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“Will People Be Saved During the Great Tribulation?” Revelation 7:1-17

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“Will People Be Saved During the Great Tribulation?” Revelation 7:1-17 1 “Will People Be Saved During The Great Tribulation?” Revelation 7:1-17 Introduction When we think about the end of history, the Great Tribulation, the rapture of believers and the 2nd coming of Jesus, several important questions can easily grab our attention: 1) If the Holy Spirit is taken out as many believe 2 Thess. 2:6-7 teaches, how will anyone be saved? 2) If believers are raptured before the Tribulation begins, per 1 Thess. 4:13-18, who will witness for Jesus during this time? 3) Is God really through with the Jew? To question #1, I would simply note that 2 Thess. 2:6-7 teaches it is the Spirit as restrainer of sin, not convictor of sin, who is removed. To questions #2 & #3, Revelation 7 provides the answers, and what wonderful answers they are. Will souls be saved during the tribulation? Yes, and by the millions. Who will witness for Jesus? At the very least, 144,000 Jews sealed for service by our God. Is God through with the Jew? Perish the thought!!! 1) From the Old Testament we read in Jeremiah 31:35-37 “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name; “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the Lord.” 2) From the New Testament we read in Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “AND THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” 2 Transition What is it then, which our God will be doing during these terrifying and troubling days? In 2 magnificent visions (vs. 1-8, 9-17) God’s Word gives the answer. I. God has a plan for salvation in the Tribulation. 7:1-8 Our God is a soul saving God who has all of humanity on His heart. This is never more evident than in Revelation 7. This chapter is something of an interlude, a parenthesis, a break in the action separating the 6th and 7th seals. The first 6 seals have been broken in chapter 6 with cataclysmic and catastrophic results. The chapter ends with an ominous question, “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (6:17) To this question chapter 7 provides an answer, for in the midst of judgement, grace and mercy flow like rivers of water. 1. We should thank God for suspending judgement. 7:1-3 Verse 1 After this – after the seals of chapter 6. 4 angels, 4 corners – a figure of speech, noting the 4 directions of the compass, hence the whole of the earth. They are holding back the 4 winds which are ready to blow further judgement and wrath upon this wicked world. But no, their hand is stayed, judgement is delayed. “At each of 4 points of the compass one of the 4 winds is held prisoner by an angel” (Thomas, 465). Verse 2 John sees another (allon, of the same character) angel ascending from the rising of the sun, from the east, east of Patmos. In the Bible good things, wonderful things come from / are in the east. Paradise was in the east (Genesis 2:8), the glory of God comes to the temple from the east (Ezekiel 43:2), the Magi came from the east (Matthew 2:1), and God’s salvation likewise comes from the east, for our Savior is the “Dayspring” or the “Sunrise from on high” of Luke 1:78 and in Revelation 22:16 He is the “bright morning star.” Seal – possession and protection; c.f. 14:1; 22:4; the seal is the name of the Lamb and the Father, or as 7:2 says the living God (c.f. Joshua 3:10; Psalm 42:2; Hosea 1:10; 14 times in the New Testament). An angel “with a loud voice” shouts to the 4 angels that judgement is delayed on the earth “until we have sealed the bond-servants (doulous) of our God on their foreheads. (c.f. sealing in Ezekiel 9:4). Do not harm – is a command of prohibition. The loud voice denotes the urgency of the situation. The angels must restrain the winds a while longer. Destruction must wait. These select servants will be sealed and protected as servants of God from the devastating judgements to follow. They will have an assignment to fulfill for the Lord, and no one or no thing will stop them. 3 Transition We should thank God for temporarily suspending judgement. 2. We should thank God for permanently sealing Jews. 7:3-8 Verses 4 – 8 are some of the most remarkable, abused and misinterpreted verses in the Bible in my judgement. What should be a basic and simple understanding of the text has been subjected to some of the most fanciful and far-fetched interpretations imaginable. On face value the text is clear. During the Tribulation God will seal as His select servants 144,000 “from every tribe of the sons of Israel.” While there are a couple of peculiarities in the list which we will note, the meaning seems clear and without controversy. However, that has hardly been the case. John Polhill, of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, points out that Bible interpreters have often opted for a symbolical interpretation. What do these include? The 144,000 represent: 1) 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses whom will reign in heaven. 2) Select individuals who worship on the Sabbath (7th Day Adventist groups). 3) 144,000 true preachers who would follow the radical Anabaptist reformer Melchior Hofmann in 1533. He died in prison and his army of 144,000 never materialized. 4) The Church, as the “new Israel,” i.e. the redeemed of all the ages. 5) Literal Jews saved and sealed for special service during the Tribulation. * *This last view is the best view. As God reserved 7,000 in the days of Ahab (1 Kings 19:8), He will reserve 144,000 for Himself during the future Tribulation. In 1800 there were only 3,300,000 Jews in the World and only 6700 in their land. By 1996, in spite of losing 6 million in the Holocaust, there were 14,000,000 worldwide and 4,600,000 in their land! God never forgets His promises!!! I agree with MacArthur, Jeremiah, Swindoll, Wiersbe, Rogers, Vince and Patterson that: 1) These are Tribulation “apostle Pauls” who will engage in missionary and evangelistic work around the world. 2) As Revelation 14:1-5 teaches, they will be utterly faithful, committed and zealous in their work for the Lord. 3) They are only the first (14:5) of a vast multitude who will come to Jesus during the time of Tribulation. 4 *What about the peculiarities in the list, specifically 1) Judah appearing first, 2) Levi included, and 3) the absence of Dan and Ephraim? 1) There are 19 different arrangements of the names of the Tribes in the Old Testament, and this list is different from all of them. 2) Judah is listed first because Messiah, our Lord Jesus, comes from Judah. 3) Levi, though not allotted a portion of land, is rightly involved in the worldwide priestly and prophetic assignment of the Tribulation. 4) Ephraim is replaced by Joseph because of its history of idolatry and its allying with the enemies of Judah (Isaiah 7:2,5; Hosea 5:3). Yet the inclusion of Joseph allows for the inclusion of Ephraim, but without the mention of his name. 5) Dan is omitted, replaced by Levi, because of its practice of gross idolatry. Further, a pre-Christian Jewish tradition said Antichrist would come from Dan! Genesis 49:17, “Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward.” Testament of Dan (5:6) said Satan is the prince of Dan. Irenaeus (2nd century) noted the tradition that Antichrist would come from Dan, and Hippolytus wrote, “As the Christ was born from the tribe of Judah, so will the Antichrist be born from the tribe of Dan.” (Mounce, 169-170). Ezekiel 48 and Matthew 19:28 makes it clear all the tribes will be honored and share in the millennial reign of Christ, yet during this time 144,000 specific Jews from 12 specific tribes will receive the Father’s name as their seal (14:1) and for His service, standing in stark contrast to those who receive the mark of the beast and follow Antichrist (13:17; 14:11; 16:2; 19:20).
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