THE GREAT TRIBULATION
Part OneINTRODUCTION
In the second booklet of this series, entitled "BABEL RISING!", it was said that in recent years there has been a big decline in real belief in the Second Coming of Christ among Christians. This trend in itself may be considered a sign that the Second Coming is almost upon us, because "….the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect Him", (Matthew 24:44). It was also said that part of the reason for the decline in belief is the fact that so many people have tried to pinpoint the date of Christ’s return and have been proved wrong by history. But it isn’t just the date predictors who have been proved wrong. If anyone is well informed about the whole subject of Second Coming Prophecy teaching, then he knows that there have been many ideas put forward about what the Prophecies mean that have already been proven wrong by history. There was a book that was originally published in 1924, by a Bible scholar named William Biederwolf, called "The Millennium Bible". It has been reprinted several times since. most recently with a different title. It’s not really a Bible, but rather an exhaustive study of all the different interpretations that had been given to Second Coming Prophecy up to the time of publication. It covers everything relevant in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. If you are well informed on the subject of history, you wouldn’t have to read much of "The Millennium Bible" to see that most of the ideas in it were wrong.
It can also be easily said that there is so much difference of opinion about Second Coming Prophecy today that whatever really happens will be other than what many Christians expect. In fact, so great are the differences, that what really happens will absolutely be other than what most Christians expect. One thing I’ve observed as I’ve studied the writings of other interpreters of Second Coming Prophecy is how much detail they frequently go into in their interpretations. This has happened with interpretations offered both recently and long ago. I’ve come to the conclusion that the more precise detail a person presents in his or her interpretation, the more certain it is that the interpreter is wrong. As you will see, although in this booklet I’m go to expound my own interpretation of these prophecies, I will mainly be dealing with sweeping generalities in what I predict. Furthermore, I know and freely admit (which few interpreters of Second Prophecies will do) that I could be wrong, especially in those places where I do go into detail. If my attitude seems to be different elsewhere in my booklets and tapes, it is simply a reflection of the fact that I do really believe what I say, or I wouldn’t even say it.
There is a Biblical idea that has been overlooked by most expositors of prophecy (though some have seen this): The prophecies of the Second Coming can’t be understood until the time comes for them to be fulfilled. The basis for this is found in the 12th chapter of the Book of Daniel, verses 4 and 8-10. Note that this is the only chapter of the Book of Daniel that is definitely about the Second Coming. Any real student of Bible History knows that all the other prophecies in Daniel may have already been fulfilled. Except, perhaps, for the Seventieth Week of Daniel 9:27, which may be the Great Tribulation. But the events in Daniel 12 can only refer to the Second Coming. We know this from the fact that verse 2 prophesies the Resurrection of the Saints. So in verse 4, the angel tells Daniel, "shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end" (emphasis mine: author). What else could this mean, but that God didn’t mean for the prophecies to be understood until the time of fulfillment was near? Then in verse 8, Daniel, himself not understanding what he’d been told, asks, "My lord, what shall be the end of these things?" The angel’s answer is actually a mild rebuke: "Go your way, Daniel (he might as well have said, "Mind your own business, Daniel") "for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end". It seems that all the people over the centuries who have been trying to figure out what the Second Coming Prophecies mean have been ignoring this Scripture and wasting their time. And maybe rebelling against God. No wonder their interpretations have mostly turned out to be wrong.
But in verse 10, the angel gives a counterpoint to this: "…none of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand". Understand what? The prophecies! When the time comes for them to be fulfilled. (Could the "wicked" include those who tried to interpret the prophecies before the time?) When the time comes for them to be fulfilled, the prophecies and how they relate to what is happening in the world will be understood. That’s when Christians will need to understand them. The prophecies are given as proof of the existence of God (Isaiah 44:6-8) and as reinforcement for our faith. It is my conclusion, and other expositors of prophecy have come to the same conclusion, that there is far more prophecy about the Great Tribulation in the Bible than the average Christian, yea, even the average pastor or Bible teacher, knows. Those prophecies are there because the day will come when we’ll need to understand them. We’ll need to know that the terrible things that are happening were foretold in the Bible, so that our faith will not be destroyed. Then, in accordance with Amos 3:7, God will give accurate understanding of the prophecies to the people He chooses, and they will share their insights with the entire Body of Christ. This is the way God works. I say, with some trepidation, that I believe that I am one of the people God has chosen to share understanding of the prophecies with the Church. Note that I didn’t say I was the only one.
I regret to say, though, that just because the prophecies are correctly understood, that is no assurance that the correct understanding will be widely accepted.…until it begins to be fulfilled. With so many different ideas around, even without any active deception going on, Christians won’t know who to believe. Unless they’re diligent enough to really do their own homework, that is. Few modern Christians are.
Expositors of prophecy and date-predictors have been busy. Often they insist, directly or indirectly, that their words be taken as gospel, and unfortunately many Christians have done so. Many have had their faith shaken or destroyed as a result. Some have turned to out-and-out cults as a result. The aberrant form of Christianity known as Seventh Day Adventism began with someone trying to predict the date of Christ’s Coming. When history proved him wrong, his disillusioned followers turned to more subtle, but more divisive error. So anyone who sets out to explain what the prophecies mean had better include with his teaching this disclaimer: (and I am saying this) "This is my opinion, not the Word of God. I could be wrong." And if a person won’t say that, his failure or refusal to do so is all the more reason not to believe him. As I also said in the first booklet of this series, I know from the realm of psychology that a person who admits that he could be wrong is actually more likely to be right than the person who won’t. The person who will is more likely to have come to his conclusions by sound reasoning. The person who won’t is more likely to be deluded (read "deceived" for Christian purposes). And believe me, there are many deceived Christians around today. I’ll have more to say about that in the chapter on "The Church of Laodicea".
In this booklet I am going to set forth an exposition of Second Coming Prophecy, and the Book of Revelation in particular that I believe to be correct, or I wouldn’t write it. But I’m painfully aware of the possibility that I could be wrong. Therefore, the reader is urged not to make this message an article of faith. Don’t reject it out of hand either. The proper attitude toward something like this is taught by example in Genesis 37:1-11. The young Joseph had had dreams that symbolically showed his parents and his older brothers bowing to him. When he told them about the dreams, his brothers hated him for it, most likely seeing it as nothing but an expression of egotism. (They didn’t have the word "egotism", but they definitely had the idea.) Jacob didn’t like it either, and gave Joseph a mild rebuke for telling it. Actually, Joseph’s telling of the dream showed a certain lack of wisdom. But for all that, Jacob didn’t flatly reject the idea. He kept it in mind, which is to say, he took a "wait and see" attitude toward Joseph’s dreams. That’s what you should do with anything that claims to be a prophecy (outside of the Bible) or an interpretation of prophecy. That way, you won’t get into spiritual trouble, no matter what happens.
There is a little known Biblical principle about interpreting prophecy before it’s fulfillment: To be able to do this with 100% accuracy, you have to be a prophet yourself. I do consider myself such, but only in the sense of being an inspired teacher. I don’t claim any dreams [1] , voices, or visions relevant to this, but only my conclusions from much reading and study over the years, and sound reasoning. Again, I am sure that I’m right or I wouldn’t be doing this ministry. But I don’t consider myself infallible. I have been proved wrong by history about some things I’ve said, but in such cases it was either about minor details or there were significant facts relevant to the subject that I didn’t know about.
The principle of having to be a prophet to interpret prophecy is found in two places in the Bible; in the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, in the Book of Genesis, and in the Book of Daniel. In Genesis 41:15, Pharaoh tells Joseph that he has heard that Joseph can understand a dream. Joseph’s reply is, "It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace." In other words, Joseph disclaimed any ability of his own to interpret the dreams, attributing the interpretations to God. Yet we know that Joseph was 100% accurate with his interpretations. Daniel said something quite similar in Daniel 2:27 & 28, when called upon by Nebuchadnezzar to interpret a dream he couldn’t even remember. Daniel told him, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men….cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets". Again, he disclaims any ability of his own to tell Nebuchadnezzar what he wants to know, and attributes the interpretation to God alone. Yet, again, Daniel has proved amazing correct about everything so far. In chapter 8:5-8, for example, he accurately prophesies the coming of Alexander the Great, and the subsequent breakup of his empire. Again, his famous "Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks" in chapter 9 has been shown to lead right to Jesus, and that by several different routes of calculation! So don’t take anything as Gospel unless the person saying it has an impressive "track record" of being right. Even if he claims divine inspiration. According to a book published in the mid 70’s, that tacitly claimed divine inspiration, we should be going through a period of severe international economic turmoil right now. You’ll notice that we’re not. By the way, as shown in the first booklet of this series, I have a better record of being right with things I’ve predicted just by the use of my own reason.
It is my position that the entire Church will go into the Great Tribulation. Unfortunately, many Christians will die during the beginning months of it, along with 2/3 of the human race. If Christians weren’t going to be here when the Tribulation begins, there would be no reason for the Book of Revelation and the Bible otherwise to foretell as much as it does about it. The prophecies are there because the day is coming when it will be of critical importance for Christians to understand them. As I have shown, it is my position that the Day will come soon. You’ll noticed I capitalized the word "Day". I’m referring to the Biblical expression "the Day of the Lord". You may be aware (it has been widely taught) that the Hebrew word "yom", used in this expression in the Old Testament, doesn’t necessarily mean a literal 24-hour day. It can mean any specific period of time. Neither does it necessarily mean the day that Christ actually returns. As used in Amos 5:18 it almost certainly, in its end-time application, means "The Great Tribulation". I believe that Jesus used the word "Day" in the same sense in Luke 21:34. And I believe that the word "Day" is also used in that sense in the context of Second Coming Prophecy throughout the entire New Testament.
In my presentation of this topic I take the position, as will be emphasized later, that the Book of Revelation is the most authoritative Book of the Bible, as far as Second Coming Prophecy is concerned. There are a number of things about it that make it stand out as unique among all the other Books:
Christ" (as in Revelation 1:1). Not "of St. John" .
Therefore, all other passages on Second Coming prophecy must be understood in terms of the Book of Revelation, and not the other way around. To use other passages as tools for understanding the Book of Revelation is asking for error. A prophetic passage in another Book, especially in the Old Testament, may have a symbolic meaning in its context that has nothing to do with the Great Tribulation. If it has a Tribulation fulfillment, that fulfillment will probably be literal. A good example is Psalm 18:7-15. I don’t expect most of my readers to see it now, but that passage is describing the same event that is described in Revelation 8:7-9:2. And I did say event, not events. I’ll explain in the chapter about "A Mountain Burning With Fire".
There are three major ways of understanding the Book of Revelation:
The Book of Revelation foretells the history of the Church, in the second and third chapters. Then it describes the events of the Great Tribulation and the actual Second Coming. Finally, it gives a glimpse of the Millennium, the Final Judgment, and the coming of the New Jerusalem. But, again, the main body of the Book is about the Great Tribulation. This is done in most of chapters 6-19, except chapter 12, which I believe had it’s fulfillment in the Church age. In those chapters some things are described, particularly the descriptions of the outpourings of God’s wrath, that have been long taken to be symbolic. There has been , however, much puzzlement, and an exceptional amount of disagreement about these passages. It is my contention that the reason why is that the passages in question aren’t symbolic at all. They are dead literal! John, however, was limited in his ability to describe what he saw. Like Daniel, he didn’t understand it himself. What he saw was beyond his experience. The truth is (if I’m right about what I think they mean) is that these passages couldn’t have been understood by anyone except maybe a few scientists until the early part of this century. Most people couldn’t have understood them until about 15 years ago. To properly understand them requires familiarity with both the Book of Revelation and several major, recent scientific discoveries. Very few Christians have this dual awareness. But all those I know of who do have it generally agree with my interpretation! And that includes three top scientists in the relevant fields! And at least one Bible scholar who is superior as such to me! That’s why I believe that all Christians must be made to know about this!
I have already said, at the end of the last booklet and at the beginning of the first, that a Christian must have a Scripturally accurate expectation of what is going to happen or he will be in for a terrible surprise. It may be terrible enough a surprise to provoke some Christians to renounce their faith. The purpose of this booklet is to provide an accurate expectation. This booklet is divided into two major sections. In the first section, entitled "What Happens to Christians?" we will deal with the topic of the Rapture, and examine it and a number of relevant Scripture passages. In doing so, we will invoke, as a principle for discerning sound doctrine, a famous rule of thumb used for separating wheat from chaff in both science and theology. It is known as Ockham’s Razor. We will also take a look at Church History, in the context of the Seven Churches of the Revelation. Then we will look at a topic that I can say truthfully that I have never heard mentioned by any other expositor of prophecy: The Seal of the Living God, as in Revelation 7. In connection with this we will also look at the Church’s identity as spiritual Israel. I believe that the 7th chapter of the Book of Revelation is actually the key chapter for understanding what will really happen to Christians during the Tribulation.
The second section is entitled "The Three Great Woes", which is the name the Book of Revelation could be said to use, by implication, for the Great Tribulation. Note that the term "Great Tribulation" does occur once in the Book of Revelation, and it’s in chapter 7, verse 14. But the word "woes" occurs several times in the Book: "…I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, ‘woe, woe woe to the inhabitants of the earth…" ( Revelation 8:13) and "One woe is past. Behold, two more woes are coming…" (Revelation 9:12). Oddly enough, like the term "the Seal of the Living God", I’ve never to my recollection, heard another expositor of the prophecies make reference to the term. Yet the Book gives considerable importance to the term "woes", and it’s obviously a key to understanding what happens. If you don’t think of the Tribulation as having three major phases, you can’t come to a correct understanding of what will happen. In this booklet, we will. By the way, have you ever heard it said that God does everything in 3’s?
In the second section of this booklet, we will look first at what the outpourings of God’s wrath in Revelation 8:6-9:2 are about, focusing on the implications of Revelation 8:8 as a key to understanding the entire passage. We will find out what that "mountain burning with fire" really is. Some mention will be made of the terrible events of Revelation 9. Then we will take a look at the Two Witnesses and the Two Beasts. You will notice that I didn’t say, "Antichrist". Some other scholars have astutely noted that there is no such person in the Bible as "the Antichrist". In fact, the word "Antichrist" doesn’t even occur in the Book of Revelation. It only occurs in the First and Second Epistles of John, where it clearly refers to a type of person or spirit. In fact, I John 2:18 can be understood as a refutation of the idea that "the Antichrist" will be a specific person. What the Book of Revelation clearly prophesies are two Beasts, one a king (probably a military dictator, in modern terminology) and the other a false prophet. We will identify "Mystery Babylon" as we’re discussing them. We’ll use history as a tool for understanding Revelation 17. Having dealt with that, we’ll look at the Seven Bowls of God’s wrath in Revelation 16:1-12. Again, as in chapter 8, we’re going to go to modern science for the information that will enable us to understand these prophecies. One thing we’ll make clear is that Revelation 8 and Revelation 16 describe two distinct outpourings of God’s wrath, contrary to what some have erroneously taught. And I will show precisely why they are two distinct outpourings of God’s wrath. Finally, we’ll look at the destruction of Mystery Babylon, the actual Second Coming, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and last but not least, the Battle of Armageddon.
Understand this: The two errors mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the misuse of the word "Antichrist", and seeing Revelation 8 & 16 as two descriptions of the same thing, are examples of just how erroneous much of the previous teaching on Second Coming Prophecy really is. Accept it! Most of what has been taught about the Great Tribulation is probably wrong. So be open to something completely different.
And understand this: The Great Tribulation will be terrible!!!! In Matthew 24: 21 & 22, Jesus makes a very significant statement about the Great Tribulation, which has seldom if ever taken seriously enough by expositors of prophecy: "…there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be…" (implied: "again"). The same thing is said in Daniel 12:1. If you think about this in the context of the entire Bible, you must conclude that Jesus (as well as the angel) is saying that the Great Tribulation will be worse, in it’s overall impact on the human race, than the Flood. He goes on to say, "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved…" Like the Flood, the Great Tribulation threatens the extinction of the human race. So how is the Great Tribulation worse than the Flood? For one thing, it lasts longer. In all probability, most of the deaths that occurred during the Flood happened within the first 40 days, or not long afterward. The Tribulation is officially scheduled for seven years, though it is definitely, from what Jesus said, actually going to be shorter. [4] But it’s still going to be at least 4 ½ -5½ years of suffering and death. And there will be far more people involved. It’s doubtful ( no space to explain why here) that the Flood killed more than 50,000,000 people. Maximum! We’re going into the Great Tribulation with a world population of 6,000,000,000+! It appears that about 2/3 of them will die right at the start [5] , and the rest will endure great suffering. Before the Tribulation is over, many more will die. There will probably less than 25% survivors when it’s over. We’re talking about at least 4,500,000,000 untimely, and extremely unpleasant deaths. And that’s going to include many Christians. That’s why the Tribulation is shortened "for the elect’s sake".
Christians love to sing songs about how great it will be when Jesus comes again. I must confess that I enjoy some of them. But there is a little known passage in Amos 5:18-20 that says something drastically different: "Woe to you who desire the Day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness and not light (Special note: I think I know what he meant, and this is literal, not figurative.) It will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him! Is not the Day of the Lord darkness and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?" Understand that this goes for Christians as well as the unsaved. But to fully grasp what Amos was saying, you must be aware of some less pleasant facts of nature. He uses the figure of a man escaping from a lion. (Not impossible; lions will give up if faced with a long chase.) He proposes two alternate sequels: Being caught by a bear or bitten by a snake. Here’s what he is referring to: When a lion takes prey, it usually kills the prey rather quickly, often with a single bite, and it’s not the worst way to die. But when a bear takes prey, it usually doesn’t kill it immediately. Rather, it knocks the prey down and starts eating it alive! [6] Which is worse than being killed by a lion! Again, except for the most deadly snakes, death from snakebite is usually slow and very painful. These two are among the worst possible ways to die. To be in horrible pain, to know that death is inevitable, and be helpless to do anything about it, is a vivid metaphor for what is coming for most of the human race during the Tribulation. Do you remember the old song "Oh sinner man, where you gonna run to…all on that day?" It has more real truth in it than most contemporary songs about the Second Coming. Read Revelation 6: 12-17; it’s about the beginning of the Great Tribulation, and it’s not figurative!
Perhaps one reason why interpreters of prophecy have tried to see most of the Book of Revelation as symbolic is that they expect the Great Tribulation, however terrible, to be a continuation of history as we’ve know it. Understand this: if my interpretation is correct, the day the Tribulation begins, history as we’ve known it ends. Things will happen during the Tribulation that have never happened before in recorded history, and, as Jesus promised, will never happen again.
I can hear some of my readers thinking, "Oh, God wouldn’t do anything like that to Christians!" Oh, no? I’m sure that’s what the Jews thought in Jeremiah’s day. That’s why he was persecuted for saying what he said. Not only did God do to Jerusalem what Jeremiah said He’d do; in the long run of history, He did it twice! And then He allowed the Nazi holocaust [7] When the Great Tribulation begins, it’s going to be the lukewarm Christians’ and the unsaved Gentiles’ turn to know the full meaning of the wrath of God! As also noted in the Appendix to "BABEL RISING!", the "God" who "wouldn’t allow His people to suffer" isn’t in the Bible. You can’t find Him in Church History, either. By the way, I don’t see anything in the Book of Revelation or Second Coming Prophecy otherwise to make me believe that the Jews play any special role in the Great Tribulation, or that they will suffer worse than anyone else. But there’s reason to believe that the State of Israel will fare rather well in the Tribulation, and that most surviving Jews will turn to Christ before it’s over. However, I’m not going to give much space to these ideas in this booklet. But if I could pick a place to be during the Tribulation, I’d pick Jerusalem! Especially during the First Woe.
In the following chapters, we will explore what can be understood about the Great Tribulation in the light of the Book of Revelation, modern science and world history. The conclusions that will be drawn are different from most of what has been previously taught. Other people have come up with most of the same ideas, but in bits and pieces. To my knowledge, no one has put them together the way I do, and that’s the only thing unique about this booklet. I am convinced, though I’m not taking the time and space to show why, that this concept of the Great Tribulation is much better supported by both the Bible, especially the Book of Revelation, and extra-biblical facts than anything else that’s ever been taught on this subject. All this has been written to give you a warning that you would do well to heed. So read and understand!
The Great Tribulation Part I
What Happens To Christians?
1. The Seven Churches of the Revelation.
As you can see from its title, in this section of this booklet I will discuss what happens to Christians during the Great Tribulation. You have actually heard to some extent what I believe about that from brief mentions I have made in the two previous booklets, [8] if you’ve read them. I believe that the entire Church goes into the Great Tribulation. Many Christians will die during that terrible time. Some, perhaps many, will be genuine martyrs, but far more will die as a result of the outpourings of God’s wrath. They will not have been ready! But there will also be many who will make it though to the Rapture. This will include, I believe, the majority of those who survive the first year of the Tribulation. In this section, I am going to go into further detail than I previously have about why the Christians go through the Tribulation, and about what they can expect to happen to them. I assure you that everything that is said is as firmly based on the Bible as I know how to understand and teach it. See Chapter 1 of my first booklet.
In order to fully present what the Bible says about this topic, we must first take a look at the past and present as shown in the Book of Revelation and Church History. In the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation, we find seven brief letters dictated by Jesus to John. He was instructed to address each of the letters to the "angel" of the Church the letter describes. There are three common interpretations given to these letters, and I believe that all of them are correct. The first is literal in the sense of past history. They were seven actual Churches that existed in the Roman Province of Asia, which is now western Turkey. John is believed to have been a sort of "circuit preacher" in those Churches prior to his exile on Patmos.
The second and third interpretations are prophetic: The second is spiritual-prophetic. The seven Churches represent seven different spiritual conditions that any given congregation may be in at any particular time. It must be remembered that these letters, in both prophetic meanings apply to Churches as a whole, not to any particular individual. But the majority of the individuals in a given Church will, in their Christian walk, to some extent reflect the overall spiritual condition of the Church in question. But the overcomers, mentioned at the end of each letter, will not (except, perhaps in the Churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia). They always rise above the general spiritual conditions (that is, the prevalent sins and weaknesses) of their Churches and live lives of victorious, obedient faith. And I want to emphasize that it’s the kind of lives they live that counts, much more than the correctness of their doctrinal views.
The third interpretation is future-prophetic. It says that the Churches are seven ages in the history of the Church as a whole. What Jesus says about each Church Age describes the prevailing spiritual condition of each Church within its time. The Ages begin with the Church of Ephesus and end with the Church of Laodicea. I must admit that not every Bible scholar or student of prophecy accepts this interpretation, but many do. It is possible by study of Church History to discern when each Church Age began and ended. There are marker events in Church History that identify when the different Churches began and ended. Again, I must also admit that some of my conclusions are quite different from those of others who hold this basic point of view. As I will show, I have good reason for all of them. In my opinion, the dates on which the Seven Churches began and ended are most likely as follows:
It must be noted that to be able to make a judgment about what kind of Church a given congregation is, or, on the other hand, when a specific Church Age happened, you must have a real understanding, in both cases, of what Jesus meant by what He said about each Church. You must also know what the spiritual condition of the Church in question is (what sin is prevalent vs. what is being done right), or, on the other hand, have a better knowledge of Church History (and world history, too) than most Christians have. In the first case, I recommend caution about making such judgments. In the second case, I have believed for some time that one of the two biggest academic weaknesses found among expositors of prophecy is ignorance of history. The other biggest weakness, as I will show in the second section, is ignorance of science. And, nasty as it is to say, another big weakness among expositors of prophecy is ignorance of what constitutes sound doctrine. In short, I have no scruples about giving an unpopular interpretation to the historical dates of the Seven Churches.
Let’s look at what Jesus said to the Churches. A close examination of the letters shows that everything that Jesus says in each letter has meaning relevant to the Church He’s addressing. To begin with, the name of the Church means something. In some cases, the meaning is metaphorical, and in other cases, it’s literal, as in the Church of Ephesus. The word Ephesus literally means, "not lasting". This Church, which had lost its first love, also lasted the shortest time. The name of the Church of Sardis, on the other hand, is metaphorical. The Church of Sardis had the name of being alive but was dead. "Sardis" is the name of a flesh-colored gem stone, also called a "Sardine Stone" in the Bible. Hence, the name implies the meaning, "of the flesh". If ever there was a time when the Church as a whole manifested the error of Matthew 15:9; that is to say, its teachings and practices were fleshly in origin, (like the Indulgences that infuriated Martin Luther) it was during the Renaissance.
Another metaphorical meaning is in the word "Pergamum". Believe it or not, this name is derived from the Greek word for divorce. Now consider this: The Church of Pergamum was the time of Christianity as the state religion of Rome. As it applies historically, Jesus was saying that the Church had in effect divorced Him and married a new husband; the Emperor of Rome. And in the spiritual sense, a Church of Pergamum is any church that in any country allies itself with, and accepts official protection from, and/or domination by, a secular government. This is a situation that can precipitate or open the door to all kinds of spiritual problems in the Church, and make it nigh unto impossible to correct them. The Church should be united, but not under the authority of a secular government. Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world!
The words Jesus uses to describe Himself mean something, too. In the letter to the Church of Smyrna, Jesus says of Himself, "These things says the First and the Last, who was dead and came to life." The Church of Smyrna was the Church suffering persecution under the Roman Emperors. Many of the Christians of that Age suffered martyrdom. Most of those who didn’t probably lived in fear of it. In what He says about Himself, Jesus extends to them the hope of their own resurrection. He was saying to them, "Trust me! I arose from the dead and you will too! I have eternal life, and so do you! Because I live, so will you!"
What He says straightforwardly is always, of course, of the greatest significance. In the course of the seven letters, He says very different things to the different Churches. In every case, He comments on their spiritual circumstances. Sometimes, as in the Churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia, what He says is a compliment. He tells the Christians of Smyrna that in spite of their material poverty, they are spiritually rich. But more frequently, He is critical of their condition and actions. [9] He has a problem with the Church of Thyatira, because, although it is a good Church in many ways, idolatry is tolerated within that Church. The context indicates that this is a widespread problem. He threatens dire consequences to the Christians involved. (Judgment came on the historical Church of Thyatira via the Crusades.) We find here a principle that applies very much to the Christians of today: God’s grace will not atone for the sins being committed by the Church collectively. Like Israel in the Old Testament, when the Church as a whole sins, judgment will come upon the Church as a whole. As you will see, this has a serious bearing on what happens during the Tribulation.
One of the two worst criticisms He makes is of the Church of Sardis. He tells them that they have the name of being alive but are dead. Remember that this was, historically, the Roman Catholic Church of the Reformation. The fact that the next letter was addressed to the Protestant Church of the Reformation shows that after the start of the Reformation, God no longer regarded the Catholic Church as part of the true Church. From His point of view, the Church of Rome was dead after Martin Luther in practice and in theory.
To some Churches, Jesus makes promises. He tells the Church of Philadelphia, "See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it". He was saying that the Catholic Church wouldn’t be able to stop the Reformation, and believe this: They tried! For example, the Spanish Armada, (1588 AD) had as part of its purpose the putting down of the Reformation in England and in the Netherlands. The defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British fleet qualifies as an Old-Testament type miracle. [10] Jesus also said, "I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who says they are Jews and are not, come and worship at your feet and know that I have loved you". Here Jesus is using an oblique reference to the fact that the Church is spiritual Israel. He’s saying that the Catholics call themselves Christians but generally are not. And He’s saying that they will eventually have to accept the Protestants as Christians. To some extent they have, and that’s why we have an ecumenical movement. But this probably won’t be completely fulfilled until the Final Judgment.
To some Churches, Jesus gave warnings. He warned the Church of Sardis that He would come upon them as a thief. This will of course apply to the entire world, including the Church, at the Second Coming, or, I believe, more precisely at the start of the Great Tribulation, or both. But historically it was fulfilled the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Door. This caught the Church of Rome by surprise. It wasn’t until years later that the leaders of the Church understood the full significance of what had happened. The lid had been taken off a can of worms, so to speak, and there was no putting it back on. The Wittenberg Door was the coffin lid of the Church of Sardis.
Jesus gave every Church some kind of admonition. That is, He told them that there was something they should do. He told the Church of Sardis to remember how they had received and heard. What they had to remember was the Bible, because during the Age of the Church of Sardis, the Bible was a suppressed book. Only the priesthood and the very wealthy had free access to it, and even they seldom really studied it. Rather, they spent their intellectual energies on worthless philosophical discussions (just as many so-called theologians do now). Most copies of the Bible were the property of the Church, and the text was in Latin or Greek, which relatively few people outside the clergy understood. And even those who could understand it were told not to study or interpret it for themselves.
Now here’s something for people who think that the Bible has been tampered with. If there has ever been a time in history when the Church should have wanted to tamper with the Bible, it was during the Renaissance. The Bible directly or indirectly [11] condemns many of the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. [12] It was realizing this that provoked Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses. However, rather than tamper with the Bible, the Church of Rome suppressed it. Perhaps even with good intent. But it was no coincidence that Gutenberg invented movable type and opened the door to the mass production of Bibles only about three quarters of a century before the 95 Theses. Luther used the printing press to circulate copies of his Theses. Then he and other heroes of the Faith began translating the Bible into the commonly spoken languages. During the Reformation, common-language Bibles became available to anyone who wanted one. Christians became able to study it for themselves. The true Church had remembered!
Last but not least, Jesus makes promises of rewards to the overcomers of each Church, and the rewards say something about the Church. One of the greatest is the reward promised to the overcomers of the Church of Smyrna. Jesus told them, "He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death" (Rev. 2:11). This is related to His admonition in the previous verse, "Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life". From the way it is used, I understand the "crown of life" to mean absolute immortality. This means eternal life in the sense in which we usually understand it. Remember, the term "eternal life" can also mean "the life of the Eternal One", as used in John 17:3. In that sense, every Born Again Christian has eternal life. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he can’t lose it. [13] The "crown of life" is immortality that can’t be lost. And as much as this may shock some Christians, it appears from the Bible that this isn’t automatically given to every believer. There isn’t space here, however, to discuss either the Scriptural basis or the full implications of this, nor are they important to the topic. But believe me, it appears to be true.
Again, the Church of Smyrna was a Church in which there were many martyrs. But this was also the time of the catacombs, of Christians living in hiding and worshipping in secret. The overcomer of Smyrna was the Christian who made no secret of his faith, even though he knew that his witness could and very likely would cost him his life. In fact, the word "martyr" comes from a Greek word that means "a witness". The Bible suggests, through a number of passages, that there is special eternal status that is earned by true martyrdom that can’t be achieved any other way. (It must be noted, though, that the tragic, violent death of a Christian can be an extreme case of chastisement; what might be called, after C. S. Lewis, "a severe mercy". I know of a clear cut case in point that happened to a person I knew. A Biblical example is Acts 5:1-11. Sometimes it’s just a bad happenstance, as was probably the case in Rwanda. See I Peter 5:9) The Martyrs of Smyrna were promised the honor of reigning with Christ during the Millenium. See Rev. 20:4-6. Martyrdom, as bad as it may be while it’s happening, is in the long run the greatest blessing that a Christian can receive. But not every Christian is worthy of it. True martyrdom is only for true overcomers.
Notice that Jesus doesn’t say anything about what happens to the Christians who aren’t overcomers. One is forced to conclude that they will be among those who are saved "so as through fire" (I Corinthians 3:15). I will have more to say about that in the chapter on "The Seal of the Living God". For now, just understand that every Christian should strive to be an overcomer. I will go into depth and detail about what’s required of a Christian who wants to be an overcomer in the booklet that will follow this one, "Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth". Unfortunately, at the beginning of the Tribulation, most Christians won’t be. I will explain why and show what Christians have to overcome in the next chapter. Thus far, we have examined the general pattern that is found in all the Seven Letters. In the next chapter, we will look at the Church in our time, the Church of Laodicea. It appears, from what Jesus said, to be one of the worst two (the other being the Church of Sardis), if not the worst of all. There are very serious problems with this Church that we have to really work at overcoming. Since this Church Age ends with the Great Tribulation, it is critically important for us to be overcomers. If you aren’t an overcomer, you’re not ready!
2. THE CHURCH OF LAODICEA
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In the first chapter of this booklet, we looked at the Seven Churches of Revelation 2 & 3. To give the reader a working familiarity with the letters, I showed when the Churches occurred in Church History and gave examples of the kind of things that Jesus said to them. I made a point of saying that we must be overcomers if we want to be ready for the Great Tribulation. I said that we are living in the Age of the Church of Laodicea. There is an interesting contrast between the Church of Laodicea and the Church of Smyrna. The Church of Smyrna is one of the best. The Church of Laodicea is one of the worst. Yet the rewards that are promised to the overcomers in these two Churches are virtually identical, if viewed in the light of Revelation 20:4-6.
To the overcomers of Smyrna, Jesus said, "Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life," and "He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death". To the overcomers of the Church of Laodicea, He said, "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on my throne, as I also overcame [14] and sat down with My Father on His throne". Now compare this with Revelation 20:6, "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years". You can see that each of the promises to the overcomers has fulfillment in this promise. The promise to the overcomers of Smyrna has fulfillment in "over such the second death has no power". The promise to the overcomers of Laodicea has fulfillment in "they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him…". It is obvious that these two groups therefore share the same reward. We should wonder why.
The reason is that these two Church Ages are the times in Church History when it was, and it is the most difficult to be an overcomer. The difference is that in the Church of Smyrna the difficulty came from outside the Church, in the form of persecution unto death. In the Age of the Church of Laodicea, the difficulty comes from within the Church, as we shall see.
Note that I didn’t say above that it is "difficult be a Christian". It may be easy (depending on where you live) to be a Christian in the Age of the Church of Laodicea.).
I showed that the name given to each Church has meaning relevant to it’s spiritual circumstances. The word "Laodicea" comes from two Greek words;
laoV, meaning "people", and dikazo, which can mean "opinion" or "legal judgment". As I showed in relation to the Church of Thyatira, the name of a Church can have two meanings. In that case, one is about the Church’s spiritual condition. The other is about its role in history. This is also true of the Church of Laodicea. The meaning relevant to the Church’s spiritual condition is "people’s opinions". The meaning relevant to its role (or I might say, "its fate") in history is "people judged". This is a reference to what Jesus said in Revelation 3: 16: "Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth". And that is about the established Church being rejected by Christ at the beginning of the Tribulation.The meaning "people’s opinions" is certainly relevant to the Church in our time, and is related to the reason why I believe that the Age of the Church of Laodicea began with the American Revolution. Prior to the Revolution, freedom of religion, speech and the press were limited everywhere. Because of this, in spite of the Reformation and the availability of Bibles, I estimate that there were less than 100 distinct forms of Christianity in existence, and that is probably a very generous guess. Except for the Catholics, and to some extent the Anglican and Orthodox Churches, all of them taught fairly sound doctrine. The biggest splits were over the issues of predestination and baptism. Moreover, the clergy had some legal authority to control what was preached and taught in the churches. There was restraint on falsehood, error and divisiveness. The result was that the Church had some real unity and some real moral authority in society.
The American Revolution changed all that. Religious tolerance became the law, and this idea soon spread to other countries. The result was that a person could preach, teach, or write anything he wanted to with little fear of reprisal from the authorities. [15] This threw the door wide open to all kinds of heresy and division. Today, there are over 800 established denominations in the United States alone, and that isn’t counting all the totally independent congregations that abound in the USA. These range from small storefront operations with tiny congregations to very large ones with congregations in the thousands. It is obvious to me that one of the causes for all this division is pride, often the "I’m right, everyone else is wrong" ego trip. The fact that pride is often the problem that causes division was graphically demonstrated by an incident that occurred in Brooklyn a few months before this was written. Believe it or not, the pastor of one of the many storefront churches in this borough (and in NYC as a whole) got a gun, went to another storefront church in the same neighborhood, and shot several people! The motive given in the news for this shocking incident was that the storefront church where the shooting took place had a bigger congregation than did the shooter’s church. Jealousy! Which is the brother of pride! A brutal demonstration of the fact that all this division in the Church is not of God!!!
All this division in the Church is contrary to God’s will as expressed in John 17: 20 & 21 (among other passages): "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word (that includes us!); that they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they may also be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me". Division is a major part of what makes the Church of Laodicea the bad Church that it is.
The century that followed the American Revolution also saw the beginning of pseudo-Christian cults with seriously false teaching, such as Christian Science, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormonism. These cults wouldn’t have been tolerated in the Christian world before the Revolution. Neither would the Church have tolerated the influx of Eastern Religions and philosophies that has occurred in the past century. The New Age Movement couldn’t have happened. The same period saw the beginning of a decline in public morality and in the social impact of the Church. Although there have been some revivals that bucked the trend, their impact has usually been short-lived. Today, for all the evangelism and good works that churches do, the Church has almost no moral impact on society at all.
As stated, the historical meaning of the word "Laodicea" is "people judged". Again, Jesus said, "I will vomit you out of my mouth". Regardless of how any version of the Bible translates this statement, the reading here is the right one. The Greek word that is rendered "vomit" is
emesai, and it means "vomit", period! Not "spit"(!), as some versions render it. Also, the word rendered "will" is mello. It occurs about twenty times in the New Testament, and it is always used in connection with something that actually happens, never in relation to a mere possibility. For example, it is found in John 6:6, in the phrase "what He would do" (KJV), where it refers to Jesus planning to miraculously feed the multitude. So, at some time in the future, Jesus absolutely will vomit the Church of Laodicea out of His mouth. (To say He won’t is to disagree with the Bible.) Which is to say he will totally reject the established Church. [16] The strong language He uses shows just how complete and unconditional that rejection will be. That act of rejection ends the Church Age. The logical time for this to happen is at the beginning of the Tribulation. And Jesus makes it plain enough why.Before we look into that, we must first look at what He said about Himself. His statement in Revelation 3:14 is a scathing rebuke to the Church of Laodicea. In calling Himself "The Amen", Jesus is affirming His unchanging divine nature. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:7). As also said of Him in the great prophecy of Micah 5:2, "…whose goings forth are from ancient times, from the days of eternity". [17] He is attacking the habit of Laodicean theologians of trying to redefine who He is and what He means to us, instead of sticking to what the Bible says. In calling Himself, "the Faithful and True Witness", He’s saying, "I tell it like it is. You don’t!" Finally, in calling Himself, "The Beginning of the Creation of God", Jesus is reminding us of two important truths: "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3), and "…God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name" (Philippians 2:9). In short, Jesus is giving the Church of Laodicea a stern reminder: "I am still Lord! What I say is still the way it is!"
Having told the Church of Laodicea that it is lukewarm, Jesus proceeds to give them a more detailed breakdown of what is wrong with them. In Rev. 3:17, He says, "…you say, I am rich…and have need of nothing". From what He says about them in the rest of the verse, we can discern a different way of summarizing of their spiritual problem: proud and deceived! Contrary to what some Bible scholars have said, the Church of Laodicea isn’t necessarily rich materially. Rather, they think they’re spiritually rich. We know this from Jesus’ use of the Greek word
plouto, translated "rich". He uses it in the letter to the Church of Smyrna to tell the Christians of that Church that they are spiritually rich, in spite of their material poverty. It may be that in some cases the Church of Laodicea is materially rich but spiritually poor. But as stated, material riches aren’t necessary for a church to fit the definition. As a general rule, Laodicean Christians think they are, collectively, spiritually rich. They think they’ve got it all together; that they’re the epitome of what Christians should be. (They are aware of having problems as individuals, but they don’t extend that perception to themselves as a group.) The truth is that they’re frequently in deep spiritual trouble. Jesus goes on to say, analyzing their problems in detail, "(you) do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked". Let’s take a close look at what Jesus meant.The Greek word translated "wretched" is
talaiporoV. It only occurs in one other place in the New Testament, and it is significant where. The verse is Romans 7:24, where Paul laments the fact that he (apart from the Holy Spirit) is in bondage to sin. He says, "Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Taking the implication from the context, and applying it to the meaning in Revelation, we see that Jesus is telling the Christians of Laodicea that they are in bondage to sin. So with the first word, they’re already in trouble. We already know they have a pride problem, so that shouldn’t surprise us.Then He says they’re miserable. A better reading would be, "to be pitied". This is a difficult word to translate into English directly. But from the Greek root used, the idea is that they are in need of God’s mercy. God’s mercy, as it applies to Christians, is enabling them to escape the consequences of their sins. Verse 16, however, indicates that they won’t receive this mercy when the Tribulation begins.
Next, Jesus tells them that they are spiritually poor. It must be noted that, as similar as the terms may sound, being spiritually poor is not the same as being poor in spirit, as in Matthew 5:3. To be poor in spirit as in the Beatitude means to be aware of one’s need for God. Ironically, being spiritually poor means, among other things, just the opposite. The Christians of Laodicea aren’t aware of their need, and that’s part of their problem. They think they have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, with all the power and love that go with it, but they don’t. What they have more frequently is pride, presumption, and emotionalism.
Then He tells them that they’re blind, which isn’t surprising in the light of everything else He says about them. They can’t see the truth about themselves, and in the spiritual sense, they don’t really have The Truth. That’s part of the reason for all the division. Having The Truth results in unity. Error causes division. In fact, division is error. Allowing difference of opinion to cause all the division in the Church is one of the worst sins of the Church of Laodicea. If they really had The Truth, they’d see it and repent. It’s ironic that one of the biggest areas of dispute is the meaning of Second Coming Prophecy!
Finally, He tells them that they’re naked. This is the worst of all. Nakedness, in the Bible is a metaphor for being guilty of unconfessed, unrepented sin. Especially, it means being guilty of the sin of idolatry. Idolatry was the major sin that brought God’s wrath on the people of ancient Israel. Today, it is a sin that is prevalent in the Church to a degree that few Christians recognize. In the United States, at least, it manifests itself most obviously in the way that the Church, and Christians individually, are embracing the secular world of arts, entertainment, and sports. In II Corinthians 6:17 & 18, God says to Christians, "Come out from among them and be separate. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty". It follows logically that if we do the opposite of what He tells us here, He will reject us. This brings us to the bottom line of why the Church will be rejected by Christ at the beginning of the Tribulation.
Anyone, even people who aren’t Christian at all, can look at the world of arts, entertainment and sports and see that there is plenty about it that is unclean. (By the way, this also goes for fictional literature in all its forms.) Secular commentators, for example, have blamed TV violence for the high crime rate. But the Church has so imitated and blended with the entertainment world (this was one of Jim Bakker’s big mistakes) that it is impossible to say where the entertainment industry ends and the Church begins. We’re supposed to be imitators of God, not the world, but a number of Christian leaders have noted that the Church is trying to do the Lord’s work with the world’s tools. The Church is increasingly imitating the world.
Have you ever noticed, at least in the United States, that when an entertainment or sports personality professes to be a Christian, he or she is suddenly given "the spotlight" in the Christian media as if he or she was some kind of super saint for all of us to look up to? This is wrong, in two ways. On the one hand , it may put pressure on the celebrity to be something other than what he or she really is, and this pressure can provoke that celebrity to renounce his or her faith. This is not theoretical. I know specific cases in point where it has happened. On the other hand, celebrities, however sincere as Christians they may be, are not usually the kind of people other Christians should look up to, let alone listen to. Often, especially for newly saved ones, they are, to borrow a way of speaking from the world of computers, Scripture illiterate. Some of the things they say publicly, however well meant, are theologically right out of hell. And unfortunately, it’s more often than not it’s the newly saved celebrity that winds up in the spotlight. Not only that, but Christian celebrities are subject to pressures to conform to the world that the average Christian would never imagine. And they all too frequently yield to those pressures. Furthermore, celebrities are particularly likely to have pride problems that make them vulnerable to temptation and deception. The result is scandals like the recent one involving Frank Gifford, who professes to be a Christian. There are Biblical standards for who should be a Christian leader, [18] and no secular celebrity meets the standards. Especially not newly saved ones.
All this compromise with the world is sin and rebellion against God. Which is also true of all the modern theologians who are trying to second guess the Bible. It is because of all this sin that the Church of Laodicea will be totally rejected by the Lord at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. As stated in the last chapter, most of the Christians in a given Church Age will to some extent manifest the spiritual conditions of their time in their Christian walk. For a typical Laodicean, this means that he will be rejected by Christ and will have to go into the Tribulation, without any of the protection promised in Psalm 91. Many Christians today expect to be taken up in the Rapture before the Tribulation begins. But from what Jesus says, it logically follows that even if there is a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, most of the Church of Laodicea will be left behind. They won’t be ready. Whatever you believe about the Rapture, if you aren’t an overcomer, and you’re alive when the Tribulation begins, you’re going into it.
We will examine what Jesus told the Laodicean Christians to do about their sins in the fourth booklet of this series, "Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth". But note again that it will be mostly the overcomers of Smyrna and Laodicea who will reign with Christ during the Millennium (or in Heaven in eternity if you don’t believe in the Millennium). But frankly, as I will show in the next chapter, the Bible really says that the entire Church goes into the Tribulation. There will be many martyrs then, too. But, as I will show, there will be supernatural protection from God’s wrath for those are ready. How you will fare during the Tribulation depends on what kind of life you live now. That day will come as a thief! Get busy and get ready!
3. THE RAPTURE.
In the last chapter, I said that we are living in the Age of the Church of Laodicea. I also said that this Church will be totally rejected by Christ at the beginning of the Tribulation. Except, that is, for the overcomers. However, I believe that they will constitute less that 1/10 of 1% of the Christians alive at that time (I’ll explain why in the next chapter). Now consider, in the light of this, the fact that many Christians (60+% by most estimates) expect to be taken up to Heaven in the Rapture at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Christians who hold this view believe that they will escape both the wrath of God and the wrath of Satan. But if the Church gets rejected by Christ, who gets taken up in the Rapture? Pre-Tribbers would probably say all it will be all the true Christians. [19] But if a person isn’t a true Christian, he really isn’t part of the Church, either. It would be better to answer that all the overcomers get taken up. But even if that is true (and it’s one of only two things that differs from my basic understanding of the Book of Revelation that I would say is Scripturally possible, though I definitely don’t think it will happen) [20] , the majority of Christians will still be left behind. But, as I will show, there is solid Scriptural reason to believe that no one will taken be taken up in a Rapture before the Tribulation.
The concept of the Rapture comes from two passages of Scripture. The first is I Corinthians 15: 51 & 52: "Behold, I tell you a great mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed". The second is I Thessalonians 4: 16 & 17: "For the Lord Himself shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord". Note that a point made in both of these passages is that the dead in Christ rise first. The Rapture follows the Resurrection of the Saints.
Now please note one thing: The passage in I Corinthians 15 specifically says that this event takes place when the last trumpet sounds. If you’ve ever read the Book of Revelation, then you should know that there are seven trumpets that are sounded by angels during the Tribulation. Simple logic says that if the trumpet that sounds at the time of the Rapture is the last trumpet, then there aren’t any more after that. Therefore, the Rapture doesn’t take place until after all those trumpets have sounded, and after all the terrible things that are prophesied to happen when those trumpets sound have happened. See Revelation 8 & 9. This is so simple and logical that Pre-Tribbers have to be spiritually deceived not to see it.
What’s more, the seventh trumpet isn’t the last trumpet. These trumpets are blown by angels. As you can see above, the last trumpet is called "the trumpet of God". Zechariah 9:14 speaks of am event when "…the Lord will be seen over them…the Lord God will blow the trumpet". Contrary to popular belief, the last trumpet will be blown (whatever this really means) by God Himself; not by Gabriel or any other angel. It must also be noted that there is still a lot of Tribulation that happens after the seventh angel sounds his trumpet. In Revelation 10:7, we read, "…in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God will be finished". Note that the word "days" is plural. More than that, a "day" in the Biblical sense isn’t necessarily a 24 hour period. Therefore, this passage can cover a lot of time. In fact, it appears to cover at least one third of the Tribulation. It doesn’t follow, therefore, that the end comes when the seventh trumpet is blown. That is to say, the blowing of the Seventh Trumpet doesn’t end the Tribulation. We also have to understand what is meant by "the mystery of God will be finished". From Revelation 11:15, we see that the seventh trumpet is actually blown right after the death and resurrection of the Two Witnesses. (I will say more about them in Part II of this booklet.) Comparing this with the use of the term "mystery" in Ephesians 3: 3 & 4, this means that when the seventh trumpet has sounded, God will have done everything He will ever do to reach out to unsaved humanity. Anyone who didn’t repent under the ministry of the Two Witnesses will never get the chance again. It doesn’t mean that the Tribulation is over. But from then on it’s nothing but wrath. The dispensation of grace is over.
Now notice also that the passage in I Corinthians 15 says that we will be changed. Pre-Tribbers believe that Christians will disappear. The Bible doesn’t say that! It says we will be changed! If it was the Holy Spirit’s intent to have it say "we will disappear", there’s a perfectly good Greek word for that. It’s used of Jesus in Luke 24:31, where it’s translated, "He vanished". But the Greek word,
allagesomeqa, means changed in the sense of transformation. There is nothing in the word to suggest disappearance. But what does the Word tell us about the nature of this transformation? There are several passages that speak to this question. The first is Daniel 12:3; "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever". Another is Romans 8:18; "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us". Note that the Scripture says "in us" (emphasis mine: author), not "to us". Finally, there is I John 3:2, "…it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him…" When Jesus is revealed, as in Revelation 1:7, we shall be like Him. All these passages add up to saying one thing: When the Rapture occurs, far from disappearing, the Christians are going to light up like the sun! They’ll be like Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. It will be the greatest "I told you so" in history. People who persecuted Christians unto death may see them alive and literally shining with the glory of God. [21]In I Thessalonians 4:17, it is said that we will "meet the Lord in the air". Pre-Tribbers think that we’ll meet Him there and be taken back to Heaven to celebrate the Wedding Feast of the Lamb while the world gets destroyed. But the key word here is "meet". It is the Greek word
apanthsin, and although it is translated as a verb, in the original Greek it is a noun. It is the word for an event where a welcoming party goes out to meet a visiting dignitary. If the Queen of England came to Washington, DC, and the President of the United States and several other senior US statesmen went out to the airport to meet her, that event would be an apanthsin. But if it was a state visit, they wouldn’t be going back to England with her. This word is another one that occurs in only one other place in the Bible, and it’s clearly used there in the sense of a welcoming party. The passage is Acts 28:15, where it is used of Christians from Rome coming to a place called The Three Taverns to meet Paul as he was on his way to Rome. Therefore, there is absolutely no support in that passage for the belief that Jesus takes the saints back to Heaven. Rather, they meet Him in the air and they all return to earth - in triumph!By the way, in view of the sequence of events shown in the Book of Revelation, the Wedding Feast doesn’t occur until the end of the Tribulation. See Revelation 19: 7-9.
Another indication that the Rapture occurs at the end of the Tribulation is found in the Greek word translated "remain" (KJV an NKJV) in I Thessalonians 4:17. Some modern interpreters have seen it as a meaningless appendage to the words "are alive", and don’t include it in their translations. They might stop to think, first of all, that the words "are alive" give a broad hint that many Christians will be untimely dead. And the Greek word says something. It is
perileipomenoi, and its literal translation is "those left behind", but it also carries the connotative meaning "survivors of a disaster". The disaster, of course, is the Tribulation.Now consider a third passage of Scripture; Revelation 20: 4-6: "…I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshipped the Beast and his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived again and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and they shall reign with Him a thousand years."
Consider two things about this passage. The first is when it occurs, at the end of the Tribulation. This is supported by the reference to the resurrected saints having not worshipped the Beast. It implies that they had opportunity to do so, which only occurs during the Tribulation. [22] This resurrection includes only those who had the opportunity. [23] Then consider that the resurrection of the saints mentioned here is quite specifically called the first resurrection. A separate, short sentence is inserted just to make that point. Now if this is the first resurrection, then there is no resurrection before it. This conclusion is supported by the Greek word translated "first". It is
proto, transliterated "proto" and its most common meaning is "first of a series". It is used that way in our words "prototype" and "protozoa". It can be used to mean "first in honor or importance, as in the expression "first lady". But in this passage, the phrase "the rest of the dead…" in verse 5 indicates that there will be another resurrection later. Therefore, the "first of a series" meaning is the one intended here. So if the first resurrection takes place at the end of the Tribulation, then there is no resurrection before the Tribulation. And if there is no resurrection before the end of the Tribulation, there is no rapture before the end of the Tribulation, because the "dead in Christ will rise first". It’s as simple as that. This refutes both the Pre-Trib and Mid-Trib Rapture doctrines.Now here I want to mention something else. Some years ago, I recorded a tape entitled "A Mountain Burning With Fire" [24] . In that tape, I challenged the listeners to show me a resurrection of the saints in the Bible that clearly happens before the Great Tribulation. I did make it clear that I wasn’t going to accept the temporary resurrection that happened at the time of the Crucifixion of Christ. [25] Copies of the tape were mailed to around 60 well-known Christian leaders, some of whom were Pre-Trib in doctrinal position. But to date, no one has ever even tried to show me such a resurrection. It simply isn’t there. Yet I have heard other Christian teachers twisting the Scriptures in such way as to include a supposed Pre-Trib resurrection in the first resurrection of Revelation 20:5. It is often a waste of words to try to straight-forwardly defeat such arguments. Those who create and use them are playing games with words, and they will continue to do so if challenged. Proponents of the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine are masters of the art of reading things into the Bible that aren’t there. But there is something that both the teachers and hearers of such arguments should be aware of. It is a time-honored axiom known as Ockham’s Razor.
Ockham’s Razor is a rule of thumb, in practice, for judging whether an interpretation is true or not. It was formulated in the 14th Century by a theologian known as William of Ockham. He is recognized by Church historians as the greatest theologian of his day. Aside from formulating Ockham’s Razor, he’s best known for having been excommunicated for challenging the authority of the Pope. Although most modern Christians have never heard of him, it’s noteworthy that Martin Luther, whom most present day Christians have heard of, considered himself a follower of William of Ockham.
Ockham’s Razor is used in both science and theology. Scientists, however, tend to spell the name "Occam", presumably to disguise the axiom’s theological origin. In both cases, it’s not expressed the way Ockham originally said it, because it modern English the original meaning isn’t clear. The original says, "Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity". But when used in modern science, Ockham’s Razor says, "the simplest interpretation of the result of an experiment or of an observed event is probably the correct one." When used in theology it says, "the simplest interpretation of a passage, or group of passages, of Scripture is probably the correct one". In other words, the more you have to "interpret" Scripture to understand it, the more likely it is that your interpretation is wrong. Ockham’s Razor allows for exceptions with the words "beyond necessity". There are definitely passages of Scripture where you have to do some real scholarly digging to come up with the correct meaning. But the axiom leads to the right answer often enough to be considered reliable.
This is illustrated in the work of those who have attempted to predict the date of the Second Coming by numbers found in the Bible. If you’ve read many of their writings, you know that they always go through a lot of complicated calculations to come up with their conclusions. And, of course, they’re always wrong. If it were possible to figure out from the Scriptures when the Second Coming will take place, it would have to be done in a way that was simple and straightforward, not by some kind of complex calculations. And the same truth applies to most theological thinking. God did not mean to make things complicated. As Jesus said in Luke 10:21, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes". As for those who have done such complex calculations, only to be proven wrong by history, "…professing to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22). To use a modern expression, they’ve outsmarted themselves.
In the light of this, we conclude that the more complicated your thinking about anything related to the fulfillment of prophecy; the more detailed you try to be in your interpretation of prophecy, the more likely it is you’re wrong. I have observed this concept as proven by history. On the other hand, the simpler your thinking is, the more likely it is that you’re right. In what I predict on the basis of Scripture, I believe that I’m not being overly detailed, nor complicated in my thinking. But I seriously see Pre-Tribbers as frequently being very complicated and detailed in their thinking. Yet I still admit that I could be wrong.
Applying Ockham’s Razor to the Scriptures that I’ve quoted, I feel confident in understanding the Book of Revelation to say that the resurrection of the saints, and therefore the Rapture, occur at the end of the Tribulation. And that means the entire Church will go through the entire Tribulation (those who survive, that is). Pre-Tribbers know that there are passages in the Book of Revelation that show that there are Christians on the earth during the Tribulation, and victorious saints at that. Not just the ones who "get left behind". They have some fantastic ideas about how that happens, which tend to be totally lacking in Scriptural support. Because some Christians have been unable to get around this contradiction, they’ve compromised by believing in a Mid-Tribulation Rapture. But that is the weakest doctrine of them all, and has by far the fewest adherents. But even if there is a Mid-Trib Rapture, we still have to deal with the fact that there will be Christians on the earth when God’s wrath is poured out. And most of those Christians won’t be ready. As I want to emphasize, in all likelihood, no one will suffer more than the Christians who aren’t ready. They’ll be subject to both the wrath of God and the wrath of Satan, via the Beasts; the opposite of what they expect. See Luke 12: 47 & 48.
Another argument that I’ve heard put forward to support the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is Christ’s promise to the Church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3: 10. "I…will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world". But there are two problems with that. First of all, we’re living in the Age of the Church of Laodicea, not Philadelphia. A Philadelphia-type Christian today would be a Laodicean overcomer. But there is a deeper problem with this than that. It has to do with the Greek word translated "keep". It is
tereo, and it happens to be the same word Jesus used in His great pastoral prayer in John 17, verse 15, when He asks the Father not to take the Christians out of the world, but to "keep them from the evil one". "tereo" means to "watch over, guard and protect"; not "evacuate". Therefore, by principles of sound doctrine, there is no way we can read a promise of Pre-Trib Rapture into this verse.It is my position that the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is one of the most insidious false teachings that has ever gained wide acceptance in the Church. It is going to set many Christians up for a terrible surprise. Pre-Tribbers would respond by saying that God wouldn’t allow His people to suffer wrath, based on I Thessalonians 5:9: "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ". However, to interpret this passage to mean that God wouldn’t allow Christians to suffer is contrary to both the record of history and the Word of Scripture. Anyone who knows anything at all about Church History knows that the history of our Faith is a trail of martyrs’ blood. Throughout the centuries, from the lynch-mob death of Stephen, to the kidnapping and murder of Bruce Olson, a well-known missionary in South America, by Colombian drug lords just a few years ago, Christians have been sealing their testimony with their blood. And what about the Christians in Rwanda? Did God allow them to suffer? You know it! What does the Bible really say about this?
"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, [26] as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you"
(I Peter 4: 12-14). In the light of this, we may safely say that anyone who believes that God wouldn’t allow His people to suffer, believes a lie of Satan. Furthermore, the Bible also makes it clear that the Lord chastises Christians. "For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son He receives" (Hebrew 12:6). In Revelation 3:19, after having told the Church of Laodicea what was wrong with them and what they had to do, He restated this idea: As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten". I believe that He was telling the Christians of the Church of Laodicea what lay in store for them: The Great Tribulation will be just as much as Great Chastening of the Church as it will be a Great Judgment on the unsaved world.The only way any Christian escapes going into the Great Tribulation is to die first. Actually, many Christians will be killed within the first 6 or 7 months to a year of the Tribulation, along with about 2/3 of the human race. Whether that happens to you, or you go all the way through it, if you’re not ready, you get saved "as through fire" (I Corinthians 3:15). And more literally so than you’d think! It’s going to be of critical importance for Christians to know what to expect, and to know what they have to do to be ready. More than that, they need to know what to do if they find that they are in the Tribulation and aren’t ready. If I figure right, something approaching 99+% of all living Christians will find themselves in exactly that predicament someday soon. Never assume you’re ready! Get serious about being obedient now!
4. THE SEAL OF THE LIVING GOD.
In the last chapter, I said that the entire Church goes through the entire Great Tribulation. I also said that in all likelihood no one will suffer worse during the Tribulation than the Christians who aren’t ready. Again, they’ll be subject to both the wrath of God and the wrath of Satan. But what happens to those Christians who are ready? It does make sense that they shouldn’t receive any wrath or chastisement from God. In fact, one might be inclined to think that they’d deserve protection from Satan. It might even be that they are promised such protection (See I John 5:18). So what happens to them?
Their Finest Hour!
The Bible shows that they will receive absolute divine protection from the wrath of God, and some protection from the wrath of Satan. Some of them will be martyred, but, as we said in "The Seven Churches", there are rewards that can’t be earned any other way. To be a martyr is the ultimate blessing and honor that a Christian can receive in this life (See Acts 5: 40 & 41, and John 21:19). In thinking of the Laodicean overcomers who go into the Great Tribulation, I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said about the British people during the Second World War. He called it their finest hour, referring to the courageous way they worked and fought in the face of merciless bombing and severe shortages of even the most common necessities. Well, for the overcomers, (and maybe even for some of those who aren’t overcomers) the Great Tribulation will be their finest hour. Their witness will outshine even the witness of the early Christians who suffered martyrdom under the Roman Emperors. As it says in Revelation 12:11, "And they overcame him (the Beast) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death". This is talking about incredible Christian heroism. Again, to follow Jesus unto death is as far as a Christian can go in obedient faith in this life. During the Tribulation, many Christians will. No wonder that they’ll reign with Christ during the Millennium.
The Seal.
But the overcomers of the Church of Laodicea will not suffer from the wrath of God. How this will come about is something that I have learned solely from my own study of and meditation on the Scriptures. If anyone else has ever taught what follows, I have never heard it, and it is about the only major point in my understanding of the Book of Revelation that I have never heard anywhere else (except for when the Church of Laodicea began). For years I puzzled over the meaning of the seventh chapter of the Book of Revelation. Then one day, in my thinking I tied something about verses 4-8 to something else I’d learned years before, that is only indirectly related to the Second Coming of Christ. At that point, it all fell into place.
Revelation chapter 7 is one of the best known chapters in the Book, because of the statement in verse 9 about "….a great multitude which no man could number….standing before the throne…" This verse is generally understood as assurance that many Christians will indeed make it into Heaven. I am aware that this understanding has probably given hope to many a struggling Christian. But there are two major points to the entire chapter that most (if not all other) Bible scholars have missed. And these two points give us a clear understanding of what will happen to Christians during the Tribulation.
The first point is found in verses 2 & 3. Here we find something called "the seal of the living God". Just what the "seal" is, substantively, the Bible gives no clue. (We do know that a seal, in that sense, is a mark of confirmation and/or ownership.) It only says that those who are "the servants of our God" receive it on their foreheads. It is clearly something that goes beyond mere salvation. Only 144,000 people get it. But the Bible plainly shows what the "seal" does for the people who have it. It makes those who receive it immune to the plagues of the wrath of God. Those who get it receive it just before the Tribulation starts. (Note: this is what the Bible really says, in contrast to Pre-Trib Rapture.) This is clearly implied in the context, where the angels holding back the winds are told not to harm anything until the servants of God have been sealed on their foreheads. It is also shown in another passage, Revelation 9:4, where the mysterious locusts can only hurt people who don’t have the "seal". There is further, though indirect, support from this in Revelation 16:2, where those who have taken the Mark of the Beast are specially targeted for wrath. God’s wrath clearly doesn’t harm those who have the "seal".
This "seal", as shown in Revelation 7: 4-8, is given only to a limited group described as being from the Twelve Tribes of Israel. But this, contrary to what some have taught, does not refer to people who are ethnically Jewish. Rather, it is talking about Christians, and specifically, the overcomers of the Church of Laodicea. There are several things in the Bible that tell us they are Christians. The first is right in verse 3, where the angel refers to them as, again, "the servants of our God". In our time, that phrase is synonymous with "Christians". Not Jews! [27] It is those who receive the "seal" who will experience the literal fulfillment of Psalm 91:7 & 8: "A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and behold the reward of the wicked". These verses have been traditionally understood as inspired rhetoric. But during the Tribulation, for those who have the "seal", it will be what actually happens. When the terrible events that I will explain in Part II happen, they won’t be touched. Why? Because they fulfill the condition of Psalm 91: 1; "He that dwells in the secret place of (read, "stays close to") the Most High, will abide (read, "survive") under the shadow (read, "protection") of the Almighty". There is Biblical precedent for this. In Exodus 9 & 10, God devastated Egypt with a series of horrible plagues. But the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was unscathed. We also have the accounts of Daniel in the lions’ den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace to illustrate how God can protect people to the point of letting them survive unharmed what appears to be certain death. During the Great Tribulation, He will do that for the 144,000. Repeatedly! Pre-Tribbers expect to be evacuated from this planet for the Tribulation begins. But the Biblical tradition is protection, not evacuation.
We should note that the statement in Psalm 91: 2 is a clue to the proper way of preparing for the Tribulation. The Psalmists’ declaration that he "…will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and fortress; My God, in Him will I trust", tells us that he’s made up his mind to stay close to the Lord and rely on Him for protection during the Tribulation. Smart move! To be truly close to God is to be ready!
Another thing that tells us that the "seal" is given to Christians is the list of the tribes. As you can see, there are 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel. But if you look at the list of tribes closely, you may notice that there is something odd about it. One of the tribes is missing, namely the tribe of Dan. Instead, Joseph and Manasseh, are listed as separate tribes to make twelve. We might ask why. To see why, we have to go back to Genesis 49, where Jacob on his death bed gives blessings to each of his twelve sons. We should start by looking at something that Jacob said at the beginning of the chapter that most people who read it never notice: "Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days" (emphasis mine: author). Jacob wasn’t telling them what was going to happen to the material tribes. He was making a prophecy about the Church.
Anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time has probably heard it said that the Church constitutes a spiritual nation of Israel. There are a number of passages of Scripture that testify to this. [28] I discovered, through my own study some years ago that, just as there are 12 tribes in material Israel, so there are 12 tribes in spiritual Israel. The different spiritual tribes represent different kinds of calling or destiny as Christians. Through study of what is said about the tribes in Genesis 49, Deuteronomy 33, and elsewhere, I believe that a Christian who has had some experience in Christian living, and acquired some spiritual maturity, can discern what tribe he belongs to. (A new Christian cannot do this. You also may have to be an overcomer to see it.) If you know your tribe, it will help you to understand God’s will for your life. I have been convinced for years that I am of the spiritual tribe of Issachar. [29] I have also been able to come to some general conclusions about what Christians of some of the other tribes are like. And it is this understanding that has helped me to conclude that the Twelve Tribes of Revelation 7 are Christians.
So why no tribe of Dan in Revelation 7? We find a clue in what Jacob said about the tribe of Dan in Genesis 49: 17, "Dan shall be a serpent by the way…..". And then Jacob interjects what I believe was a cry of pain: "I have waited for your salvation , O Lord!" What he’d just said about Dan wasn’t a blessing. It was a curse! And, although he was speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he knew it was a curse, and it hurt him. From what he said, in verse 16, we can understand that God uses Dan Christians to judge, which is to say, chastise other Christians. But in what they are as Christians, even though they may be believers, in their behavior they are devils in disguise. (I think I’ve known a few.) The result is that Dan Christians either lose their salvation, or at the very best none of them are overcomers. That’s why they’re not on the list.
The 144,000 out of the Twelve Tribes probably isn’t an exact number. Large numbers in the Bible are almost always approximations. [30] It could be more or less. It must be noted though, that this is a very small percentage of the Christians living today. According to some estimates, there may be as many of as 300 million Born Again Christians living in this world right now. Even if there are only half that many, this is still less than 1/10 of 1%. If that’s the case, and the Great Tribulation does occur in the near future, then 99+ % won’t be ready and won’t receive the "seal of the living God". Which means they won’t be protected from the plagues. But the fact that the 144,000 isn’t an exact number allows for the possibility that some lukewarm Christians will heed the warning of this message and start being overcomers (I’m praying for that, please agree in prayer with me.) It also, unfortunately, allows for the possibility that some Christians who are overcomers now will eventually backslide and lose their potential protection (see Ezekiel 33:13-16).
I must admit that I can’t prove from the Bible that those who receive the "seal" are the overcomers of the Church of Laodicea. But it seems to me that this is the only logical identification of them as a group that can be made. I believe there is some indirect support for this in II Timothy 2:19: "Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord know those who are His’, and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity". Here we have the idea of God’s knowing who His people are, and that, by the context, in the sense of really are, associated with the idea of a seal. And this is linked to the idea of departing from iniquity. As I said in the last chapter, the Church of Laodicea has a big sin problem. One of the things that makes an overcomer what he is, is that he has departed from iniquity. So I think I’m making a rational conclusion identifying the Christian who get the "seal of the living God" as Laodicean overcomers.
Some writers who take the Post-Tribulation view have given their readers advice on how to make material preparations for the Great Tribulation. Such advice may turn out to be a sad joke in the long run. [31] As Jesus said, the Tribulation will be the worst thing that ever happens in human history. Advance material preparation may help a few people short term, but the Tribulation will last somewhere between 4 ½ and 7 years. No one (except perhaps the very rich) could stockpile enough food, water, medicine, etc. to last through the whole time. And just having it, if you did, could put you in danger if other people found out about it, with deadly consequences to you. In the long run, material preparation may be futile or worse. Again, the only thing that the Bible says will help is to stay close to God. In Revelation 16:15, Jesus warns even the Christians during the Tribulation, presumably those who have the "seal", to be watchful about their Christian walk. The "seal of the living God" isn’t cheap grace. It has to be earned by total commitment to Christ before the Tribulation begins, and continued commitment while it’s happening.
Revelation 7 does contain some good news (but not entirely good) for those who aren’t ready. This is the second major point of the chapter that most scholars have missed. In verse 13, the elder asks John who the people in white robes are. John doesn’t know, so he politely throws the question back to the elder. The elder gives an answer that is quite different from what most Christians would expect. He says, in verse 14, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, [32] and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb". Let’s start interpreting this by noting one important thing about what’s said here: you can’t come out of what you were never in. This is further support for the doctrine of Post-Tribulation Rapture. Contrary to popular belief, the ‘great multitude that no one could number" isn’t all the Christians throughout history. They are the Christians who go into the Tribulation without being ready. The words, "washed their robes and made them white" tell us that once the Tribulation has begun, the Christians who aren’t ready will realize how disobedient they’ve been and they’ll repent en masse. This idea is supported by the words of God in Zechariah 13:9: "I will bring one third (the Christians who survive the beginning of the Tribulation-this could easily be over 100 million Christians) through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My Name, and I will answer them. I will say ‘This is my people’, and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God". This, again, supports the idea that the Tribulation is among other things, a great chastening of the Church.
The last three verses of the chapter promise blessings given by Jesus to those who repent. But what is promised echoes what those who weren’t ready will have to endure: hunger, thirst, heat, being "struck by the sun" [33] (note: this is literal, as you will see in the next section). During the Tribulation, those who weren’t ready will experience all these things. Verse 17 concludes by saying, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes". Rest assured, during the Tribulation the Christians who weren’t ready will do a lot of crying!
In this booklet, and the previous ones, I’ve stressed the importance of being ready. I’ve given Christians a general idea of what will happen to them. I’ve also said that it is important for Christians to have an accurate idea of just what is going to happen to the world as a whole, but so far I’ve said virtually nothing about that. In the next section, "The Three Great Woes", we will look at what the Bible says will happen to the world during the Tribulation. Again, what I understand the Bible to really say is quite different from most of what others have taught. But what will be said has support from an unusual source for Christian teaching: science! It also has support from history. In addition to being spiritually ready, it may be critical for Christians to be expecting the right things. Otherwise, the Tribulation will be a nasty surprise even for those who are ready. I know that I could be wrong about any or all of this, so you aren’t asked to "swallow this whole". But you will do well to know it, just in case it proves true. There is more solid basis for what has been and will be said than there is for much of what has been presented by others as interpretation of Second Coming Prophecy. So read and be aware.
Notes for part 1