Date: July 2005 Series: - “I Want to be Left Behind” (IX) Title: What is "the Tribulation"?

       In the last article, I explained why I do not believe that Daniel 9:24-27 has anything to do with the second Coming.  If that is true, then dispensationalists have lost their major source for the alleged "7-year tribulation period" that they place between the alleged "two-phases" of the second coming (the rapture and glorious appearing).  But someone might ask "doesn't the New Testament teach the "7-year tribulation period" also?  Not that I can find.

       Tribulation In the Apocalypse - I know somebody out there is thinking "yeah, but the book of Revelation mentions the 3.5 year segments of the tribulation period."  Well, partially true.  The nations will trample the Holy City for "forty-two months" and, in the same context, the Two Witnesses will testify for "1260 days" (Revelation 11:2-3), but are we supposed to add these together or see them as two ways of saying the same thing - 3.5 years?  Why not also add in "time, times, and half a time" (12:14; another way of saying 3.5?) and postulate a 10.5 year period?  It is interesting that all three expressions of this time period come in chapters 11-12, right in the middle of the vision and in connection with the flurry of images (ch. 10-12) that remind me of first century A.D. events (Hmmm?).

       On the trail of the "Tribulation" - As with other topics, I have this "well-worn path" for pursuing issues like this - find out what Hebrew/Greek terms are used and trace out their use in Scripture "BEFORE" arriving at any conclusions as to what I should believe.  I'm afraid that this is one topic where English Bible translators have not always been very helpful.  I use the NAS, but the NIV is really troublesome in helping English readers understand "tribulation."

       In the New Testament, there is a single Greek word that generally refers to "tribulation" - thlipsis.  This word refers to "pressure" and is used to denote trouble, persecution, trials, etc. in the lives of people 45 times in the New Testament.  The New American Standard translates it as "tribulation(s)" 20 times, while the NIV only translates it as "tribulation" one time (Revelation 7:14).  In its common use, where Bible readers might make the connection that "tribulation" is something other (and bigger) than the popular 7-year period, the NIV uses every other word imaginable - thus "tribulation" is preserved for its special "mystical" (and dispensational?) sense only in 7:14.  But just what do the New Testament writers tell us about thlipsis?

       The Gospel of Matthew tells us that it is in times of thlipsis that people fall away from the faith (13:21).  In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus said that many of His followers would suffer before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (24:9), which would be a time of suffering in Judea like none other (24:21).  After the thlipsis of Jerusalem's fall in 70 A.D., Israel would suffer national downfall, but the "sign of the Son of Man" would appear in the sky and the saints would be gathered from all over the earth (24:29-31).

       Jesus told His disciples that thlipsis was something they should expect in this world, but they should take comfort in His victory (John 16:33).  Joseph and his brothers suffered many and "great thlipsis" in Canaan and Egypt (Acts 7:10-11).  Paul told the believers in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch that it was "through many thlipsis that we must enter the kingdom" (Acts 14:22).  The Holy Spirit told Paul that he would face thlipsis (Acts 20:23).  Concerning thlipsis in his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote that everyone who does evil will encounter it (2:9), that it produces perseverance as saints encounter it (5:3), that these cannot separate us from the love of Christ (8:35), and that we should persevere in them (12:12).  In 1Corinthians, in the context of questions about marriage in difficult times, Paul said that saints would have thlipsis in this life (7:28).  In 2Corinthians, Paul said that God comforts us through them (1:4), that apostles were experiencing them (1:8; 2:4; 6:4; 7:4), that they are producing in us greater glory (4:17), and that the churches in Macedonia were experiencing them (8:2).  The term thlipsis also appears in Ephesians 3:13; Philippians 1:17 & 4:14; Colossians 1:24; 1Thessalonians 1:6 & 3:3,7; 2Thessalonians 1:4,6; Hebrews 10:33; and James 1:27.  Thus, the one thing that is hard to escape is that Jesus and His Apostles understood thlipsis (pressure, tribulation) to be something that all believers could/would/do face in this life.

       Back to the Apocalypse - So, when we come to the use of thlipsis in the book of Revelation, we are again in for a surprise.  The word appears in 1:9 (at least in Greek) with a definite article - "the tribulation" - and now my mouth waters, "ok, what is 'the tribulation'"?  Surprise!  "The tribulation," in John's understanding, was NOT a final seven-year period centuries away, but something that he and his readers were already participating in as he wrote - in the late first century A.D.!!!!  The church in Smyrna was experiencing thlipsis (2:9-10), as would the false prophetess in Thyatira (2:22).  The final use is found in 7:14, where John saw the souls of those who "are coming out of" (erchomenoi - present participle) "great tribulation" as he watched and wrote.  The Greek phrase for "great tribulation" appears in four places (Matthew 24:21; Acts 7:11; Revelation 2:22; 7:14), but none of these give any evidence of being during the second half of a seven-year period just before Jesus returns.

       Conclusion - According to Scripture, "tribulation" seems to be something that all Christians face in this world.  The one thing I could not find was a single passage where "tribulation" was associated with a "7-year period" just before Jesus returns - not once!  Again, this seems to be a notion that you learn in a popular scenario elsewhere and then "read into" a few proof-texts.