INTRODUCTION
The Tribulation is something that the world has tried to predict and plan for thousands of years. People look for signs and read into things that are not signs at all. With all of the world’s technology our world is certainly ready for the Tribulation. Author D. Katterjohn states that “The tribulation is that period in which the conflict between Christ and evil will reach a peak in the pitched battle between the Church and will appear to be headed toward inevitable extinction. Jesus described the period as trouble ‘such as was not since the beginning of the world’ (Matt. 24:21), but added that it would be cut short by His return for the sake of the elect, His people, the Church.”[1] Some things to be looking for are the crash in business and economic systems and institutions, along with the weakening of nations, and the collapse of the moral and spiritual backbone within a boastful and prideful civilization. Another thing to be looking for is havoc and devastating calamity and a generation that squanders; intoxicated by the trash of materialism, lawlessness, unbelief and decadence.[2] Does this sound familiar?
The Purpose of the Tribulation
Many have wondered and asked what is the purpose of the Tribulation and why do people have to suffer before God makes the new heaven and new earth. One purpose is to bring vengeance on the world to punish sin. The Psalmist states God’s retribution perfectly, “Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I have installed my Kind on Zion, my holy hill (2:6).” In John’s apocalyptic book it states, “since you have kept my command to endure patiently,’ he says to the church, ‘I will keep you also from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth 3:10.’”[3] Another purpose of the Tribulation is to refine the nation of Israel in order to prepare the nation for the Messiah. Pay close attention to Moses in Deuteronomy 4:30-31, “When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with you forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.” Many have stated that God has abandoned Israel and His focus is only on the church. This defiantly is false and brings out the ignorance in people. God will not break the covenant that he made to Israel even in the Tribulation. Zechariah 13:8-9 states: “In the whole land, declares the Lord, two-thirds of it will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. Listen to his words. This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, They are my people, and they will say, the Lord is our God.” God will use this time to shape and mold His people. Israel as a whole is a lost nation and God will not rest until His people are restored to Him.
Signs before the Tribulation
Like any prophecy in the Bible there will be certain signs and events that have to take place before the tribulation. There will be introductory events before the tribulation begins, as there are indications of springtime before it has arrived. What Jesus clearly states in Matthew 24:38-39 gives scholars the ability to state that there will be certain signs and conditions that will appear first.[4] In Luke 21:9 Jesus tells the reader to watch out for wars and commotions, but then He said not to be worried because the tribulation must come and the end is not immediate. What a God! He gives us signs and tells us not to worry because we, the church, will be gone.
The irony is that the same situation of the “end of days” can also be said before the Flood. In Genesis 6:11 it states, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence”. The evilness of man was great in the world. Man-kind corrupted marriage and glutted themselves with eating, drinking, and sex until they were morally hopeless. They rejected the message of righteousness that Noah gave and did not believe his warning about “things not seen as yet”. Ungovernable, sadistic, and determinedly wicked, they sank to the depths of apostasy and unbelief. God gave up and in His anger and wrath He had given them up to their doom. All that God cannot redeem He will destroy.
Jesus, while describing the petrifying pretribulation events, talked about wars and commotions with nation against nation. Since the beginning of time there have been wars and commotions, but the events that proceed “the day of the Lord” will be worse. The prophecies talked about in God’s word stresses the fact that the end-time world situation will be the most deadly of all. The wars, conflicts, and nation against nation all occurring together will be a terrifying situation. Satan will panic the world into accepting his peace and prosperity design and the hysterical world will take it without question. [5]
The Antichrist
The Tribulation will not be the Tribulation without the Antichrist, the beast from the sea. When Antichrist comes to the scene after the Rapture he will not extend his reign over all the earth immediately. He will overpower the world through false peace, flatteries, and futile promises, increasing in influence and power until he brings the entire world under his control. He will control everything religiously, politically, and commercially. As the devil in flesh he will be the most powerful influencer the world has ever known, aside from the Lord Jesus Christ. He will solve the social problems of the world. The Antichrist will bring about world peace for the whole world.[6] The Beast form the Sea is the greatest deceiver the world will ever witness.
No one knows how long the Antichrist will be here on the earth before the “day” begins. He could be waiting while setting up his trap. Daniel exposed that the Antichrist will have a very small beginning with a gradual rise to world power. In Daniel 11:23 it states, “He shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people”. Working with the enemies of an unexplained power, he will cast a hypnotic spell over the world and they will be in awe by his power. The evidence for this can be found in Revelation 13:4, which states: “So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’”. The Antichrist will bring the world to peace because no nation, not even with nuclear weapons, will stop him from doing anything he pleases. No genius of military tactics in history has been or can be his equal. [7]
In I Thessalonians 5:1-3, Paul stated that there are “times and seasons” for the events in the “end”. The word “times” refers to the extent of periods and “seasons” refers to shorter periods. Seasons are parts of times. In our time and season Satan has the opportunity to prepare the nations for the Antichrist. He could come out of any country anytime. The world stage must first be set for his appearance.
Promises of Peace
Satan will use the most tempting bribe that he can unleash and that is peace and prosperity and the whole world will be desperate for it. From all the signs preceding the tribulation, Paul put the stress on two certain signs, peace and safety. It may be because these are the two most important. Some experts think that most of the world’s problems are largely related to these two things.[8] The Antichrist will use his peace-prosperity lure to a troubled world. He be esteemed to be a world sensation and his supernatural solutions to the world’s problems will be something that the world has never seen.
The Rapture
In order to have a full understanding of the Tribulation you have to have knowledge about the Rapture. In I Thessalonians 4:16-17 it states, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we (believers) which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air”. As stated in these two verses only the saved will be raptured. The believers that are still alive on earth will be translated without dying, and those believers that are dead will be raised and taken into His presence with their resurrection bodies. Jesus will not come to the earth at the Rapture. The only thing that takes place is the church meeting Him in the air. [9] Some wonder the time-frame of the rapture. Taking all of scripture as a whole it tends to lead to a pretribulational rapture. One clear clue is the wrath of God through the “bowls” that are used in end times. Throughout the Bible, God only pours His wrath towards unbelievers. Throughout the Great Tribulation, which is the last 3½ years, Gods ultimately pours His entire wrath on the earth. If the bowls are the wrath of God, then all believers must have been raptured before that time. This gives us the conclusion that either the pretribulational rapture has a scriptural foundation, or that the bowls occur after the return of Christ. A better understanding is that the bowls represent the wrath of God, but only that aspect of the wrath that is poured our on people who are living on the earth, which are those who have the mark of the beast during the reign of the Antichrist. This is a temporary wrath, and it will not fall on believers of that period because they will be protected from that wrath. The final wrath of God, which all believers are guaranteed exemption, will be poured out by God through His victorious Son at His return and we are not selected participate in that wrath (II Thess. 1:7-8, I Thess. 5:9).[10]
God’s Wrath
The trumpet and bowl judgments have many qualities that make them similar. A scholar by the name of Merrill Tenney stated, “The seven bowls are a closely knit series following each other in rapid succession. They parallel the trumpets in their spheres of action, but they are more intense.” [11] The differences are the two accounts of wormwood, locusts, kings of the east, and Armageddon. While there are some differences, no one can turn away from their similarities. The “bowls” and “trumpets” both describe a series of events that conclude from cataclysmic wars that result in destruction of vegetation, polluted sea waters, fresh water pollution, air pollution, demonic plagues, armies that consist of millions, and the final victory of God.
Seal Judgments
The seal judgments occur when Jesus breaks the seven seals. These seven seals involve people killing one another. They also involve environmental forces such as earthquakes and celestial forces such as the sun, moon, stars, and heavens. The judgments result from angelic declarations and include celestial and environmental forces, such as locusts form the bottomless pit, and human armies and modern weapons.[12] The bowl judgments almost seem like exact replicas of the seals. The Seven Seals are: White horse, which stands for conquest; Red horse, which stands for war; Black horse, which stands for devastation; Pale horse, which stands for death and hell; Faithful martyrs, which stands for the slain for Christ; Great earthquake, which is when the planet is shook, Seven trumpets, which stands for when the world is on fire. [13] These seals, when opened, unleashes God’s wrath on this earth.
First Bowl
The first bowl is poured on the earth and causes the ones who follow the beast and have his mark to be inflicted with sores. In the Greek the word “sore” is helkos, which literary means “ulcer” or “wound”. The sores that are described in the first bowl evokes the sixth Egyptian plague, which is found in Exodus 9:9-11. In this plague Pharaoh’s magicians were afflicted with sores. Many scholars have pondered what could be the source of the sores. Looking at the world at the present the only conclusion you can come with is that the sores will possibly be caused by nuclear radiation poisoning. This is not far fetch because we now, more than ever, have the technology for the Tribulation to occur. The biggest Tragedy throughout all of this is that the people blasphemed even more because of their sores and did not repent.[14]
Second Bowl
In the second bowl the sea was turned into blood and this does not involve the saints or the ones that are believers.[15] The second bowl, like the first, is a replica of a plague that was used on the Egyptians because of Pharaoh’s refusal to listen to God. Because the ocean became “blood” everything in the ocean dies. Earlier in the trumpet judgments only one-third of the sea became blood. Now in here in the second bowl, the ocean is totally polluted. Because of this all the fish and plant life will die. Imagine how much of a stench all the ocean life would give off. The extinction of algae and plankton would be live threatening. [1]4
Third Bowl
The third bowl will be intended for those who basically killed and murdered believers in Jesus Christ. This can be found in Revelation 16:6.14 This bowl is the turning of “blood” of rivers and lakes. Because of this all of mankind will be in danger of fatality. This bowl would be astounding because of its life-threatening impact. Practically no one could survive. The third bowel is quit similar in nature to the third trumpet, but much more intense. Instead of a portion of the water on the earth being polluted, it is all polluted! Practically no one could survive.
Fourth Bowl
In Revelation 16:9 it talks about how the fourth bowl was poured out on the sun directly and the sun scorched the inhabitants of the earth. Even after all of this the people still did not repent and give Him glory. This bowl is centered on the ones that in response “blasphemed the name of God” and did not repent. [16] The sun was previously blocked by air pollution, but now the dangerous rays of the sun are scorching men with similar effects of heat and fire. This is evidence that the damaging ways of the Great Tribulation took toll on the atmosphere of the earth. When the ozone layer is destroyed it would result in basically burning everything on the earth. The earth, because of the power of the sun without an ozone layer, would burn the planet into nothing but a desert. [17]
Fifth Bowl
The fifth bowl is that of utter darkness entwined with pain. In Revelation 16:11 it states that even after all that goes on during this bowl that the people that are still are on the earth still do not repent and instead they blaspheme God, yet again. This sounds very similar to the fourth bowl. God gives them a chance to repent and they do not. In this bowl the parallels with the trumpets are terminated. In this certain judgment it results in excruciating pain throughout the kingdom of the beast. If a person holds to the belief that the Antichrist is from Rome or form Europe in general, than you must hold to the notion that Europe will be hit the hardest during this bowl. Dr. Hindson gives an excellent view point when looking at present technology. He has stated that this sounds a lot like nuclear warfare. The aftermath of a nuclear war resembles this bowl. No one will clearly know until the tribulation, but nuclear war sounds very promising.[18]
Sixth Bowl
The sixth bowl consists of the kings in the east and the armies, which will gather to Armageddon. Every bowl before the seventh involved the direct outburst of God’s wrath. Just as the sixth trumpet puts the readers attention to the armies of men so does the sixth bowl. In ancient times it was common to refer to the Parthians and other barbarians as the kings of the east. These barbarians lived east of the Euphrates and past the borders of the Roman Empire. There is nothing directly in Revelation that identifies the identity of these kings. Many people have assumed that this represents China, Japan, or Korea, but in reality it is all speculation. It has been speculated by some scholars that these kings may be referring to the Muslim nations of the east, which are all avid worshipers of Islam. Dr. Hindson has observed, “We cannot underestimate the vast Islamic world, which hates Israel and wishes her annihilated. These nations may well be the great enemy who comes in one last jihad against Jerusalem for the north, south, and east; whereas, the Antichrist appears to head up the secular powers of the west.“[19] No one for sure knows the true identity of these kings, but it easy to take in consideration the Middle East because of the terrorist destructions they have produced.
Seventh Bowl
The seventh bowl that will be poured out will engulf the “Babylon” of the last days. The recipients will again respond with blasphemy. It should be evident that the bowls of divine wrath will concern the wicked alone. [20] This passage seems to indicate that there is going to be a huge earthquake, which will be considered the worst in the world’s history because it will rock the entire earth. The world’s cities and nations will fall, and mountains will collapse. During all of this there will be great hailstorms and the ones that survive still will blaspheme God even more. [21]
Armageddon
Armageddon is a battle of all battles. In Revelation 16:14-16, it states that there will be “spirits of demons” performing signs in order to gather the leaders of this earth for the final battle at Armageddon. As this passage tells us, the final conflict in the history of mankind will take place at Armageddon, which is in the Valley of Jezreel. This will be a time when the earth’s kings will convene for the battle on the “great day of God”. The name Armageddon, or Har-Magedon, is taken from the plain of Megiddo near Mount Carmel. The ruins of the city Megiddo, still is standing as the strategic evidence of the significance of this area.[22] The desolation of Armageddon is something that will be too much for the human mind to comprehend. As Dr. Hindson has observed:
The devastation of Armageddon will be so extensive that it will probably be best viewed as a war that destroys most of the earth, as well as a final battle focused in the Middle East. This also best explains the development of catastrophic events in Revelation 15-19. The carnage will be so great that most of the earth’s population will be annihilated. The plant life all over the planet will be nearly destroyed. The air and water will be severely polluted. “Babylon” will be burned up. The armies of the Antichrist will be wiped out, and the beast and the False Prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20).22 Ibid.167
This will most defiantly be the battle to end all battles. Christ will reign supreme over all the earth and Satan will finally be defeated and cast into the lake of fire.
CONCLUSION
The tribulation as whole is very complicated, but also can be very simple. The bible scholar and expert may think they know what is exactly going to happen during the Tribulation, but in reality no one knows. People look for signs and read into things that are not signs at all. With all of the world’s technology our world is certainly ready for the Tribulation. Jesus can return at any moment. The cards are already being played, it is only a matter of when. It could be today or it could be a hundred years from now. No one knows and that it why, we as Christians, should always be ready.
Bibliography
Dallas Theological Seminary Faculty. The Road to Armagddon. Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1999.
Dunham, T. Richard. The Great Tribulaiton. Findlay, Ohio: Fundamental Truth Publishers, 1933.
Duty, Guy. Escape From The Coming Tribulation. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1975.
Gundry, Robert H. The Church and the Tribulation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977.
Hindson, Edward. Revelation: Unlocking The Future. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002.
Katterjohn, Author D.,Fackler, Mark. The Tribulation People. Whitby, Ontario: Creation House, 1976.
Tenney, Merrill. Interpreting Revelation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957.
[1]Author D. Katterjohn and Mark Fackler , The Tribulation People (Whitby, Ontario: Creation House, 1976), 99.
[2] Richard T. Dunham, The Great Tribulation (Findly, Ohio: Fundamental Truth Publishers, 1999), 9
[3] Dallas Theological Seminary Faculty, The Road to Armagddon (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1999), 69-70
[4] Guy Duty, Escape From The Coming Tribulation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1975), 20
[5] Guy Duty, Escape From The Coming Tribulation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1975), 20
[6] Guy Duty, Escape From The Coming Tribulation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1975), 44-47
[7] Guy Duty, Escape From The Coming Tribulation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1975), 24-25
[8] Guy Duty, Escape From The Coming Tribulation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1975), 24
[9] T. Dunham, The Great Tribulation (Findly, Ohio: Fundamental Truth Publishers, 1999), 12
[10]Author D. Katterjohn and Mark Fackler , The Tribulation People (Whitby, Ontario: Creation House, 1976), 92.
[11] Merrill Tenney, Interpreting Rrevelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957), 80.
[12] Author D. Katterjohn and Mark Fackler, The Tribulation People (Whitby, Ontario: Creation House, 1976), 92.
[13] Edward Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking The Future (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 78
[14] Edward Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking The Future (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 169
[15] Robert H. Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), 47
[16] Robert H. Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), 47
[17] Edward Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking The Future (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 169
[18] Edward Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking The Future (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 170
[19] Edward Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking The Future (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 170
[20] Robert H. Gundry, The Church and the Tribulation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977), 47
[21] Edward Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking The Future (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 171
[22] Edward Hindson, Revelation: Unlocking The Future (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2002), 165
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