The Great Tribulation

The next prophetic period we are to consider is the “great tribulation.” I am not aware that the theme is unusual —

’ possibly unwelcome. Of late years two words have become

naturalized in our English speech which express the two opposite ways men have of looking out upon the world and its problems; the words are optimist and pessimist. The former expresses the hopeful, expectant, cheerful attitude towards life; the latter has come to stand for fear, discouragement, timidity. The optimist is sure things will turn out right, however gloomy the immediate future may seem to be; the pessimist is sure things are bad, but not by any means so bad as they are going to be. You see, these are good and useful words. They are capable, however, of wrong uses. No Christian ought ever to be a pessimist. He is not of the night or of the darkness, but is a child of the day. To him belong the exceeding great and precious promises of God. He has a “blessed hope’ and is an heir of glory. He is, therefore, by very necessity, an optimist.

But there is a shallow and senseless optimism which is not less unworthy the Christian than the gloomiest pessimism. To refuse to take due account of serious and menacing perils; to deliberately close the ears to the warnings of the sure word of prophecy; to say “peace and safety,” when sudden destruction is impending over a guilty world,

lis worse than childish — it is criminal. And there is very

much of that shallow and thoughtless optimism in the pulpit and religious press of our day.

From the point of view of this school Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; nay even Christ and the apostles, must — be accounted pessimists.

The instructed Christian is an optimist, not because he shuts his eyes to evident perils, and to the warnings of the scriptures, but because, as a believer in those scriptures, he looks through and beyond the judgments which are swiftly coming upon the earth, to the sure triumph of Christ which lies beyond.

I invite your attention first of all to the following words of our Lord which form part of that discourse called, from the place where it was spoken, “The Olivet Discourse”

“For there 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” (Matt. XXiv:2I, 22).

Many other references to this period of unexampled woe are found in the prophecies. The following may serve as examples:

“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him; but they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them” (Serxxx::7..8),

Exposition is scarcely needed here. There cannot be two periods of unexampled tribulation. Jeremiah and Jesus, therefore, speak of the same period. The passages cannot refer to the last destruction of Jerusalem, for, while that was a time of Jewish trouble, the Jews were not saved out of it, but were slain by thousands and the remnants carried away into slavery. Neither was the Davidic monarchy restored at that time. Jesus says it is the “elect” who are in the tribulation. Jeremiah tells us of whom Jesus speaks, namely, elect Jews. It is the time of Jacob’s trouble. The period, then, is yet future.

To this period belong such passages as Isaiah xxxiv:1, 2.

“Come near, ye nations, to hear, and hearken, ye people; let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter.”

The mere reading of these verses has, I doubt not, recalled to your minds many others of like import. The prophets, one and all, bear testimony to this time. It is the “yom Jehovah,” the “day of the Lord” so frequently mentioned in all the prophets. Of-such mention the following passages may serve as examples:

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand: a day of darkness and of

- gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains” (Joel ii:1, 2).

“Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle’ (Zech. xiv:1, 3).

Now, before I enter upon this special subject, permit me, first of all, to recall to those of you who have been following this series of addresses on prophetical truth the two or three things which have been established, I trust, by what ‘has been said previously, so that we may have a point of connection and of departure.

The first proposition was that this age ends in catastrophe; this age ends in judgment; this age ends in woe; not, as some would have us believe, by the graduallprocess of

ot; evolution, lifting the race higher and higher until it passes by insensible gradations, into a state of blessedness and peace, but in sudden and awful ruin, making necessary a complete reconstruction of human government, and of the whole social economy of the earth.

As to the events in which this present dispensation ends, you will remember that we saw from the.First Epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter iv:16-18, that the first in the succession of these events is the taking away from the earth of all who are Christ’s, that is to say, of the real church composed of true believers since the crucifixion.

“The Lord himself,” says Paul, “shall descend from Heavyen with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

You will remember that the notion, somewhat prevalent in these days, that the resurrection is the simultaneous coming forth of all who have gone into the grave, is, from the standpoint of the Scripture, a mistake. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order; first, Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming.”

Not “all the dead,” but “they that are Christ’s.” Now I proceed with the quotation from I. Thessalonians: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord; wherefore, comfort one another with these words.”

And truly, dear friends, when we come, as I trust we shall in a few minutes, to look over into that awful period which immediately follows the taking away of the church from the earth, we ought to find comfort in the promise that we shall be kept “out of the hour of temptation which shall come upon the earth to try those that dwell therein.” (Rev. iii:10.)

If only true Christians are taken it follows that enormous a numbers, not only in heathendom, but in what we call Christendom — that is, the part of the earth where Christianity is the predominant religion — would be left behind. It is evident, too, that many who would be thus left are counted by the statisticians among Christians. When some optimist of the shallow sort tells you that Protestant Christians number 200,000,000, you will do well to remember that in countries where Protestantism is the established religion — the state church — all the inhabitants are counted as Protestants.

Every soul in infidel Germany figures as a Protestant Christian in these lists; and so does every Englishman, even every Irishman, because Ireland is part of a Protestant kingdom. Similarly every Frenchman, Italian and Spaniard is counted as a Catholic.

Out of Protestantism, Romanism, the Greek church, those who are Christ’s are taken — all others remain to pass through the great tribulation.

The second point which I trust has been established by that which has gone before, and of which I will remind you so that we may have the ground clear, is that the end of this age is not the end of the world. I pointed out to you that the two passages where the end of this age seems to synchronize with the end of the world are badly translated in our version. I refer to the passages in the 13th of Matthew. And here let me say: when I make corrections in the rendering of passages I make only those which are admitted by all scholars, of all schools, of all denominations — not something I think necessary to prove my point. If I calla rendering in the King James version incorrect, I do it on the authority of all critical scholars. I will not treat you disingenuously, nor ask you to accept my opinions about renderings.

The world, then, does not end for more than 1000 years after this age ends. The tribulation and the millennium must run their course first.

One more prefatory remark. We shall not understand the prophetic testimony concerning the period which is before us unless we understand that after the end of the church age — after the true believers, according to the doctrine of the 15th of First Corinthians and 4th of First Thessalonians, are taken away from the earth — God takes up Israel again. Indeed, to understand that is fundamental to the understanding of all unfulfilled prophecy. There is a widespread impression that Israel is cut off forever. We have fallen into an evil habit of so called “spiritualizing” the prophecies.

In proof of the truth that when the church age is ended by the taking away of those who are Christ’s, God again takes up the Jew and begins to deal with Israel, let me read but two or three passages. I turn to the prophecy of our Lord from Mount Olivet speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke xxi:24): “And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Romans xi:25: “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

Then, again, in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, verses 14-17 — that great passage which settles so many difficulties: “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.” A statement which answers precisely to the fact, for He has never yet converted every Gentile anywhere. Not, needless to say, because He does not want to; nor because His heart does not yearn for every Gentile, but because every Gentile will not have Christ. But He is taking out of the Gentiles, by the preaching of the Gospel, a people for His name. hae ca By RAE

What follows? “After this, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.”

I trust you now see these three things as clearing the ground; perhaps I have taken unnecessary time to get the ground clear:

1. This age ends in disaster. 2. The end of this age is not the end of the world. 3. When this age ends God takes up Israel once more.

We come now to our Lord’s prediction of a time of unexampled tribulation.

Think for a moment. There was present to His mind all that had taken place on the earth — all the desolation, caused by all the wars; the downfall of cities and the butchering of the inhabitants, the famines and pestilences, the cruelties, the tears and anguish that had been in the world up to that time, and, looking back upon it all, He says in effect: “The time of trouble I tell you about will be greater than anything that has ever occurred.” Then looking forward to the history of the world since then — a time filled with anger and strife — looking forward upon that time, He declares that the time of trouble of which He speaks shall be a time of greater trouble than anything which the earth will see until it comes to pass. We have, then, in our Lord’s prediction alone a fearful prophecy even if we were unable to fill in the details from portions of scripture elsewhere.

But our Lord’s prediction does not stand alone. Not to speak of the abundant testimony of the Old Testament prophets, out of which I have already given-citations, we have in the New Testament considerably more than half of the last of its books devoted to the details of this period. And not

‘only so, but many of the epistles have references to the same

epoch. The entire period is described in the Revelation, chapters vi-xix. As you know these chapters describe three series of judgments unfolding successively: the seals, the trumpets and the vials; each succeeding judgment increasing in severity. Of what do these seals, trumpets, vials — twenty-one in number — consist?

Let me swiftly summarize the events. The period begins with the taking away of the church and the removal of all divine restraint upon man. Already in the Apcstle’s time, there was a working of iniquity and lawlessness. “The mystery of iniquity doth already work, but there is one that hindereth” (2 Thess. ii.). There is restraint, divinely interposed.

We never see fully here what is latent in the human heart, because we live under vast systems of repression, but after the taking away of the church all restraint is removed. God withdraws His hindering hand and permits this thing which we. call human nature, and think so magnificent, to show what it really is. I am very tired of pulpit laudations of human nature. When I turn to God’s book I find no single commendatory word regarding it. It is always spoken of in sadness, because of its weakness and folly, and always with stern warning of the evil that lies latent in the heart of man.

Instantly, when the restraint is removed, there is universal war. Rev. vi:1-4. If you were to ask me what I think hinders, strangely and mysteriously, the breaking out of the awful war which Europe has been expecting for the past seven years, the armies there ever growing larger, coming more and more into perfect training and perfect equipment, the very sovereigns, themselves, not knowing why the war does not break out, I would say that I believe God is restraining the war until He is ready to take His own out of the world. However that may be, the first thing that transpires after the church is taken away is the breaking out of universal war, and then “peace is taken from the earth,” so that any man who has a private grudge against another man kills him.

Suppose that all restraint were removed from the city of Paris while I am speaking. Before to-morrow’s sun sets her streets would run red with blood, and be piled high with corpses. And what is true of Paris is true of every city and town and village. Men hate each other enough now to kill each other, but for various reasons they do not think it expedient.

What follows the war is famine; following that, Destlene then anarchy.

In the midst of “this beginning of sorrows,” as Christ calls it in the xxiv chapter of Matthew, a vast number of Jews turn to Jesus as their Messiah. That is the key to all that follows. From that moment, God’s eye is upon those suffering Jews who have turned to Him and are receiving Jesus, though unseen yet, as their Messiah. He was rejected away back yonder by their fathers, but now in the awful trouble that has come upon the earth, they turn to Him. These believing Jews are the “brethren” of Matt. xxv:4o.

Did you ever notice that in Matthew xxiv, after speaking of the tribulation and His own second coming, our Lord gives the parable of the fig tree? “When its branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.” The fig tree is everywhere and always a symbol of Israel. According to that parable we are to watch the fig tree, not for the fullness of leaves but for the first starting buds: the first indications of renewed life in Israel, religiously and nationally. Are there.any buds upon the fig tree to-day? Note that a large and ever increasing number. of Jews in Russia and elsewhere have already received Jesus as Messiah. What else? They are flocking back to the Holy Land, where, according to prophecy, a remnant must be at the beginning of the great tribulation. Only to-day I saw in a newspaper the statement that increasing numbers

97, of Jews are going to the Levant, to Joppa, to Constantinople — feeling their way back, blindly, to their own land. My readers, watch the fig tree! When you see these first buds, you know that the time is at hand.

In the vii of Revelations, immediately following this beginning of sorrows, there is an interlude; there is a kind of pause in the movement of things. A command is sent to the angels who have power to hurt the earth, saying: “Hurt not the earth until I have sealed the servants of my God in their foreheads.” I never think of that vii of Revelation without joy in my heart.

Let me read one or two passages. After describing the “elect” of Israel (verses 4-8) we read:

“After this, I beheld, and lo a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindred, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.”

I was brought up to believe that if I ever got to be a Christian I would some day be one in that muititude. Not so; this is a great mistake.

The chapter contains an explicit statement on that very point, The identity of the 144,000 out of every tribe of Israel is, of course, indisputable. As for the innumerable multitude of Gentiles, here is the statement:

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me,: ne they which came out of the great tribulation” (Rev. vii: 73) 14).

Observe, it is not “great tribulation.” Look at the passage in the Greek, or in the Revised Version, and you will find it “the” great tribulation.

But how blessed to know that even after the church period ends an innumerable host will be saved! They must go through the tribulation, but they will be saved. They cannot belong to the bride and body of Christ, but they will be “before his throne, and serve him day and night in his temple.” This is not “second probation.” That is the unscriptural notion that the gospel will be offered to men in hades.

Then follow the series of events called the trumpet judgments. There is a significant thing about these. Divine wrath is mingled with the outworking of human wickedness. Up to this time, all through the opening of the seals, as they are called, it is simply the unrestrained manifestation of that which is already latent in human nature. Now the Divine wrath is manifested and the distress and anguish become unspeakable (Rev. viii:ix). It would be impossible to pack into words symbols of more intense woe and of more absolute anguish than are used in connection with the trumpets and vials. Through it all a world-wide preaching is carried on, mainly by the Jews.

Did you ever think how well prepared that magnificent people is for world-wide preaching? If you and I were to endeavor to organize a force to carry a certain message into all the world we would have a great deal of preparation to go through. There would be innumerable languages to learn and various other things. My friends, the Jew is everywhere now; the Jew knows every language now; the Jew is acclimated in every country now; the Jew knows the habits of every people now, and not only is he the ablest, most sagacious man in the world, but the Jew has the money to do it with, cf

How long would it ee Israel-to evangelize the earth? A sober and very conservative estimate which has been made shows that it would be possible for the living Israelites to carry any particular message to every creature.on this earth

lin three years if they wanted to. I have always loved God’s ancient people, and I rejoice to know from the prophets that this mission is a part of their glorious future.

While this world-wide preaching is going on the “twé witnesses” — — Moses and Elijah probably — are testifying at Jerusalem.

Just here, according to Revelation xii:10-12, Satan, him-

self, appears upon the scene, “having great wrath because he knows his time is short.” The first effect of his appearance is singular: instantly there is order. There is a sudden transformation from turbulence, disorder and anarchy to settled government once more. There is instantly a reconstruction of civil order over the whole prophetic earth under a monarchial form, ten confederated kings selecting or choosing one of their number as the supreme king or emperor, with his capital at Rome. Then we have the revived Roman empire.

; If we turn now to Revelation xiii. we find two beasts mentioned — the beast out of the sea, and the beast out of the earth. The first is the head of civil power: the other the head of ecclesiastical power. After this — the inevitable reaction from anarchy — follows the most absolute despotism over the whole earth — ecclesiastical tyranny, civil tyranny — and the civil head of it all demanding to be worshipped as God!

In the meantime the disjecta membra of apostate christendom have gathered into a confederacy which is nominally Christian, but which God calls “Babylon” — Babel meaning “confusion” — a greater parliament of religions. And now comes the last great tragedy. The civil power, the restored Roman empire in its final ten-kingdom form, turns at last upon “Babylon,” the intolerable mass of mockreligious worldiiness and corruption, and utterly destroys it.

The beast out of the sea (the emperor-despot), the beast out of the earth (the “anti-Christ,” “man of sin,” “false prophet”), left alone, turns savagely upon Israel. Jerusalem is once more beleaguered and in utter extremity when Messiah appears in power and great glory with saints and angels. He delivers His ancient people, casts the beast and false fa er Ei

Ee prophet alive into the lake of fire, chains Satan for one thousand years, holds the great assize of living nations (Matt. Xxiv :31-46), judging them according to their treatment of Israel in all her long wanderings, and sets up His millennial kingdom.

It remains to ask: What will be the duration of this period?

I think seven years. If you will follow the line of proof I think this can be made clear. The ninth chapter of Daniel contains a prediction that seventy periods of time called “weeks” must elapse after the King of Babylon gives commandment to rebuild Jerusalem (the Jews, remember, were then in captivity under Babylon), before the final establishment of Israel under the holy anointed one. Then follows the announcement that after sixty-nine “weeks” Messiah shall be cut off. Now from the date of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem to the crucifixion was exactly sixty-nine weeks of years. Each of the sixty-nine “weeks” up to the crucifixion was seven years long.

Here, then, are sixty-nine weeks fulfilled and another week cut off — left in the air, as it were. Now there is a great principle concerning prophetic chronology. God never reckons time with the Jews when they are out of their own land. Then there is always an interlude. With Israel out of the land, God’s Jewish clock stops. It begins again when Israel is back where Israel ought to be. Now, at the end of the sixty-ninth week, Messiah was cut off and the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the Jews followed. Just then, between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of Daniel, comes in this‘age — the church period.

There are scriptures after scriptures.to which I might / refer you which show that this whole church period is a parenthesis, as it were.

In God’s purpose always, but hidden, as Raul tells us, from the prophets of old time. There is a very notable illus-

10!

tration of that in Isaiah. It is the passage from which our

Lord quoted in the synagogue at Nazareth, Isaiah Ixi:1. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because He hath

anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent

me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

You will remember how our Lord at the beginning of His ministry quoted this very passage (Luke iv:16-21), and went on to proclaim the “acceptable year of the Lord.” There He closed the book and sat down and began to say, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your midst.” Did you ever notice where He closed the book? He closed the book at a comma. The whole church period comes in right where that little comma is — between “the acceptable year of the Lord,” and “the day of vengeance of God’ — between the cutting off of Messiah at the end of the sixty-ninth week of Daniel and the taking up of Israel again, when “the day of vengeance’”’ — the great tribulation — begins.

When the church period has been finished and God, according to the passages I have read, begins again to deal with Israel, namely at the beginning of the great tribulation, then the clock of prophecy begins to run again and the seventieth week has its fulfillment. The sixty-nine weeks were weeks of years. We are sure then that the seventieth week will be a week of years. We want to remember, though, that it is shortened somewhat — it will not be a full week. Our Lord says: “Except those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved.” Not “no soul” should be saved; it is not a question of soul-saving. It is shortened because there will then be in the world those whom He calls the “elect,” Israel beloved for the fathers’ sakes.

Such, swiftly and most inadequately generalized, is the “great tribulation.” As the next and nearest of the great prophetic periods — possibly so near that the larger part of the present population of the earth will perish in its unspeakable and indescribable horrors — it should claim from all of you immediate and most serious consideration.

If you are Christ’s, surely there should be in the nearness of this awful period an added incentive to untiring, unsparing effort to bring Christ savingly to the inhabitants of the earth. Surely no missionary motive can be more imperative, more insistent than this.

If any of you who read these words are out of Christ, may I not implore you to make haste into that blessed ark of safety? Be sure of this, dear friends, ‘““God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained;’ and remember that “that day cometh as a snare upon all them that dwell upon the earth.” I beseech you, count me not as an alarmist. I do solemnly warn you that that great and terrible day is impending over you. If prophets of smooth things are saying to you “peace and safety,’ remember that it is precisely then “when sudden destruction cometh.” Remember the warning of our Lord:

“For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

May the Spirit of God help you to accept Christ now.

Fortin