Will God’s people live through the coming tribulation?

The experiences of ancient Israel were examples given by God for His people living at the

close of time (1 Corinthians 10:11). Just as Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage

after the plagues, so God’s people will be protected through the plagues and be delivered

from the hand of the oppressor.

An interesting pattern emerges as we examine God’s Word:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego entered the flames when they refused to yield to the

universal death decree of Babylon’s king. Their death-defying faith faced the flames. In

those flames, God miraculously delivered them.

Revelation 14: 9-10 warns that worshippers of the Beast (who receive the Mark) experience

God’s Wrath. Revelation 15:1, 16:1, 2 reveals God’s Wrath is in the seven last plagues. 1

Thessalonians 5: 9 reveals believers are not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by

our Lord Jesus Christ.

Exodus Chapters 7 to 12 details the 10 plagues that fell upon Egypt in the days of the

Exodus. The first three plagues were experienced by everyone, the last seven only by the

Egyptians! The Lord made a definite difference between the unbelieving Egyptians and the

believing Israelites (See Exodus 8:23 KJV). Note also Exodus 10:21 - 23 — supernatural

darkness over Egypt, but God’s people had “light in their dwellings.”

The example of Noah (Genesis 6 to 8), Lot (Genesis 19), and Daniel (Daniel 3 and 6)

point out the guidance and protection the Lord gives to those in tribulation — and these are

only a few of the examples extending from cover to cover of the sacred scriptures.

There is a natural objection to all the foregoing in the questions: Isn’t the Great

Tribulation the worse tribulation that has ever occurred? And doesn’t Revelation 3:10

promise that the Lord will “keep” His people from the “hour of temptation [i.e. trial]” coming

upon “all the world”?

Consider the example of Noah. Wasn’t Noah’s situation the end of his world? Noah’s

tribulation was an hour of trial that certainly came upon all the world! We know that God

saved Noah via the ark He instructed him to build. God “kept” Noah from his “hour of trial”

by giving Him a way of escape. Even if the tribulation destroys our world, can’t we expect

the Lord to help us as He helped Noah to survive? The tribulation will be worse, but our God

will show He is stronger.

Another answer comes from comparing Revelation 3:10 and John 17:6, 15. The word

translated “keep” and “kept” in all these verses is the same Greek word, which means “to

guard from loss or injury by keeping the eye upon” [ “tay-reh’-o”, Strong’s Greek

Concordance #5083]. In other words, the Lord will “keep” His people from trial by watching

over them and guarding them from harm — not by taking them out of the world entirely.

The Lord Jesus prayed that we would not be taken out of the world, but kept by God from

the evil.

Also note the significance of these verses:

Acts 14:22 — Paul telling us to prepare to face tribulation to enter the kingdom of God.

2 Thessalonians 1:4 — Paul praises the believers for their endurance of tribulation.

Revelation 1:9 — John identifies himself as a “companion in tribulation” with the

believers.

Revelation 2:9 — Jesus states clearly that He knows His church’s tribulation.

Matthew 13: 37 - 39 summarizes the parable of the wheat and the tares. Jesus declares

the tares are destroyed and the wheat is gathered, at the “end of this world”. Some imply

that the tares are merely gathered, and then destroyed much later — but the Bible clearly

says the tares are gathered and burned in the fire. This takes place when “the Son of man

shall send forth his angels” — the same event in 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 - 18 and 2

Thessalonians 1:6 - 2:1, taking place at the Coming of Jesus.

The Bible verse declaring that He comes as a thief is given after the list of plagues

(Revelation 16:1-15). Would it make much sense to declare, “Behold I come as a thief”

after six plagues are already poured out, if He had already come as a thief before they were

poured out?

Revelation 15:8 emphatically declares, "no man was able to enter into the temple, till the

seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled." 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8 makes it plain that

the Antichrist will be revealed before Jesus comes— not later during a time of probation—

and that the Antichrist is destroyed by the brightness of His coming.

Luke 17:26 - 37 compares the Lord’s Coming with the days of Noah and Lot — times of

Judgment. People were eating, drinking, marrying, buying and selling, planting and building,

until Judgment fell. The very “ordinariness” of it all, makes the horror seem even more

terrible. The great flood (in Noah’s time) and the fire and brimstone (in Lot’s time)

“destroyed them all.” Survivors escaped via the ark and the help of angels escorting them

to safety — but in both examples the unbelievers were destroyed. In this context of God’s

Judgment, Jesus says “one shall be taken, and the other left” (Luke 17:34-35). Those who

will not believe the Lord are destroyed. They do not have seven more years as a “second

chance.” The time we live in now is our second chance.

The harm in teaching such a doctrine is that it gives a false hope. It does not encourage

people to change their lives and make themselves right with God. But instead says that you

will have 7 years to change, and be ready for God. This doctrine is a dispensational view.

Dispensationalism proposes that the rapture of the Church will occur at the secret coming of

Christ, before the Antichrist rules the earth for a seven-year tribulation period. The Ryrie

Study Bible says that the seven-year tribulation period "is the 70thweek of Daniel and is

therefore of seven-years’ duration" (Daniel 9:27).

The Above statement illogically separates the 70th week from the preceding 69 weeks. The

seven years are placed over 2000 years into the future, to the time of Antichrist. A

prophecy referring to Christ is twisted to refer to the Antichrist instead.

But what else could the 27th verse in Daniel 9 be referring to?

The 70-week prophecy, the greatest proof of Jesus as the Messiah, is found in these verses.

They predict the time of the Messiah's anointing, putting the issue beyond doubt.

Let us unravel the prophecy by allowing Scripture to be its own expositor.

The Day-Year Principle

Prophecies are couched in symbolic language that needs to be unraveled before the

meaning of the words can be understood. Prophetic time is used as a symbol to be

interpreted in the light of Scripture.

According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days,

for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years (Numbers

14:34 NKJV).

I have appointed thee each day for a year (Ezekiel 4:6).

These two texts provide the key—the day-year principle. This principle takes prophetic days

and converts them to actual years. Applying this principle to the 70-week prophecy will

show that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.

Six Messianic Tasks

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish

the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for

iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and

prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy (Daniel 9:24).

“Thy people” were God’s chosen people Israel. Seventy weeks resolves into 490 days.

Applying the day-year principle, 490 days become 490 years.

The 490 years were appointed to the Jewish nation for these six reasons found in Daniel

9:24:

1. to finish the transgression

2. to make an end of sins

3. to make reconciliation for iniquity

4. to bring in everlasting righteousness

5. to seal up vision and prophecy

6. to anoint the most Holy

These six issues could only be fulfilled in and through the Messiah. Who else could make

reconciliation for iniquity or bring in everlasting righteousness?

Jesus Fulfills the Prophecy

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to

restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,

and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in

troublous times.

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:

and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the

sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war

desolations are determined.

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the

week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the

overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the

consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate (Daniel

9:25-27).

The angel gives a breakdown of the 70 weeks as follows:

7 weeks of years for rebuilding of Jerusalem (verse 25)

62 weeks of years to the Messiah (verses 25-26)

1 week of years to the close of the period (verse 27)

The calculations are shown in the graph below:

The 2300-day prophecy, of which the 70-week prophecy is a small part, was to begin at the

command that effected the restoration of Jerusalem. This command went forth under King

Artaxerxes Longimanus in the year 457 BC (Ezra 7:12-13).

From this starting point, we can determine all the other time markers of the prophecy.

Seven weeks were allotted for the restoration of Jerusalem. True to the prophecy,

Jerusalem was rebuilt 49 years after 457 BC, which was 408 BC.

Seven weeks (49 day-years) for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and another threescore and two

weeks (62 weeks or 434 day-years) brings us to "the Messiah the Prince." Beginning in 457

BC and applying the day-year principle, we can determine the passing of 483 years from

457 BC which brings us to 27 AD (allowing for the conversion from BC to AD being one

extra year).

In 27 AD, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit on the occasion of His baptism which

marked the beginning of His ministry (Luke 3:21-23). This baptism marked the event in

Daniel’s prophecy “unto the Messiah the Prince.” When Christ proclaimed, “The time is

fulfilled” (Mark 1:15), He was referring to this part of the prophecy.

The end of the prophecy is 34 AD, 7 day-years after the baptism: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the

week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease (Daniel 9:27).

Christ would confirm the covenant made with Israel for one prophetic week (7 years), but

oblation (offerings) would cease in the middle of the week (3 ½ years after 27 AD). This

mid-point brings us to 31 AD—the year Christ was crucified. It was at His death that he put

an end to the system of offerings practiced by Israel for so many years.

Chiastic Structure

Some modern interpretations confuse the 70-week prophecy by applying it to the Antichrist,

who (according to this interpretation) would arrive at the end of the Christian dispensation

sometime in the future.

However, the prophecy in Daniel 9:26-27 has a chiastic (A literary structure used in the

Bible in which symmetry or patterns are used to emphasize concepts.)

structure, and if this is taken into account, the apparent confusion in its literary style is

eliminated:

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:

and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the

sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war

desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one

week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to

cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even

until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

The chiastic structure is as follows:

* a. Messiah destroyed

* b. Sanctuary destroyed

* b1. Sacrifice terminated

* a1. Ruler destroyed

Verse 27 has an additional chiasm: “he—week—week—he,” again emphasizing the role of

the Messiah. It can thus be said that the destruction of the Messiah caused "the sacrifice

and the oblation to cease." The Messiah would also confirm His covenant with God’s people

by His sacrificial death “in the midst of the week.”

John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, and Isaac Newton all connect the 70th week with the Messiah.

When Christ cried “It is finished,” the priests were officiating in the temple. It was the hour

of the evening sacrifice, and as the Passover lamb representing Christ was about to be slain,

“the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did

quake and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51).

After Christ died, rose again, and ascended to heaven, there were still 3 ½ day-years

remaining in the prophecy. These ended in 34 AD with the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:59-

8:4). At that time the Gospel was given to the Gentiles by individual ambassadors from

every nation. Paul, the very one who consented to the stoning of Stephen, became the

apostle to the Gentile world. Israel ceased to be the recipient and channel of God’s truth.

Getting right with God

This is what Scripture has to say about getting right with God: Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him

return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he

will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:7).

“But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My

statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against

him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any

pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD (Ezekiel 18:21-23

NKJV).

There is a clear "if" in these verses. Salvation is conditional to obedience. When the

judgment comes, we will be held accountable for our deeds, and won’t have another

chance.

The people of God will experience the tribulation and feel the wrath of the Antichrist. Their

only hope will be the return of Christ. Just as the blood of the lamb was to be painted on the

doorposts of the Israelite dwellings during the night of the final plague in Egypt (Exodus

12:7-13), so the blood of Christ the Lamb must be painted on the doorpost of the heart to

alert the destroying angel that we have been purchased by God’s sacrifice.

“And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him,

and He will save us. This is the LORD; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and

rejoice in His salvation (Isaiah 25:9 NKJV).”

The dispensationalist view that the Antichrist will arise after the pre tribulation rapture is

also not in line with the teaching of Scripture. The Bible clearly teaches that this power will

arise from the Church, not after the Church:

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is

coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last

hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us,

they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made

manifest, that none of them were of us (1 John 2:18-19 NKJV).

Typology Regarding the Rapture

Dispensationalists do not believe in Spiritual Israel, which is the Church, but

believe that the promises of Scripture are for literal Israel only. They thus separate

the Church from Israel, but the Bible makes no such distinction:

Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God (Galatians

6:16 NIV).

Dispensationalists say that the relief for God's people and the consequences for those who

disobeyed Him will occur seven years apart. They say that the rapture of God's people will

come first, followed by the destruction of the Antichrist at the Second Coming. During this

supposed seven-year period, the Jewish people will go through the tribulation and will come

to accept Christ.

However, the truth is that typology in the Bible always points to something greater. The

symbolic lamb points to Christ—the latter being so much greater than the former. Literal

Babylon points to end-time Babylon, comprising all the forces that reject God. Literal

Jerusalem is a type of end-time spiritual Jerusalem, comprising the redeemed of all the

ages. Despite this, dispensationalists await a literal reconstruction of Babylon and Israel,

which would be the same as awaiting the return of a literal lamb.

According to the dispensationalist view, the end-time tribulation is for literal Israel only. This

is not a Biblical teaching. The trials and tribulations are rather designed to purge and

cleanse God’s faithful people around the world (1 Thessalonians 3:3).

And one of the elders answered, saying to me, what are these which are arrayed in

white robes? and whence came they? And I said to him, Sir, thou knowest. And he

said to me, These are they which come out of great tribulation, and have washed

their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:13-14).

All will Experience the Tribulation

Contrary to dispensational doctrines, God's people—those who have washed their robes in

the blood of the lamb—have to go through the tribulation. “For the Son of man shall come in

the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his

works” (Matthew 16:27).

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you

who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is

revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels (2 Thessalonians 1:6-

7 NIV).

According to these texts, relief for the accepters of God and recompense for the rejecters of

God take place at the same time—at the return of Christ.

This is what Jesus told His disciples about the end- time tribulation:

The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all

things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the

furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will

shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:41-43 NKJV).

Just like the wheat and the tares Jesus describes in Matthew 13, everyone will stay together

until the return of Christ. When Old Testament Israel was delivered from the bondage of

Egypt, the plagues did not fall when the Israelites were already gone. They were present

and witnessed the events, being subjected to the first three plagues themselves (Exodus 8-

12).

God divinely protected the Israelites from the effects of the last seven plagues in Egypt, just

as He will divinely protect His people from the effects of the last seven plagues at the end of

time (Revelation 3:10-13). God's people are urged to hold on until He comes. They will not

be taken to heaven before these events.

The glory of Christ's Second Coming leaves no hint of secrecy. Everyone will be judged at

the same time. The return of Christ is the blessed hope of the people of God: Jesus is to be

revealed (1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13).