 Conditions on earth are expected to steadily deteriorate until the "time of trouble"The Great Controversy (which is similar to the Great Tribulation of classic premillennialist teaching), when civil and religious authorities will combine to unleash intense persecution upon God's people, particularly those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath.The time of trouble will be ended by the glorious appearing of Christ, which will also mark the commencement of the millennium.Adventists reject dispensationalist theology and the pretribulation rapture, believing that the church will remain on earth throughout the end-time crisis.