The Great Tribulation

What about the “Great Tribulation”? When will it take place? And will Christ remove Christians from the world before the Great Tribulation begins?    

Those questions recently prompted me to begin watching these two weekly programs televised by the Daystar network:

“The Hal Lindsey Report” (11 p.m. EST) is a half hour series hosted by Hal Lindsey, a Christian author and Bible prophecy theologian.

“The End of the Age” (11:30 p.m. EST) is a half hour presentation hosted by Irvin Baxter, a prophecy teacher and founder of “Endtime Ministries.”

Hal Lindsey appears to believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church. “Pre-Trib” folk believe the Church will be raptured – taken out of the world to be with Christ – before the Tribulation begins.

(Note: Most Bible scholars say the Tribulation lasts seven years. The Great Tribulation represents the last 3.5 years of the Tribulation. The second or last part of the Tribulation will exceed the first three and one-half years in severity and is called the Great Tribulation.) 

Here is the Bible passage many Pre-Trib believers say will be fulfilled before the Tribulation:

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV).

Baxter seems to purpose a Post-Tribulation view of “the last days.” That view holds that Christians will experience (go through) the Great Tribulation before the Rapture and Second Coming of Christ.

Baxter says, “ . . . this 'great tribulation' is also prior to the return of Christ and the rapture . . . ” ( from http://www.endtime.com/the-rapture/).

There are also at least three more Christian end-times views: Pre-Wrath, Mid-Trib Rapture, and A-Millennial. But for this discussion, I’m talking about Lindsey’s and Baxter’s perspectives.

I gathered the following about “the Tribulation” from http://www.gotquestions.org/Great-Tribulation.html:

“The length of the Tribulation is seven years. This is determined by an understanding of the seventy weeks of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27) … . The Great Tribulation is the last half of the Tribulation period, three and one-half years in length. It is distinguished from the Tribulation period because the Beast, or Antichrist, will be revealed, and the wrath of God [some question whether that will be the wrath of God or still be the wrath of Satan, at that time] will greatly intensify during this time. Thus, it is important at this point to emphasize that the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation are not synonymous terms. Within eschatology (the study of future things), the Tribulation refers to the full seven-year period while the ‘Great Tribulation’ refers to the second half of the Tribulation.”

I also read this at that same Internet site:

“It is Christ Himself who used the phrase ‘Great Tribulation’ with reference to the last half of the Tribulation. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus says, ‘For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.’ In this verse Jesus is referring to the event of Matthew 24:15, which describes the revealing of the abomination of desolation, the man also known as the Antichrist. Also, Jesus in Matthew 24:29-30 states, ‘Immediately after the tribulation of those days . . . the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.’ In this passage, Jesus defines the Great Tribulation (v.21) as beginning with the revealing of the abomination of desolation (v.15) and ending with Christ's second coming (v.30).”

Hal Lindsey says four empires have ruled the Jews: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. He notes that the European Common Market is the “revived Roman Empire” and will figure in end-time events that include persecution and intended destruction for Israel.

Russia, Lindsey says, is the country referred to in Ezekiel 38: 15-16 (NIV):

“You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army.  You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.”

Russia is the furthest country directly north of Israel, Lindsey says, adding that Russian may be drawn into war against Israel due to its relationship with Iran.

Lindsey talks about great destruction that is predicted to happen during the Great Tribulation.

Revelation 9:13-18 (NIV): “The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. … ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’  And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand [200 million]. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.”

In that passage, John, the writer of Revelation, was perhaps describing (in terms he knew) images of modern warfare, including nuclear devices.

Lindsey says the United States probably will have lost its world influence and not figure greatly in world affairs during the Tribulation.

“There is no mention of America during the Tribulation period . . . nor of any righteous nation,” Lindsey says.

He says that judgment is coming and that God will withhold judgment while his people are still on earth. For that reason, God’s people, the true Church, will be taken out of the world before the Tribulation, Lindsey says.

Irvin Baxter may agree somewhat with Hal Lindsey on how events will unfold as the  Tribulation approaches, but he appears to feel that Christians will have to endure the Tribulation, which includes the Great Tribulation.

He says that a secular peace-making leader (the Antichrist) will arise in Europe and a religious leader (the False Prophet) will arise in Israel. The Antichrist will be a political figure who is also religious, and the False Prophet will be a religious figure who is also political, Baxter says.

The False Prophet will be someone perhaps “like” “the world’s leading ‘Christian,’” Baxter says, adding, “Most so-called Christians will support the Antichrist.”

The two figures, the Antichrist and the False Prophet, will deceive people. The Antichrist’s powerbase will be Europe, Baxter says.

“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast [the Antichrist] – all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. …  Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb [the False Prophet], but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs … ” (Rev. 13:8-13).

To unify the world, a form of identification of citizens will be implemented.

Baxter says “E-Verify” has evolved and perhaps will be accepted in the U.S. as a way to use “national ID cards.”

“A cashless society is not far off,” Baxter says.

Microchip implants in humans will usher in, perhaps, the worldwide ID system (the “mark of the beast”).

“It [the second ‘beast’] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. … calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666” (Revelation 13:16-17).

When will the Tribulation (7 years) begin?

Lindsey indicates it will begin after the Rapture (the “catching away”) of the Church.

When will the Great Tribulation (3.5 years) begin?

Baxter says, “The Great Tribulation begins three and one-half years after a peace agreement.”

At that time, right before the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will reveal his true evil intentions toward the Jews, some scholars say.

Baxter referred to Jesus’ words found in John 14:29: “I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.”

Lindsey and Baxter may largely agree on much the Bible reveals about end-time events, but they seem to differ about when Christ will come for his Church.

I believe Christ will come for his believers either before or during the middle of the Tribulation. I don’t want Baxter to be right.