The Last Days – Part 4 – The Tribulation

Whatever you and I believe about this period doesn’t make it the truth. The only truth, not only relating to the tribulation but to all things, is the Word of God and that alone.

If our belief doesn’t line up perfectly with His Word, our belief is speculation at best or an outright lie at worst.

And it’s not enough to cherry pick pieces from God’s word to try and make them fit into what we think we know! Nor is it enough to take the word of those who want to tickle our ears as Paul says in 2^nd Timothy 4:3 and 4,

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 

We need the whole counsel of God as Paul preached. To the Ephesian elders Pauls says this in Acts 20:27.

For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. 

We saw in the last episode the hope of the Resurrection and that we’re not appointed to wrath and the reason why Paul’s bringing this question of wrath up is because wrath, judgment, and tribulation is a major topic of prophecy and that wrath will come on the world that’s rejected him, and not only that, but it’s also intended to prepare the earth for the Lord’s coming Kingdom.

The reason why there’s coming wrath and tribulation before the Kingdom is because Christ is going to make the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our God.

Before he does that the kings of this world are not going to like it.  Because they rejected Him, He comes back to judge and make war, all in preparation for setting up His Kingdom.

We, however, you and I, in the Body of Christ, have not been appointed to wrath. We’ve got to see this in order to be comforted as Paul told the Thessalonian Christians.

In our last three episodes, we go into this difference between what God spoke to mankind since the world began through the prophets and what was kept secret since the world began, but is now revealed to us by Jesus Christ, through the apostle Paul.

It’s so important to get this because without this understanding the study of the end times is confusing, especially where the purpose for the tribulation is concerned.

Before a country makes war with another country it takes out it’s ambassadors and we are His, Christ’s, ambassadors, and we, likewise, will be taken out before He comes and pours out His wrath.

The Bible speaks of many signs that’ll be clearly recognisable during the tribulation, in fact the events of the end times following the rapture of the church, cannot happen until the prophesied signs are in place, and they’ll be evident at each point of the tribulation right up to its ending, after it’s run its seven-year course.

However, between now, today, and the rapture occurring nothing, no sign, no event needs to happen first. That rapture could happen at any time. It’s what is called imminent, meaning that it’s coming and can come at any moment. Thank God He’s going to take us out before that wrath.

There’s no point in going into detail about all the positions on when the rapture occurs except to say that some believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, a mid-tribulation rapture or a post tribulation rapture.

But we need to always be aware of this division we’ve spoken about at great length between prophecy and mystery.

Prophecy relating to the Tribulation period and afterwards is everywhere in the Bible. This is where we get the way-out interpretations of the signs of the times today.

But I hope you’ve seen that we don’t live in the time of prophecy. We live in the time of the mystery called the dispensation of grace. God’s mode of operation today is to offer grace to mankind.

If it was prophesied, it’s not a mystery. You see if God already spoke it, it’s not a secret, it’s not a mystery.

In the fulness of time this dispensation of grace will end, and the dispensation of the law will resume, and God’s timeline’ll be in place as it was before Israels’ rejection of their Messiah. Prophecy will be all important again.

Prophecy will continue to be fulfilled starting with the tribulation and the wrath of God.

What will happen to signify the end of this dispensation of grace and the beginning of the next one? The rapture.

Christ will come and we, the Body of Christ, all those saved, not by the law but by grace, will be caught up, meeting Christ in the air, and allowing God to deal with Israel and the earth again.

This is the time of judgement and wrath that’s all through Bible prophecy but cannot happen at the moment.

Why?

Because God’s dealing with mankind differently. He’s offering grace, through faith, without works.

How could He offer grace to the whole world while at the same time bring judgment and wrath?

Under this present dispensation of grace even the most ardent despiser and unbeliever of God has grace available. Only when that dispensation ends will there be wrath and judgment. People can and will still be saved in that time of judgement but in a different way than we’re saved now. We’re saved now, completely and totally saved, simply by the acceptance, the belief in the completed work of Christ on the cross, His death, burial, and resurrection. The shedding of His own blood for our sin.

This period of the Tribulation will lead to the Kingdom of Heaven being set up on earth. The remnant survivors of the nation Israel finally accept Jesus as the Christ, and Jesus will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords over this Kingdom.

This’ll be the next dispensation after Christ has destroyed man’s rule of this earth, the Millennial Rule of Christ.

Although we as Christians living in this world long for home, if we’re still here we have a job to do. If we’re saved by God’s grace, we have a heavenly promise, the promise of Resurrection and sometimes we cry out, “God take us home”, but he left us here for a purpose, to preach the gospel of grace so that we see our loved ones and others saved.

So, what is this period known as the Tribulation?

The tribulation is the part of end time events that’s the most fascinating to people.

The majority of the book of Revelation is about this time and many of the Old Testament prophecies that talk about the end times talk of this Tribulation period.

When people think of the apocalypse, they think of events that’ll happen during the tribulation, even though that word means the unveiling, the revealing of Christ.

People aren’t as fascinated with the Kingdom come because that’s a good part, and it’s the worst parts that are the most fascinating to people. So, when bad events happen in the headlines and around about them, people love to think that we’re living in those times now. Bad things are described in the Bible so we must be in the tribulation, right?

Hopefully, you and I are different because we’ve seen that we’re just not living in this time, today.

Let’s look at some of the names given to this period known as the tribulation so we can avoid confusion and answer the question of what’s the point of the tribulation.

Is God just angry? What’s going on?

The Lord’s coming for the church and that can happen at any moment, as we’ve seen. It’s imminent. There’s no preceding event that needs to happen.

But the Lord’s coming to conquer and then reign on the earth after the tribulation, requires many things to happen first.

When we hear people talk about the signs of the times or the signs of Christ’s return they’re not talking about the rapture.

They think they are but they’re actually talking about the Lord coming back to judge and make war on the earth. They say, “Well the Bible says there’ll be signs.”

Yes, it certainly does, but of his coming to judge the earth not his coming for the church.

His coming to judge the earth has preceding signs and events, all of them prophesied. Sign will come and must come for these things to happen.

So, for people who don’t believe in this rapture, who don’t believe in this mystery dispensation of Grace, they mistake the period we’re living in now as a sort of introduction to the Tribulation they’re looking for signs everywhere because signs and things have to happen at every point of the tribulation and the lead up to second coming of Christ.

Remember that the rapture of the Church is not Christ’s second coming. Christ doesn’t come to the earth then as He will at His second coming.

Before the actual second coming of Christ, all these signs must happen first.

Because of all this, we can absolutely say that Christ is not coming back in this way, His second coming, tomorrow, or tonight.

He most certainly could come back to catch up and meet His Body, the Body of Christ, in the air because there’s nothing that needs to happen first.

He could come back right now and take the church out, but we don’t know when and it’s not for us to try to figure that out.

But can he come back to judge and make war and set up His Kingdom tomorrow?

No, because there’re many things that need to happen and they haven’t happened yet and there’s not enough time between now and tomorrow for them to happen.

Trying to interpret signs for indications as to the rapture’s coming, is futile.

In this dispensation of grace, we don’t look for the signs of the times, because this is not the time for the signs.

We’re to do what God expects every one of us to do while we’re here.

So, what is the Tribulation?

This word, the tribulation is a word that’s not used much outside the Bible. It simply means trouble, affliction, or distress.

In 2 Corinthians 1:4 Paul says of God,

He who comforts us in all our tribulation.

That means that in all the bad things that happen to us God’s able to comfort us.

Romans 5:3 says,

but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance.

This word about how we glory in tribulation has nothing whatever to do with this prophetic time period of great tribulation.

It has to do with the troubles that you and I have in our everyday life. It’s the persecution that we have when we preach the gospel and someone wants to call us names or worse, shoot us.

This is persecution and tribulation and it’s a very real thing, but it’s not what prophecy talks about when it refers to this specific period in time.

Philippians 1:29 says,

For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. 

We’ve been appointed to suffer persecution in Jesus Christ and Paul’s trying to encourage the Philippians.

He’s saying to them look we haven’t been saved to sit on the sidelines we’ve been saved to minister and if that means we suffer persecution then so be it. Most of us today, living in western world countries, won’t experience the type of persecution that the very early church suffered, even though in many countries today, preaching the Gospel can still mean severe persecution and even execution and we can plainly see an upsurge in persecution of Christians in the western world also.

Although Paul uses the words suffering, persecution and tribulation, nowhere does he use the word tribulation when talking to the church in the way we’re studying it here, the tribulation as a prophetic time period that’ll come on the earth.

Paul does, however, speak of this coming judgement on unbelievers.

In 2^nd Thessalonians 1 Paul is comforting these Thessalonian Christians in their persecution and he says in verses 6 to 10,

since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. 

He’s saying here that the injustices performed on these people will be repaid and vengeance will be taken, not only on them but on all who’ve rejected the Gospel of Salvation.

Any person with any sense of righteousness today sees great injustice every way they turn. If God is perfectly righteous, how can this injustice go unjudged?

God can’t just turn a blind eye to injustice, like the corrupt and politically correct human judges of this world today. If He could we’d question His righteousness and justice.

When does God do this judging? Is He dishing out justice at the moment through the catastrophic events that happen all over the world to countries and individuals?

No!

Is it when Jesus appears to catch away the Church?

No!

Today God’s offering Grace and He’s offering it free to all. That’s every person on the planet.

It’s during the next phase of God’s great timeline, this tribulation period where God will release His wrath and judgement. Today we have grace, then we’ll have judgement.

Now is the moment to be sure we won’t face that judgement by trusting in the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross where He took our judgement.

In Him we’re already judged and found righteous, not through a single lifting of our own hand but by His baring of God’s judgement on our behalf.

We must see that this time of righteous judgment from God, called the tribulation, can’t happen at the same time God’s offering grace freely to the world.

How can God be judging the world at the same time he’s giving them grace? It just doesn’t work.

He can’t be telling his quote, “avengers” to bring wrath while at the same time, through the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit, offering salvation by grace through faith alone.

There must be an end to God’s working through grace alone through faith before the period where He judges mankind directly for sin and unbelief.

The big problem is nobody, not you, not me, not anyone can know when that age of grace’ll end, and the moment it does it’ll be too late to claim it and that could happen in the next few minutes. As we said many times already, it’s imminent.

Let’s go to Isaiah 2:12,

For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up—And it shall be brought low— 

By the way, in the book of Isaiah, we’re right in the middle of a prophetic book and we won’t see a thing about this mystery that was revealed to us through Paul.

What’s God’s end goal?

To set up a Kingdom!

But that Kingdom’s going to be set up in a place where there’s already a kingdom.

For another kingdom to be set up the first one’s got to be torn down, especially if it’s a sinful, wicked, and unrighteous Kingdom and that’s what’s happening here.

The people in power, and the people themselves, are evil at heart and they won’t be and can’t be in that new Kingdom.

So, the existing kingdom’s need to be knocked down first. The proud and the lofty, those who think that the way to get ahead in this world is by being proud and lifted up, will realise what Jesus taught Matthew 19:30,

But many who are first will be last, and the last first. 

He taught the opposite to what these rulers and leaders of today think. That’s why the current citadels to man’s pride will be knocked down. The inability for man to govern and rule in justice and righteousness will end.

Then those that are low will be lifted up in Israel.

Isaiah 2:12 then introduces the idea of the day of the Lord of Hosts.

This is armies. This is, as it were, His soldiers. Hosts of soldiers.

We see this all throughout Israel’s prophecies. As Peter says the prophets had spoken since the world began.

Look at Isaiah 13:6,

Wail, (The king James Bible says Howl), Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Wailing or Howling is what people will do because of their distress.

Isaiah 13:7 & 8 reads,

Therefore, all hands will be limp (or paralysed with fear), Every man’s heart will melt, 

And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames. 

Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.

Is this what God’s doing today? There’s some people who think He is.

They’ll preach that events like in New York on 9/11, or the catastrophic earthquake in Afghanistan that kills 24000 people, or the illness any one of the people we know have just been diagnosed with, or the death of a loved one is all God releasing His judgement.

But that’s not what God’s doing today.

He’s offering grace to a world that’s rejected Him, but a lot of the bad things happen in this world with 8 billion sinners in the same place.

 

For two thousand years God has not been judging.

Instead, He’s been offering grace to all people who will freely believe and accept it because Christ is the payment for our sins that’s why it’s important so that this doesn’t have to happen to you and me who are sinners and deserve it.

And so, this is the time of tribulation, the time of judgment of God on the earth. That’s what it’s going to be like.

Look at the book of Joel. The entire book is about this coming of the Lord, this Day of the Lord this fulfillment of prophecies to Israel.

In Joel 1:15 to 17 we see,

Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty. 

Is not the food cut off before our eyes, Joy and gladness from the house of our God? 

The seed shrivels under the clods, Storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, For the grain has withered. 

Often, we want to talk about how people deserve this judgment, so sometimes this’s what motivates people to look for the day of the Lord.

They see all the wrongs that’re going on society, the injustice, and they say It’s time.

How long can God wait to pour out his judgment, and that’s a righteous thought, except that God’s dispensing His grace today.

Look at Joel 2:9 to 11,

They run to and fro in the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter at the windows like a thief. 

The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness. 

The LORD gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; Who can endure it? 

Who can endure it?

Some might say, “Well you know I can be saved after the rapture happens. There’s going to be people who are saved out of that tribulation.”

Yes, there is, but who can endure it? There’s going to be a great army and really bad things happening far and away worse than anything you could even conceive of at the moment.

The idea of digging a shelter and filling it with cans of baked beans won’t in any way enable you to either endure or survive this time.

Joel calls this a great and terrible day.

Now look at Amos chapter 5 verse 18,

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. 

Here’s people who look forward to this day. They love to prepare for bad times. But there’s no preparation that you can do for this except for getting saved by God’s grace NOW, which’ll take you safely out of here.

The day of the Lord is a dark time.

Look at Zephaniah 1:14 talking about Israel’s future day of the Lord,

The great day of the LORD is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. 

That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, 

A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. 

“I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” 

Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the LORD’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.

So, not the Blessed hope when he comes for the church is it?

In Matthew 24, we see that a couple of times Jesus calls this period The Great Tribulation.

One of them is when His disciples asked him about what’ll happen in the end. What will be the sign of your coming or the end of the world.

Jesus goes on to describe these events that are going to happen in Matthew 24 verse 21,

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 

What makes it so great? Will the stock market crash?

We’ll, that’s not what the Bible calls great. Great Tribulation in this verse is that such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no nor ever shall be.

This’ll be a time worse than any other time in human history. Think of the worst time there’s ever been in human history. This time is worse!

So, it’s the greatest and the last tribulation as Matthew 24:21 says.

Let’s go to Daniel 12:1 and as we do, notice all the places we’re learning about this tribulation.

The prophets! We’re in prophecy. It’s been revealed to man for hundreds, even thousands of years. This is not the mystery that Paul was preaching that was kept secret since the world began. That means we don’t find this dispensation of grace and the Body of Christ that was revealed to Paul anywhere in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Amos, Joel etc., etc., OR in Matthew 24.

Daniel is the hub of prophecy. It describes a lot of things about the anti-Christ, which we’ll look at soon, but it describes a lot of the events that the Book of Revelation also talks about. What revelation reveals began in Daniel with Isaiah and Jeremiah sort of filling in the gaps.

Daniel is the hub and ties things together, so people love to study Daniel and the prophesies there.

In Daniel 12:1 says, and God is speaking,

At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. 

Now this is Michael the Archangel, the Great Prince which stands for the children of your people.

Who are “your” people? Israel!

Daniel is an Israelite. God’s talking to Israel.

At that time Michael will stand up, the Prince of the children of Israel. Is God working with Israel today? No!

Michael’s not working with Israel now according to this verse. However, there will come this time when he does stands to watch over the quote, “sons of your people”, future Israel the descendants of Daniels people. At that time there’ll be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time and at that time your people shall be delivered. God’s talking about Israel! He’s not talking about the rapture.

At that time your people should be delivered, everyone that was found written in the book. We can be certain that this is Israel.

This is talking about a time of tribulation; of trouble such as has not ever been experienced before.

When people today claim that today’s trouble and tribulation is a sign of the end times happening, ask yourself this.

Has anything this bad ever happened before in history? If the answer is yes, it’s not the time of tribulation.

What’s taken the conspiracy and prophecy buffs by storm at the time of preparing this episode is the eclipse as seen in the United States. Well, are the starts still shining? Yes? They won’t be in the blood moon of the tribulation.

What about the Great Depression or the hyperinflation in Germany, or the sacking of Europe by the Nazis?

If it’s happened before it’s not the tribulation. The type of trouble must be greater than that. So, you see there’s ways you can know if what the prophecies have predicted is happening.

It makes you wonder what in the world are people doing listening to these so-called prophecy teachers who apparently don’t understand this? Of course, the answer is they’re not reading their Bible. It’s very simple just to read the verses and see that what’s going on today is not the end times that the Bible speaks of.

Look at Jeremiah 30 where we see another name for this time.

We’ve seen it called The day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation, and the Time of Trouble.

Jeremiah 30:7 says,

Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it. 

That day is great. We saw that already. So that none is like it. We read that also in Daniel 12 and Matthew 24.

But now we get this Time of Jacob’s trouble. This tells us a couple things. Is Jeremiah talking about the Church?

Jacob was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob’s trouble would be trouble for Israel not for you and me in the Body of Christ.

It says that it’s the time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble, but he (Jacob, Israel) will be saved out of it. Out of this tribulation comes the rise of Israel, the salvation of Israel.

Paul talked about the salvation of Israel in Romans 11:25 to 27,

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “THE DELIVERER WILL COME OUT OF ZION, AND HE WILL TURN AWAY UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB; 

FOR THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” 

This is how it’ll happen and it’s a time God’ll keep his covenant with Israel and deliver them out of this tribulation. A saved remnant of Israel is one purpose of the tribulation.

How does trouble do that?

Well, we’ll see that next time my friends and until them may God open your eyes to the real story of the end times as He explains it in His Word, the whole counsel of God.