THE GREAT TRIBULATION Other books by David Chdton Productive Christzi.m-s in an Age of Guilt-Manipulators, 1981 Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion, 1985 The Days of Vigeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation, 1987 THE GRI=T TRIBUMTION David Chllton Domhion Press Ft. WortZ Texas Copyright 01987 by Dominion Press All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. Published by Dominion Press 71.12 Burns Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76118 T~esetting by Thoburn Press, Tyler, Texas Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-930462-55-6 PUBLISHER’S PREFACE . ..vii 1. The Terminal Generation . ... 1 2. Coming on the Clouds . ... 16 3. The Coming of the Antichrist. ...29 4. The Last Days . ...40 5. The Coming of the New Covenant. ...53 6. The Four Horsemen . ...64 7. Vengeance for the Martyrs . .. ...79 8. The Book Is Opened . ...88 9. Jerusalem Under Siege . ...104 10. All Creation Takes Vengeance . ...121 11. It Is Finished! . .. ...134 SCRIPTURE INDEX . ...153 INDEX . ...167 PUBLISHER’S EPILOGUE by Gary North . ...171 PUBLISHER’S PREFACE by Gary North The Lord said unto my Lor~ Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. ~ Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: de thou in the midst of thine enemies (Psalm JYO:l-2). Z&I conwth the end, when he shaU have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father; whm he shall have put down all rule and all authority and Powez For h must rei~, till he hathput all ennnies uno!% his feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:24-26). The Bible teaches that Jesus shall reign over the earth. Once it begins, there will be no interruption of His earthly reign over this earth in history until death shall at last be conquered. But we know that death ends only on the final day, when Christ puts an end to Satan’s final rebellion, when the devil is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7-10). The key kingdom question is: When will His Vlil THE QREAT l’RlavlAlloN reign over earth begin? Jesus was very clear about this. He told His disciples after His resurrection: All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and 10, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Mat- thew 28:18-20). So, all power in heaven and in earth has already been given to Christ. Already! We know also that He is reigning with God in heaven. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heav- enly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and bath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all (Ephe- sians 1:19-23). Is Christ the head of the church today? Paul said that He is. But what else is also true today, according to Paul? The passage is clear: Jesus Christ now rules PUBLISHERS PREFACE iX the earth from heaven above. He is @=wnt~ over all principality, power, might, and dominion. What are these? They are demonic spirits. Paul wrote in this same epistle: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). God is in control. Jesus is in control. All things are in @inciple under Jesus’ feet. It is true that in his- to~, evil beings still have power. We as Christ’s peo- ple wrestle spiritually against them. The war be- tween good and evil, between right and wrong, goes on daily in the life of every Christian and in the life of every society. But, in principle, life is stronger than death, for Jesus’ resurrection has proven this. The resurrection is more powerful than the cross. Light is more powerful than darkness (John 1:9). Good is more powerful than evil, for Christ now reigns from on high. The legacy of the “second Adam,” Jesus Christ, is more powerful in history than the legacy of the first Adam. Grace is more powerful than sin. You believe this, don’t you? Why Fear a “Great Tribulation”? Why, then, should Christians believe that some great tribulation faces them in the future – a tribtda- tion so great that nothing like it in history has ever occurred? Not all Christians believe that they will go through the tribulation, although post-tribulation premillennialist do. But if God reigns from on high, why should Christians expect anything worse than the “normal” holocausts of the twentieth century — the persecutions and genocides of Armenians, Jews, Russian kulaks, Ukrainians, and Cambodians? These were indeed terrible events, and there may well be more of them, but why should Christians ex- pect that another event will occur that is fundamen- tally worse? The answer is: they shouldn’t. Why not? Because the great tribulation is behind us. This is what David Chilton argues in Z%e GYeat Tribulation. Jesus warned His people of a great tribulation to come in the very near future. In the chapter on the great tribulation in Matthew, Christ’s words are recorded: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34). We know from the parallel passage in Luke that the great trib- ulation would be the destruction of Jerusalem by an army, which turned out to be the Roman army: And when ye shall see Jerusalem com- passed with armies, then know that the desola- tion thereof draweth nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there- into. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be ftdiilled (Luke 21:20-22). David Chilton’s magnificent commentary on the Book of Revelation is appropriately called The Days of %zgeance (Dominion Press, 1987). This little book is a brief survey of those sections of Revelation that PusLmtlERs -ACE xi deal with the fdl of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Are You Looking Forward to Diwster? It may sound strange to many readers that the great tribulation is behind us. This view has been quite common throughout church history, but over the last hundred years or so, many Bible-believing groups have adopted a different view: that the great tribulation will happen to Israel (or to everyone, in- cluding Christians) in the future, and probably in the near future. Most dispensationalists believe that the church will be ‘raptured” out of the world before the great tribulation takes place; post-tribulation dis- pensationalists and traditional non-dispensational premillennialists believe that the church will go through the great tribulation. What the Bible teaches is that it took place in A.D. 70, and Christians did not go through it. This book introduces readers to the theology of judgment: specifically, God’s judgment sanctions against Israel. The sanctions were curses. God gave blessings to the church and cursings to rebellious Israel, which had crucified the Lord and publicly called God’s judgment down on themselves: “Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). God’s cursings on ancient Israel in A.D. 70 matched their crime, the cructilon of Christ. This crime was the greatest (worst) in history; their punishment was also the greatest (worst) in history. To call anything else “the great tribulation” is to downplay the im- mensity of that generation’s crime. Xii THE QREAT TRIBULMION OZLT Comprehensive Responsibil@ I realize that this will disappoint many Chris- tians. If the great tribulation is over, then the Rap- ture is not scheduled to take place prior to this tribu- lation. The rapture of the saints –the resurrection of dead saints and the instant transformation of those still alive on earth (I Corinthians 15:52) — gets de- layed until the final act of history, when Satan rebels and Christ comes back to judge the world (Revela- tion 20:7-10). This means that until then, Christians will remain on earth as God’s delegated agents of judgment in history, preaching the gospel, applying God’s law to every area of life, and progressively subduing the earth to the glory of God (Genesis 1:26- 28). This means that there will be no earth~ escape for church members>om the progressive~ heavy responsibilities of exercising dominion. Sadly, there are millions of Christians today who have adopted a philosophy of the future that teaches that most people will die and go to hell– and then be tossed into the lake of fire for all eternity (Revelation 20:14)–and nothing the church can do will be able to overcome their resistance to the gospel.