What is the Great Tribulation?
Scripture uses the word "tribulation" for many kinds of trouble, but the Lord here points to one specific stretch of time that has no equal before or after it. The questions that follow are practical: when does it start, who goes through it, why does God allow it, and where is the church while it runs?
Not Ordinary Trouble
Every believer meets hardship, and the Bible says so openly. What the Lord describes on the Mount of Olives is marked off from that as a distinct period with a beginning and an end.
Morrish Bible DictionaryBesides the use of this term for any time of distress, and its special reference to this present age — about which it is said, "In the world you will have tribulation," John 16:33 — the Lord spoke of a distinct period of distress, such as never had been, or ever would be again. Matt. 24:21-29. These verses refer to a great tribulation that will fall upon the Jews in a future day: compare Jer. 30:7 and Dan. 12:1.
The Greek of Revelation 7:14 sharpens it further, naming it with the definite article — "the tribulation, the great one," as one writer renders it, so that no reader could mistake which period is meant.
Its Place In The Timetable
Commentators locate it in the second half of the last seven-year period foretold in Daniel 9, running right up to the moment Christ appears.
Michael HardtDuring the first three-and-a-half years of this tribulation period, God's providential judgements will fall upon the earth (famine, wars, etc., Rev. 6ff.). The last three-and-a-half years will be much worse — a time of unparalleled trouble... This is the great tribulation. This second half-week is spoken of as three-and-a-half years (or "times"), as 42 months, and as 1,260 days in Revelation 11-13 etc.
Israel At The Centre, The World In Its Reach
The prophets call it "the time of Jacob's trouble," yet the shock waves go far wider than one nation.
Leslie M. GrantThe "great tribulation" will be the most dreadful the world has ever seen or ever will see. It is called in Jeremiah 30:7 "the time of Jacob's trouble," for Israel will be the centre of it; yet Revelation 3:10 speaks of this as "the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth." All the world therefore will have its share in this unparalleled time of suffering.
Writers do distinguish the two strands. The multitude of Revelation 7 who come out of the great tribulation are drawn from every nation, and are not the same company as the Jewish sufferers of Matthew 24, though the periods overlap.
What Makes It So Terrible
Two forces converge: an idolatrous system demanding worship, and organised power set on wiping out anyone who refuses.
The Bible TreasuryThere is that idolatry and they will be forced to have the mark of the beast either openly or secretly. They must be identified with it either publicly or privately, or be put to death, shut off from all the privileges of society.
The persecution has official backing, and the majority around the faithful will side with the persecutors.
W. W. FeredayAll the might of the Roman Empire, energised by the Dragon, will be put forth for the extermination of all who dare to make a stand for God. The ungodly mass in Judea will be in full sympathy with the persecutors.
Days Cut Short
The Lord's own words attach a mercy to the horror: the days are shortened for the sake of the elect. One writer draws out the contrast with God's patience in the present.
Leslie M. GrantExcept for the mercy of God in shortening those days, no flesh should be saved. For the Lord will appear in less than the full three and one half years... While the day of grace has been lengthened far beyond any indication that Old Testament prophecy gave concerning it, the day of judgment will be shortened.
God's Purpose In It
The fire is not aimless. It separates and it purifies, and a people comes out of it who own the Lord as their God.
An Outline of Sound WordsThe godly remnant, the third of this Scripture, will have suffered bitter persecution from antichrist, which the Lord will use to refine them.
Where The Church Will Be
Revelation 3:10 promises Philadelphia to be kept from the hour of trial. Commentators press the exact wording — the promise is not protection inside the period, but absence from it.
James BoydThey are not simply kept from the temptation, but from the hour in which that temptation comes upon the whole world. How could such a preservation be extended to the church other than by its being taken out of the scene of the trial altogether before the trial comes?... We are not preserved through the wrath when it is present, nor are we taken out of the midst of it when it begins to burn, but we are removed from this world before it comes.
Summary
- Distinct — not everyday hardship, but one named future period; Scripture calls it "the tribulation, the great one."
- Dated — the final three and a half years of Daniel's seventieth week, closing at the appearing of Christ.
- Directed — centred on Israel as "the time of Jacob's trouble," yet reaching the whole inhabited earth.
- Shortened — the day of grace has been stretched long; the day of judgment will be cut short, or no flesh would be saved.
- Refining — God uses the fire to purify a remnant who will call on His name and be owned as His people.