"Tribulation and Wrath with respect to the Christian"

Tribulation and Wrath with respect to the Christian

What tribulation is -

Greek: thlipsis, meaning "a pressure". Generally anything which burdens the spirit. Also affliction, anguish, burden, distress, prosecution, trouble.

That which all Christians are called to (Phi 1:29). This includes the "great tribulations (Rev 7:14, Matt 24:21).

What tribulation is not -

It is not the wrath (Greek: thumos) of God.

It is not the events of the Seven Trumpets/Bowls. That is the wrath of God upon the rebellious and unbelieving world led by the Man of Sin. The saints have no part in this (Rev 3:10).

It is not the Seven Seals, but rather an event within the revelation of the Seven Seals (the Fifth Seal; Rev 7:14).

The Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets and Seven Bowls are not three successive stages of tribulation or wrath.

The seal is a symbol of revelation. The Seven Seals are a revelation of events of the end times, starting from the "beginning of birth pains" (Matt 24:8) to the Day of the Lord i.e. the Second Coming and the wrath of God. It corresponds to Matt 24.

The Seven Trumpets and Seven Bowls are not two separate series of events but a "double mention" of the events of the wrath of God.

So when is the rapture?

Those who call the events of the Seven Seals, Trumpets and Bowls as the Great Tribulation say that Christians are not part of the events of the Seven Trumpets and Bowls, therefore the rapture is pre-tribulation. That is partly right.

Some post-tribulationists say that rapture is after all the events of the Seven Seals, Trumpets and Bowls. That is partly wrong.

As seen, the problem is in the terminology and usage of the words tribulations and "wrath", attributing them to the wrong events. Mid-tribulationists say that the rapture is in the middle of the tribulation. There is no scriptural basis for this. Furthermore, if God's people are raptured during the tribulation, then who is left to be persecuted? The world loves its own (in 15:19).

Partial tribulationists say there are two raptures, the first for the ready and the second f or those who are not, who have to go through the great tribulation to be purified. That God's people have to go through tribulation to be purified is true, but to have two separate raptures, thus splitting the body of Christ, that has no scriptural basis either. Christ would not receive half-a-bride.

It should be noted that the Second Coming of Christ is a singular public event, where ' every eye will see Him (Rev 1:7; Matt 24:27,30-31). it is not something secret, and it is directly linked to the rapture (the redemption of the saints) (Lk 21:28, 1 Thess 4:16-17). Rev 1:7 gives a declaration and a depiction of the Second Coming. Jesus will be coming back with the clouds as stated in Acts 1:11 "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven". As Jesus was taken up and hidden by a cloud, so shall he return with the clouds. The next line is more important, for it says "every eye will see him". This means everyone alive at the Second Coming will see him, whether they be Christians, Jews, or the unrepentant. This verse effectively cancels out the theory that the Christians will be secretly raptured without the world knowing. Because every eye will see Him, there is no way for a secret rapture. The Second Coming and the rapture, though two events, are intimately connected together. In Matt 24:30-31 Jesus says that He will come in the clouds of the sky, and then gather his elect from the four winds. Therefore, we see that the rapture cannot happen before Christ's Second Coming, and vice versa, the Second Coming results in the rapture. The two events are intimately connected and we should not separate them as two different occasions independent of each another. The Bible also clearly says that the "Great Tribulation" is before the Second Coming, because in Rev 19, Jesus returns to crush the Antichrist. In order to get around this, pre-tribulationists have come up with the idea of the "secret rapture", a theory which holds no water when confronted with Scriptural evidence to the contrary, as we have just discussed. Other pre-trib theories including one that suggests that it is Israel that will go through the Great Tribulation and not the Church similarly do not hold against the weight of Scriptural evidence, besides the fact that the theories themselves commit hermeneutical murder, doing violence to the plain reading of Scripture.

So when is the tribulation period?

It is from the beginning of church history (Acts 2) right up to the "climax of sorrows" (the great tribulation) (Matt 24:9-10,21). The tribulation corresponds to the Fifth Seal of Revelation (Rev 9-11). Therefore the rapture is at the Second Coming, after the tribulation, but before the wrath of God. Rev 7:9-17 is the rapture in the order of events of the end times. (Note: end-time events do not end with the rapture). Another view is that the Church will be present on earth during the execution of God's wrath, but will be divinely protected, just like the Israelites in the land of Goshen during the plagues of Egypt, the rapture coming at the end of that, just like the exodus from Egypt. That is another distinct possibility which cannot be dismissed, and which the Lord may, in His time, reveal. Whatever the case, the Church will still go through the tribulation.

What is the purpose of tribulations?

It is to purify the church as a whole as "gold through fire" (Zech 13:8-9). The present church is not spotless, without blemish. Christ would not take her as His bride until she is clean (Rev 7:14, 19:7-8). The church will be made ready by two events, that of the full and final outpouring of the latter rain to restore the church to God's standards as in the book of Acts; and the tribulation itself. Note that the "great tribulation" is not to be taken as a separate event in itself, but as the climax to the tribulation which the church has faced all along, the climax when the anti-Christian forces are finally unleashed to give full vent to their hatred of those who love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. However, it is the Lord's purpose to show the forces of darkness that His Church cannot be defeated by Satan, no matter how severe the persecution. In the end, it is to show that the Church has prevailed, and not only that, that it has grown, even in the midst of tribulation (Matt 16:18). It is like a slap in the face for Satan. God's purpose is to show the triumph of the Church amidst all the persecution, and that despite all the tribulations and persecutions, the Gospel is still spread (Matt 24:14) and at the end of it all, the Church is still there, stronger than ever (The Church in China is a good model for this).

Why, then, are so many churches teaching pre-tribulation?

It is preached today by many popular preachers who present it as the hope of all believers, and the subject of more gospel songs and hymns than anyone could number. Yet, there is no Scripture to stand straight forward in support of such a doctrine, unless the idea could be read into the Word and it be interpreted according to a notion already in the mind of the interpreter. On the other hand, there are at least thirteen clear Scriptural references to the fact that the saints will go through the tribulation. The main problem is that we do not have a wide view of God's eternal purposes for the Church. We cannot see the forest for the trees. Those that present pre-tribulation see it mostly from the human point of view, indeed a reflection of the human need for self-preservation. After all, who would want to meet the Antichrist and his minions, much less suffer under the prosecution of the Church. As a result, we do not want to be involved in it, and we dig the Scriptures for every shred of evidence, be it ever so flimsy, to support the pre-tribulation theories. We put on blinders (those things put on horses so that they see only one thing) and every Scriptural evidence to the contrary we either ignore, or explain it away, or worse, commit hermeneutical murder by twisting it to fit our purposes. Therefore, our conclusions are like the frog at the bottom of the well who thinks that his perspective of the entire world is limited to his own perception. We need to come out of the well which we have put ourselves into, and take an objective reading of what the Word of God says, even to the point of accepting what we do not want to know. If not, we end up like the unbelieving Pharisees themselves, "ever seeing but never perceiving, ever hearing but never understanding" (Mk 4:12). We also need to take our eyes away from our microscopic view of the end-times, seen through our eyes, and see it macroscopically through God's eyes. What is God saying to the Church? Be prepared, be prepared, be prepared! Pre-tribulation is a human-centered concept (disguised as a "Church which is worthy to be saved" or as "The blessed hope we have in God to preserve us", which is akin to twisting God's arm). Note that though God did say he would preserve the Church, He did not say that He would simply whisk His Church away from a confrontation with the Antichrist, which hardly fits the image of the Church militant or the Church triumphant as spoken of in the Bible. It simply portrays the Church as a wimp incapable of fighting the forces of darkness through faith in Christ and in His power. God's way of preserving His Church is for us to be prepared. It is our responsibility to build up our faith and to ground ourselves in the Word of God, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, what happens to the prepared and unprepared Christians during the Great Tribulation? We can equate the situation to that of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins of Matt 25. Note that they are all virgins, indicating that they are all Christians; not, as some say, Christians and pagans (the Bible never describes pagans as virgins). The difference is described in Ezekiel 44. Here the Church is described in terms of the Temple and the priests. The faithful and committed, the prepared, are described as the sons of Zadok, who are allowed to enter the sanctuary and minister before the Lord. The unprepared, who are not totally committed to God (going after the idols of ambition, wealth, position, etc) are still allowed in the temple, but they are restricted to the outer court. In Eze 40-42 and Rev 11, there is the measurement of the temple. Measurement of the inner court is a symbol meaning the Church measures up to a certain standard. However, the outer court is unmeasured and is trampled upon by the Gentiles (Rev 11:1-2). Now who are in the outer court? The unprepared Christians. This trampling can be seen as the "outer darkness" of Matt 25:30. If you are unprepared, God will make you prepared through this. I am not saying that the prepared Christians will not be persecuted, for those that serve in the inner court can also minister in the outer court (but not vice versa). God's purpose is to purify and prepare the Church to be the perfect bride of Christ. Those that are prepared will be better able to "handle" this purification process, while the unprepared will have a harder time (1 Cor 3:15).

In Revelation, the term "Overcomer" is used to describe Christians who have met Christ's criteria. You cannot overcome if you are not prepared, and you won't be preparing yourself if you are looking forward to being removed from the scene of battle even before it begins.