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Part V, The Lord vs. Satan: SupCtHeaven;

aka, the Trial of Human History.. aka, Did God err?

God's Script: "Later"

What about the Tribulation?
SIDETRIP: Separating the Prophecy 'Sheep', from the Goats...

Folks in the Tribulation will have a very rough time separating prophecy accurately, even as we do now. In large measure, we will be the cause of that problem, for we stupid Christians never do our homework. So there will be a lot of inept 'expert' material in the world, which takes time to cull through. So put yourself in that future, undateable generation's place, as you go through this section, so you can see what a mess they will be getting due to our failure to do our homework!

As we saw in great detail from Part IV, it's critical to understand that Rapture ends Church, and Tribulation is kicked off due to Rapture based on VOTING, which is the reason why the actual Tribulation's beginning cannot be dated. If you're trying to date the Rapture, if you're engrossed by all those prophecy programs which talk about historical events as if to say the Rapture could come now, stop. You are killing your spiritual life. Of course the Rapture can come now. Now means ANYTIME. 1000 years ago, 10000 years from now, same trends, who-knows-when. But it's Christian growth to Pleroma, which causes or delays the Rapture, not -- repeat not -- historical trends.

Because, in Part IV we saw that "tribulation" actually comes in two flavors: our NOW, and the official Tribulation, which begins at the Rapture. This Sidetrip is dedicated to certain additional specifics, not listed in the other pages, so you can do your own Bible tracing. These specifics were chosen because people talk about them a lot, not because they are the most important specifics. The most important specific, is tachú, suddenly, don't wait, make haste to learn Christ. But, people don't do that. But, they look at historical events and such. Ok, then let's play on that turf, even though it's the wrong turf.

Frankly, if you believe in Trib but dispute that Rapture is pre-Trib, PartIVa-c and the SideTrips of PartV will be important to you. But a shorter and maybe better proof for you is in SurpConc.htm's "Angelic Trial" link, #1 of the "Re Satan's Plan" section of that page. SurpConc.htm aims to summarize the much longer pages, so you can decide where to spend your reading time (if any). It brings in the TRIAL reasons why the Rapture must be Pre-Trib. Tribbers have no clue about the LEGAL basis for the Trib itself, so can't sort how where the Rapture fits in. Others, of course, react to all the goofiness of Christians who typically believe in the Rapture. Well, the Bible is not goofy. The Legal Reason for the Rapture kicking off the Trib is quite complex. So, the longer pages in Part IV go into much more detail as to why this is true, of course. They address the WHY of Rapture being pre-Trib, compared to the lesser stuff which follows. In accounting anything, in auditing anything, in proofing anything, the WHY is the most important. You can't get a conviction of a criminal without proving INTENT. So, too, you can't prove on 'circumstantial evidence' of scattered verses, their import, until you can prove GOD'S intent.

Frankly, If you don't believe in Trib or Millenium, then you'll also want to look at SurpConc.htm's "Angelic Trial" link, #1 of the "Re Satan's Plan" section of that page. Longer proof for you will be in Mirroring.htm's "David" and "To Be Or Not to Be" links. Thus you see the MATH PROOF that both Trib and Mill are literal periods, for God orchestrated time itself around them, and especially used the same periods to craft when Messiah would be born and die. So the Trib and Mill are "reimbursements" to Christ. It's a Justice Accounting God uses in His Design of Time itself. GeneYrs.xls is a provable-from-Bible companion timeline worksheet from Adam through 2006 so you can see just how literal is God's usage of 490-year and 1000-year time grants from Adam through 2006. It's how He orchestrates time: these grants form deadlines by which certain individuals must be spiritually developed, by which certain rollouts of Bible must be accomplished, etc. Kinda like a calendar. It will surprise you, how accurately the whole of history thus far, has been met; will help you see there is a very literal time plan, so it's not possible that Trib and Millenium are allegorical, etc. Part IVa will be of interest to you also, for that reason. The other SideTrips won't be as profitable, since if you don't believe in the Trib or Millenium, you won't read Revelation as but an allegory, so need other Scripture to alert you differently.

Finally, a personal note: I myself didn't like the doctrine about the Tribulation for a very long time. So I'm not selling it to you, exactly. I got horribly spanked by God for not paying attention in Bible class on the topic, even though I was properly taught and even though I took lots of notes and even though I correctly believed the Doctrine. So how much more spanking, will someone not blessed with all that exposure, get? I wouldn't want any of my brethren in Christ to get that spanking. End commercial message.


Sheep: Literal use of Rev1-4:1, else paradigmal use (esp. Chap6, 12-13, 17).

"Literal" use doesn't mean, for example, that you go looking for a church in Smyrna because that's a church name in Bible. Literal means take the circumstance presented and treat it as real NOW. Paradigmal means take what's depicted metaphorically and find a match in what's now, not expecting that the circumstance displayed, is in the full format depicted. If you were in the Tribulation, for example, you'd have to treat Rev7ff literally: which won't be hard, since there really will BE the kinds of folks described, then. Since we are NOT in the Tribulation, we don't look at the Wailing Wall for the Two Witnesses, since we are not in the Trib so they will not be there.

It's really important to trace Bible in order to distinguish between the PARADIGM of Tribulation which Revelation represents to elaborate on Daniel 9:26c, versus the ACTUAL Tribulation, where you use Revelation to tie to Daniel 9:27. And, of course, to tie all the other OT prophecies about specific events. All misinterpretation is first due to not diagnosing God's PURPOSE (Precedence, Part IVa); secondly, due to not distinguishing prophetical ties based on BIBLE'S OWN TERMS. We imbue Bible with our own meanings, so fail to first trace out what it defines as its OWN meanings. Big mistake.

NOTE: no OT prophecy references Church nor anything happening in Church, so you can know that what Rev ties to the OT, is for the actual Tribulation, NOT Church. For CHURCH was a "mystery", as Part IVa explained in some detail. It was a mystery, Because it might not have ever come to exist. So, then: OT Trib prophecy all lumps together, "the times of the Gentiles" within itself.

Revelation, by contrast, SEPARATES what is Church and what is NOT, by its own structure and language. There are distinct terms used which are NT terms, and others which are strictly OT terms. Just like the Gospels, you have an overlap of covenantal periods. Hence the Lord's use of the term, "times of the Gentiles" (plural, not singular) in Luke 21:24. So use Revelation to fit together the references which belong to their OWN "time", carefully. It's painstaking to do this, but not intellectually difficult.


Sheep: Common vs. specialized use of Bible's terms for "tribulation".

Like so many other keywords in Scripture, "tribulation" (thlipsis, in Greek) has more than one meaning. This is true in any language: to NOT distinguish the layers of meaning means laziness, and misinterpretation will result. Bible has many ways of making distinctions. For example, in Greek, the distinction between a common meaning and a special one is often accomplished by the ABSENCE of the article ("the"), a sort of bold fontface, stressing the word's quality (bad or good). Also, sometimes a monadic use of the article is employed, to stress uniqueness (example in 2Cor13:14). [People go dotty with Scripture; their common sense flees. So whenever they read some word like "salvation" or "tribulation" or "baptism", they assign it an irrationally-narrow meaning. Rightly-dividing the Word of Truth requires a pastor-teacher's gift of true preparedness in the Word, which requires he constantly use the Holy Spirit's Power. No human can rightly-divide the Word of Truth on his own. God is the God of Authority, and it takes a dedicated lifetime to pass on the Word to a congregation. For example, Matt 23:35's "Abel..Zechariah" is a term referencing the whole of the Hebrew Canon. What believer in a million would know that, upon reading it? So, then: we, too, need a good pastor and the Holy Spirit's Power; so, we gotta use 1Jn1:9 and keep plugging!]

Moreover, Scripture also distinguishes the official Tribulation from the generic or Church kind by using other names for the same period. You know that these other names designate only the official Tribulation, because the activities connected with these other names are the ones in official Tribulation passages. Some of these synonyms for the official Tribulation are: "time of Jacob's trouble" (e.g., Jer30:7, ref'd in Rev12); Psalm 2:5's "vex" (KJV; Hebrew root is bahal, piel stem -- English versions use words like "terrify"); "the devil's desperation" (maybe a "bahal" verse -- I'll find it later), "GREAT Tribulation" (e.g., Matt24:21). See? Just like "salvation" is used in the sense of deliverance while still on earth, so also "tribulation" has a common meaning, but also a specialized meaning -- and context plus keywords tell you which is which.


Sheep: Near vs. far fulfillment timings of prophecy, per Bible's divisions
-- and especially, how they FIT together.

As explained in detail in PartIVa, almost every prophecy in the Bible is deliberately dual in nature: it depicts what's called a "near-fulfillment", and a "far-fulfillment". God is always using puns, double-entendres, multilevel meanings, in His Words. (Unfortunately, the English translations never convey this extremely important fact.) So for prophecies to likewise have the multi-story structure, is fitting. Thus it was, for example, in Isaiah 7. The "far fulfillment" was the Virgin Birth, a warning signal to Israel that its time was ending -- but also (see the double-entendre) that its deliverance from sin had come. See Rev 12's double-entendre pregnancy.

That's probably one reason why John, in 96AD, had to write Revelation, to let folks understand why the 70AD destruction of the Temple did NOT result in a Second Advent. There'd have been no need for Revelation, had the 70AD destruction been the real "end", for Christ's 2nd Advent would then have come in 77AD. But not enough Church had reached Pleroma to justify that. So, nearly a generation later, by 96AD, when the written Canon to-date had almost finished circulating, and the last of the surviving apostles was exiled (and quite old), it was important to explain more about how the "end" worked, so to motivate folks.

That Christ would have TWO Advents is another example of dual prophecy. First, as Isaiah and David predicted, He would come to pay for sins; second, as David, Daniel, Isaiah (etc.) predicted, He'd come as King. Apostate Israel rejected the idea of the first Advent, long before Christ even came the first time. You can see this fact from Pharisees' reactions in the Gospels, for example. So, Israel stopped recognizing its own well-established rule that Bible prophecies are generally dual in nature -- due to their apostacy.

So, maybe the Jewish apostate tradition explains why some Christians don't see that Bible prophecies usually have double-fulfillments; why they thus tend to dismiss the official Tribulation. Or, why they incorrectly date it. Thus you have preterist interpretations; thus you have mid-Trib and post-Trib "Rapture" datings. Secondly, these folks don't understand that in the NT "we" and "mystery" are NT keywords for only the Church; that "mystery of God" (not used in the NT anywhere before Revelation) is an OT fulfillment of an OT promise in Amos: for, the official Tribulation was never a mystery, to Israel.


Sheep: Isagogics of Church monikers and Bible-Defined Roles,
i.e., using Church to RESCUE Israel

Remember how, we saw from Part II and IV that Satan had managed to get Israel to reject their Messiah? How, the Church was not prophesied to Israel since Israel had had the option to accept Him, and they might have done so? Thus, to protect their freedom (they would have been jealous of us, Paul writes in Rom11:11), the Church was a "mystery" to them. The Greek word "musterion" means "secret knowledge", really -- knowledge only known to those in the fraternity, and kept "secret" from those outside it. For example, there were the Elysian "mysteries", doctrines/practices only known to those in that sect. Likewise, today, in the Masonic and like orders, there are "mysteries" known only to those in the group. We, the Church, have our own "mystery" doctrines. (God uses also the word "musterion" to poke fun at gnosticism, but that's another meaning level not here germane to discuss.) So, when a passage like 1Cor15:51 uses the word "mystery", it can't mean anything connected with the official Tribulation, because the Church was unknown to Israel, and the official Tribulation belongs to the covenantal period of Israel.(Remember, the Church was "grafted in", so NOT a part of Israel's "tree".) Hence, only a PRE-Trib Rapture is true.

Secondly, remember the verse about how we are Ambassadors for Christ? That designation is used of no one else, and is never used of Israel. Similarly, no one else is called Bride. Similarly, no one else is called "in Christ". Similarly, no one else is called Church. These and other titles for "us" (another technical term for Church, in the NT) will help you navigate the boundary lines in the prophetical statements.

The "Age" of the Church is the GREATER tribulation to be in, because all future history hinges on it.

That is why Ephesians 1:15-23, Col1:16-18ff., Hebrews 2, 9:16ff, 10:12-14, 11:39-40 (among other cites) all tie "Footstool" (an OT synonym for the "new covenant" period, which we call "the Millennium") to the Body of Christ. We are an extension of Him in the world: that's why we are Indwelt by the Trinity; that's why 1Jn4:17 says what it does. That is why Hebrews 1 stresses how in the latter days, everything comes through the Son. We are "one" with Him, just as He requested in John 17. So, the FUTURE blessing by association with the Son comes THROUGH us. That is how God the Father delivers it.

So, because the blessing-by-association from the Church completes, the "official" Tribulation can occur, and can be a RETURN to the Age of Israel, Daniel's 70th week. The Church is God's answer to Satan; the Tribulation is Satan's answer to God. The Church proves that Christ's spiritual life is even executable by animalistic humans, so God did not create man faulty -- even after man became maximally faulty. So, God didn't even create angels faultily, for these fallen humans better executed a higher spiritual life than even the angels had. That's why the Church -- especially those few who execute 1Jn's Script all the way to Pleroma ("fullness of Christ") and co-rule with Christ -- shall be even higher than the angels.

So, since the Bride's Recall cannot be predicted, the official Tribulation cannot be happening NOW.


Sheep: Historical Events which are Tribulation-specific, Millenium-specific.

Nor is it happening now. Let's briefly review some historical conditions which must be met at the same time, to constitute the official Tribulation:

  1. The Jews must ALREADY be in dispersion, from which they are substantially "gathered". (Versus 70AD, which was a going-into dispersion.) The gathering begins BEFORE the 2nd Advent -- Satan wants this, so he can concentrate his efforts on killing all of the Jews. (One of the 9 cardinal principles of warfare is "concentration of force", and that principle in part depends on the enemy being concentrated in a "salient", another military term.) That's why, frankly, the push to gather Jews in Israel has been so marked since the Balfour Declaration: using us Church! during our invisible tribulation period. Satan loves to deride God, and loves using the Church to persecute God's Chosen People. See, since Satan doesn't know when the Body will be completed either, he's always rushing to gather the Jews so he can be in the best position to destroy them when the Church 'goes up', so to speak.

  2. The Tribulation is marked by WORLD-WIDE war, not merely in the Middle East -- because the Jews are still IN Dispersion. In other words, Satan never reaches his 'regathering' goal. See, the prophecy is that Christ will regather Israel, but AT the 2nd Advent. Satan thus 'fakes' that promise -- so he can get Israel in one easy-to-destroy location, again. (You can see his efforts historically, from the rise of Islam to promoting "Zionism" in the 20th century.) Satan's uses the official Tribulation to wipe out all Jews, so the 2nd Advent cannot occur. So, the regional 'war' preterists like to make out of the 70AD destruction of the Temple is totally misplaced.

      Hence what's happening here in 2005, is but a continuation of his attempt to concentrate on and hence wipe out, the Jews. But he also wants to wipe out the Arabs he's using to wipe out the Jews, and the 'Christian' US -- if he can manage it -- would be a nice tool to hurt both. Israel misinterpreted Daniel 9 (actually, doesn't even read it, however much each year it mouths it in Sabbath services); didn't listen to Matt24, so of course doesn't hear Rev11:1's measuring-line sarcasm. But that doesn't mean we the US shouldn't support Israel as she is. However, the difficulty of the conflict, the problem with the Arabs, our insane energy policy (why don't we go nuclear?) -- will all eventually contribute to a rise of anti-semitism in the US. It's already alarmingly higher than before 9/11. We die as a nation as soon as we go anti-semitic. The biggest reason to support Iraq is to protect Israel. Frankly, we shoulda gone into Iraq back during the 90's, when Saddam invaded Kuwait (that's also the position of the Wall Street Journal, as told by Paul Gigot to Charlie Rose, in a program just before the election ended). But, at least we got there now.

  3. The specific strategic circumstances of the official Tribulation are thus always attempted, but haven't yet occurred. Here are but two of many examples.

    The religious and political alliance between the King of the West and the Jewish king -- who will be a guy from the tribe of Dan -- has never occurred. The Jewish king is anti-semitic: why, is not revealed. [Daniel says this guy has no interest in women. This metaphor means he's not like 'normal' men, so the maybe the metaphor depicts extreme self-control and/or power lust -- I've got to do more homework on it. Warning: don't get involved into all the anti-Dan junk. That junk is an attempt to trick you into helping Satan wipe out Jews. God severely disciplines anti-semitism of any kind. I've seen Him punish such folks in my own families.] Israel, even when satanically 'regathered', even when reinstating the Temple, even when (at that time) very pro-Messiah, is very apostate. Satan has deflected whatever positive volition they have to Christ. How do we know? Look: Messiah is supposed to be from the tribe of Judah, David's line, not the tribe of Dan. Furthermore, it's the tribe of Dan which is omitted from the roster of the 144,000 (and maybe that's the only reason why Dan is missing, so this mistaken Messiah can be spotted). But they don't notice that, I guess.

    So I don't know if this Danite will pass himself off as being also from Judah. Maybe his bloodlines are mixed, and some of his ancestors were siblings of Christ's. Alternatively, since the Danite sets up an image of the Gentile King of the West in the Temple, maybe the Danite passes off the Gentile KOW as being from Judah. As you read the Holy Blood, Holy Grail books, you'll see a real-life scenario of how easily Satan can feign either type of obviously-false Messiah to a facile, credulous world. Even more likely, Satan will use, in the Trib, a claim akin to today's House-of-Stuart pretender, who claims that he is a progeny of Christ (look up "Sir James Gardiner" in dogpile: or, "Lawrence", if "James" doesn't work).

    See, the bloodline claim is a claim that supernatural powers accompany the 'sacred' blood of Christ. So, it's very easy to fool us who already reject Scripture in favor of ooooh-ahhh supernaturality, because we humans want God's goodies (faked or real), but not the Real God. 'Just as Romans 1-2 tearfully record: what should have been a search to know God was replaced by a prolonged lust to know, and even promote, an old and patently silly lie. (Come on, now: would Christ subject His Own Family to endless strife by having kids, especially since, as He told Pilate, "My Kingdom is not of this world"? What, did the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail SIT on their brains during the decades they spent researching and writing their books, continually straining at gnats but swallowing camels? Think, for crying out loud!)

      Preterists, please note: In 70 AD, Titus did not invade Jerusalem at the behest of a King of the Jews -- there was no such king then. The only one eligible, Christ, was executed, remember? Herod Agrippa II's Jewish blood was from the Hasmonean (priestly caste, not truly royal) side (aka Maccabees). So he wasn't of Judah (the Maccabees were usurpers and then the Herods usurped them via intermarriage). So the 70 AD destruction cannot be justifiably used to buttress a preterist interpretation.

    Moreover, the King of the West is both a political and a religious ruler of a European 10-nation confederacy headed by Rome. So it doesn't necessarily mean the Roman Catholic Church, but could be a brand-new religion in a brand-new political entity. It's the political entity which is stressed. Religion is but an adjunct, to drug the masses (Lenin's/Satan's "religion is the opiate of the people"). Granted, we see Satan attempting this goal via his development of the Holy Roman Empires, during the first 1500 years of post-Cross history, during which he attempted to make Roman Catholicism the 'world religion', but even it didn't fulfill the enumerated conditions here. Granted, the rise of ecumenism is indeed what Rev13&17 depict, as a trend of history -- but the "b)" side, the far fulfillment side of the prophecy as an actual event during the 7 years -- its characteristics have not yet been fulfilled.

      Satan's Geographical Strategy Key==> Satan doesn't need the entire world under his control. He instead needs to get nations near Israel under his control. Witness, historically, how Anti-Semitism has radiated outward, geographically, from the time Israel was founded, even through today. So, nations which are pro-Israel, contiguous or not, are among Satan's biggest targets. Given Israel's strategic position geographically, and the Diaspora, Satan's got a big job to do. He's been amazingly successful at it, as any study of world history proves. [Why doesn't he give up? Because his thirst for revenge against the Son is boundless.]

  4. Certain supernatural beings who publically communicate to mankind must have their own 'second advents' during the Trib. Here are two quick examples:

    As noted in Part IVc and elsewhere, I don't buy the argument that the Two Witnesses are sent down from heaven, resuscitated -- God is silent, and the last 'Elijah' was John. But many do think Moses and Elijah, or some other past pair of Biblical heroes, are referenced in Rev11. Ok, then: No Witnesses are broadcasting from a rebuilt Temple, spewing fire from their mouths or stopping the rain (1st half of Trib, Rev11, Dan9:27's SACRIFICES STOPPED); nor are there any angels flying in the sky each noon hour, warning us of God's Judgement "woes" (2nd half, Rev14). In fact, at present there's no Temple at all. The Islamic "Dome of the Rock" stands where the Temple should be (the "Rock" being the rock on which Isaac was sacrificed, which became the place where the ark had rested in the Holy of Holies).

    Do you see gorgeous 'aliens' in the millions swarming the earth, looking somewhat like the later Merovingians, and just as horny? Just as bloodthirsty? No? Well, then, I guess you're not in the official Tribulation, because that's when the Abyss demons and their cohorts are finally released from millenia of incarceration. And they are hungry.

  5. Tribulational tactical troop movements have not yet occurred. [You find these in Revelation, Daniel 7-11, Zech12,14, etc. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah also describe some aspects of these events. Someday I'll list the verses here, when I've had time to review my notes (thousands of pages). There are many very precise verses on these things, not just a few. My pastor did his doctorate on this topic, so I have full exegesis on tape. Sadly, English translators often fuzzily render military terms, (e.g., "hosts" instead of "armies", "sash" instead of "baldric"), so English versions mask the military idiom. NIV does try at times to bring out military idioms, but it's very uneven in its scholarship. So, I can empathize with those who find it hard to learn about the Trib military movements from English Bibles!]

    For example, the King of the North makes a pre-emptive attack to separate the King of the West from the Jewish antichrist (there are two antichrist rulers, Gentile -- KOW -- and Jewish). In this pre-emptive attack, the KON swoops down through the 'bridge' of Israel, possibly at the invitation of the Kings of the South (Arabs) -- but also to forestall a two-front war, by containing the KOS (Arabs are notorious for suddenly switching alliances). KON, en route, takes over the northern portion of Africa, as well as occupying Palestine.

    As a result, the Jewish leader calls on his ally, the King of the West, to intervene. A Mediterranean sea battle takes place. KON defeats the KOW's fleet; but the KON can't follow up his victory and chase KOW, due to bad news KON gets from his home. His supply lines are so strung out he must backtrack, rather than using the sea to go home. So, he ends up in Israel, which is a base of operations for him. By that time, KOW and KOE and KOS have assembled their land forces, and they meet in the valley of Esdraelon, for the biggest land battle in the history of the world. That battle includes the "siege of Jerusalem", due to its strategic location (which is why it's then a base of KON operations). So Satan causes the armies to 'need' that strategic base -- but really, to destroy the Jews. (The Emperor Napoleon remarked once, when he saw the Valley of Esdraelon, "all the armies of the world could fight here." See? 70 AD was not like this scenario, at all).

  6. Tribulation-predicted disasters have not yet happened. Granted, the historical trends always move toward or away from these events. The trumpet and goblet/vial judgments which wipe out at once so much land, water, people -- 1/3rd here, another 1/3rd there -- have not occurred.

      People mix up the Leviticus 26 and Deut 28 punishments with these judgments. True, they are of the same meaning: judgment for apostacy. For example, the sudden coupling of 9/11/01, PLUS the many fires and other disasters in the US, PLUS insanities like the closing whole airports because one man is running, plus Enron/ArthurAnderson/ Worldcom/pederast vulturic blamesmanship: all these act out, as if on cue, Lev26 and Deut28. We Americans are 'suddenly' soooo eager to blame just about anyone who comes along! Truly frightening, how our souls have shrunk. Read those OT chapters, and see for yourself how they are playing out, right NOW.

      But that is where the resemblance stops. John's Apocalypse is way too specific. The writing is Greek-drama style. In essence, the Son puts on a play for John, and asks him to write it all out. So, John describes things that will actually happen, using well-known metaphors. (Greek drama rules eschewed hypothetical plots. Like art, Drama was a deliberate propaganda tool, designed to teach Honor; so REAL events were always used in the depictions. Even Augustus caused the Aeneid to be written, for that purpose.) One mustn't brush away John's writing as merely paradigmal. Both patterns and specifics are intended. This, the writers understood. Do we?

  7. God's script for official Tribulation folks, as we saw in Part IV, is a reversion to a mini-Mosaic Law, patterned after Daniel's exilic life. Because, there IS no client nation Israel (whether or not a secular polity exists), because NO AUTHORIZED TEMPLE will be rebuilt until the 2nd Advent (Eze Chaps 39-end of book). The one in the Tribulation, is a FAKE! Trick for the Trib believers, is to know their Bible well enough, to recognize that and not fall for Satan's siren song to gather them with his Fake Temple (Rev11, Dan9:27's "offerings stopped" or however your Bible translates it); know their Bible well enough, to recognize that and not fall for Satan's Fake Church, either (Rev17). We've failed the latter every generation, so they will, too; especially, since there will be this very nice papertrail of bad 'experts' all saying Church will be in Trib. [Catholicism did that very thing by allegorizing away Revelation. Then became the harlot. Independent Christian churches are today banding together and doing the same thing. We learn from prophecy that we learn nothing from prophecy...]

    So the "Law" is lived as one does IN EXILE: no sacrifices, because NO TEMPLE; all they'll have is Bible and The Promises; plus, maybe what little ceremonies or laws they can observe. This, because Israel is 'owed' 7 more years. This, because the OT visibility is briefly revived -- As A Judgment Everyone Can See Because The Time Is So Short. Those who see the Jewish leader put up a statue of the Gentile one in the (then-rebuilt) Temple, are supposed to flee to Petra (and like caves: Petra is Bible, but also a real labyrinthine place to hide). Those in Israel after the Two Witnesses are resurrected on the third day (after killed by the demon Abaddon), who don't heed that warning, are supposed to stay and fight in Jerusalem. It's all visible, it's all paint-by-numbers, it all is a final 'shot'. And it's all not happening nor true today. NOW, the antichrists are hidden; the spiritual life is hidden. Theirs is a visible Tribulation. Ours is an invisible tribulation: grace before Judgment.

Even from the above 7 categories, you can see that the Tribulation is a distinct and real period, which has not yet happened.

In sum, both tribulations must happen Because Christ Is Seated, And Satan Has Little Time Left. Our NOW is one, and the future official Tribulation is the other. These occur, not because titillated believers want to escape this life or feel important battling visible demons. 'Nor because intellectual religious folks are embarrassed by such manifestations, so need to explain them away as already fulfilled. But, as always, because of Christ.