Expert: Dr Eddy Cheong - 3/1/2011

Question
Hello. I was wondering what the purpose of the great tribulation is and who it is meant for. I know the jewish people have had many hard experiences in the past and even now (such as the holocaust).  How will christians know when the tribulation has started?

Answer
One thing is certain i.e. the Born Again Christians (I use the word 'Born Again' because there are Christians who are very nominal and live as the World lives and who may not be Born again)will be raptured before the Great Tribulation (Pre tribulation view)...
1 Cor 15:52-53
52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
NIV
There are scholars who believein mid and post tribulation rapture ie They believe Christians will be raptured only in the middle or end of the Great Tribulation.

I hold the Pre tribulation view because the Great Tribulation is God's Judgement on the World and not on CHristians....

Matt 24:37-40
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
NIV

The days of Noah were the days of an evil generation whom God judged save for Noah and his family of seven. So the days of the second coming will be pre empted by a Judgement as in the like of the days of Noah.

However, the Jews still continue in their unbelief and judgement will befall the Jewish Nation of Israel in the hands of the Anti Christ. However, in the end a third of them will be saved...
Rom 11:25-27
Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

"The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins."
NIV
Zech 13:8-9
8 In the whole land," declares the Lord,
"two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.
9 This third I will bring into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, 'They are my people,'
and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.'"
NIV

The signs of the Lord Jesus' coming are in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21
All I can say is that it is imminent and we are to be prepared.