To many who think about Bible prophecy yet future, the thought is that the Tribulation will be an era completely against all restrictions imposed by religious order. It will be a free-wheeling, anything-goes time of hedonism and evil deportment of every description.
To an extent this will be true. But immediately following the removal of the Church, a religious system will develop that harnesses all people left behind with religiosity beyond any that has ever before existed. We understand this by the following words John was given in his Patmos vision:
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
This worship will be demanded and directed by the second beast of Revelation chapter 13: the False Prophet.
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (Revelation 13:15)
So those left behind on earth after the removal of the Church in the Rapture will be, rather than free of religious restrictiveness, harnessed with the threat of death if they refuse to obey the most severe religious system ever imposed upon humanity. It will be a worldwide religion with the Antichrist as the object of worship.
Those who view Bible prophecy especially from the pre-Trib viewpoint have watched for numerous religious belief systems to come together in an “ecumenical” arrangement. That is, many different religions will, we believe, form a religious amalgamation through the False Prophet, to bring about the Revelation 13 system of worship. That system will require that people either worship the Beast (Antichrist) or die.
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