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Why God's Purpose for the Tribulation excludes the Church
by Thomas Ice
"And the LORD your God
will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who
persecuted you. And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His
commandments which I command you today." - Deuteronomy 30:7-8
God's purpose for the tribulation (i.e., the
seven-year, 70th week of Daniel) revolves around His plan for Israel and does
not include an earthly presence for the Church.
Why? Because God's plan for Israel is unfinished
at this point in history.
When the role of the Church is completed, she
will be taken as a completed body to heaven in an instant - at the rapture.
This will clear the way for a restoration and
resumption of progress toward the completion of our Sovereign Lord's plans for
His elect nation - Israel.
The Tribulation Focuses on Israel
The Bible teaches that the tribulation is a time
of preparation for Israel's restoration and conversion (Deuteronomy 4:29-30; Jeremiah
30:3-11; Zechariah 12:10).
While the church will experience tribulation in
general during this present age (John 15:18-25; 16:33; 2 Timothy 3:10-13), she is never mentioned as
participating in Israel's time of trouble, which includes the Great
Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, and the Wrath of God.
Gerald Stanton explains:
The tribulation does not deal with the Church at
all, but with the purification of Israel. It is not the "time of
the Church's trouble," but the "time of Jacob's
trouble."
The emphasis of the Tribulation is primarily
Jewish.
This fact is borne out by Old Testament
Scriptures (Deuteronomy 4: 30; Jeremiah 30: 7; Ezekiel 20: 37; Daniel 12:1;
Zechariah 13:8-9), by the Olivet Discourse of Christ (Matthew 24:9-26), and by the book of
Revelation itself (Revelation 7:4-8; 12:1-2; 17, etc.).
It concerns "Daniel's people," the
coming of "false Messiah," the preaching of the "gospel of the
kingdom," flight on the "sabbath," the temple and the "holy
place," the land of Judea, the city of Jerusalem, the twelve "tribes
of the children of Israel," the "son of Moses,"
"signs" in the heavens, the "covenant" with the Beast, the
"sanctuary," the "sacrifice and
the oblation" of the temple ritual.
These all speak of Israel and clearly
demonstrate that the Tribulation is largely a time when God deals with His
ancient people prior to their entrance into the promised kingdom.
The many Old Testament prophecies yet to be
fulfilled for Israel further indicate a future time when God will deal with
this nation (Deuteronomy 30:1-6; Jeremiah 30:8-10, etc.).
The Church is Absent from the Tribulation
Not one Old Testament passage on the tribulation
refers to the Church (Deuteronomy 4:29-30; Jeremiah 30:4-11; Daniel 8:24-27; 12:1-2), nor does the New
Testament ever speak of the Church in relation to the tribulation (Matthew 13:30, 39-42, 48-50;
24:15-31; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 5:4-9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11; Revelation
4-18), except
as present in heaven.
Such silence speaks loudly and supports
the pre-trib position, especially when combined with clear,
explicit statements that promise her exemption from that time (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians
1:10; 5:9; Revelation 3:10).
Note the clear promise to the
church of Revelation 3:10: “Because you have kept the word of My
perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is
about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.”
If pre-tribulationism is indeed the teaching of
Scripture, then we would expect that passages dealing with the tribulation
would consistently make no mention of the Church. This
is exactly what we find.
However, Israel is mentioned often throughout
these texts.
Dr. Robert Gromacki has studied the New
Testament book of Revelation, chapters 4-19, which gives the most detailed
overview of the seven-year tribulation in all the Bible.
He has shown the following:
However, there is a strange silence of the term
in chapters 4-19. That fact is especially noteworthy when you contrast that
absence with its frequent presence in the first three chapters.
One good reason for this phenomenon is the
absence of the true Church and true evangelical churches in the seven years
preceding the Second Coming.
The true believers of the Church have gone into
the presence of Christ in heaven before the onset of the events of the seven
year period.
The Church is not mentioned during the seal,
trumpet, and bowl judgments because the Church is not here during the
outpouring of these judgments.
Tribulation on a Christ-Rejecting World
Another purpose for the tribulation is that it
is a time of God's wrath upon a Christ-rejecting world and a time of revenge
for Gentile treatment of Israel.
Moreover, it is evident that the Tribulation
also concerns God's judgment upon Christ-rejecting Gentile nations.
Babylon, which "made
all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" (Revelation 14:8), shall herself "be
utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her" (Revelation 18:8).
The "cities of
the nations" shall fall, after which Satan shall be bound "that
he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled" (Revelation 20:3).
God's judgment falls likewise upon the
individual wicked, the kings of the earth, the great, the rich, and the mighty,
every bond man and every free man (Revelation 6:15-17).
It falls upon all who blaspheme the name of God
and repent not to give Him glory (Revelation 16:9).
Wicked men, godless nations, suffering Israel --
these may all be found in Revelation 6-18; but one looks in vain for the Church
of Christ, which is His body, until he reaches the nineteenth chapter.
There she is seen as the heavenly bride of
Christ, and when He returns to earth to make His enemies His footstool, she is
seen returning with Him (I Thessalonians 3: 13).
Such a time of judgment does not require the
Church, who has not rejected Christ, to be present.
With the Church in heaven during the
tribulation, it enables God's focus to be on Israel as His Divine instrument
through which He acts.
This program was predicted by the Lord before
Joshua and Israel ever entered the Promised Land. Notice the predicted pattern:
1) then the LORD your God will
restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you
again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. (Deuteronomy 30:3)
2) And the LORD your God will
bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it
. . . (Deuteronomy
30:5a)
3) And the LORD your God will
inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who
persecuted you. And you shall again obey the LORD, and observe all His
commandments which I command you today. (Deuteronomy 30:7-8)
Zechariah speaks of the Lord's
retribution upon the nations as a time when "the LORD will defend
the inhabitants of Jerusalem . . . in that day that I will set about to destroy
all the nations that come against Jerusalem." (Zechariah 12:8-9)
Once again, the focus is upon Israel, in this
case Jerusalem, not the Church.
The book of Revelation provides a graphic
depiction of God's judgment upon an unbelieving world, often called "earth
dwellers."
As God prosecutes His judgment upon the "earth
dwellers," John records periodic pauses by our Lord as He
evaluates the response of mankind to His judgment before going onto the next
phase.
It is as if the Lord inflicts a series of
judgments and then surveys the landscape to see if, like Ninevah in the days of
Jonah, there is repentance so that He can suspend prosecution of the war.
Unlike Ninevah in the days of Jonah, the
"earth dwellers" do not relent in the wake of "the wrath of the
Lamb" (Revelation 6:16), so our Lord proceeds to the next phase of His battle.
Every step of the way, the "earth
dwellers" would "not repent of the works of their
hands" (Revelation 9:20)
Instead of worshipping
Christ, "the earth and those who dwell in it . . . worship the
first beast" (Revelation 13:12).
Instead of repentance they "blasphemed
God" (Revelation 16:21).
Finally, "all the nations were
deceived" (Revelation 18:23) resulting in the Satanic notion that the armies
of the world must march against Jerusalem - God's city - and Israel - His
people.
This results in the basis for the second coming
of Christ, which is to rescue Israel from the world's armies who are striking out
at God by invading His people.
Such a scenario does not demand or require the
Church and so she will not be there.
We can see that the purpose of the tribulation
revolves around God's plan for Israel, not the Church.
Conclusion
Only pre-tribulationism is able to give full
import to tribulation terms like "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jeremiah 30:7), as a passage specifically
stating that the tribulation is for Jacob (i.e., Israel).
John Walvoord concludes,
Never are tribulation saints given the special
and peculiar promises given to the Church in the present age.
The nature of the Church in contrast to Israel
therefore becomes an argument supporting the pre-tribulation viewpoint.
Since God's purpose for the tribulation is to
restore Israel (Jeremiah 30:3, 10) and judge the Gentiles (Jeremiah 30:11), it is clear that this purpose does not
include the Church.
This is one of the reasons why she will be taken
to heaven before this time.
The Church's hope is a heavenly one, not
participation in the culmination and restoration of God's plan for His earthly
people-Israel. Maranatha!
Thomas
Ice is the executive director of
the Pre-Trib Research Center on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The
research center was founded in 1994 by Tim LaHaye and
Ice to research, teach, proclaim, and defend pre-tribulationism.
The center currently sponsors prophecy meetings and conferences and provides
speakers for the purpose of discussion and lecture on the topic of
pre-tribulationism.
Thomas
Ice engages in frequent debates on the subject of the Rapture. He has
also written and co-written over 20 books and articles[1] on the
subject. He is a frequent conference speaker at Bible conferences
around the world.
Ice
serves as an Associate Professor of Religion at Liberty University.
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