READING TIME: 1-2 MINUTES
November 27, 2019
What are the purposes of the future 7-year Tribulation?
(1) To make an end of wickedness and wicked ones and in the process of this judging to take back the earth from Satan and from those who do his will. To punish a God-rejecting and Christ-rejecting world for their sinfulness. To reveal the degradation and need of the unregenerate heart; the world’s unbelief will be exposed to demonstrate the need for them to be judged (Ps 2:5; Is 13:9; 26:20-21; Jer 25:30-32; Zech 12:3; 2 Thess 2:12; cf. Gen18:23; 19:12-25).
In three series of judgments, close to 80% of the world’s population will perish, and life on this planet will be chaotic. If God had not limited the length of the Tribulation to 7 years, no human being would make it through this time alive (see Matt 24:22).
In 2 Peter 2:9 he used the incident from Gen. 19 to prove that “the Lord knows how to rescue to godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (cf. 1 Thess 1:10; 5:9).
(2) To bring about a worldwide revival – Rev 7:1-17 (vv. 1-8 – how God will bring about this revival and vv. 9-17 reveal the results of the revival); Matt 24:14. Compare Deut. 4:27-30.
(3) To break and completely shatter the power, stubborn will, and obstinate rebellion of the Jewish nation to bring about a national regeneration (see Showers, 46-47). To prepare Israel for her Messiah (Ezek 20:33-38; Dan 12:5-7). In Dan 11:36-12:4 we see a vision of what conditions will be like for Israel during the Tribulation. Also, see Deut 4:39; Is 59:20-21; Jer 30:7; Ezek 20:34-38; 36:25-27; Zech 12:9-13:2, 8-9; Mal 4:5-6.
God will use the Antichrist’s persecution of Israel as means of backing her so tightly into a corner that it will have no means of escaping total annihilation unless it repents and believes in Messiah Jesus (Showers, 108-109).
(4) To instigate a final showdown between Christ and Satan’s forces and the defeat of those forces (see Rev 19:11-20:3) (Showers, 109).
Source Used
Showers, Renald. Maranatha: Our Lord, Come! A Definitive Study of the Rapture of the Church. Bellmawr, NJ: Friends of Israel, 1995.