I would like to thank you for responding to my post about the 1000 year gap in the seven year tribulation.  

We know from the New Testament that it shows there will be peace before the rapture.  In Thessalonians 5:3 where it says “saying peace and safety and then sudden destruction.”  This means they are living in peace and safety, and sudden destruction would not be the result of war because Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars but the end is not yet!  So this sudden destruction is not a result of a war, but a result of the dead in Christ's resurrection.  If it was a result of war, then it is not the END!  It also talks about this time “as it was in the days of Noah”, two in bed one taken and the other left, two going to draw water, one will be taken and the other left.  This shows business as usual, not a group that is at war!  They may be wicked but not at war!  Also Jesus’s words that “there will be wars and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet”, indicating that the end can only happen when there is peace and safety (no wars or even rumors of wars

If Eze 38 is speaking of the rapture of the dead in Christ, then the New Testament must agree with Eze 38, The Lord will return in the air, not to the earth for dead in Christ to rise and then we who are alive will be transformed and meet the Lord together in the air.  In Eze 38 it shows that all men will shake at His presence, not at His second coming.   just as we see the dead in Christ rising first (sudden destruction).  This says that every person on the planet will shake. I don’t believe there is enough firepower on the planet to shake every person without destroying the planet!  The sudden destruction/resurection/world wide earth quake will be the result of rising of the dead in Christ.  

The first part of Eze 38 seems to speak of a confrontation with Gog at the end after the 1000 year reign of the Lord.  The end of Eze 38 seems to indicate that this confrontation with Gog will be at the beginning because verse 23 says:Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.  Why would He need to be known by many nations at the end when He is reigning for a thousand years?

I know it does not seem possible that there will be a time without wars or rumors of wars, but anything is possible with God!

I have other interesting things if you would like to hear them.

Dave