It was 4:09 P.M., Eastern Standard Time, on Thursday, August 15, 2003. It started with a blip. Lights flickered, then went out, and in a few hours, it was dark from New York to Cleveland to Detroit, even into Canada. The late-August front cover of Newsweek labeled the event “Blackout of 2003” and called i “the largest power outage in our history.”1 Thankfully, the 50 million North Americans affected took it quite well. Looting was minimal, and no one died.
But there’s another blackout coming—a spiritual one that is already underway. It concerns the tribulation before the second coming of Jesus Christ. Will Christians endure it or escape it?
It is no secret that multitudes of prophecy teachers today firmly believe that prior to “the great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14),2 true believers will be suddenly whisked from earth to heaven in a mysterious event called the rapture. Perhaps you’ve seen bumper stickers reading: “In case of rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned.” Ministers often tell their congregations, “Future times will be tough, but don’t worry, we’ll be gone soon. Only unbelievers will endure the great tribulation, for God wouldn’t allow the church He loves to suffer through it.”
Is this true? Let’s take a look.
tribulation in the Bible
To begin with, if you look up the word tribulation in The NewStrong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible or Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, you may be surprised to discover that almost every reference is about what Christians pass through, instead of what they escape from. Jesus Himself told His followers, “In the world you will have tribulation”(John 16:33; emphasis added). Paul told his converts, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22; emphasis added). On the isle of Patmos, John wrote that he was a “companion in the tribulation”(Revelation 1:9; emphasis added) with those already suffering. Speaking to His church in Smyrna, Jesus stated, “I know your works [and] tribulation”(Revelation 2:9; emphasis added).
Therefore, at least so far, the idea of Christians escaping tribulation doesn’t fit New Testament evidence.
Some might respond by saying that these verses are talking about tribulation in general, not the great tribulation at the end. However, if the majority of the New Testament’s “tribulation” texts plainly refer to what true believers go through, then why would God’s Word suddenly shift gears by teaching that “the tribulation” is something believers will not go through?Others argue, “If the church is destined to endur ‘the great tribulation’ described in the middle of Revelation, then why isn’t the church mentioned after Revelation 4?”
Let’s take a closer look.
In Revelation 4:1, John was told t “come up here.” Many conclude this represents the rapture, and they think the church isn’t mentioned anymore. First of all, John did not actually go to heaven in Revelation 4:1; he was simply taken up in a vision while his toes remained on Patmos. Secondly, the church is on earth after Revelation 4. How do we know this? Because Revelation says the beast will make “war with the saints” (13:7; emphasis added); then we read about “the faith of the saints”(verse 10; emphasis added); and finally, during the mark of the beast crisis, it is “the saints” who have “the faith of Jesus”(14:12; emphasis added).
To identify these “saints,” we need only read Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians where he wrote about “the churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:33). This tells us that wherever “saints” are, the church is! Thus it is God’s church, composed of saints, that passes through earth’s final days prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ (Revelation 14:12, 14–16).
If you really think about it, as hard as trials, conflicts, battles, and even suffering are, they can help us develop stronger characters if we endure them properly. In other words, tribulation can be good for us, not bad for us. In his letter to the Romans, Paul stated exactly that. Notice carefully: “We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3, 4; emphasis added).
the benefit of tribulation
About two years ago my lower back became so sore that I could hardly walk. My wife even had to tie my shoelaces. This may seem minor, but to me, it was a “tribulation.” Yet this trial was actually good for me, because it motivated me to start exercising regularly—which eventually healed my back.
More seriously, I remember my young son developing a seizure disorder. After talking with specialists, we discovered that Seth’s seizures were triggered by sleep deprivation. The result was that my wife and I became very conscientious about making sure he followed a regular schedule and went to bed early so that he would get a good night’s sleep. In retrospect, as hard as this trial was for our family, our son’s overall health and development improved.
The principle is this: trials and tribulations can become blessings if we deal with them properly. Reverend John H. Aughey once wrote, “God brings men into deep waters, not to drown them, but to cleanse them.” “The gem cannot be polished without friction,” reports an ancient Chinese proverb, “nor man perfected without trials.” Another wise saying states, “A beautiful diamond is nothing more than a chunk of coal made good under pressure.”
The same principle applies to God’s church passing through earth’s final tribulation before Jesus Christ returns. Yes, times are tough now, but they will get tougher. Looming on the horizon is a “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” (Daniel 12:1). What will be its catalyst? No one knows. Perhaps it will be an economic meltdown, a major terrorist attack, or a sequence of horrific natural disasters. Whatever the event—or sequence of events—when earth’s last crisis hits, God’s people will go through it, not escape from it. And believe it or not, God will use this “great tribulation” to strengthen their faith, to purify their hearts from the last stains of earthliness, and to fully develop their characters to reflect the image of His Son.
Shortly after the Bible’s prediction that there shall be a “time of trouble” (Daniel 12:1), these words appear: “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12:9, 10; emphasis added).
In other words, “the wise shall understand” God’s purpose to “purify,” make “white,” and refine His people before the end. Thus, the popular notion that Christians will escape the tribulation is quite dangerous because it can easily lead to spiritual laziness, a lack of personal preparation, and even a person’s falling away from God when the last crisis hits. Jesus understood this possibility, which is why, in His parable of the sower, He warned, “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles” (Matthew 13:20, 21; emphasis added).
Luke’s version of this same parable predicts that those who have “no root” will “in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13; emphasis added). Here is the danger. The stony-ground hearers are surprised by “tribulation,” caught off guard, and end up in full apostasy. Using the language of God’s last book, in the final times, such a class will take “the mark of the beast” (Revelation 16:2).
“If you are right and I’m wrong,” I often say to those who believe God’s church will escape the great tribulation in the rapture, “then we both have nothing to worry about, for I’ll be raptured too. But if I’m right and you’re wrong, I hope you won’t fall away when you are unexpectedly confronted by the mark of the beast.”
where the idea came from
Personally, I am not expecting to vanish in any “great escape” seven years before the end. Such a doctrine is really a key pillar of a system of interpretation called dispensationalism, which originated with a man named John Nelson Darby in the 1830s. Prior to the 1830s—and for 1,800 years—the idea of a “secret rapture” seven years before the second coming of Christ was unknown in Christianity.
In a July 1, 2002, Time magazine article entitled, “The End: How It Got That Way,” reporter David Van Biema insightfully wrote, “His [John Nelson Darby’s] most striking innovation was the timing of a concept called the Rapture, drawn from the Apostle Paul’s prediction that believers would fly up to meet Christ in heaven. Most theologians understood it as part of the Resurrection at time’s very end. Darby repositioned it at the Apocalypse’s very beginning, a small shift with large implications. It spared true believers the Tribulation, leaving the horror to nonbelievers and the doctrinally misled.”3
Did you catch that? Van Biema is correct. In the 1800s the rapture idea was nothing more than a striking innovation developed by John Nelson Darby that ultimately “spared true believers the Tribulation.”4 In the last 30 years or so, this innovation has gone mainstream through novels and movies such as Left Behind and others; yet the fact is, it’s just not biblical.
In His apocalyptic sermon about the many “signs” to precede His glorious return, Jesus declared, “But he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13; emphasis added). Based on this counsel, I fully expect to be on earth—if I live to see it—when the mark of the beast hits. In His parting words to His disciples immediately prior to His ascension, Jesus promised, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20; emphasis added).
That settles it for me. We’ll be here to the end.
God will be with us
Yes, according to the Bible, God’s church is destined to pass through earth’s “final tribulation,” but if we maintain our faith in Jesus, He will see us through. Will it be easy? No. Should we prepare ourselves spiritually? Yes. Should we be afraid? Definitely not, for not only has Jesus promised to be with us “always,” but His Word declares, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7; emphasis added).
I’m reminded of the story of a little girl who once asked her dad if she could sleep in his bed because she was afraid of the dark.
“Sure, honey,” the father replied, so she climbed right in. Yet even though she was lying right next to her dad in the dark, she was still afraid.
“Daddy,” the child whispered, “is your face turned toward me?”
The reply was instant, “Yes, dear, you don’t need to be afraid. Now go to sleep.”
Yes, God’s church will pass through earth’s final crisis. But if our hearts are fully on the Lord’s side, our heavenly Father’s reply will be instant. “Don’t be afraid. My Son is coming soon!” (see Revelation 22:20).
