Chapter Seven - The Great Tribulation

 

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Meaning of the Tribulation

Jesus declared to His own, "In the world ye shall have tribulation" (John 16:33). Trials, testing, suffering and pain are the human heritage. The apostle Paul repeatedly made it clear that "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22, 1 Thessalonians 3:3). But when we refer to the "great tribulation" we have in mind, not man's daily difficulties, but a specific era of anguish still in the future - a period of intense, excruciating sorrow and physical pain. If you are a believer in Christ, praise God that you will escape the fearful destruction of that day.

The term "the great and terrible day of the Lord" is quite common in Bible Prophecy (Joel 2:31; Malachi 4:5; Acts 2:20). The "day" is a lengthened period that begins with a morning and concludes with a nightfall. Moreover, the term "day" suggests manifestation, and indicates the time when God Himself will intervene in righteous judgment in the affairs of men. The "day" commence and continues throughout Daniel's 70th week until the return of Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

1.2 The Predictions of the Tribulation

This specified period finds particular mention in both Testaments. Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, as well as several of the Minor Prophets, all refer to it (read Deuteronomy 4:26-31; Isaiah 13:6-13; Jeremiah 30:4-9; Ezekiel 20:33-38; Daniel 12:1-4; Joel 3; Zechariah 14). Moreover, the New Testament confirms and amplifies this. God's greatest Prophet, Christ Himself, dwelt upon the details of this dark period and solemnly outlined its course (Matthew 24:14-21; Mark 13; Luke 21). Both Paul and John also added their quota of information (1 Thessalonians 5:2-11; 2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation 4-19).

1.3 The Features of the Tribulation

This terrifying period will be marked by the wrath of God, the wrath of Satan, and the wrath of God-hating men. The kings of the earth will set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord Jesus Christ and against His Anointed (i.e. the Saints); apostate Israel will crown the man of sin (i.e. Antichrist) as messiah in the rebuilt Jewish Temple; the pious Jewish remnant will be threatened with extinction and the vials of heaven's wrath will be poured out.

1.4 The Purpose of the Tribulation

The coming Tribulation is penal. It will be a righteous penalty from God upon apostate Israel and Christ-rejecting Christendom (read Isaiah 17:4-11; Jeremiah 30:3-7; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 23:33-39; Mark 13:4-32; Revelation 3:10, 11).

1.5 The Participants of the Tribulation

The unbelieving Jews and Gentiles will be the participants of the tribulation period. The bride of Christ (i.e. the true Church) is not the object of God's wrath, but of His unchanging grace, therefore she will not experience one drop of that "day of grief and desperate sorrow." "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him" (1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10).

1.6 Preparation for the Tribulation

In our day the Holy Spirit exercises a measure of restraint upon the hatred and lust of men. But when Christians are taken up at the rapture, the Holy Spirit, who now thwarts the evil desires and purposes of wicked men, will be "taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Lawlessness, which is already discernible in the world, will no longer be divinely restrained. The way will be paved for Antichrist to assert himself as the enemy of God.

 

2. THE NATURE OF THE TRIBULATION

Our Saviour said plainly, "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24:21). The earth will experience unprecedented, stark, ghastly tragedy. In oder to get the prophetic dimensions of this last-day crisis period the following Scriptures should be read and pondered: Isaiah 2:12, 19; 13:9-11, 13; 26:20, 21; 34:1, 2, 8; Joel 1:15; 2:1-3; 2:30-32; 3:12-16, 18; Amos 5:18, 20; Obadiah 15-17; Zephaniah 1:14, 15, 17; Zechariah 12:3, 9, 10; 14:1-5, 8, 9, 20; Malachi 4:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3; 2 Peter 3:8, 10.

The book of Revelation tells the grim and terrifying tale eloquently, accurately and dramatically. The tribulation will be a time of:

2.1 Carnage

Read Revelation 6:4, 8, 9. The red horse of war will stalk the earth. Slaughter, butchery, martyrdom will leave their gory wake across the globe. All previous efforts to establish a durable peace will be foiled. Peace will be taken from the earth (Revelation 6:4). The ravages of the sword, famine, pestilence and death will spread from land to land (Revelation 6:8).

2.2 Consternation

Natural catastrophes (Revelation 6:12-14) will strike with obliterating force. Earthquakes and mighty convulsions of nature will co-operate in spreading untold terror. Mighty men as well as fawning slaves will cringe in abject fear at the awe-inspiring sights and sounds (Revelation 6:15-17).

2.3 Calamities

Read Revelation 8:7-9, 12. Earth, sea and heavenly bodies will be in chaos. The ordinary processes of nature will be totally disrupted. Divine wrath will be meted out upon recalcitrant men. The momentum of disaster will increase swiftly. The tribulation will be great!

2.4 Confederation of Nations

In spite of all these evidences of divine displeasure, peoples yet on earth will join in an alliance against God. The "ten crowns" (Revelation 13:1) suggest a union of political forces over which the Beast out of the Sea (i.e. the Political Beast) will preside. Remember the ten "toes" of Daniel 2:42 and the ten"horns" of Daniel 7:7; compare Revelation 17:3, 8-14. The ancient Roman Emperor will be revived as a ten-kingdom confederacy, covering most of Europe. Man will not have realized the futility of united effort against God. The union of political groups will but prepare the way for the marching of combined armies to the certain defeat of Armageddon. 

2.5 Coalition of Personalities

Read Revelation 12:3; 13:1, 4, 11-13. The devil, the Political Beast and False Prophet will be a threefold tribunal of evil. They will make a gigantic effort to eliminate every vestige of truth or goodness from the face of the earth. A wicked but powerful trinity, they will seem for a time to be succeeding in their foul efforts.

2.6 Consolidation of Power

Read Revelation 17:5; 18:10, 21. Christendom (i.e. the mass of mere Christian profession) will have become utterly apostate (1 Timothy 4:1-3; Revelaion 3:16, 17). In Revelation we can think of Babylon the great prostitute as a false wife trying to take the place of the true Bride, the church of Jesus Christ. She is a picture of a great religious system of the last days (i.e. a combination of apostate Christianity, other world religious systems, ecomomic system and political system) keeps men and women from Christ. It will be a powerful ecclesiastico-political system, a far-reaching union of church and state, to defy the Son of God. At first the Pope will be the visible head of such religious system. This system will control the political leaders until they turn on her and destroy her in the middle of the Tribulation Period. Her great wealth will then be available to the Political Beast in his desire to control the whole world. The Political Beast will then emerge as a solitary dictator of "Babylon" (Revelation 17:16-18).

2.7 Conversion of a Remnant

2.7.1 Jesus's Reference

Read Matthew 24:21, 22. For "the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Clearly, during the tribulation some will be overwhelmed by their staggering experiences. It will dawn on them that the rejected Messiah, spurned and crucified by wicked men, was in truth the Saviour of the world. They will turn to Him in saving trust. As the "elect" of God, they will be soundly converted.

2.7.2 The Identity of the Remnant in Israel

Read Revelation 7:1-8. Jewish servants of God from various ancient tribes will be sealed unto salvation (Revelation 7:3, 4; compare 14:1-5).

2.7.3 The Gentiles Saved During the Tribulation

Read Revelation 7:9-17. After the Rapture of Christians, a host of Gentiles will also turn to the Lord during the tribulation period. Read Revelation 7:9, 10. Who are these people? "These are they which came out of great tribulation..." (Revelation 7:14).

2.7.4 The Basis of Their Acceptance by God

They will have washed their robes and made them white "in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). No man in any age is ever reconciled to God and made fit for heaven except on the ground of the finished, atoning work of Christ.

2.7.5 The Agent in Their Conversion

At the Rapture of Christians before the tribulation, the Holy Spirit's restraining power will be removed from the earth (2 Thessalonians 2:7, 8). But just as He came upon individuals in Old Testament days (Judges 6:34), so during the tribulation He will apply the benefits of Christ's death to individuals and bring them to the Saviour.

 

3. THE DURATION OF THE TRIBULATION

Strictly speaking, the term "great tribulation" applies to the latter half of the seven years of the Political Beast's reign. The first half was described by the Lord as "the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:8).

3.1 The Seventieth "Week" of Daniel

At the beginning of this period of seven years, the Political Beast will make a covenant with Israel "for one week," that is, seven years (Daniel 9:24-27). This period begins after the removal of Christ's true Church from earth, and seems to be timed with the breaking of the first seal of the seven-sealed book of Revelation 6. Readers should note that before the Lamb breaks these judgment seals there are crowned, clothed, and glorified elders in heaven. These are quite distinct from the angelss and four beasts, and evidently symbolize the glorified saints (Revelation 4, 5).

3.2 The Midst of the "Week"

After three and one-half years of the seven-year period, he will break the covenant, and the great tribulation will begin. The "time of Jacob's trouble" (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:1) will arrive. The second three and one-half years will be the most awful era in world history. This period is referred to in the Bible as "a time, times, and a half" (Daniel 12:7); "forty and two months" (Revelation 11:2); "a thousand two hundred and threescore days" (Revelation 11:3; 12:6); and "a time, and times, and half a time" (Revelation 12:14). During these months of suffering, pain and death Antichrist will continue in his mad, sinful course, and the great tribulation will reach its pitch of frenzy.

 

4. THE CONCLUSION OF THE TRIBULATION

As in the case of Antichrist's career, so it is with the tribulation. Both will end only when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, returns in power to the earth.

4.1 The Attendant Signs

"Immediately after the tribulation" there will be tremendous celestial chaos: sun, moon and stars will all be involved (Matthew 24:29).

4.2 The Advent of the Lord

He will come "in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," to the shocked astonishment and dismay of the tribes of earth (Matthew 24:30).

4.3 The Assembling of the Elect

Those who will have turned to Christ during the tribulation will now be gathered to Him (Matthew 24:31).

4.4 The Battle of Armageddon

Here Antichrist and the marshaled hosts of the enemies of the Lord will meet a crushing defeat. The great tribulation will be forever ended (Revelation 19:19-21).

 

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