1st Thessalonians 5:9 says,
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
The Tribulation is a future seven-year period of time when God will finish His judgment of the unbelieving world. The Great Tribulation refers to the second 3-1/2 year period of this 7 year Tribulation, when God's judgments will intensify on the sinful earth. The Church has already been taken from the earth in the rapture, and saved from the wrath that is about to take place. Also prior to this time the manifestation and reign of the Antichrist has already happened. This tribulation period is also referred in the Bible as "The Day of the Lord" in the following verses:
Isaiah 2:12 says,
For the day of the Lord of hosts,
Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,
Upon everything lifted up—
And it shall be brought low—
Isaiah 13:6-9 says,
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.Joel 1:15
7 Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt,
8 And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
Other verses where "the day of the Lord" can be found are: Joel 2:1-31; 3:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, and more.
