The Great Tribulation

"The Great Tribulation"

Jerusalem

by Helen Appleton

Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, the arch-deceiver has worked as the antagonist of both God and man. In ways innumerable, he has tried to break man's trust in God and to malign his character in an effort to hold man's allegiance to himself and thus frustrate God's purpose to redeem mankind by the work of the promised Seed (Gen. 3:15).

After the birth of Jesus in 5 B.C., he endeavoured to destroy the baby Jesus and later, during our Lord's ministry, to have the Jews kill Him and in every way possible oppose His work. Then at the inauguration of the early Christian church,

he used persecution as his weapon that the church might be put out of action. In spite of all this however, the gospel spread far and wide till (Col. 1:23) it had gone to the WHOLE world. Then the great apostasy, or "falling away" which Paul had predicted (2 Thess. 2:3) and which culminated in the Papacy and the Dark Ages was another of his evil designs.

During this time, the Bible was kept away from the rank and file of the people and the church fell into terrible depths of ignorance and depravity. But God countered this move by the work of the renaissance or revival of learning and the religious reformation which brought a great awakening to the world.

After much opposition and persecution, the true church once more became a source of light and knowledge to darkened minds. Many missionary activities were undertaken and the gospel once again spread abroad. Today, his satanic majesty has another and very subtle way of hindering God's work.

He has introduced many varied and fantastic teachings into the church to divide the people and thus also make void their witness to the truths of the Bible. We need to recognise this insidious method of attack and study deeply the Word of God that we may "all speak the same thing" (1 Cor. 1:10). With regard to the subject of this essay, I can do no better than quote the words of Philip Mauro, who by thorough study was forced to change his beliefs on what the "Great tribulation" really referred to. His book — "The seventy weeks and the Great Tribulation" is a goldmine of scripture and I would strongly recommend this book for your own personal examination.

Under the heading "The Lord's Prophecy on Mt. Olivet" (p. 191) he writes:

"We now come to that great utterance of the Lord Jesus Christ which connects directly with the prophecies recorded in the last 4 chapters of the Book of Daniel. We have seen that 69 weeks of the 70 mentioned by Gabriel in his message to Daniel, reached "unto the Messiah" — which Eidersheim calls 'his first Messianic appearance' — at his Baptism in c. 26 A.D. — for then it was that He was anointed with the Holy Ghost, authenticated by the Voice from heaven and publicly proclaimed (or made manifest to Israel) by John the Baptist (Jo. 1:29-34).

That great event marked the beginning of "the 70th week" of the prophecy, the "one week" which is separately mentioned in Dan. 9:27, the 'fulness of the time' of Gal. 4:4 (cf. Mk. 1:15). That WEEK was beyond all comparison the most momentous period in all the course of time, for it was the great and wonderful era of Christ's own personal ministry among men, 'the days of his flesh', when He glorified During this time, the Bible was kept away from the rank and file of the people and the church fell into terrible depths of ignorance and depravity. But God countered this move by the work of the renaissance or revival of learning and the religious reformation which brought a great awakening to the world.

God upon the earth and finished the work His Father had given Him to do. It was the brief period of earth's history whereof the apostle Peter spoke when he told to a company of Gentiles "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him." (Ac. 10:3) Never had there been a 'time' like that one!

Towards the MIDST OF THAT WEEK in 30 A.D., the Lord, after having preached the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, after having worked the works of God and spoken the words the Father had given Him to speak, went to Jerusalem in order to fulfil all that was written of Him, by offering Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of his people.

At that season, when Jerusalem was thronged with people for the observance of the passover, the Lord uttered his "woes" upon the scribes and pharisees, closing with these words which have an important bearing upon our subject:

"Wherefore you are witnesses unto yourselves that you are the children of them who KILLED the PROPHETS. Fill up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you generation of vipers, for how can you escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city, THAT UPON YOU MAY COME ALL THE RIGHTEOUS BLOOD SHED UPON THE EARTH, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily

I say to you, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL COME UPON THIS GENERATION!" (Matt. 23:31-36).

These words call for close attention because of their bearing upon the prophecy, (the Olivet discourse,) which immediately follows, and also because of their bearing on the prophecy of the 70 weeks which we have been studying. The Lord speaks here distinctly of a terrible retribution which was to come upon THAT generation! And He sums up the several items of the wickedness for which they were thus to be punished. He declared that in putting Him to death, they were about to prove themselves to be the children of those who killed the prophets. And they were also about to FILL UP THE MEASURE OF THEIR FATHERS. Nor would the wickedness of 'THAT generation of vipers' stop there. For when the messengers of Christ should come to them with the gospel of God's love and grace, they would scourge, persecute, kill and crucify them! They would thus bring upon themselves a retribution of such terrible severity that it would be as if they were visited for all the righteous blood that had ever been shed upon the earth. Most distinct and plain, and emphasized by his great "Amen" (verily), are the Lord's words, "Verily, I say to you, ALL these things shall come upon THIS GENERATION!"

Here we have then a clear explanation of the words of Daniel 9:24: "Seventy heptads are determined upon your people and upon your holy city TO FINISH THE TRANSGRESSION" and also the words of Dan. 12:10 "The wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand."

Daniel's people were to be the AGENTS and his holy city the PLACE of the finishing of "the transgression"; and the 70th week of the renewed national existence was to be the TIME when the transgression should be finished.

We have also in these words of Christ and in vv 38-39 which follow, a clear affirmation of that part of the prophecy of the 70 weeks which foretold the destruction of Jerusalem. We quote these heart-melting words: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and YOU WOULD NOT! Behold, your house is left unto you DESOLATE!

The importance of the Destruction of Jerusalem.

It is greatly to be regretted that those who, in our day, give themselves to the study and exposition of prophecy seem not to be aware of the IMMENSE SIGNIFICANCE of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70J which was accompanied by the extinction of the Jewish national existence and the dispersion of the Jewish people among all nations. The failure to recognise the significance of that event and the vast amount of prophecy which it fulfilled, has been the cause of great confusion, for the necessary consequence of missing the past fulfilment of predicted events is to leave on our hands a mass of prophecies for which we must needs contrive fulfilments in the future.

The harmful results are two-fold: for FIRST, we are thus deprived of the evidential value and the support to the faith of those remarkable fulfillment of prophecy which are so clearly presented to us in authentic contemporary histories:

and SECOND, our vision of things to come is greatly obscured and confused by the transference to the future of predicted events which in fact have already happened, and whereof complete records have been preserved for our information!

Obviously, we cannot with profit enter upon the study of unfulfilled prophecy until we have settled our minds as to the predicted things which have already come to pass.

A striking instance of the dislocation of great historic events which happened in accordance with and in fulfilment of prophecy lies before us in the case of that unparalleled affliction which is called in Matt. 24:21 the "great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world," and which is doubtless the same as that spoken of in Jer. 30:7 as "the time of Jacob's Trouble", and in Dan. 12:1 as "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation!'' From the clear indications given in the three prophecies just mentioned, and from the detailed records that have been preserved for us in trustworthy contemporary history, it should be an easy matter to identify the period thus referred to, with the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The Lord's own predictions and warnings concerning that event which was then close at hand, were most explicit. And not only so, but He plainly said that "all these things shall come upon THIS generation."

Besides all that, He specified the very sins for which that generation was to be thus punished beyond anything known before, or that should be thereafter, thus making it a simple impossibility that the "tribulation", and "vengeance" which He predicted could fall upon any subsequent generation.

First then, we direct attention to the fact that, according to the words of Christ, spoken to the leaders of THAT GENERATION of Jews (Matt. 23:32-39) the punishment which was then about to fall upon the city and the people, was to be of an EXHAUSTIVE character. His words utterly forbid the idea of ANOTHER and MORE SEVERE national calamity reserved for a future day. Nobody (so far as we are aware,) questions that the Lord's lament over Jerusalem, recorded in Matt. 23:27 and Lk. 13:34 was wrung from his lips in view of her approaching devastation by the Romans. But if so, then clearly his words to his own disciples which immediately follow (Matt. 24) and which include the reference to the "great tribulation" refer to the same matter.

But before taking up his discourse to his four disciples on Mt. Olivet, we would call attention to some additional passages of scripture showing what a tremendous event in the history of God's dealings with the Jews and achieving his purposes for the whole world was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. We have referred already to our Lord's lamentation on leaving the city as recorded by Matthew. From the gospel by Luke, we learn that, when approaching Jerusalem on that last visit, He was so distressed in his heart at the realisation of the awful calamities soon to overtake the beloved city, that He wept over it! (Lk. 19:41) Although his own personal sufferings, his shame and agony, were much closer at hand; yet it was not for Himself, but for the city, that his heart was torn with grief and his eyes flowed with tears!

This is the record: "And when He was come near, He beheld the city and wept over it saying. If you had known, even you, in this your day, the things which belong to your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days shall come

upon you that your enemies shall cast a trench about you and compass you round (cf. 21:20) and keep you in on every side and shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you! And they shall not leave in you one stone upon another, BECAUSE YOU KNEW NOT THE TIME of your visitation (Lk. 19:41-44).

Here is a wonderfully vivid, accurate and detailed prediction of what was about to befall the beloved city. But we cite the passage at this time for the special purpose of showing how great a matter in the Lord's view was the approaching destruction of Jerusalem — great in its historical relation to the Jewish nation, great in the completeness of the overthrow and great in the unspeakable sufferings that were to attend it. Once more when our Lord was being led forth to be crucified and there followed Him a great company of people and of women who bewailed and lamented Him, He turned to them and said:

"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children, for behold the days are coming in which they shall say. Blessed are the barren . . . then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall upon us, and to the hills. Cover us! For if they do these things in (the) green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" (Lk. 23:28-31).

Wrath to the Uttermost

But the greatness of the calamity which Christ foretold can best be understood by consideration of the gravity of the sin which brought it upon the city and people ... in Christ's day they despised the words of God spoken by his Son; they mocked HIM and finally they betrayed Him and put Him to death. Who can measure the enormity of THIS CRIME? But there was even more. For not only did they reject Christ in person, but they subsequently rejected, persecuted, killed and crucified those whom the risen Lord sent to them with the offer of mercy in the Gospel. Christ included this in the iniquity He charged against them; and He said that thereby they would fill up the measure of their fathers.

The apostle Paul was one of those messengers who thus suffered at their hands. Speaking of this wickedness of the Jews, he said: "Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us; and they please not God and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the gentiles that they might be saved, TO FILL UP THEIR SINS ALWAYS! For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost" (1 Thess. 2:16).

Thus we are distinctly informed, both by the Lord Himself and by his servant, Paul, (i) that the sin and iniquity of THAT GENERATION of Jews went far beyond the evil deeds of their fathers; and (ii) that the "wrath" which was about to be poured out upon them was to be "to the uttermost".

Such being the facts of the matter, we would ask, FIRST, if there is to be a future generation of Jews upon which is to fall a yet greater tribulation, what is to be the occasion thereof? And what is to be the crime for which that future generation of Israelites is to be punished? What crime can they commit which would be in any way comparable to that of betraying and crucifying their Messiah?

SECOND, if indeed such a terrible punishment yet awaits "Israel's long afflicted race", how is it that every prophecy which speaks of God's future dealings with that people, holds out the prospect — not of wrath to the uttermost — but of mercy? . . . Blessings through believing the gospel (cf. Rom. 11:23).

From this it is clear that Jerusalem and the people of Israel will never suffer again as in the days of the siege by the armies of Titus . . .

No doubt there will be grievous tribulations and persecutions in the "latter days" by those who already surround the camp of the saints, but those yet future distresses . . . were not what He spoke of to the disciples on Mt. Olivet. What He then predicted was that GREAT TRIBULATION exceeding everything of the sort before or since which was to come upon THAT GENERATION of Jews, which most of those disciples would live to see and concerning which they would need and would thankfully avail themselves of, the warnings and instructions He then gave them.

The yet future troubles for mankind are distinctly mentioned by the Lord in this prophecy and they are clearly distinguished from the "great tribulation"; for He tells what will happen "after the tribulation of those days" (49) and then passes on to the subject of the second advent. Our contention is merely that our Lord, in his Olivet discourse, was not warning his disciples concerning the distresses of that far-off period, but concerning those which were close at hand.

We repeat then, that the Lord's purpose in this discourse was NOT AT ALL to give his people signs of his Coming again, but to warn THAT GENERATION of believers of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem and to give THEM a sure sign whereby they might, and whereby in fact his own people DID, secure their safety by fleeing the land and city!

All we assert is that, regardless of the nature and severity of the afflictions which are YET TO COME, that PARTICULAR "tribulation" the Lord called the "Great Tribulation", as "the days of vengeance" (Matt. 24:21, Lk. 21:22), was the EXECUTION OF DIVINE JUDGMENT upon Daniel's people and his holy CITY for which God used the Roman armies under TITUS in A.D.70! And He gave them 40 years of grace before the execution!

May this treatise bring much blessing to the church of God, drawing closer together those who have been divided because of differing conclusions regarding the meaning of "The Great tribulation".

"Signs of the Times"

. . . Persecution does not come to you as a matter of course, simply because you say that you are a Christian. The world can easily tolerate those who are content to say that they are Christians, but whose lives reflect only minor differences. Persecution, reproach, scorn falls upon those who live their Christianity . . .

Changing Worlds

At this 'coming', or 'day of the Lord', there is to be a great conflagration. A very strong Greek word is used of the 'burning up' of heaven and earth — a word indicating a 'thorough' burning. There will be great cataclysmic changes at the coming of the Lord. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, the first heaven and the first earth passing away. He that sits on the throne will say. Behold, I make all things new.

This does not fit in with pre-millennial doctrine, according to which Jesus will come to reign at Jerusalem over pretty much the same old world. According to 2 Peter, there will be no 'old world' left after His coming. And surely the Christian heart delights to think that it is not over the old sinful world which rejected Him, but over a new world, that He comes to reign. W.J. Grier

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