Continued from last...
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” … And one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?” And I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”The NASB adds “the” before “great tribulation,” which is unwarranted by a literal rendering of the text: “These are those coming out of great affliction/tribulation”. In this passage, you will notice that it is not dealing with the unbelieving Jews, but with believers “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues” (7:9). Dispensationalists attempt to unite this passage and Matthew 24, but the two are contradictory rather than complimentary. In Matthew 24, unbelieving Jews who did not heed Jesus’ words suffered tribulation. In this passage, those who believed in Jesus Christ and had their sins cleansed in the blood of the Lamb suffer tribulation.
(Revelation 7:9-10, 13-14, emphasis supplied)
The question must be asked, “Which tribulation?” Dispensationalists will tell you that this is the “Great Tribulation” of Matthew 24, but this is unwarranted and without support. In order to answer our question, we need to work backwards. Since chapter 7 contains nothing in regard to tribulation, we need to go back to chapter 6 and see if we cannot find anything that indicates tribulation. Concerning the sixth seal, we can see that there is definitely some sort of tribulation taking place, but there is no indication of repentance and faith in regard to salvation. Concerning the fifth seal, we read of “those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained” (6:9), which cannot be denied as evidence in regard to tribulation. In 6:11 we are told “there was given to each of them a white robe,” which accords to what we read in 7:13-14: “These who are clothed in the white robes… are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The classical historic interpretation saw the fulfillment of the fifth seal in the persecution of the early church by the Roman Empire, which concluded with Diocletian’s attempt to blot out Christianity between 303 and 311 A.D. Philip Schaff writes, “All former persecutions of the faith were forgotten in the horror with which men looked back upon the last and greatest [Diocletian’s] ... Christian churches were to be destroyed; all copies of the Bible were to be burned; all Christians were to be deprived of public office and civil rights; and at last all, without exception, were to sacrifice to the gods upon pain of death. ... All the pains, which iron and steel, fire and sword, rack and cross, wild beasts and beastly men could inflict, were employed.”1 However, I see this not only as a fulfillment of the persecution and tribulation the early church received, but also that which the church in general receives during this current age until the return of our blessed Saviour. If we examine the rest of the world around us, persecution and tribulation are occurring almost as severely as back then.
These passages teach a clearly different picture of “great tribulation” from that of Matthew 24; one that is focused on the persecution of the saints rather than the destruction of Jerusalem. Whether or not you accept this as a fulfillment of this passage, the fact remains that it is contrasted against the “great tribulation” of Matthew 24. The two are completely unrelated, other than the fact they share the same terminology. Uniting them together as one in order to try and teach a doctrine is committing “collapsing context.” Context must always be our guide, brothers and sisters. Pay careful attention to what Scripture wants to reveal to you in its details.
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will cast her upon a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them--I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, To him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received [authority] from My Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”In this third passage that speaks of “great tribulation,” you will notice that it is spoken as a warning of punishment against those who follow the woman symbolically referred to as “Jezebel” if they will not repent. We are not told whether they repented or not, and there appears to be no historical record as to whether this “great tribulation” took place or not. If it took place, it most likely occurred in the late first century or early second century, just as the fulfillment of Revelation 3:7-13 did under the rule of Trajan. It is clear by the context that it is not associated with either that “great tribulation” of Matthew 24 or that “great tribulation” of Revelation 7.
(Revelation 2:18-29, emphasis supplied)
Apart from all of this, in John 16:33, Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” In Acts 14:22, Paul said, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” In 1 Thessalonians 1:6, he tells them they had “received the word in much tribulation,” and in 1 Thessalonians 3:3-7 that they would suffer tribulation for the faith. In 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5, he writes to encourage them in the “persecutions and [tribulations]” they were suffering for the kingdom. There are several other passages that speak of the tribulation that believers should endure for the sake of Christ. There is no shortage of these persecutions and tribulations for believers; they were occurring back then and they continue to occur today. In North America, we are largely ignorant of these persecutions which are happening the world round, but ours is coming. Jesus promised us that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).
1 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 2:64-68.