TRIBULATION IS NOT THE TRIBULATION

TRIBULATION IS NOT THE TRIBULATION A lot of confusion about the end times comes from using the word “tribulation” as though it always means the same thing. It doesn’t. Jesus told His disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” John 16:33 The Greek word is θλῖψις, thlipsis. It means pressure, affliction, distress, the idea of being pressed or squeezed. Our English word “tribulation” came through the Latin tribulatio, connected with the tribulum, an ancient threshing instrument dragged across harvested grain. It crushed, pressed, and separated the grain from the chaff. That picture fits the Christian life pretty well. God can use pressure to expose weakness, strengthen faith, produce patience, correct His children, and strip away things that have no business being there. Paul wrote that “tribulation worketh patience” in Romans 5:3. Acts 14:22 says “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Hebrews 12 teaches that God chastens His children because He loves them. Peter compared the testing of our faith to gold being tried by fire. Christians have always experienced tribulation. Persecution, suffering, loss, hardship and the pressure that comes from following Christ in a fallen world are part of the Christian life. Daniel’s seventieth week is something entirely different. Daniel 9:24 says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.” Daniel’s people were Israel. His holy city was Jerusalem. Sixty nine prophetic weeks were fulfilled before Messiah was cut off. Daniel then describes one remaining week, with a coming ruler confirming a covenant for one week and breaking it halfway through. That final week equals seven years. Christians commonly call those seven years “the Tribulation,” although Scripture itself usually describes the period through other terms and events. Jeremiah calls it “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble.” Jeremiah 30:7 Jacob is Israel. Jesus points directly back to Daniel when He speaks about the abomination of desolation, then says the world will enter a period of suffering unlike anything before it. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Matthew 24:21 That Great Tribulation is the final half of Daniel’s seventieth week. This has nothing to do with whether Christians suffer. Of course Christians suffer. The question is whether the Church is appointed to enter the specific prophetic period Daniel says concerns Israel and Jerusalem, when Antichrist rises, the covenant is confirmed, the abomination of desolation takes place and the judgments described in Revelation fall upon the earth. Those are not interchangeable ideas just because an English Bible uses the word “tribulation” for both. The Church has experienced thlipsis for nearly two thousand years, while Daniel’s seventieth week remains an unfinished part of Israel’s prophetic timetable. Paul also makes something else clear. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 Christ never promised His Church an easy life. He absolutely warned us about persecution, pressure and suffering. Daniel’s seventieth week is not God giving the Church a little more spiritual refinement. It is the final seven years of Daniel’s prophecy concerning Israel and Jerusalem, culminating in the return of Jesus Christ. Tribulation is part of the Christian life. The Tribulation is prophecy. Learn the difference. #MoreJoyMinistries