In Christian eschatology, the great tribulation is a period mentioned by
Jesus in the Olivet discourse as a sign that would occur in the time of the end.
At Revelation 7:14, "the great tribulation" is used to indicate the
period spoken of by Jesus. Matthew 24: 21, 29 uses tribulation in a context
denoting afflictions of those hard-pressed by siege and the calamities
of war. Views
= Futurism= In the futurist view of Christian
eschatology, the Tribulation is a relatively short period of time where
everyone will experience worldwide hardships, disasters, famine, war, pain,
and suffering, which will wipe out more than 75% of all life on the earth before
the Second Coming takes place. Some believe that those who choose to follow
God, will be raptured before the tribulation, and thus escape it.
According to Dispensationalists who hold the futurist view, the Tribulation is
thought to occur before the Second Coming of Jesus and during the End
Times. In this view the Tribulation will last seven prophetic Hebrew years in all
but the Great Tribulation will be the second half of the Tribulation period.
In this view, this seven year period is considered to be the final week of
Daniel's Prophecy of Seventy Weeks, found in Daniel chapter 9. It is
theorized that each week represents seven years, with the timetable
beginning from Artaxerxes' order to rebuild the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
After seven weeks and 62 weeks, the prophecy says that the messiah will be
"cut off", which is taken to correspond to the death of Christ. This is seen as
creating a break of indeterminate length in the timeline, with one week remaining
to be fulfilled. The time period for these beliefs is
also based on other passages: in the book of Daniel, "time, times, and half a
time", interpreted as "a year, two years, and half a year," and the Book of
Revelation, "a thousand two hundred and threescore days" and "forty and two
months". The 1290 days of Daniel 12:11,, is thought to be the result of either a
simple intercalary leap month adjustment, or due to further
calculations related to the prophecy, or due to an intermediate stage of time
that is to prepare the world for the beginning of the millennial reign.
Events Among Futurists there are differing
views about what will happen to Christians during the Tribulation:
Pretribulationists believe that all Christians will be taken bodily up to
Heaven before the Tribulation begins. According to this belief, every true
Christian that has ever existed throughout the course of the entire
Christian era will be instantaneously transformed into a perfect resurrected
body, and will thus escape the trials of the Tribulation. Those who become
Christians after the rapture will live through the Tribulation. After the
Tribulation, Christ will return to establish his Millennial Kingdom.
Prewrath Tribulationists believe the Rapture will occur during the
tribulation, halfway through or after, but before the seven bowls of the wrath
of God. Midtribulationists believe that the
Rapture will occur halfway through the Tribulation, but before the worst part
of it occurs. The seven-year period is divided into halves—the "beginning of
sorrows" and the "great tribulation". Posttribulationists believe that
Christians will not be taken up into Heaven, but will be received or gathered
by Christ into the Kingdom of God on earth at the end of the Tribulation.
In pretribulationism and midtribulationism, the rapture and the
Second Coming of Christ are separate events, while in post-tribulationism the
two events are identical or simultaneous. Another feature of the
pre- and mid-tribulation beliefs is the idea that after the rapture, Christ will
return for a third time to set up his kingdom on the earth.
Some, including many Roman Catholic theologians, do not believe in a "time
of trouble" period as usually described by tribulationists, but rather that
there will be a near utopian period led by the Antichrist.
The Waldensians claim to be the woman in the wilderness church as written in
Daniel and Revelations who have fulfilled the 1260 year prophecy of the
great tribulation, the Inquisition lasting 500 years having started in the
13th century, the final end of the 1260 year persecution.
= Preterism= In the Preterist view, the Tribulation
took place in the past when Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem and its
temple in AD 70 during the end stages of the First Jewish–Roman War, and it only
affected the Jewish people rather than all mankind.
Christian preterists believe that the Tribulation was a divine judgment
visited upon the Jews for their sins, including rejection of Jesus as the
promised Messiah. It occurred entirely in the past, around 70 AD when the armed
forces of the Roman Empire destroyed Jerusalem and its temple.
A preterist discussion of the Tribulation has its focus on the
Gospels, in particular the prophetic passages in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke
21, rather than on the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation.
Jesus' warning in Matthew 24:34 that "this generation shall not pass, till
all these things be fulfilled" is tied back to his similar warning to the
Scribes and the Pharisees that their judgment would "come upon this
generation", that is, during the first century rather than at a future time
long after the Scribes and Pharisees had died. The destruction in 70 AD occurred
within a 40-year generation from the time when Jesus gave that discourse.
The judgment on the Jewish nation was executed by the Roman legions, "the
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet", which Luke
presented to his Gentile audience, unfamiliar with Daniel, as "armies"
surrounding Jerusalem to cause its "desolation."
Since Matthew 24 begins with Jesus visiting the Jerusalem Temple and
pronouncing that "there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that
shall not be thrown down", preterists see nothing in Scripture to indicate
that another Jewish temple will ever be built. The prophecies were all fulfilled
on the then-existing temple that Jesus spoke about and that was subsequently
destroyed within that generation. = Historicism=
The Historicist view applies Tribulation to the period known as "persecution of
the saints". This is believed by some to have been a period after the "falling
away" when papal Rome came to power for 1260 years from 538 to 1798. They
believe that the tribulation is not a future event. Matthew's reference to
"great tribulation" as parallel to Revelation 6:12-13, having ended when
the signs and wonders began in the late 18th century.
Historicists are prone to see prophecy fulfilled down through the centuries and
even in today's world. Thus, instead of expecting a single Antichrist to rule
the earth during a future Tribulation period, Martin Luther, John Calvin and
the other Protestant Reformers saw the Antichrist as a present feature in the
world of their time, fulfilled in the papacy.
See also Summary of Christian eschatological
differences References
Further reading The Great Tribulation: Past or Future by
Thomas Ice and Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. ISBN 0-8254-2901-3
Four Views on the Book of Revelation by Kenneth L. Gentry Jr., Sam Hamstra Jr.,
C. Marvin Pate and Robert L. Thomas ISBN 0-310-21080-1
Great Prophecies of the Bible by Ralph Woodrow ISBN 0-916938-02-6
External links Berean Watchmen