His church from the four winds, but He gives
the shout from the air and instead of being gathered the church-saints
are caught up in clouds, together with the risen saints to meet the
Lord in the air. The elect people who are to be gathered when the Lord
returns after the tribulation are the people Israel (see Isaiah
xxvii:13). Their hour of deliverance has come. This is the same
deliverance of which Daniel speaks in chapter xii:1. It is also
significant that our Lord after He announced the gathering and
restoration of Israel mentions at once the figtree, which is Israel.

The book of Revelation bears the same witness as to the church and in
relation to the tribulation to come. The church is only mentioned in
the first three chapters. In the church message to Philadelphia (Rev.
iii:7-13) a promise is given to the true church which is important:
"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee
from the hour of trial which shall come upon all the world to try them
that dwell upon the earth. Behold I come quickly, hold that fast which
thou hast that no man take thy crown." The hour of trial for all the
world is the tribulation period. Here, then, is a definite promise
that true believers are going to be exempt from that coming time of
trouble. Laodicea marks a final phase of Christendom; it is apostasy.
Chapters iv and v in Revelation reveal what will take place in heaven
in the future. We behold in these two chapters the redeemed in glory,
singing the new song. These redeemed include all the church saints as
well as the Old Testament Saints. Beginning with the sixth chapter we
find in Revelation the future things, that is, what will take place
after the Lord has come for His Saints. Here the judgments, the
tribulation and the wrath are made known which will visit the earth
during the last seven years of the age. Revelation vi-xviii cover the
history of the last week of Daniel. In these chapters we read nothing
of the true church as still on earth.

Another important fact as to the tribulation period must be dealt with.
During this time of trouble there are those on earth who suffer and
whom God owns as Saints. Satan through his instruments, the little
horn and the Antichrist is persecuting these Saints and they pass
through this awful time of trouble. Daniel wrote, "I beheld, and the
same horn made war with the Saints and prevailed against them ... and
he (the little horn) shall sp