The "Great Tribulation”
is not an uncommon event in the Christian calendar of God’s dealings with men. What
is strange is the understanding of it. Most of us who grew up under
dispensational and futuristic ideas of biblical endtimes are acquainted with the
following;
That someday soon, Christ
will return to the earth invisibly and snatch away all the Christians in an
event known as the rapture.
After God has removed the
Church, He will go back to dealing with Israel.
There will be a seven year
period called the tribulation in which the earth and it inhabitants will be
destroyed by God's wrath.
At the end of the
tribulation Christ will return and inaugurate the Millennium, a physical
earthly kingdom.
At the end of the
Millennium there will be a rebellion and Christ will come and destroy the wicked
and the eternal state will begin.
Dispensationalists
teach that after the Great Tribulation, all the terrible things in the book of
Revelation will be poured out on this dark planet. The Jews are going to build
a new temple in Jerusalem, and the Jewish sacrifices will be reinstituted.
Then, during this time, the strange beast of Revelation 13 will arise. They say
this Beast will enter into the temple at Jerusalem and proclaim himself to be
God. He will then put into the temple a statue of himself which they say will
be "the abomination of desolation."
If you look at that
doctrine you will notice 3 comings of Christ and a resurrection of the Old
covenant with Israel alongside with inconsistencies in the unfolding of
prophecy which ignore Jesus own direct relation to these events as to be
fulfilled in that generation.
Is the "Great
Tribulation" something that looms in our future or is in a past event?
Is Matthew 24 talking about
an event yet future or something that occurred in the time of the disciples?
If you have a close look at
Matthew 24 you will see Jesus answering the disciples questions about the
destruction of Jerusalem. This is a build up from chapter 21.
The
discussion that Jesus had just had with the scribes and Pharisees took place
inside the Temple grounds. As they departed from the Temple the words of Jesus
were, "Your house shall be left to you desolate,". This statement still
echoed in their ears of the disciples.
They
pointed out the buildings of the Temple and their glorious magnificence to Jesus.
There was a reverence for the temple, even in distant parts of the empire that would
make it a rare and unusual thought for it to be destroyed. This was a project
that took 46 years for it to be completed.
In their curiosity and in
private they wanted to know when it would be destroyed, and what signs would
precede the end of the age and His parousia which is the actual greek word that
was rendered as “coming”.
The following verses in
Matthew 24 was Jesus response to their inquiry. He gave them a prophetic cast
of the journey to the end of that Old covenant age that failed to produce the
kind of fruits that the Father had desired. A series of events were to play out
in labour pangs for the establishment of a new order.
In Luke 21:20 Jesus told
them about the abomination of desolation that was fulfilled as the Roman army
who would advance to come to destroy the temple. As he related the fulfillment
of that great prophecy, Jesus talks about the great tribulation.
"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. -
Matthew 24:21 (NKJV)
Notice the word "Then".
Then is when? a thousand years later? The "then" is referring
to the context of verses 15-20; when you see the abomination of desolation,
which Luke tells us is Jerusalem surrounded by armies.
The great tribulation was to
take place during the "then," during the siege of Jerusalem by the
Romans in the first century. The parallel of Luke's gospel makes it so easy to
see.
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know
that its desolation is near. 21 "Then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those
who are in the country enter her. 22 "For these are the days of vengeance,
that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 "But woe to those
who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there
will be GREAT DISTRESS in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 "And
they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all
nations. And Jerusalem will be TRAMPLED by Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:20-24 (NKJV) Emphasis Mine)
Notice where and who in
particular verse 23 says the tribulation or distress will come upon-- "the
land", which is Jerusalem and "this people," which refers to the
first century Jews, not in our time or future.
Luke’s account makes us see
that the great event would be the culmination of Bible prophecy concerning the
Jews.
"For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which
are written may be fulfilled. - Luke 21:22 (NKJV)
"All things which are
written," refers to prophecy. All prophecy was to be
fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. What prophecy? About the Jews and
their temple as a consequence of the Messianic rule of Christ on earth.
Daniel seems to be source
of many prophetic expectation back then for the Jews and even Jesus.:
"Seventy weeks are determined For YOUR PEOPLE AND FOR YOUR
HOLY CITY, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make
reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up
vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy." (Daniel 9:24 NKJV Emphasis
Mine)
Daniel was told that 70
weeks had been determined on his people Israel (not the whole world), and city
Jerusalem. By the end of this prophetic time period, God related to Daniel six
things would be accomplished.
One of the things that
Daniel was told would happen by the end of that period was that God would
"seal up vision and prophecy". The Hebrew commentaries are in
agreement on the meaning of to "seal up vision and prophecy" - it means the end and complete fulfillment of all prophecy in
relation to the fate of the Jews.
Daniel's prophecy, then,
tells of the time when all prophecy would cease to be given
and what had been given would be fulfilled. When would this be?
Daniel's vision ends with the destruction of Jerusalem which we know occurred
in 70 AD:
"And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but
not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come SHALL DESTROY
THE CITY AND THE SANCTUARY. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till
the end of the war desolations are determined. - Daniel 9:26 (NKJV Emphasis
Mine)
So Luke is saying the same
thing that Daniel said, which is that at the time Jerusalem is destroyed all
prophecy will be fulfilled.
All prophecy being
fulfilled would include the prophecy of the Second coming (arrival in
Messiahship), the resurrection, the new heavens and earth, everything
prophesied to Israel would be fulfilled at the time of Jerusalem's destruction.
"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. - Daniel 12:1(NKJV Emphasis Mine)
This is similar to what
Jesus said in his Olivet discourse:
"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. -Matthew 24:21 (NKJV)
The great tribulation was
an event to confirm the second coming of Jesus according to Paul:
since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation
those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who
are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His
mighty angels, 8 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. (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 (NKJV)
Paul also sees the
destruction of Jerusalem, the days of vengeance as relevant with the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ. The fulfillment of all prophecy, was tied up in
Jerusalem's destruction, making it an age changing event. It was indeed the end
of the world from a Jewish perspective. Everything that summed up their
identity, culture and living was gone up in flames.
The old heavens and earth of the world of Judaism were destroyed the new heavens and earth of a spiritual Israel were established. God made sure that the physical temple in Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, the genealogical records which qualified descendants of Aaron to serve as priests was burned and the city of Jerusalem fell.
The great tribulation was covenant judgment over Israel. It was a series of catastrophic events that befell a nation that the narration of it would put anyone into a sad state.
"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of
the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes
which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and
overtake you:” - Deuteronomy 28:15 (NKJV)
"And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to
do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you
and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you
go to possess.” - Deuteronomy 28:63 (NKJV)
The historical account of what transpired in AD70 comes from
Josephus, a non-Christian Jew who wrote at the time of Jerusalem's destruction.
In the preface to his writings "The War of the Jews," Josephus said this, "Whereas the
war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all those,
not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that were ever
heard of." (PREFACE, Section 1)
In this he agrees with the words of Jesus that it was the
most devastating thing that affected the Jewish people. It is just more than
the fact that people died. All that transpired brought to a close to that
Jewish age and it can’t be resurrected again. The Great Tribulation is behind
us as an event in history. We now live in the endless age of the new
covenant where the church, the body of Christ is the new heaven and earth. This is where righteousness dwells based on the finished work of Jesus.
