Notes of an Address on Revelation 3:10-12, 4:1-14, 10
It has been rightly taught that it is the catching away of the church from earth to heaven, as taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, that frees the way for “the things which must be hereafter” to commence. There is a certain class of teachers, however, who are pressing that the church must go through “the great tribulation.” But a little examination of the Scriptures read will prove that this is not so.
If the church has to go through the great tribulation, the Lord could not have announced, as He does to the Philadelphian assembly, “Behold I come QUICKLY,” nor would the church be able to say, “Even so come; Lord Jesus,” if His coming for her follows instead of precedes the tribulation.
The Scriptures teach distinctly that the Lord’s coming can be expected at any moment by His church. The difference between the hope of the Christian today and that of the Jewish believers who will come into evidence when the church has been taken out of the earth, is this:
The Christian looks for the Lord to come from heaven to catch him up to be for ever with Himself in the Father’s house, whereas the Jewish believer will look for the Messiah to bring him redemption to this earth, by the setting up of His Millennial Kingdom.
The Christian is listening for sounds; the Jew will look for signs.
The Christian is listening for the shout of the Lord Jesus, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and will be translated from earth to heaven in the twinkling of an eye. Whereas the believing Jew in a future day, if instructed, will know “the time of Jacob’s trouble”—“the great tribulation”—must purify the nation of the awful sin of crucifying Christ and accepting Antichrist, and that at its close the spared remnant will be ready to acknowledge the once-despised Nazarene as their long-waited-for Messiah.
That the church will not go through “the great tribulation” is evident from Revelation 3:10. “Because thou has kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”
Keeping His word in verse 8 refers to the whole testimony of God in the Scriptures, whereas keeping the word of His patience, in verse 10, is connected with the cherishing of the hope of the Lord’s return. We know that He desires to come infinitely more than we desire that He should come, and that our desire is begotten within us and sustained by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Now those who teach that the church will go through “the great tribulation,” tell us that “the hour of temptation,” or “hour of trial,” does not refer to the time of “the great tribulation.” Be it so. Their contention can only strengthen our position. Seeing that “the great tribulation” will take place in the latter half of Daniel’s seventieth week, which closes up the time of judgment, it follows that the tribulationists must allow “the hour of trial” to precede the “great tribulation.”
If, then, the church is to be kept out of that which the tribulationists states is prior to “the great tribulation,” it is unthinkable that God would first keep His own from the lesser trial of “the hour of temptation” and then place them into the subsequent and fiercer trial of “the great tribulation.”
This is putting the matter according to the contention of the tribulationist. But “the hour of trial,” we believe, clearly includes the whole period of judgment from the rapture of the church to the setting up of the Millennium, and therefore includes “the great tribulation.”
Then further notice the exactitude of the language:
“I also will keep thee from THE HOUR of temptation.”
Note, it is not merely a promise to be kept out of “the temptation,” but to be kept out of “THE HOUR of temptation.”
And seeing that the temptation or trial will come upon “all the world,” or “the whole habitable earth,” there can be no escape possible, but by being taken off the earth altogether. And this is just what is meant, for to be taken out of (εκ) “THE HOUR of temptation” is to be taken out of time and therefore to be, placed in eternity.
The great clock of time—the sun in the heavens—must be left far behind.
With these conclusions how fitting is the next word:
“Behold I come QUICKLY: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”
When we come to chapter 4:1, John hears a voice saying:
“Come up hither, I will show thee things that must be hereafter.”
It is the voice of the Lord Himself. The doctrine of the Lord’s coming could not be established upon that verse, but once that doctrine is established, the invitation to John becomes typical of the invitation that the church shall hear.
“The Lord Himself shall come
And shout the quickening word.”
Just as John in vision was caught up at the close of “the things that are” (chaps. 2 and 3), and before the period of “the things which must be hereafter” (chap. 4 et. seq.) commences, so the church will actually be caught up between those two periods.
And further, during the terrible period of trial upon the earth culminating in “the great tribulation,” we do not get one single allusion to the presence of the church upon the earth. Is it likely that God would leave the dearest object of the heart of Christ without one word of instruction how to comfort herself in these trying circumstances. Impossible!
What would you think of a father, never uttering one word of counsel, instruction, or warning to a son who is about to go into wholly unknown and highly perilous circumstances? You reply, That would be a highly unnatural and reprehensible proceeding.
So we may safely conclude that if there are no instructions given us in regard to the awful circumstances of “the hour of trial” it must be because we shall never be in them.
Let Christians everywhere be found in hourly expectation of the return of the Lord to catch them to the clouds and be for ever with Himself.
Till that moment comes may our testimony to this world in the gospel be earnest and insistent, for the realization of the bright hope of the church will be the death-knell of Christendom.