Editing Christian eschatology (section)

===Premillennialism===
{{Main|Premillennialism}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2021}}
Premillennialism can be divided into two common categories: Historic Premillennialism and Dispensational Premillennialism. Historic Premillennialism is usually associated with posttribulation "rapture" and does not see a strong distinction between ethnic Israel and the Church. Dispensational Premillennialism can be associated with any of the three rapture views but is often associated with a pretribulation rapture. Dispensationalism also sees a stronger distinction between ethnic Israel and the Church.

Premillennialism usually posits that Christ's second coming will inaugurate a literal thousand-year earthly kingdom. Christ's return will coincide with a time of great tribulation. At this time, there will be a resurrection of the people of God who have died, and a rapture of the people of God who are still living, and they will meet Christ at his coming. A thousand years of peace will follow (the millennium), during which Christ will reign and Satan will be imprisoned in the Abyss. Those who hold to this view usually fall into one of the following three categories:

====Pretribulation rapture====
{{Main|Pretribulationism}}
Pretribulationists believe that the second coming will be in two stages separated by a seven-year period of tribulation. At the beginning of the tribulation, true Christians will rise to meet the Lord in the air (the Rapture). Then follows a seven-year period of suffering in which the Antichrist will conquer the world and persecute those who refuse to worship him. At the end of this period, Christ returns to defeat the Antichrist and establish the age of peace. This position is supported by a scripture which says, "God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Thess 5:9]

====Midtribulation rapture====
{{Main|Midtribulationism}}
Midtribulationists believe that the Rapture will take place at the halfway point of the seven-year tribulation, i.e. after {{frac|3|1|2}} years. It coincides with the "abomination of desolation"—a desecration of the temple where the Antichrist puts an end to the Jewish sacrifices, sets up his own image in the temple, and demands that he be worshiped as God. This event begins the second, most intense part of the tribulation.

Some interpreters find support for the "midtrib" position by comparing a passage in Paul's epistles with the book of Revelation. Paul says, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:51–52). Revelation divides the great tribulation into four sets of increasingly catastrophic judgments: the Seven Seals, the Seven Trumpets, the Seven Thunders (Rev 10:1–4) and the Seven Bowls, in that order. If the "last trumpet" of Paul is equated with the last trumpet of Revelation and the revelation of the scroll of the Seven Thunders, the Rapture would be in the middle of the Tribulation. (Not all interpreters agree with this literal interpretation of the chronology of Revelation, however.)

====Posttribulation rapture====
{{Main|Posttribulation rapture}}

Posttribulationists hold that Christ will not return until the very end of the seven-year tribulation period. Christians, rather than being raptured at the beginning of the tribulation, or halfway through, will live through it and suffer for their faith during the ascendancy of the Antichrist. Proponents of this position believe that the presence of believers during the tribulation is necessary for a final evangelistic effort during a time when external conditions will combine with the Gospel message to bring great numbers of converts into the Church in time for the beginning of the Millennium.