What are tribulation saints?

At some moment, undefined by dates or signs external, the Church will be taken up to heaven to meet the Lord. The moment the heavenly saints are taken out of the way, God's plans open for the earth. The mystery of Christ and the Church being thus gone, God looks down upon the two public classes of men — Jews and Gentiles. Out of Israel we find severed this numbered multitude. Will God not regard the Gentiles in His mercy to call any out of them? He will call out of them an innumerable multitude. Inasmuch as the great tribulation occurs just before the turning of God's hand for the blessing of the world, just before our Lord comes from heaven to execute vengeance in person, so out of this tribulation a fresh body of persons are seen to emerge, and who are thus specially characterized. They are not Old Testament saints, nor the Church. They are not millennial saints, but a multitude without number from every kindred, and people, and nation, and tongue, who come out of the great tribulation. They do not worship as the elders; they do not sing as they; they are not described as seated on thrones, or as having crowns upon them, or exercising priestly functions — nothing of the kind. In the vision they do not sing, but say, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?" They are redeemed, of course. They are in bliss, I do not deny for a moment, but it is of a lower character than that of the heavenly saints. Accordingly this further description follows. "These are they which came out of the great tribulation." I care not what judge you choose: any man acquainted with the language, whatever his views, is enough. I defy any competent man in the world to deny that the meaning is "the great tribulation." When you have learned that it is the great tribulation, the ground for making out of this a picture of the Church in general is gone for ever. There is no just sense in which all Christians can be said to "come out of the great tribulation;" but in this case every one of these saints comes out of the great tribulation. So, at least, Scripture speaks, and it cannot be broken. The chief mark upon them, which opens the case of these Gentiles, is their coming out of the great tribulation. They are blessed; they are washed in the blood of the Lamb; but they have no distinctive properties of the Church. They are not of that one new man, where there is "neither Jew nor Gentile." On one side is a body of blest Jews, on the other is this crowd of blest Gentiles. But there is a special place for Christians, who, through the broken down middle wall of partition, are called in one body to heaven. We are not only strangers here, in the strongest sense, but belong to Christ, as united to Him above all such distinctions as those of Jew and Gentile. On this ground, if a Jew or a Gentile enter the Church, he ceases to be either Jew or Gentile, and becomes a Christian. The old landmarks disappear, for they were earthly; there is now one new man. Christ is in heaven, and we are His members. It is Christ that characterizes the believer now. By and by, as we have seen, God will have a people out of the Jews; He will have a people out of the Gentiles also; but, as we see here, they will not be mingled together. They are distinctly presented in the vision as two separate groups; and both of them quite apart from the elders. Yet, strange to say, the most popular work on the Apocalypse of this day makes out that the innumerable multitude of Gentiles is made up — how? By adding together the successive hundred-and-forty-four thousands of Israel from age to age! I do not know how many times it requires a given number of Jews to become numberless Gentiles. Such is the theory, however, that this crowd of Gentiles, somehow or other, comes out of the carefully measured number of the tribes of Israel. From this reference you may gather how extremely opposed to the truth of God's word must be any judgment of plain Scripture, where men lose sight of the great truth of the Church as a heavenly body, wherein there is neither Jew nor Gentile, because we are founded on Christ crucified, and we are united to Him glorified at the right hand of God.

The multitude spoken of here is distinct from, if not in contrast with, the church; and it is thus that we ascertain it clearly. The elders represent the heavenly saints as the heads of priesthood. Now God might use two different symbols to mean the same body; as, for instance, the wise virgins and the good and faithful servants in Matt. 25 are successive representatives of the heavenly saints. But here we have the Gentile multitude and the elders given as distinct parties in the same scene. Again you have the elders doing one thing and the multitude doing another. Above all, note that the way in which God speaks of this multitude totally separates them both from the church of God and from the Old Testament saints. This cannot be so clearly seen in our authorized translation, but the right version in verse 14 is this: "These are they which come out of the great tribulation." One could understand of course that as a figure the whole of this dispensation might be called a time of tribulation, or even of great tribulation. But here it is not merely said, "These are they which came out of great tribulation," but "out of the great tribulation." It is not possible to make "the great tribulation" extend over all the time between the first and second comings of Christ. Even the vague Protestant interpreters make it specific, but apply it, as is natural in them, to the fierce persecutions of the Papacy — "the great predicted tribulation of the coming apostacy and Antichrist." The phrase means a special time of trouble, and we gather from elsewhere that it is yet to come; and it is exactly this time that the central part of the Revelation includes, and chiefly covers. In the epistle to Thyatira it was said, "Behold I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." May we not judge that the threat of this great tribulation is to be fulfilled now. The scene of the church is closed, the great tribulation comes on apace, and those who had professed Christianity but who had gone back into idolatry would be cast into it with others. Thus, what God shows us here is a multitude of saved Gentiles: not the Jews, for we have had them just before; and not Christians, for these will then be in heaven. Those are a Gentile body called after the church is taken up; they are to be in the great tribulation but shall be preserved through it.

The hundred and forty-four thousand have been sealed before the winds of heaven have been let loose upon the earth. Before the next vision they have spent their violence, the great tribulation is passed, and an innumerable company of people are seen as come out of it. This expression, "the great-tribulation," is one that rules in the interpretation of this scene as should be evident. When people simply read, "out of great tribulation," it was natural to think of all the redeemed of all generations as being included here, and the multitude and universality of the throng thus gathered would confirm the idea; but now it ought to be no longer possible. That it is "the great tribulation" is even emphasised in the original - "the tribulation, the great one," - to forbid all generalizing in this way. We are reminded of one specific one, which as thus named we are expected to know; and he who will take Scripture simply will surely find without difficulty the one intended. We have already gone over this ground, and there is scarcely need to remind our readers that the " great tribulation" of which our Lord spoke to His disciples, "such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be," which is shortened by divine grace, for otherwise " no flesh should be saved," and at the close of which "they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven," must needs be that out of which the multitude before us come. That the tribulation is thus immediately followed by the coming of the Lord from heaven makes it easier to understand another thing, that their standing before the throne, as the prophet sees them, does not necessitate the thought of their being in heaven. There is no hint of their being raised from the dead, or having died at all. Simply they are "before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple." Here again it is natural to the common habits of thought to suppose that the temple of God must be in heaven, and passages from this very book would doubtless be cited in support of this (chap. xi): these will come naturally before us for consideration in their own place; but here it is sufficient to say that it is not said "in heaven," and that on earth there is yet to be a temple, as Ezekiel shows. Isaiah also declares that also of the Gentiles the Lord will "take for priests and Levites" (lxvi. 21). With this view at least let us look at the scene before us, and see what we can gather more. That they have "white robes" shows simply their acceptance; the palms in their hands speak of rest in victory; their words ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb, but they "cry," - it does not say "sing." The angels and the elders stand "around" the throne; they simply stand "before" it. One of the elders now raises the question with John, "Who are these?" He, unable to say who they can be, refers back the question to the speaker, and he answers it. But note the strangeness of such a question upon the ordinary view, and the greater strangeness of John's inability to answer. Plainly they were a company of saved ones giving praise for their salvation, and if it were the whole company, the very naturalness of the thought as accepted by so many would make us wonder at the question about it, still more at the apostle's speechlessness. But he had seen another company in heaven, who still kept their place before his eyes, and who had sung the new song, and at least with fuller praise. As to these, no question had been raised at all. It would seem, he might be trusted to make out who these were; and one of these elders was now accosting him! How could he miss the thought that here was a separate class of redeemed ones, and certainly upon a lower footing than those whose rapturous thanksgiving he had heard before? Accordingly he hears that such is the fact. He is told they are those who come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Not their sufferings have washed their robes white, but the Lamb's blood: and here again, though the expression is peculiar, they are on common ground with saints at all times. And on this account they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; (but in the new Jerusalem there is no temple: the "Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it;") and "He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them." So rightly now the R.V., and not, "shall dwell among them." It is like Isaiah (iv. 6), who similarly describes the condition of Jerusalem in the time to which this refers: "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain." How plain that it is as protection and defence, from the words that follow here in Revelation: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat"!

One of the elders stirs John's interest in these white-robed people, asking him who they are and where they came from (v. 13). John refers the question back to him, for John is willing to take the place of a learner (v. 14). The answer is given him that these have come out of the Great Tribulation: they had passed safely through it. Before the Tribulation all living saints (together with those who have been raised) will have been caught up in the Rapture, so these are the many Gentiles who will be born again during the Tribulation Period. We have seen that Jews are sealed in the first part of this chapter, so only Gentiles are now included. The white robes speak of practical righteousnesses which had proven the reality of their faith during the Tribulation. The robes are washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb: they are purified from the admixture of mere self-righteousness or inconsistent practice. Such purification is possible only by virtue of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.

Secondly, Rev. 7:9-17 presents the vision of a great crowd which none could number (distinguished from the 144,000 sealed out of the twelve tribes of Israel), as that was out of every nation, and of tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They have a wholly different position from the crowned and enthroned elders and the four living creatures; so much so that one of the elders explains to the prophet who they are, and whence they came. "And he said to me, These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Here then we have clear evidence that grace will deliver a vast crowd of believing Gentiles out of "the great tribulation" at the time of the end. The traditional notion that it figures the church is refuted by the very phrase which limits them to Gentiles saved out of that great tribulation which is to come. They are therefore, as a special gathering out at the close, quite distinct from those heavenly saints of all times symbolised in the same scene. It would seem that the extreme severity of the future tribulation will fall in and round Jerusalem, for the Lord declares it unparalleled; but there is no reason to doubt that it then awaits all nations, if in lesser measure. It is "the great tribulation," perhaps implied in Luke's description of "distress of nations" at that very time. There are Gentile saints, as well as Jews, to emerge from it in that day, not forming one body as now in the church, but expressly distinct from it and from one another, as Rev. 7 also plainly attests.

Three things spoken of in the Revelation, are, in people's minds, often confused, viz: The hour of temptation in Rev. 3:10; Great tribulation for Thyatira, Rev. 2:22; THE Great Tribulation, Rev. 7:14; Rev. 13:13-17. Each of these is distinct. The third is last in point of time, and quite peculiar; that which will never have been in the world before, and never will be again (Matt. 24:21; Jer. 30:7 Dan. 12:1). It is, emphatically, "THE GREAT TRIBULATION." Pre-eminently it falls upon the Jews, and is "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30) The centre of it will probably be in Jerusalem where the abomination of desolation will be (Matt. 24:14; Rev. 13:14-17), but that the Great Tribulation will be confined to that land or that people, is, if we go by Scripture, a mistake. The Lord Himself states that a certain tribulation is so great that there never will have been such before, and never can be such again. If after this, Scripture tells us (Rev. 7:9-14) that a certain company out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues came out of The Great Tribulation, or, as it is more emphatically expressed in the original, — "THE TRIBULATION, THE GREAT" — surely we must bow to Scripture, and own that they did come out of the Great Tribulation, and let fall the theory for which no Scripture has been shown, that the Great Tribulation is confined to the land of the Jews. As, however, these Gentiles came out of it, they must have been in it. Moreover, the whole tenor of prophecy coincides with these saved ones having part in the Great Tribulation; for that awful persecution is consequent upon men being required to acknowledge the Beast and worship his image. Now the sphere of the Beast's authority is not merely Israel and Palestine, but every tribe and people and tongue and nation (Rev. 13:7) and all who will not worship the image will be killed; and no one will he allowed either to buy or sell save he that has the mark of the Beast or the number of his name (Rev. 13:17). The gospel of the kingdom, too, is to be preached in the whole world (Matt. 24:14), and the fruit of that preaching is, we may suppose, this blessed, this countless multitude of saved souls. We see then this awful persecution marked off and standing by itself alone: it is the work of Satan, through his agent the Beast.

Having been permitted to see, through John, the victorious and worshipping Gentile throng, their character and blessing are now unfolded. "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 to me, These are they which came out of [the] great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (vv. 13, 14.) Remark, first, how every family in heaven is interested in the activities of God and the Lamb both in grace and government, and also how closely the glorified in heaven is bound up with the redeemed on earth. It is only in our minds that heaven and earth are so widely sundered. The angels, as we have seen, delight in beholding this Gentile throng; and now one of the elders steps forth (otherwise we would not have known that they were in the scene), and, as commissioned, explains to John who this multitude are. First, then, they have come out of the great tribulation. It is not only, as in our translation, great, but emphatically the great tribulation, the time referred to, as already indicated, in Rev. 3:10. It is not the same thing as "Jacob's trouble," though undoubtedly connected with, if not springing out of it; and it will occur during the three years and a half of antichrist's fearful sway, sustained as he will be by the head of the western empire, the first beast of Revelation 13. It is to this same period our blessed Lord refers when He says, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." (Matt. 24:21.) He speaks of the' Jewish trouble, while "the great tribulation" has reference to the oppression and persecution through which the Gentiles will have to pass. In the contemplation of this fearful event, it is no small consolation to find that God will use the unexampled sorrows of that day, if on the one hand for the chastisement of the haughty peoples of the earth, on the other hand for the blessing of this vast throng of souls. They will come out of this terrible tribulation, and, moreover, they will have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It is most interesting to note that in all dispensations every family of the saved will alike have to trace all their blessing back to the efficacy of the blood of the Lamb.*

But the true character of this scene unfolds as we advance: "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, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (vv. 13, 14) These victors, then, are persons who have come out, not merely of "great tribulation," but of "the great tribulation." Now "the great tribulation" which is the true reading, is an era as definite as the day of the Lord, or any other clearly-marked Scripture epoch. It is the period mentioned in passages already quoted from Jeremiah, who calls it "the time of Jacob's trouble," and declares that "he shall be saved out of it;" the period spoken of by Daniel, who says it is a "time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book;" the period named by our Lord Himself, who also emphasises its unparalleled character.

This is "the great tribulation out of which these Gentile victors come; for the sorrows, though having their focus among the Jews, reach out to "all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Whatever secondary application therefore this prophecy may have to the Church in the early period of persecution, its principal reference is to another and very different class of sufferers. The Church will never enter into the "hour of temptation." These, then, are believers existing on earth after the Church is taken, and looking for the coming Messiah. Though not of Israel, they trust the word specially spoken of that day, "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered." (Joel 2:32.) They have therefore "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

25 The tribulation in Matthew 24:21 is more particularly connected with what will take place in Judea, or rather at Jerusalem, under Antichrist, and is applied to the Jews. Those who have come out from the great tribulation (some translate of "great tribulation," or of "a great tribulation,") are not the church properly so called; for, as is seen in Revelation 3:10, she will be kept out of it. I do not mean either, that they are the same persons as those spoken of in connection with the great tribulation mentioned in Matthew 24:15, 22, for in Matthew those persons are evidently Jews: whereas, in the chapter before us, they that came out of the great tribulation are Gentiles. "A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." There is a certain vagueness, moreover, in the expressions; and this, it seems to me, according to the intention of the Holy Spirit. They are specially recognised of the four elders; but they do not appear to be the church, properly so called.

We have thus the heavenly hosts, the glorified saints, and the white-robed multitude, each in a different relationship, but the first and the last thrown in the main together — the glorified saints forming a class apart. They do not worship here. But one of the elders, who have always the intelligence of God, explains to the prophet who the white-robed multitude are. It formed no part of the prophetic revelation as yet, and it was not the assembly's own place. "Sir, thou knowest," says the prophet. They had come out of the great tribulation, faithful in it, their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. They were not millennial saints, that is, born in that time, and subject by birth to the responsibility of that condition (which grace had to meet). They were cleansed and owned to be so, having the consciousness of it and victory when the others began; so that they, as already cleansed and owned, are always before the throne a special class, and serve Him day and night in His temple.