TRIBULATION (GREAT)
Brief period of terrible judgments, which will immediately precede the glorious coming of the Lord and will coincide with the reign of Antichrist.
The expression “great tribulation” comes from Rev. 7:14, but the prophecies frequently speak of the time of unusual distress that the world will go through at the end of time (Dan. 12:1; Is. 26:20), the terrible day of Jehovah (Is. 2:12, 17-19; 13:6, 9-13; Ez. 30:2-3; Jl. 1:15; 2:1-2, 11; Am. 5: 18, 20; Zeph. 1:14-18).
Jesus, speaking not only of the sufferings of Jerusalem in the year 70, but especially of the time preceding His return, said: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, nor the there will be” (Mt. 24:21).
Daniel and the Lord Jesus relate the Antichrist and the abomination of desolation to the great tribulation (Dan. 7:25; 9:27; 12:1, 7; Mt. 24:15, 21).
The Apocalypse specifies that the reign of this character will be characterized by terrible persecutions (Rev. 13:7, 15-17) and by punishments of terrible severity. The Great Tribulation will be, on the one hand, “a time of trouble for Jacob” (Jer. 30:7); on the other, tribulation for apostate Christianity (Rev. 2:22) and for the entire earth (Rev. 16, etc.).
The tribulation will come from God’s wrath against a rebellious and apostate humanity (Eph. 5:6; Rev. 6:15-17; 8:6-13; 9; 15; 16, etc.), and from the great wrath of the devil, cast out from heaven, persecutor of God’s witnesses (Rev. 12:12-17) and enemy and destroyer of humanity.
In his character as a dragon, Satan will make himself worshiped by men (Rev. 13:4) and, together with the Beast and the false prophet, he will exercise dominion over all humanity (Rev. 13:7), killing the faithful witnesses of God (Rev. 13:7; cf. 7:14).
Eight times, and using four different expressions, Daniel (Dan. 7:25; 9:27; 12:7) and John (Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14; 13:5) announce that this gloomy period will last three and a half years.
God will not be left without testimony; In the midst of this turbulence he will reserve for himself a designated number of Israelites (Rev. 7: 3-8; cf. Ez. 9: 4-6) and will save through them a multitude who will suffer martyrdom for faith (Rev. 7:9-14); He will further raise up two powerful witnesses, with whose ministry he will scourge the inhabitants of Jerusalem, where the Lord was crucified (Rev. 11:1-12).
The Great Tribulation will reach its climax of violence in the battle of Armageddon (see ARMAGEDDON), which will end with the glorious appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (see COMING [SECOND]). The church and the tribulation.
Among the expositors of premillennial conviction, that is, those who maintain that the Second Coming of the Lord will be prior to the Millennium (see MILLENNIUM), there are four main positions: (1) Post-tribulationism.
In this view, the Church goes through the tribulation. Its defenders proclaim that it is the historical faith of the Christian Church.
It is further stated that the very fact that the Church was promised tribulation supports this position.
On the other hand, they identify the resurrection of the righteous of Israel, evidently at the end of the Great Tribulation, and surely coinciding with that of the saints who died during it (cf. Dan. 12:1-3, 13; Rev. 20:4 ) with the rapture of the Church
(1 Thes. 4:13-18).
It is evident that this position destroys the doctrine of the imminence of the coming of Christ in relation to believers and which appears in passages such as Jn. 14:2-3; 1 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Thes. 1:9-10; 4:16-17; 5:5-9; Tit. 2:13; Stg. 5:8-9; Rev. 3:10; 22:17-22).
Furthermore, despite the claim of “historicity” of the post-tribulationists, in the early church the imminence of the Lord’s return to collect the church from him was maintained. Among those who support it are Clement of Rome, Cyprian, and Didache herself.
(2) Mid-tribulationism. In this position, the Church is caught up in the middle of the tribulation. Several of the assumptions of posttribulationism are assumed, but the rapture is considered to be marked in Rev. 11:12, 15, identifying the two witnesses as a symbol of the two groups of Christians, the living and the dead.
The “last trumpet” of 1 Cor. 15:52 is also assumed to be the same as the seventh trumpet of Rev. 11:15, which sounds in the midst of the tribulation.
(3) Partial Rapture. Proponents of this position argue that only awake believers will be raptured before the tribulation, while lukewarm believers will be left to go through the tribulation.
However, the promise of the rapture is for all believers, regardless of their status (1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thes. 1:9-10; 2:19; 4:13-18; 5:4 -11; Rev. 22:12).
The state of the Christian will have to do with the rewards before the judgment seat of Christ (see JUDGMENT).
(4) Pretribulationism. The position that the Church will be raptured before the Great Tribulation is based on the following points: (A) The doctrine of imminence.
Before the coming of the Lord in glory to the earth many signs will be given; However, the Church is called to live in expectation of Christ’s imminent return to gather it to Himself (John 14:2-3; 1 Cor. 15:5152; Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:4; 1 Thes. 1:10; 1 Tim. 6:14; Tit. 2:13; Jas. 5:8; 1 Pet. 3:3-4; Rev. 3:3).
(B) The promises given to the Church. In Rev. 3:10 it is stated: “I will keep you from the hour of trial.” It is not said “during” or “in the middle of”, but the preposition Gr. «ek», «out of»; On the other hand, in 1 Thes. 1:9-10 states that we are to “wait for his Son from heaven,…Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come”; in 1 Thes. 5:9 insists: “For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In 1 Thes. 5:10 an intimation is given that the reality of this salvation from wrath is not conditional on the believer’s state of wakefulness; rests entirely on the merits of Christ.
The Great Tribulation being the unleashing of God’s wrath on a guilty world, and for the “dwellers of the earth” (Rev. 11:10; 12:12, etc.), and since the Church is not a dweller, but pilgrim and foreigner in this world (cf. Phil. 2:10), it is evident that all these cumulative indications can give assurance to the believer that the Church will not be on earth during the Great Tribulation.
It is true that tribulations have been promised to him, but not those that arise from the judgments that the avenging God will throw on the earth before the establishment of the millennial reign, but those that result from living in a hostile environment, target of the persecutions of the Enemy. .
For further consideration, see THESSALONIANS (EPISTLES TO THEM). On the other hand, it is evident that the 144,000 indicated are the Israelite remnant, which God will raise up prior to the establishment of the messianic reign on the earth (Rev. 7).
The multitude from the Great Tribulation is an evident fruit of the witnessing labors of the 144,000 (Rev. 7:9-17). This will be the nucleus of the remnant of Israel that will receive the grace of national repentance at the manifestation of Him “whom they pierced” (Zech. 12:10 ff.).