Peace And Safety, Then Sudden Destruction

Q

In 1 Thes.5, the Bible states that they will say peace and safety but then sudden destruction. Is that focusing on the time before the rapture or before the second coming? If before the rapture, then will the state of the world be one where there is a general feeling that there is peace or at least relative stability but only to have the rapture take place in that state of complacency? What are your thoughts on that?

A

Here’s how I see it. Just after the rapture of the Church, Daniel’s 70th week will begin with a brief time of peace. This is the time Paul was referring to in 1 Thes. 5:3.

Daniel 8:25 tells us the anti-Christ will at first appear to be a peace maker. In Rev. 6:2 the anti-christ is represented by the rider on the white horse. Then, in Rev. 6:4 the rider on the red horse will come with the power to take peace from the Earth. As suddenly as it came, peace will be gone and the unbelieving world will not escape. The time of God’s wrath will have begun, but the Church will be gone. 1 Thes. 1:10 tells us the Lord will rescue (deliver) us from (out of the time and place of) the coming wrath.

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes, 5:9).