PASTOR, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, OTEGO, NEW YORK
TRIUMPH THROUGH TRIBULATION
FOREWORD
In a day when a stronger welding together of all of God’s own
is much to be desired, the writer would not care to divide the brethren by
dealing with a subject about which equally good men differ. However, one who is
familiar with the great variety of prophetic views could hardly hope to add to
the division that already exists. If the writer succeeds in challenging his
readers to an earnest and prayerful re-examination of the fully authoritative
Word of God he believes his purpose will have been achieved. Such is the best
course open to those who would discover the unifying mind of the Lord.
We can do no better than to sincerely seek to heed the
apostolic injunction in 1 Corinthians 1:10 “Now 1 beseech you, brethren, by the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there
be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same
mind and in the same judgment.”
After sitting through a portion of the New York Congress on
Prophecy in 1942, the writer was conscious of the effort that had been made to
achieve a unity of testimony. In spite of this, however, there emerged a
considerable diversity of opinion. For example, some speakers said the Church is
not to look for signs. On the other hand, one affirmed that the wars and social
upheavals of the present are significant signs.
Some problems upon which some of us desired light were either
largely sidestepped or dismissed with some glib generalization. For example, one
speaker said that some of his friends believe that the Church will pass through
the Great Tribulation but he believed the Tribulation to be not a “blessed hope”
but a “black horror.” Where is the person who believes that the Tribulation is a
“blessed hope”?
It hardly compliments one’s friends to attribute to them a
position that neither they nor any sane person holds. Setting up a dummy for the
fun of knocking it down is a common dialectic device but it deserves no place in
the armory of the sincere Christian. So far from the Tribulation being a
“blessed hope,” I am convinced the hope of the coming Deliverer will shine with
more luster then than it does now in the hearts of millions of believers who
know little of suffering.
It is fair to ask: “Why do so many preach the Church will not
go into the Great Tribulation?” No doubt they are quite sincere in their belief.
However, I am convinced there are a number of factors, apart from exegetical,
that have made a subtle contribution to their faith and testimony. Allow me to
mention four.
First of all, I am convinced that in many a case a minister
has found little time in the midst of a busy ministry for the detailed study of
prophetic truth. Consequently he has taught what is to be found in the prophetic
literature at hand.
A second reason why many have taught the Church will not pass
through the Tribulation is an excessive desire to meet a popular demand for the
most comforting type of teaching. For example Dr. H. C. Thiessen closes his
book, Will the Church Pass Through the Tribulation?, with the words: “We may
then comfort one another with the thought that the Church will not pass through
the Tribulation.” Dr. J. H. Cohn characterizes his brochure on the same theme as
a “brief message of comfort and reassurance.” On this point A. Reese in The
Approaching Advent of Christ well says: “The very fact of the scheme’s being so
comforting and pleasing to the flesh is a consideration that reveals its
unscriptural character; for it is not the way of the scripture to make the path
of the saints easy.” I am convinced that there is a crying need for a
re-dedication to the truth, whether we like it or not, whether we stand with the
majority of our friends or not.
Third—and I hesitate to say this although I believe it is
true—I am convinced there are some who are being led to question what they have
taught about the Tribulation for years but who hesitate to make any admission
they have been wrong, in the false belief it would weaken the faith of people in
them as authoritative teachers and thus restrict their ministry. It is not often
that one finds so refreshing a confession as is to be found in the late James M.
Gray’s Christian Workers’ Commentary, where he deals with the question of the
identity of the man on the white horse of Revelation 6:2. He says: “The rider on
the white horse was identified with Christ in Synthetic Bible Studies, but the
author now considers it more consistent to identify him with ‘the man of sin.’”
Finally, there can be no question that some men are
characterized by an inordinate lust for novelty of interpretation whether it has
any solid Biblical basis or not. For example, at the above-mentioned prophetic
congress some, perhaps most, of the speakers referred to the coming of Christ
for His Church as the second coming of Christ. One speaker, however, apparently
echoing C. F. Hogg, affirmed that the coming of Christ for the Church is not the
second coming of Christ at all, because He does not quite come to the earth. He
said the second coming of Christ is His coming in glory and power to establish
His Kingdom. Dr. D. G. Barnhouse, in an article in Revelation, Nov. 1942, says
that neither of these positions is correct. The correct position, he affirms, is
that the second coming of Christ is not an event at all but rather “a series of
events” distributed through “an indeterminate period of years.”
Surely one can sympathize with the lament of C.H.M. (CHARLES
H. MCINTOSH). in his Papers on the Lord’s Coming, (p. 33): “It is wonderful how
speedily the human mind wanders away into the wildest and grossest confusion and
error.”
The present writer comes to this study
with the deepest sense of unworthiness, making no profession of being either a
scholar or theologian. His preparation for the task may be epitomized by saying
that after receiving degrees from
It has not been easy for him to come to his present position
inasmuch as he has for years accepted without question the popular view that the
Church will escape the Tribulation by being raptured to heaven. It was during
preparation for a series of addresses on the Apocalypse that the light began to
dawn. While reading over 6300 pages of comments on the Book of Revelation he was
disturbed by finding such a diversity of Opinion amongst trusted
premillennialists. While differences of view concerning many of the minor
details is of such a book are hardly to be wondered at, the dogmatism with which
many of these opinions were expressed considerably distressed the writer and
drove him more than ever to the Word itself. For example, one writer makes what
appears an artificial and arbitrary distinction and then adds: “We must not
confound things which God in His infinite wisdom has made to differ!” When men
claim for their opinions “the infinite wisdom of God,” it is not surprising that
many of their readers, not wishing to oppose the “infinite wisdom of God,”
swallow everything propounded, hook, line, and sinker.
This writer, however, finally lost faith in the ipse dixit
(appeal to authority) of many a Bible teacher and re-examined the prophetic
Word, with the result that many of his long cherished views had to be
jettisoned. He has come to believe that the view that the Church will not pass
into or through the Great Tribulation is based largely upon arbitrary
interpretations of obscure passages. And it has been of some encouragement to
know that the writer finds himself in essential agreement with many of the
greatest premillennial teachers of all time.
We are indebted to Bishop Handley Moule for reminding us that
Paul wanted his converts, under the Spirit’s guidance, to think for themselves.
“Brethren, be not children in understanding,” wrote Paul to the Corinthians.
Again, he tells the Ephesians that the five-fold gift of Christ to His Church
(apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers) has a five-fold
purpose. It is for the perfecting of the saints (literally “the repairing of the
saints!”), for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ,
that all may come in unity of faith and knowledge to a perfect man, and that we
no longer as children be tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine,
but speaking the truth in love, may grow up.
While the author may appear rather straight-forward and
severe in some of the things he will say, he does not want to be known as a
theological iconoclast but one who sincerely desires to help others into the
light he now enjoys.
The plan is very simple. First, an examination of what the
New Testament has to say in the passages in which are found the words which are
the English equivalents of the Greek word that is rendered tribulation. Second,
a brief view of the most familiar Old Testament passages that are referred to
the Great Tribulation. And finally, an attempted evaluation of the commonest
arguments in favor of the proposition that the Church will not pass through the
period of trial. The arguments for the positive side will be brought out in the
examination of the arguments for the negative position.
