I so love your website. The insight you provide is amazing. My question for you is based on another question you answered recently. You said “The seal of God is the same one mentioned in Rev. 7:3 that will protect the 144,000. There’s no indication as to who else might receive the seal, but my guess is that all believers will have it. The Mark of the Beast does not come along until Rev. 13:16-17.”
My understanding is that believers in OT times did not have the Holy Spirit sealed in them and they could therefore lose their salvation. So too is my understanding that tribulation believers will not be sealed either. In other words both groups could/can lose their salvation.
So my question is do you really think that all believers will be sealed or just the 144,000 that God said He would seal? And if you do believe all believers get sealed at that point, wouldn’t it stand to reason that as new believers converted would they be sealed too as God is not a respecter of persons? (in that what He does for one, He does for all?)
It is just my opinion but I don’t think very many believers are going to make it through the tribulation and those that do make it will be jews that are supernaturally saved. I believe that all other believers will die a martyr’s death. And that it is very important to tell unbelievers now that they need to make sure that they don’t take the mark. All of this talk about being sealed and saved forever by a one time conversion (which I do believe is the mark of church age believers) is doing a huge disservice to those who will find themselves in the tribulation and think that they can take the mark of the beast and just confess later. I think it is important as we discuss salvation and escatology with unbelievers that they understand in no uncertain terms just how horrific the tribulation and hell will be.
The Seal of God given to the 144,000 in Rev. 7 is not the same as the Holy Spirit who is sealed within Church age believers as a guarantee of salvation. (Ephes. 1:13-14) In my answer I was referring to the seal that will protect the 144,000 from the plague of demonic locusts. I said I think all believers will be protected from these locusts, not just the 144,000, and didn’t mean to imply any guarantee of salvation for Tribulation believers.
In my article The Nature Of Post Church Salvation, I show the differences between the Church Age and the Tribulation where salvation is concerned.