Thanks for your time, you have been a great help in my studies. After a year of studying prophecy, I finally have found peace with the pre trib rapture doctrine. I truly believe the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the truth and after reading many different interpretations, I finally turned to the one thing I wasn’t doing, which ironically was reading the Word of God for myself. This truly has opened my eyes.
However, after settling on the rapture issue, I now have a question about dispensationalism. Correct me if I’m mistaken, but the church age ends with the rapture. However, the “dispensation of grace” still continues, correct? If this is the case, my question centers around two groups of people:
1.those who die during the tribulation after becoming saved and
2.those who survive to end of the tribulation and are saved.
In Ephesians 2:6-10 Paul says we (the church) will serve as an example of the incomparable grace of our Lord in the coming ages. Since the “church age” ends with the rapture, what does that make people of groups 1 and 2? Won’t they also be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? So won’t they also serve as an example of God’s incomparable grace through eternity?
While I’m on the subject, I have also wondered, do saved Israel trib saints and gentile trib saints share the same destiny throughout eternity or the millennium?
After the Millennium and the Great white throne judgment is ended, perhaps they (Israel and gentile trib saints) too will become part of the church and serve as an example of God’s grace throughout the rest of eternity?
You’ve asked a complex question but I’ll try to make the answer as simple as possible. The thing that ends with the Rapture is membership in the Church. People were saved before the Church age and people will be saved after it, both Jew and Gentile. The thing that pre and post Church believers don’t receive is the Church’s destiny. They won’t be the Bride of Christ, won’t be seated with Him on His throne, won’t dwell in the New Jerusalem, etc.
According to Rev. 7:14-17 and 20:6 Tribulation martyrs serve the Lord as priests in His Temple. The Sheep and Goat judgment of Matt 25:31-46 explains that those who are saved and survive the Great Tribulation go into the Kingdom in their natural states and help re-populate the Earth, Jews to Israel and Gentiles to the nations.
As far as what happens after the Millennium, the Bible is silent.