READING TIME: 1-2 MINUTES
November 26, 2019
Could you clarify the differences between general tribulation and the future 7-year Tribulation?
Christians will endure persecution! There is no reason to believe that Christians will escape persecution (see John 15:18-20; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12-16). But this kind of tribulation and persecution is not the future wrath of God. After saying this though, it is important not to misunderstand the nature and purpose of the Tribulation.
In Revelation 3:10 John wrote to the church of Philadelphia (and to all of the churches, see 2:7, 11, 17, 2:29; 3:6, 13, 22), “Because you have kept/guarded my command to endure/persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing/trial, that which is about to come upon the entire inhabited earth to put to the test those who permanently dwell upon the earth” (my translation). The phrase “those who dwell upon the earth” (a moral classification not a geographical description) is used 11 times in the book of Revelation and it refers to those who completely oppose God and His rule – see Revelation 6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 12, 14; 17:2, 8. These are the individuals who have completely identified themselves with the earth’s commerce and religion.
In light of what we know from Revelation 3:10 and the usage of the phrase “those who dwell on the earth” in the book of Revelation, God’s purpose in the Tribulation is to test those who dwell on the earth and to expose them as the kind of people who are so adamantly opposed to Him that they will never repent, no matter what is done to them. Through this exposure, God will show very clearly that these people deserve His eternal judgment (cf. Romans 1:18-32) (Showers, 216).
God promised the church of Jesus Christ exemption, not from persecution and suffering, but God’s future wrath. What is meant by God’s wrath is “God’s controlled, passionate feeling against the sin and rebellion of His creatures. It is the settled indignation of God that focuses on the sinner sometime in the future” (Hiebert, as mentioned by Benware, 171). See 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 5:9-10.
Sources Used
Hiebert, D. Edmond. The Thessalonian Epistles. Chicago: Moody, 1971.
Showers, Renald. Maranatha: Our Lord, Come! A Definitive Study of the Rapture of the Church. Bellmawr, NJ: Friends of Israel, 1995.
