Will the dead get a second chance during tribulation?

A:

It is unclear what would happen to the dead during the so-called Tribulation. This was a theological invention of John Nelson Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren, in the nineteenth-century, but more recent proponents of Darby's scheme have added their own colour, often in contradiction to each other. Barbara R. Rossing (The Rapture Exposed) says that according to one critic, the Tribulation has its origins with a young girl's vision. In 1830, in Port Glasgow, Scotland, fifteen-year-old Margaret MacDonald attended a healing service, where she was said to have seen a vision of a two-stage return of Jesus Christ. The story of her vision was adopted and amplified by Darby.

The belief that Jesus will come again was not new, and Christians have always taught that Jesus will return to earth and that believers should live in anticipation of his second coming. Darby's new teaching was that Christ would return twice, first in secret to "Rapture" his church out of the world and up to heaven, then a second time after seven years of global tribulation for non-believers, to establish a Jerusalem-based kingdom on earth. It seems that living non-believers are meant to be given a chance to convert, but Darby himself is not clear as to his intentions for those already dead.

One of the more recent proponents of Darby's Tribulation is Tim Lahaye, author of a number of books on the subject, and co-author of the successful fiction series, Left Behind. In Left Behind, there does not appear to be an influx of the billions of non-believers who are now dead, so perhaps the answer is negative.