Board index ‹ The End of the World

[magictoast15]

I know there is a lot of debate about where the Tribulation is going to fall on the end times timeline, particularly whether it will occur before or after Jesus returns for believers. Of course, we can't know this with absolute certainty until it happens, but I'm curious what your thoughts on this topic are.

[jimwalton]

Thanks for asking. The Biblical teaching on the Tribulation is cryptic enough that there are a variety of interpretations about it, each one with strengths and weaknesses, and each one with some Biblical support. Some people (and you probably know some) are quite firm in their position and think "What I think is right, everybody else is wrong and they may not even be Christians." Other are much more flexible about it, holding an opinion but being ready to change. But you probably knew all that.

The two main positions about the Tribulation are (1) it's a literal 7-year time period when Christians will be persecuted, the anti-Christ will be in power on the earth, the two witnesses of Revelation, the armies of the world will gear up for Armageddon, etc., and (2) it's figurative of a time of trouble, not necessarily a literal seven years, and the events in Revelation, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Matthew aren't necessarily literal either.

Along with that, there are three primary opinions about when Jesus will come back: before the Tribulation, in the middle of it, or at the end of it.

Of course, these debates will never be resolved until it happens. The writings of the Bible are cryptic and obscure for a few reasons: (1) the authors of the Bible were only able to write what had been revealed to them. It wasn't like they had more information and only wrote some of it. They wrote what they knew and most likely didn't even understand themselves. (2) God doesn't want us to have much information about it. Jesus' point, when he talked about such things was: I don't want you to know too many details; I just want you to have enough information to recognize it when it's upon you. The most important thing is that I always want you to live you life with as much godliness and integrity as possible so you're always ready for Jesus to come back. That's really the point of all the revelation we have about the Tribulation and the End Times: Live as godly as you can.

Revelation isn’t written to scare or confuse people, but to help them understand what God is doing. It’s written in a literary style called apocalyptic writing, a kind of writing characterized by symbolic language, visions, and larger-than-life symbolic characters. But all that doesn’t mean what’s in it isn’t true.

Even though Christians at the time (about AD 90) were under great persecution, as Christians have been at other eras of history, and will again be so at the end, the book isn’t as much concerned about that as it is about giving us an accurate spiritual interpretation of life. It tells us that governments were designed to accomplish God’s purposes on earth, but they make mistakes, turn worldly, and mislead people. It lets us know that the church also makes mistakes, and some churches even have false teaching, but God is still going to use the true and faithful segments of the church to accomplish his mission.

Revelation is beneficial for at least three advantages: (1) to open our eyes, lives, and souls to the spectacular magnificence of the person of Jesus, (2) to prepare ourselves for the possibilities the end times may hold for us (if we are close to accurate in our interpretations!), and (3) to design our discipleship to prepare for the world as it really is and as it will inevitably become.

“Why all the weird stuff?” you may wonder, “And why so many scary images?” When the Babylonians came and conquered Jerusalem, it was not a pretty sight. Cities were reduced to rubble, people were slaughtered, and entire landscapes were burned. When the Romans came to Jerusalem in AD 70, the scene was similar. The book of Revelation is the story of the end of history, when godlessness will have gotten out of control, people’s most depraved character traits come to the surface, when governments will be corrupt beyond imagination, and when economic abuse will be rampant. Hitler killed 6 million Jews and millions of Europeans. Stalin butchered up to 13 million of his own citizens. The Bible is prophesying that in the End it will be worse. So Revelation tells a scary tale because it’s telling the truth about what it will be like. It’s not written to scare us, but it does. There is no optimism about the future, except that when it gets its worst, Jesus will return to set it right again.

Revelation wants us to know that God didn’t slip up, and that “now things are too out of control for him to deal with.” No, nothing has slipped from God’s hands. It wants us to know that it’s possible for a believer to stay faithful, yes, even through this kind of awfulness. And it wants us to know that there will be Light at the end of this long dark tunnel of history.

So that's what it's all really about, and why it was written. It really isn't written so we can figure it all out and have a calendar or time line about the end of things. Does that help?