ESCHATOLOGY
B. T HE NATLJRE AND FIJRKISE OF THE T RIBULATION
It is often said that since the church has not been exempted from persecutions throughout church history, there is no ground for supposing that it will escape the persecutions of the tribulation to come. But this is to misun- derstand altogether the nature and purpose of the tribulation. “The hour of testing” is “to test those who dwell upon the earth’ (Rev. 3: 10). The phrase,
“those who dwell upon the earth,” is used over a dozen times in Revelation and has reference to the earth-dwellers. Mounce writes that when this
“phrase occurs . . . the enemies of the church are always in mind.“6 These are the people who have identified themselves with this world, the unsaved.
This period is also “the time of Jacob’s distress” (Jer. 30:7). In Isa. 26:20f.
the Lord speaks of this same period and discloses its true nature, “Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and close your doors behind you; hide for a little while, until indignation runs its course. For behold, the Lord is about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the earth shall reveal her bloodshed, and will no longer cover her slain.” That is, the tribulation is the period in which God will go forth to punish a God-rejecting and Christ-rejecting world. The persecutions during that period are only incidentals. Futurist interpreters of the Revelation gen- erally hold that Rev. 6-19 deals with the tribulation period. The main fea- tures of those chapters are the seals, trumpets, and bowls, but each of these is a judgment that emanates from heaven. It is God’s visitation of wrath upon this sin-cursed world,
When God got ready to punish Sodom and Gomorrah, he first took Lot and his family out of the city. Abraham had induced God to promise to save the city if he found ten righteous in it; he did not seem to think it necessary to argue that God should take Lot out of the city in case he did not find ten.
But God would not “sweep away the righteous with the wicked” (Gen.
18:23), and so he took Lot out before he rained brimstone and fire on the cities of the plain (Gen. 19: 12-25). Peter uses this incident to prove that “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation [lit. ‘trial’; same term 6Mounce, The Book of Revelation, p. 120.
374 Eschatology
as in Rev. 3: lo], and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Pet. 2:9). So with the case of Noah: when God got ready to destroy the world with a flood, he delivered Noah and his family from it.
C. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH
Without going into a lengthy study of this aspect of biblical revelation, we do observe that the church and Israel are two distinct entities. This can be seen in several ways. (1) In the past God dealt primarily with Israel; now he is dealing with the church. In the future he will again deal with Israel. Rom. 11 teaches that Israel as a nation has been cut off so that the Gentiles could be grafted in. In the future Israel will again be grafted in (cf. Acts 15:16-18;
Rom. 15:8-12). (2) Israel is a nation; the church is a body of individuals called out from the nations. (3) Daniel’s seventy weeks deal with Israel (Dan.
9:24); the church fits into the time between the sixty-ninth and the seven- tieth week. (4) Christ is to return to Israel to establish the kingdom; his return for the church is to take the church to be with him. And (5) the great Old Testament covenants were made with Abraham and his seed, Israel (Gen. 12:1-3; 2 Sam. 7:11-16; Jer. 31:31-34); the church shares in the spiritual benefits of these covenants, but not yet the physical (Rom. 4:ll;
1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 10:16f.). The literal physical fulfillment of these covenants is yet future and will take place in the kingdom age. These and other distinctions made between the church and Israel demonstrate that God has a different program for each. God’s program on earth for the church will come to an end when we are caught up to be with him in the air. This will signal the beginning of God’s renewed dealings with Israel, just as Israel’s rejection in New Testament times signaled the beginning of a new people of God called the church, the body of Christ.
D. THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A RESTRAINER
Paul wrote that the mystery of lawlessness was already at work in his day, but that because of “what restrains him now” and “he who now restrains,”
the lawless one had not yet been revealed (2 Thess. 2:3-7). He added, however, that this one would be taken out of the way, and that then the lawless one would be revealed (vss. 7f.). As the Holy Spirit strove with men in the antediluvian age (Gen. 6:3), so he strives now against the full de- velopment of lawlessness. But as he then ceased striving with men, so he will again cease striving with them. This he will do when he is taken out of the way. The Holy Spirit has the distinct mission of forming and indwelling the church of Christ. He came for that purpose on the day of Pentecost and will perform that work until the church is completed. Then he will be, in a certain sense, withdrawn with the church. Because the Holy Spirit is omnipresent,
The Time of His Coming: Pretribulationul 375 the withdrawal will involve a withdrawal of ministry, rather than of person.
It is easy to see that when his interference is withdrawn, wickedness will develop rapidly and the lawless one will appear among men. The church is an instrument used by the Spirit in the restraining of evil. With the rapture, not a single believer will be left, and the Spirit’s ministry of restraining will cease.
E. THE NECESSITY FOR AN INTERVAL BETWEEN THE RAPTURE AND THE REVELATION
Posttribulationalists generally hold that the saved will be caught up to meet Christ as he descends from heaven, but that they will immediately return to earth with him. They deny that there will be an interval between the two events.’ But a careful study of the Scriptures discloses that there will be an interval between Christ’s coming into the air and his coming down to the earth. It reveals that there are two things at least that must take place between these two events: the judgment of the believers and the marriage supper of the Lamb. Paul writes, “For we must all appear before the judg- ment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5: 10; cf.
John 5:22 ; Rom. 14: 10). The believer will be judged to ascertain whether he is eligible for a reward or not, and if so, how large that reward is to be (1 Cor.
3: 12-15). It is clear that the Lord will call his servants to himself for a private judgment of their works (Luke 19:15; 2 Cor. 5:lO). This is made necessary also by the fact that when they come back with him, they immediately enter upon their part of the rule over the earthly kingdom (Rev. 2:26; 19:14, 19;
20:4). This much seems to be clear. In addition to the judgment seat of Christ, there is also the marriage supper of the Lamb. In Rev. lY:l-10 the scene is set in heaven; in v. 11 heaven is opened and Christ with his saints is seen coming down to earth. The marriage supper is brought before us in vss. 7-9, and is therefore in heaven. When the Lord Jesus returns to the earth with his bride, there will, no doubt, be certain celebrations on earth as well with redeemed of all ages. These two events, the judgment of Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb, must take place before the coming of Christ to establish his kingdom. Obviously, these events would not necessarily demand the full seven years, but they do require a measure of time.
In addition to the events in heaven, there are also developments on earth in preparation for the kingdom. God will be preparing a company of re- deemed to enter into the millennial kingdom. This will include believing Jew and Gentile alike. At the return of Christ, believers will enter the kingdom,.
‘For an excellent study of posttribulationalism, see The Church and the Tribulation by Robert Gundry, a leading posttribulationalist.
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and unbelievers will be taken away in judgment (Matt. 13:37-43, 47-50;
24:4Of. ; 25: l-12). Just as our Lord worked for over three years with those who were to form the nucleus of the coming church, so it seems proper that those saved during the tribulation period will be those with whom the Lord will establish his kingdom when he returns. This gathering of the remnant of Israel and the saved from among the Gentiles will take a measure of time.
With the return of Christ in glory, there will be a major turning to the Lord (Zech. 12: lo-14), just as on the day of Pentecost with the coming of the Spirit and the preaching of Peter (Acts 2: 1441; cf. Joel 2:28-32 ; Rom.
11:25-27).
F. THE EXHORTATIONS TO CONSTANT EXPECTATION OF THE LORD’S RETURN
Again and again we are admonished to watch: “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming” (Matt. 24:42); “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25: 13); and
“Therefore, be on the alert-for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning-lest he come suddenly and find you asleep” (Mark 13:35f.; cf.
1 Thess. 5:6; Rev. 3:3). We are also asked to look for that blessed hope (Titus 2 : 13 ; cf. Heb. 9:28). How can we watch and look for his return if there is even a single event that is predicted to precede Christ’s return? If the tribulation precedes the second coming, then we are obliged to look for it as the first thing on the program. Then we cannot expect the Lord to return at any time; then the truth of the Lord’s return cannot be the incentive to holiness, service, and watchfulness that the Scriptures represent it to be.
Scripture, however, teaches the imminency of the return of the Lord.
Those who take a different view of this subject recognize the force of this argument. They therefore endeavor to show that the apostles did not believe that Christ would come at any time. A number of things are cited to prove this. Most of these are but legitimate plans of persons concerned for the future, dependent upon the Lord’s opening the way, as when Paul an- nounced his plan to go to Rome and Spain (Rom. 15:22-25, 30-32). It is claimed that Paul could not ,have expected Christ to return at any time when he made this plan. But that is to forget that in the same Epistle he declared that his coming was dependent upon God’s will (1: 10). The same can no doubt be said about all his plans (1 Cor. 4:19; 16:5-8), as also about the plans of all the other writers of the New Testament (James 4:13-16; cf. John 21:18-23). It is further maintained that the parables in Matt. 13 imply a long interval, that the parable of the Nobleman was expressly spoken because the Lord’s followers “supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately” (Luke 19: II), and that the parable of the Talents states, “Now
The Time of His Coming: Pretribulational 377 after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them” (Matt. 25:19).
But it is improbable that the disciples held that a long time was necessary to fulfill the parables in Matt. 13. God knew that there would be a long interval, but there is nothing to indicate that the disciples knew. In the parable of the Nobleman the point is merely that the disciples thought that Christ would set up his kingdom now as he approached Jerusalem. Christ told them that he would have to return to heaven to receive the kingdom, but there is nothing to indicate that it would take a long time to receive it. And the long time in Matt. 25: 19 does not need to mean more than the lifetime of the generation that existed when he went into another country. So soon did the disciples expect Christ’s return that our Lord had occasionally to warn them not to give up all work in the light of it. In harmony with this is the admonition by James, “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord” (5: 7). Paul had to admonish the Thessalonians to return to their daily occupations, while at the same time he spoke of himself and that generation of believers as remaining until the coming of the Lord (1 Thess.
4:11f., 15f.; 2 Thess. 3:10-12).
G. THE PROMISE TO THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA
The promise in Rev. 3: 10 points to a pretribulational rapture: “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.” Four things are to be noted in this verse.
1. The word “hod’ This is used to designate the time of the coming trial and indicates a period of time. The article before “hour” makes the time a specific time. As Walvoord states, “The point is not that the church will escape the wrath of God, but that it will escape the time of the wrath of God.“8
2. The extent of the trial. It is clear that this is no local tribulation, for the hour is to come “upon the whole world.” Thus, it is to embrace the entire world. Mounce observes, “The hour of trial is that period of testing and tribulation that precedes the establishment of the eternal kingdom. It is mentioned in such passages as Daniel 12:2, Mark 13: 14, and II Thessalo- nians 2 : l-12 .‘rg
Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, p. 54.
9Mounce, The Book of Revelation, p. 119.
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3. The purpose of this hour of trial. It is directed at those who “dwell upon the earth.” It is significant to note that the word for “dwell” is not the ordinary oikeo, but the strengthened form of the word, katoikeo, meaning those who have settled down upon the earth, who have identified themselves with it. This phrase is used over a dozen times in Revelation, and it has reference to the earth-dwellers. Alford states that in these references “the expression applies to those who are not of the church of Christ.“10 The trial
IS not for the church; the church will be delivered from it.
4. Who will be kept from the hour of trial. It is said that the faithful will be kept from this hour of trial. Moffatt says:
It is impossible from the grammar and difficult from the sense, to decide whether terein ek means successful endurance (pregnant sense as in John xvii.15) or absolute immunity (cf. 2 Peter ii.9), safe emergence from the trial or escape from it entirely (thanks to the timely advent of Christ, v. 11).11
The promise in Rev. 3:lO seems to be not merely that God will keep the faithful from temptation, as if to shield them against it, but that he will keep them from the hour of trial, the period as a whole. This seems to indicate that the believers will be taken away before the tribulation begins.
H. CERTAIN OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
There are three other arguments which are frequently used to support the pretribulational rapture of the church. (1) There are the scattered verses in the New Testament indicating that the church will not come under God’s wrath. Paul comforts the Thessalonians, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess.
5: 9), and again, “Jesus . . . delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess.
1: 10). To be sure, the church has been promised persecution and tribulation (John 16:33; Acts 5:41; 14:22; 2 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 1:29; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Pet.
4:13), but this persecution is not the wrath of God (Rev. 6:16f. ; 14:7). The believer is looking for the “blessed hope” (Titus 2: 13 ; cf. 1 Thess. 1: 10;
4:18; 5:ll; 1 John 2:28). (2) There is no mention of the church in Rev. 4-19.
The term never occurs in this section. This is worthy of note because of its frequent occurrence in the first chapters and its appearance again in 22 : 16. If the church were on the earth, we would expect it to be mentioned frequently.
And (3) many feel that the twenty-four elders of Revelation (4:4, 10; 5:5;
‘(‘Alford, The Greek New Testament, IV, p. 586.
l’Moffatt, “The Revelation of St. John the Divine, ” in Expositor’s Greek Testament, V, p. 368.
The Time of His Coming: Pretribulational 379 etc.) represent the church in heaven. There is, however, not sufficient evi- dence to be certain as to this identification. It is probably as accurate to identify them as some type of heavenly beings such as the seraphim (Isa.
6:2), cherubim (Ezek. 10:8), or living creatures (Rev. 4:6), or as some other type of angelic being around the throne of God.
In conclusion, we would call attention to a difficulty that has been pointed out about this view. Paul writes, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51f.). By common con- sent it is agreed that this last trumpet in 1 Cor. 15 and that of 1 Thess. 4:16 are one and the same. Some also seek to identify this trumpet with the seventh trumpet of Rev. 11:15. This view is espoused by mid- tribulationalists. But these two trumpets are not to be equated. The word
“last” may mean last in a series, but it may also mean last in the sense of end of the age. In the Old Testament, trumpets were used for several purposes and at various times (Lev. 23:24; Num. 10: l-lo), and there could be any number of “last” trumpets. So here also, there is no need to equate the two as the same. The trumpet of 1 Cor. 15:52 and 1 Thess. 4:16 cannot be the same as the seventh trumpet in the Revelation, if we remember the whole scope of the teaching concerning Christ’s return.
CHAPTER XLIV
The Resurrections
There is of necessity a good bit of overlapping in the treatment of the doctrine of eschatology. Much already said about the resurrections will be repeated here, in order to treat the subject more fully. And there is much reason for such a closer examination of the Scriptures, for from the earliest dawn of history men have been asking the question, “If a man dies, will he live again?” (Job 14: 14). There have always been those who have denied the resurrection (Matt. 22:23; Acts 23:8; 1 Cor. 15: 12). There have perhaps also always been those who have professed to believe in a resurrection, but who have denied that it will be a bodily resurrection. It is, therefore, important that we search the Scriptures in order to ascertain just what they do teach on the subject.
I. THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION
Whether as a matter of hope or of fear and dread, man has generally felt that there is a life after death. The early Egyptians reveal this belief in their care of the dead; the Babylonians in their dread of it as a sad and doleful exis- tence. Socrates held that life continued after death; the American Indians looked for a future hunting ground. Brahmanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Mohammedanism all hold that man continues to exist after death. Whence this universal belief? Is this fundamental premonition of human nature a lie? No, that the mind cannot rest in the prospect of extinc- tion affords ground for the hope that there is a life after death. But we are here concerned with more than the mere fact of existence after death; we would like to know whether that existence is conscious and whether there will be a resurrection of the body as well.
A. EXISTENCE AFTER DEATH
Science, with its belief in the indestructibility of matter and the conservation of energy, cannot say that the Christian belief is unreasonable; and philoso- phy, with its recognition of the inequities of life, cannot well avoid postulat- ing a life after death, when the wrongs of this life will be righted. This
380 _.~c__ll__ .._. --_
The Resurrections 381
possibility and necessity is converted into certainty in the Scriptures. The Old Testament teaches that there is a life after death. It represents all men as going down to Sheol (the Hades of the New Testament). The wicked, of course, go there (Ps. 9:17; 31:17; 49:14; Isa. 5:14). Korah, Dathan, and Abiram are said to have gone down alive into Sheol (Num. 16:33). But the righteous also go there (Job 14:13; 17:16; Ps. 6:s; 16:lO; 88:3). Jacob looked forward to going to his son Joseph in Sheol (Gen. 37:35; cf. 42:38;
44:29). Hezekiah looked upon death as an entering “the gates of Sheol” (Isa.
38:lO). The idea of going into Sheol is probably also present in the oft- recurring phrase, “he was gathered to his people” (Gen. 25:8, 17; 35:29;
49:33; Num. 20:24; 27:13; Deut. 32:50; Judg. 2:lO).
In the New Testament also, both the wicked and the righteous are repre- sented as going down to Hades before the resurrection of the Lord. The rich man, we are told, went to Hades, and he and Lazarus were within speaking distance of each other in that region (Luke 16:19-31). Jesus himself went down to Hades (Acts 2:27, 31). Christ now has the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1: 18), and some day both of these will deliver up the dead in them (Rev. 20:13f.). The word “Hades” occurs ten times in the New Testament (Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8;
20: 13f .). The two words, Sheol in the Old Testament, and Hades in the New Testament, are by common consent held to be exact equivalents.
If, then, the Scriptures teach that there is an existence after death, is it a conscious existence? The Old Testament is not explicit on this point. To be gathered to one’s people, to go down to one’s son, and similar expressions, imply such an existence, though they do not state it. Eccl. 9:5f., 10 seems to deny that it is a conscious existence, for it declares that “there is no activity or planning or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.” But we must re- member that this book is written from the standpoint of knowledge under the sun, that is, from the viewpoint of the natural man. Divine revelation alone can tell us of the true nature of life after death. Isa. l4:9-11, 15-17 definitely teaches that it is a conscious existence. And that which is hinted at in the Old Testament is clearly taught in the New Testament. Jesus taught it in Matt. 22:31f. and in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19- 31). The rich man and Lazarus could talk, think, remember, feel, and care.
The same things are implied in Jesus’ statement to the penitent thief that today he should be with Christ in Paradise (Luke 23:43). Incidentally, the New Testament seems to teach that there were two compartments in Hades, one for the wicked and one for the righteous. The one for the righteous was called Paradise; the one for the wicked is not named, but it is described as a place of torment. Thus, it is clear that the term “sleep,” when applied to death, refers to the body only (Matt. 27:52; John ll:ll-13; 1 Cor. 11:30;
15:20, 51; 1 Thess. 4:14; 5:lO).
After the resurrection of Christ there seems to have come a change. From