In Revelation 7, John sees ‘a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” An elder asks John, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’ John replies, ‘Sir, you know.’ The elder then tells John, ‘THESE ARE THE ONES COMING OUT OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION.’
What is this great tribulation? That’s what we’re going to try to understand today. I’m going to try to answer five questions.
* What kind of tribulation will it be?
* Will it be bad?
* Will Christians be spared?
* When will it happen?
* What is the purpose of it?
We’ll get going soon. But first, let’s pick up on what’s happened so far. We started our series, ‘Revelation: the Hard Parts’ two weeks ago. We’re focusing on the hard parts of Revelation, the chapters in the middle of the book which talk a lot about God’s wrath and his judgment.
Two weeks ago, we looked at Revelation 4 and 5.
In Revelation 4, John had a vision of a throne room. We are not told, but it looks as though a court has convened.
In Revelation 5, John sees a scroll in the hand of the one who sat on the throne. That looks like a judgment. John sees a lamb, Jesus. Jesus takes the scroll. And the heavenly court bursts into a song of praise.
In Revelation 6, Jesus, the Lamb, opens the first of the seven seals on the scroll. As soon as he does so, a representative of the heavenly court instructs four horsemen. The riders go out, bringing with them conquest, war, famine, and death. The riders are not evil. They are sent out by order of the heavenly court. They are under God’s control. The rider on the black horse holds a pair of scales in his hand. The riders are in the business of delivering justice.
But something else is happening, something the riders don’t do. After the sixth seal, ‘there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth.’
People on earth realise that things are not looking good for them. They hide in caves and among the rocks of the mountains, and call to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’
Note the phrase ‘THE GREAT day of their wrath.’ This isn’t just an average day of God’s wrath. People on earth will know that this is the GREAT DAY of God’s wrath.
Just as an aside, there are lots of ‘greats’ in Revelation. There’s the great tribulation. There’s the great city, Babylon. There’s the great dragon, Satan. There’s also the great eagle. There is the great wine press of the wrath of God. There is the great day of God the Almighty. There is the great prostitute. There is the great supper of God. Finally, there is the great white throne. In Revelation we see lots of things in their ultimate form.
In Revelation 7, John has a vision of 144,000 people being ‘sealed’ by having a mark on their foreheads. The seal is to protect them.
This is the point we have reached. John then sees ‘a great multitude that no one could number … clothed in white robes.’ They have come out of the great tribulation.
Let’s now come to our questions.
WHAT KIND OF TRIBULATION WILL IT BE?
We might think that the great tribulation is the result of the four riders going out, bringing with them conquest, war, famine, and death. That is what happened in the previous chapter. Everyone, including Christians, will suffer.
But at the same time as people are suffering from the actions of the riders, Christians are suffering from attacks on them. This isn’t something the riders are doing. The four horsemen are God’s agents of justice. Their goal isn’t to kill Christians.
We can see this in Revelation 6:9. It says, ‘When he’ (that is, Jesus) ‘opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”’
John saw ‘the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God.’ These martyrs haven’t yet received resurrection bodies. They don’t want vengeance on the four horsemen. They want God to avenge them on those who dwell on the earth. It’s the people who dwell on the earth who had killed them. So we know that at this point in Revelation, there has been direct attack on Christians.
So, is the great tribulation the trials that come as a result of the actions of the four horsemen – conquest, war, famine, and death? Or is the great tribulation the trials that come as a result of persecution, of war on Christians? Or is it both?
I don’t know. But there is a phrase which I think gives us a clue. The elder explains the multitude to John. He says, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. THEY HAVE WASHED THEIR ROBES AND MADE THEM WHITE IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB.’
I take it that these people remained faithful to God in trial and that is how they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. So I think that the trials that Christians will go through at this time, whether through persecution or through conquest, war, famine, and death will severely test faith.
Jesus spoke about this time and said, ‘Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away…’ [Matthew 24:9,10a]. This time of tribulation will test faith.
I’d like to make one more brief point before we move on.
It looks very much as though this attack on Christians is what causes God to pass judgment. Daniel had a number of visions of the future, of kingdoms that would rise and fall until God’s kingdom is established. In these visions he refers to kingdoms or authorities as ‘horns.’ In one vision he sees a particular horn:
‘As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High…’ [Daniel 7:21-22].
It suggests that God’s judgment was given in response to this horn making war with the saints – and prevailing over them.
WILL IT BE BAD?
Yes, it will be bad.
We get a clue that the great tribulation will be bad from the name itself: ‘THE great tribulation.’ There is a difference between ‘A great wall in China’ and ‘THE Great Wall of China.’ ‘THE Great Wall of China’ is the epitome of walls. ‘THE great tribulation’ must mean that this isn’t your usual common-or-garden tribulation. This is the epitome of tribulation.
But there are other reasons to think that this tribulation will be in a league of its own.
Daniel prophesies about the time before Jesus comes again. He tells us that ‘there shall be a time of trouble, SUCH AS NEVER HAS BEEN SINCE THERE WAS A NATION TILL THAT TIME’ [Daniel 12:1].
Jesus says the same thing. He is sitting on the Mount of Olives, near to Jerusalem, with his disciples. They are probably looking at the temple. Jesus tells them that a time will come when the temple will be destroyed. (That happened in 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed it.) His disciples then ask, ‘Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?’ Jesus’ disciples probably think that the destruction of the temple and the close of the age are going to happen at the same time.
Jesus tells them, ‘then there will be great tribulation, SUCH AS HAS NOT BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD UNTIL NOW, NO, AND NEVER WILL BE’ [Matthew 24:21].
It’s hard to imagine how Jesus could have been more emphatic. This tribulation will be the worst tribulation there ever has been or ever will be.
So, the great tribulation will be bad.
WILL CHRISTIANS BE SPARED?
Some people think Christians will be whisked away by a ‘pre-tribulation’ rapture. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t fit with scripture.
John sees in his vision a multitude that has come OUT OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION. Clearly, THEY weren’t spared the great tribulation!
The idea of a rapture comes in part from Matthew 24:40-41. Jesus says that ‘two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.’
So, some people think, Christians will be whisked away and not have to face the tribulation. But who’s to say that Christians will be whisked away? Perhaps the unrighteous will be whisked away! Remember: Jesus compared End Times with Noah’s flood. Who was whisked away then?
But whoever it is who disappears, it isn’t before a long period of tribulation. In the verses before this happens, Jesus has told his disciples what End Times are like. He mentions birth pains, betrayal, vultures eating corpses, earthquakes, persecution, flight, lawlessness, tribulation and war. This is all BEFORE we come to Matthew 24:40-41 and people being whisked away. So whoever is whisked away, it’s only AFTER going through tribulation.
Sadly, there’s no ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card for us.
WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN?
This is an interesting question! There are many different views on Revelation. In one view, almost all of Revelation has already happened. The great tribulation happened in the time of the early church. I don’t buy it. John’s description of this time of tribulation doesn’t match what happened at that time. And it simply seems logical that the most severe tribulation the world has ever known MUST happen in the period before Jesus comes again.
So, my understanding is that the great tribulation – and especially the persecution of Christians – is one of the first events in End Times.
Is there evidence that such tribulation has already started?
I believe there is. There is plentiful evidence of a huge increase in persecution of Christians.
If you’re interested, I’d recommend looking at a 2016 book by a journalist called John Allen titled ‘The Global War on Christians.’ Another place to go is the Truro report – a report commissioned by the British government to consider how to respond to the worldwide persecution of Christians. A further source of information is a commission set up by Pope John Paul in 2000. It commented that the ‘20th century has produced double the number of Christian martyrs [than] all the previous 19 centuries put together.’
And perhaps we are already seeing increasing evidence of the actions of the four riders in the form of conquest, war, famine, and death.
That is my sense. It’s the sense of a lot of others too. According to one survey, 90% of pastors in the United States see signs of ‘End Times’ at present. [It’s here https://lifewayresearch.com/2020/04/07/vast-majority-of-pastors-see-signs-of-end-times-in-current-events/].
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF IT?
What is the purpose of the tribulation? The world is under God’s control. But that doesn’t mean that everything that happens in the world is what God wants. God never wanted Cain to kill Abel. Some people think that God has a purpose in the tribulation to purify the church, to remove false believers. But I can’t see anything that says that God has any particular purpose in the great tribulation. What we do know is that when God’s people experience this persecution, God will act decisively.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Today’s talk may seem a bit dismal. Is there any good news in these two chapters of Revelation? I believe there is.
? We know that at some time, God's people will experience a great trial. Forewarned is forearmed. It’s not the news we want to hear, but we need to hear it. Church leaders need to warn the church. If they don’t, the church will be unprepared.
? We can come through this trial! A great multitude does! They washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. I believe that means they remained faithful during the trial. That is what we will need to do to come through the trial.
? We know that the great tribulation won't last forever. The people John sees in Revelation 7 have come out of it.
So, we should be aware of what will happen. But we shouldn't be alarmed. We should recognize that God has been expecting these events since at least the time of Daniel. And God can carry us safely through the trial.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 18 September, 2022 a.m. service
