One of the many reasons I say the tribulation saints are not the church saints is found in Rev. 7:9-14.
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
I think this is pretty clear that these many saints washed themselves in the Blood of the Lamb DURING the Great Tribulation.
But those who had already washed themselves in the Blood of the Lamb and alive at the time the tribulation is to begin, have already been taken from this wrath of God on unrighteousness at the rapture.
When Jesus said that the gate that leads to life is narrow and few there be that find it, He was speaking of those saved during this time before the Great tribulation comes. In other words, most of the world will go through this time of trouble called the tribulation with very few being saved and escaping it.
This accounts for the great number of people saved during the tribulation.
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
I think this is pretty clear that these many saints washed themselves in the Blood of the Lamb DURING the Great Tribulation.
But those who had already washed themselves in the Blood of the Lamb and alive at the time the tribulation is to begin, have already been taken from this wrath of God on unrighteousness at the rapture.
When Jesus said that the gate that leads to life is narrow and few there be that find it, He was speaking of those saved during this time before the Great tribulation comes. In other words, most of the world will go through this time of trouble called the tribulation with very few being saved and escaping it.
This accounts for the great number of people saved during the tribulation.
AND I FOT THIS........"Ron, you guys already know it all"
I knew immediately what the holy spirit was telling me, that I had to stop looking to PAT ANSWERS that had been passed down, one I understood for 30 years, and whenever I came across a seeming CONTRADICTION, God waned me to simply ASK Him what the truth was, and He would reveal it, if He deemed we needed to know, but I learned I had to be persistent like a fog on a bone, and He would always gibe me the answer.
The above Rev. 7:9-17 had always been one of those passages that I just let slide, even though it made no sense, it could not jibe with the holy scriptures for some reason. But, I just went along for years, but now, God wanted me t DIG IN DEEP and to keep searching until He gave me the answers, in other words, I had no roadblocks anymore.
So, what is the contradiction? Well, those seen in Rev. 7:9-17 came out off a "GREAT TRIBULATION PERIOD" according to the Elder in Heaven telling it to John, but at the 5th Seal Jesus tells the Martyrs from the 70th week they have to wait until all of their brothers had been killed in like manner as they had been killed (by the Beast) before they could get their vengeance, so that meant they had to wait until the Beasts 42 month rule was finished. Then in Revelation 20:4 we see that those who refused the Mark of the Beast and thus became Martyrs, all are judged AFTER Jesus Second Coming Return, thus they can not be seen in Rev. 7:9-17 and DEEP DOWN I always knew this was the Church, but while debating I could never say why, because it clearly says they same out of the Great Tribulation !!
So, as I promised God CONTRADICTIONS would now be pursued until I got the answer from God, so, seeing as the 5th Seal words of Jesus and the Rev. 20:4 passage tells us no one from the 70th week tribulation can ever be seen in Heaven, they even stay on earth and rule with Jesus for 1000 years, so seeing this I knew those seen in Rev. 7:9-17 had to be the Pre Trib Raptured Church, now I had to search until I got the truth, like a dog on a bone.
So, I asked myself, how can the Pre Trib Raptured Church be see as coming out of the Great Tribulation, and one day he Holy Sprit just gave it to me while I was contemplating this seeming contradiction. "Ron, in John 16:33 didn't Jesus say that on this earth men would have CONTINUAL TRIBULATION" ? Then it hit me, I had placed a road block in Gd's way, all because I and others have pigeonholed His vocabulary, all because Satan had managed to TWIST its meaning like he did with Adam & Eve (Thou shalt not surly die).
2000 is GREATER than 7 right? As in 2000>7, so the Great Tribulation Church Age is what those seen in Rev. 7:9-17 cam out of, at the Pre Trib Rapture, thus now Jesus words in Seal #5 can be true, and Rev. 20:4 can be true AND John's passage in Rev. 7 can be TRUE, because the Church Age saw MILLIONS of Christians Martyred over that 2000 some odd year period of time. The word GREAT can be used to describe ANY THINGS, not just the greatest ever troubles, but the greatest ever period of time of troubles also.
NOTHING ELSE FITS............Those are Church Age Saints, not 70th week Saints.
Both Gentiles and Jews come unto Christ AFTER the Pre Trib Rapture, so the whole Saint discussion is in reality a little bit of a useless venture tbh.