
the
Church is not present during that period of trouble on earth.
In other words, the Church has been raptured (removed) from the
earth and the effects of the terrible testing of those seven
years.
That is why Christ told the church in Philadelphia that He
was
going to keep them from “the hour of trial which shall
come
upon the whole world” (Revelation
3:10).
If you belong to Christ, you'll be either raised or
raptured before the beginning of that season
of
testing (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Yet another
reason to praise our God for His protection!
"A sovereign Protector I have,
unseen, yet forever at hand."
Augustus M. Toplady