The Lord Jesus gives a warning of an unequalled tribulation which shall immediately
precede His coming in glory: “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not
since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except
those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's
sake those days shall be shortened....Immediately after the tribulation of those
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the
stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and
then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes
of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:21-30).
Some have said, “What a fearful prospect it is if the Church shall be in
this tribulation! Can we suppose it possible that the Lord can permit any part
of this suffering to fall on His redeemed and believing people? Is it not more
fitting, more in accordance with His dealings in grace towards them, that they
should be removed to be with Him before this trouble sets in?”
And thus any theory is judged admissible which shall exclude the Church
from sharing at all in this suffering, or from being on earth at the time. But
we cannot draw conclusions in this transcendental manner. Thus Peter argued and
spoke when his Master foretold “that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be
raised again the third day”. It was nature, and not spirituality, that led him to
think thus of the sufferings of his Lord, rather than of the promise of His resurrection:
“Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee” (Matthew 16:22).
Should not our Lord's rebuke to Peter check all such reasonings? Especially,
too, when He speaks of His followers taking up their cross, losing their lives,
but having before them the promise that the “Son of Man shall come in the glory
of His Father?” We can never set our opinion of what is fitting in opposition
to any direct statement of the Lord.
But is suffering and trial so strange a lot for the people of Christ? “These
things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall
have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
How continually did apostles teach “that we must through much tribulation enter
into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14.22). “No man should be moved by these afflictions:
for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were
with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came
to pass, and ye know” (1 Thessalonians 3:3,4).
If, then, certain tribulations are to be expected as the common
experience of the faithful servants of Christ, why should it seem strange that
they should be instructed respecting the great and final tribulation? Why should
it be thought that they must previously be taken away?
"What are these that are arrayed in white robes, and whence came
they? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therefore are they before
the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple" (Revelation
7:13-15). These are “a great multitude, which no man can number, of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues”, [1] whom John saw standing “before
the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their
hands”.
Thus the gathered assembly of those whose robes have been washed and
made white in the blood of atonement, are set forth as those who have passed
through great tribulation: it is so spoken of as their characteristic, that it
seems as if the last scene on earth, in which they had been regarded, was one
marked by tribulation.
It is said that, if the unequalled tribulation is an affliction for
Israel and a punishment for the Gentile, how can the Church be in it? In this
inquiry, two fallacies are assumed: First, that this tribulation is part of the
out-pouring of judgment; and second, that the Church, while in the world, is
exempted from part of the suffering which falls on men or on nations. For
believers there is no penal suffering, because Christ in life and in death
endured for His people all that is penal: any disciplinary sorrow on Israel or
on the nations before Christ comes, has, in part at least, a corrective
character; it ought to lead to repentance; and from this the last tribulation,
though of a very special kind, is not to be excepted. [2]
But in this last tribulation, Christ is very mindful of His people: “for
the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened”; and, besides this, they are
warned of that time, in order that they may at once flee away from the scene of
suffering. Those who believe that these warnings are intended for Christians,
may, by obeying the word of the Lord, be locally removed from the fierceness of
the trial; those who think such warnings are not for them, of course, cannot do
this; they neglect the light which God has given them. [3]
Thus the Lord desires that His people should be enabled to endure; that
in obedience to Him, they should watch the coming on of this tribulation, and
that they should know that, however they may in part be sharers in it, His own
coming is to follow at once.
---------------------
[1] It may illustrate some points of the Jewish system of interpretation,
when I mention that I have heard it gravely maintained, that this great
multitude were all Jews: not persons of, or belonging to all nations, but Jews
who had been scattered amongst all nations.
The use of words seems vain if it be legitimate thus to pervert them. It
is not too much to call this trifling with Holy Scripture. I have also heard it taught
that this is not a heavenly, but an earthly scene: that they stand on earth
before the throne of God. If so, how could even the Spirit of God himself (I desire to speak
reverently) find words to describe what is heavenly?
In some more recent statements, these are said to be a peculiar class,
who stand in contrast to the Church; we “are washed”, but these (it is said) “wash
their own robes”.
When advocates of a system support it by such perversions, it shows that
they at least lack better arguments; and that they, and all who receive their
teaching, value the “secret coming” system, more than they do the doctrines of
grace; for they invalidate the latter to maintain the former.
[2] Some who saw that the company of the redeemed in Revelation 7 are
indeed the Church, and who yet would not admit that the Church can be in the
special tribulation, rashly cut the knot by asserting that this company were
not in the tribulation at all; “they came out of great tribulation” (14) meant,
according to such teachers, that they came away from it, so as not to have been
in it! This they said was the force of the preposition εκ here. If this were true, then Colossians 1:18, where our Lord is
called “the first-born (εκ) from the dead”,
would teach that He never died at all, instead of the direct contrary. If it be
allowable thus to wrest words, can Almighty God himself give an unequivocal
revelation of truth in human language?
[3] See Appendix C.
