The “Great Tribulation.”

When answering the question of his disciples concerning the sign of his presence and the conclusion of the system of things, Jesus mentioned a “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” (Mt 24:3, 21) As a comparison of Matthew 24:15-22 with Luke 21:20-24 reveals, this had initial reference to a tribulation to come upon Jerusalem. The fulfillment came in 70 C.E., when the city was besieged by the Roman armies under General Titus. This resulted in severe famine conditions and much loss of life. The Jewish historian Josephus relates that 1,100,000 Jews died or were killed, whereas 97,000 survived and were taken into captivity. (The Jewish War, VI, 420 [ix, 3]) Such a “great tribulation” has not occurred again or been repeated upon Jerusalem.
 
Jesus also referred to this tribulation in connection with his coming in glory: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in lamentation, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet sound, and they will gather his chosen ones together from the four winds, from one extremity of the heavens to their other extremity.” (Mt 24:29-31) The term “immediately” in this passage does not rule out the possibility of a lapse of a considerable period between the tribulation upon Jerusalem in 70 C.E. and the events that were to follow. Writes Greek scholar A. T. Robertson: “This word, common in Mark’s Gospel as euthus, gives trouble if one stresses the time element. The problem is how much time intervenes between ‘the tribulation of those days’ and the vivid symbolism of verse 29. The use of en tachei [shortly] in Rev. 1:1 should make one pause before he decides. Here we have a prophetic panorama like that with foreshortened perspective. The apocalyptic pictures in verse 29 [of Matthew 24] also call for sobriety of judgment. . . . Literalism is not appropriate in this apocalyptic eschatology.”—Word Pictures in the New Testament, 1930, Vol. I, pp. 192, 193.
 
Others have made like observations concerning the use of the Greek word rendered “immediately” at Matthew 24:29. A footnote on this text in The Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures reads: “‘Straightway’ [immediately] is probably here ‘a term of prophecy, not of history’, and so does not imply immediate sequence, which indeed in any case is not always to be pressed . . . Similar terms are common in apocalyptic literature to introduce a new scene in a rapidly changing series of visions: cf. Apoc. xi. 14: xxii. 12.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible states: “It is usual, in the prophetical style, to speak of things great and certain as near and just at hand, only to express the greatness and certainty of them. . . . A thousand years are, in God’s sight, but as one day, 2 Pet. iii. 8.”—1976, Vol. III, p. 205.
 
Biblical evidence indicates that the tribulation upon Jerusalem in 70 C.E. pointed forward to a far greater tribulation. About three decades after Jerusalem’s destruction, the apostle John, with reference to a great crowd of persons from all nations, tribes, and peoples, was told: “These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation.” (Re 7:13, 14) Earlier, the apostle John had seen “four angels” holding back destructive winds so that the sealing of the 144,000 slaves of God might be completed. This sealing evidently links up with the ‘gathering of the chosen ones’ that Jesus foretold would follow the tribulation upon earthly Jerusalem. (Mt 24:31) Accordingly, the “great tribulation” must come after the chosen ones have been gathered and their sealing is completed and when the four angels release the four winds to blow upon the earth, sea, and trees. (Re 7:1-4) The fact that a great crowd ‘comes out of the great tribulation’ shows that they survive it. This is confirmed by a similar expression at Acts 7:9, 10: “God was with [Joseph], and he delivered him out of all his tribulations.” Joseph’s being delivered out of all his tribulations meant not only that he was enabled to endure them but also that he survived the afflictions he experienced.
 
It is noteworthy that the apostle Paul referred to the execution of God’s judgment upon the ungodly as tribulation. He wrote: “This takes into account that it is righteous on God’s part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for you, but, to you who suffer tribulation, relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus.” (2Th 1:6-8) The book of Revelation shows that “Babylon the Great” and “the wild beast” have brought tribulation upon God’s holy ones. (Re 13:3-10; 17:5, 6) It therefore logically follows that the tribulation to come upon “Babylon the Great” and “the wild beast” is included in the “great tribulation.”—Re 18:20; 19:11-21.