What is the Church’s role in the end times?
Scripture shows the Church's role in the end times is to remain faithful and Spirit filled, endure persecution from the antichrist, and carry the gospel of the kingdom to all nations as a witness before the end comes, being removed only at the very end just before God's final wrath is poured out.
The Church's calling in these last days is first to endure. Jesus taught in Matthew 24 that believers will be afflicted, hated for His name, betrayed, and surrounded by false prophets and cooling love, yet He said, "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." This endurance is not passive; the Church is also charged with a mission during this very time of pressure, "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." The task of finishing the preaching of the gospel belongs to the Church, and it is the pure, Philadelphia type of church, described as having a little strength and an open door of utterance, that is specially fitted to carry this end-time message.
The Church is also called to be watchful and prepared rather than lukewarm or presumptuous. Jesus warned in the parable of the faithful and wise servant that the Lord could return at an hour we do not expect, and that those who grow careless and begin living for the world will be caught unprepared. Paul likewise warned the Thessalonians not to be shaken in mind, because before the Lord's coming there must first be a falling away and the revealing of the man of sin. The Church living now is described as being in the very midst of that falling away, which makes urgency, sound doctrine, and unity under apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers essential so the saints are not tossed about by every wind of doctrine.
Rather than being removed before any difficulty, the Church is shown to be present through much of what unfolds. Peter's use of Joel's prophecy in Acts 2 ties the outpouring of the Spirit, with sons and daughters prophesying, directly to the cosmic signs of blood, fire, and vapor of smoke that come "before that great and notable day of the Lord." Because the Church is described as being taken up at the start of the Day of the Lord, it is present for the events that precede that day, including the trumpet judgments, standing not as victims but as Spirit filled witnesses and overcomers.
What the Church is spared is the outpouring of God's wrath itself, the seven last plagues described in Revelation 15 and 16, since "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." The Church will be taken out just before that wrath falls, gathered together to meet the Lord in the air as He descends with a shout and the trump of God. Until that moment, the Church's role is to remain faithful under persecution, to resist deception and doctrines that lead to sin, to finish preaching the kingdom to every nation, and to stand as a purified, watching people ready for the Lord's appearing.
The scriptures
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
From the books
This answer is drawn from these passages in the Mary Banks Faith Library.