For the record (even though you will say I am wrong, because you are explicitly right), Rev. 20:4 does not refer to the church, but to people saved during the tribulation. Surely you are aware that nowhere in Revelation after 2-3 does the Bible use the word "church." That's because the church is in Heaven already during the Tribulation period.
Sorry, I really don't see how any of these passages disprove my position. None of them is talking about a Tribulation Period. In John 16:33 it is not saying that Christ will send the tribulation. Same thing in 2 Tim. 3:12. And in Rev. 3:19, chastening is not a synonym for tribulation.
I'm a dispensationalist. The church age ends at the rapture. Therefore, what you are referring to, "the elect" of the tribulation, are not the church. And I do believe those elect will be protected as the Israelites were from the plagues on the Egyptians. But that's another discussion that I don't have time for right now.
Is
the "great tribulation" a prophesied period in the future before Jesus' final return for resurrection & judgment? There are 3 specific references to "great tribulation" as distinct from the general warnings that Christians will suffer tribulation at the hands of the ungodly, & that sinners will suffer tribulation as a judgment from God. Mat. 24:21 Rev. 2:22 & Rev. 7:14
Mat. 24:21 refers to the time of the AD 70 destruction, & takes place before the passing of "this generation" so is a matter of recorded history.
Rev. 2:22 refers to the Thyatira church for allowing the teaching of Jezebel, & for others who fail to hear & heed the warning.
Rev. 7:14 refers to THE great tribulation presumably a specific prophesied tribulation as at the destruction. We need to look at the context.
Rev. 1 in its opening verses makes it clear that the prophecy concerns the immediate readers - "what must soon take place....... because the time is near."He quotes from the Olivet prophecy in v. 7, a "coming" where Jesus quotes Daniel 7 where his "coming" is his ascension to receive the Kingdom. Again taking place before the passing of "this generation."
In his Olivet prophecy Jesus gathers his elect from the four winds (Mat. 24:31) as recorded in Rev. 7:1. The 144,000 are therefore the believing Jews delivered from the great tribulation of Jerusalem before the destruction. They saw the signs & heeded Jesus warnings.
Rev. 7 occurs during the opening of the sixth seal, when John sees the people crying in terror for the rocks to fall on them & hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, as Jesus warns in Luke 23:30, quoting Isaiah 2.
The great tribulation is past; whatever tribulation has occurred down the ages & is occurring is of general character, not specifically prophesied as an "end time" event.
What about Rev. 20? John saw "the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God." Martyrs & other dead believers, in glory. Souls, not a bodily resurrection. See the two resurrection in John 5:24-30
The "millennium" is the present Gospel age.
