According to Daniel, Chapter 9, the 70th week of Daniel is a 7 year period of time which will occur after the death of Christ but before Christ’s return to set up the kingdom. The 70th week of Daniel is known as the tribulation period because it is a time in which the antichrist will rule the world and persecute the Jews. It is also a period of time in which Israel will accept God’s offer of the New Covenant Kingdom.

Daniel spoke of the 70th week separately from the other 69 weeks and said that the 69 weeks would end with the death of the messiah. However, he never gave any indication that the 70th week would be separated from the death of the Messiah by 2000 years. Paul revealed in his prison epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I Timothy, II Timothy and Titus) that God had started calling out the Church which is the Body of Christ and that the existence of the Church was a great mystery which had been kept secret in the mind of God throughout the ages past (Eph 3:9).

In Paul’s pre-prison epistles, he warned believers of the coming of the antichrist and the tribulation period. In the prison epistles, Paul wrote about the perilous last days of the Church age and the catching up of the Church at the end of the Church age, but he never mentioned the tribulation period or the antichrist. In the pre-prison epistles, Paul offered the New Covenant Kingdom to Israel, the Bride of Christ. However, he avoided that subject in the prison epistles.

This indicates that the Church and the Bride are two separate groups of believers. The Bride of Christ has the hope of the New Covenant Kingdom and will endure the tribulation period before entering into the kingdom. The Church which is the Body of Christ will have no part in the New Covenant Kingdom and will be taken up into heaven before the tribulation period begins.

Paul’s writings are all very consistent in regard to these distinctions in the pre-prison and prison epistles except for the book of Hebrews. Hebrews appears to be a post-prison epistle, and therefore, it can not be grouped with the other prison epistles. One has to ask why Paul would, in the book of Hebrews, confirm the New Covenant Kingdom to Israel, the Bride, after his revelation of the Church in the prison epistles. This is especially true when one considers that in the Church there is neither Jew nor Gentile, and the Church has no expectation of the New Covenant Kingdom.

If Paul was writing to the Jews of his day, then he must have seen two groups of people on the earth at that time. One group would have been the Church which was to be raptured before the tribulation period, while the other group would have been the Bride which was to be left on the earth after the rapture of the Church to endure the tribulation period and inherit the New Covenant Kingdom.

During the Acts period, while Paul wrote the pre-prison epistles, there probably were two different groups of people on the earth. God was saving people as the Apostles preached Israel’s hope of the New Covenant Kingdom, but God may have also been adding people to the Church which is the Body of Christ. God was certainly preparing mankind for the message of the Church because the word church was introduced in a generic sense, and Paul began to teach the concepts of spiritual circumcision, spiritual baptism, etc. However, throughout the pre-prison epistles, Paul gave every indication that he, himself, was anticipating the tribulation period and the return of Christ to establish the New Covenant Kingdom.

Some people believe that there are two groups of believers on the earth today. They teach that only those who understand the truth of the Church have received the high calling of membership in the Church. This would mean that most believers today are actually members of the Bride of Christ because they do not understand the unique calling of the Church. This would also mean that, as members of the Bride of Christ, they would not be caught up with the Church at the rapture but would remain on the earth to endure the tribulation period. This is false doctrine.

In the prison epistles, Paul clearly taught the unique calling of the Church which is the Body of Christ, and even though there were probably some members of the Bride of Christ still living on the earth, Ephesians 3:9 makes it clear that Paul's mission was to help all men see and understand the fellowship of the mystery concerning the Church.

Since Paul saw no justification for a separate ministry for members of the Bride, we can safely conclude that Hebrews was written to the believing Jews of the tribulation period and that all saved people today are members of the Church the Body of Christ even if they do not understand the distinctive truths concerning the Church.

It is possible that Paul thought the rapture of the Church would occur at any time and that his contemporaries who were members of the Bride would then go into the tribulation period. However, this does not seem likely because he spoke of the perilous last days of the Church as if they would be in the distant future.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

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