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The “Gospel” During the Great
Tribulation
The
Righteous Will Live by Faith
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The purpose of this study
is to exalt the Centerpiece of the Great
Tribulation, Jesus Christ and His everlasting
gospel. I hope that this short study will lift
some darkness that currently obscures this most
important subject. What makes this subject so
important is that the gospel is good news from
God and good news about God. (I should point out
the gospel also contains bad news from God for
those who refuse to submit to His authority.) In
the coming hours of human extremity, God will
completely reveal the everlasting gospel. In
other words, during the Great Tribulation, the
gospel of Jesus Christ will be stripped of human
varnish and denomination ownership. Truth will
shine brighter than the sun at noon on a
cloudless day and truth will soar high above
antagonism and confusion by the diverse religions
of the world. Everyone will clearly hear the
gospel – yes, even above the roar and din of
overwhelming destruction and suffering. During
the appointed time of the end, the Holy Spirit
will empower God’s anointed messengers as
never before, exalting Jesus Christ and His
everlasting gospel with power and simplicity.
(Revelation 7:1-8; 11:3; Joel 2:28-32)
There is no higher
subject, there is no grander theme and there is
nothing more glorious in the whole Bible than the
“revelation” of Jesus Christ. Billions
of people have rejoiced to learn about Him down
through the ages without seeing the stunning
revelation of His Majesty that is about to take
place. Every born-again Christian knows that
nothing can compare with the joy, peace and
transformation that comes from knowing Jesus and
understanding the gospel of His kingdom. He is
the King of kings! He is the Lord of lords! He is
the Alpha and Omega! He is the eternal Sun of
Righteousness, the day Star of humankind! Yet,
for all that He is, His favorite titles seem to
be Son of God and Savior of man. (John 14:31;
John 10:11; Revelation 5:9) So why is it then,
that when people tell the story of the Great
Tribulation, our Lord and His gospel are not
usually the centerpieces of the story? Why is the
book of Revelation regarded with so much mystery,
fear, foreboding and gloom when Revelation is
expressly declared”The revelation of Jesus
Christ which God gave to him…? (Revelation
1:1) Is it possible that Christians do not
comprehend how Jesus and His everlasting gospel
fit into the end-time story?
It is absolutely
fascinating to discover how all the books in the
Bible are “directly wired” into
Revelation’s story, comparable to the
electrical wiring connected to the main breaker
box in my house. All 66 books, written by 40+
authors over a period of 1,400 years, connect to
the book of Revelation in ways that reveal
something about the enormous dimensions of
God’s love and His Plan to save man. No book
in the Bible stands alone; no book should be
excluded from our study. Each book contributes
something essential to our understanding of the
everlasting gospel. Each book adds color and
detail to an infinite picture that says something
about the Most High God. However, if I could
exalt one book above the others, it would be the
last book of the Bible. I say this because I
believe we are living in the final days of
Earth’s history and the message within the
book of Revelation uniquely applies to the last
generation. In other words, Revelation merits
closer attention because it is the timeliest.
God
is Love
I have said often in
these studies that the most difficult idea the
144,000 must convey during the Great Tribulation
will be that God is love, simply because the
world’s view of what constitutes God’s
love is highly distorted. Think about it.
Revelation describes many horrible events.
Consider a global scene with people perishing by
the hundreds of millions in great fires, tidal
waves, volcanic eruptions, contaminated waters,
famines, plagues, wars and other physical
calamities. Consider the great suffering that
every survivor will experience. Words cannot
express the anguish that will torment every
living person during the Great Tribulation. No
book in the Bible is more graphic or more
depressing than the book of Revelation,
especially if we focus on the results of
God’s justifiable wrath. So, how can I say
that the book of Revelation is the most glorious
book in the Bible? I say this because of what
God produces during the Great
Tribulation and what he brings out of the
Great Tribulation!
What do I mean when I
say, “What will God produce during the Great
Tribulation?” God will enable every
person to have an unmistakable understanding of
Jesus Christ and His gospel. “What will God
bring out of the Great Tribulation?” God
will save a numberless multitude of people who
supremely love Him and His truth. (Revelation
7:9,14) Any process that can produce results like
this is nothing short of amazing –
especially when you consider the religious and
cultural diversity of this planet!
Basic
Elements of the Gospel
The gospel of Jesus
Christ can be compared with different levels of
algebra. Algebra I contains introductory ideas.
Algebra II builds upon the foundations
established in Algebra I, so that issues like
quadratic and differential equations can be
studied. Algebra II also sets the stage for the
advanced study of calculus. The point is that the
gospel is not a “sound bite” or a
flippant “one-liner” – it is as
wide and deep as the ocean. (Ephesians 3:16-19)
True, you can put small sample of the ocean in a
jar, but the water in the jar is not the ocean!
Unfortunately, many Christians have been led to
believe that the gospel is a small matter (the
jar of water) rather than an infinite matter
operating within well-defined principles and
laws.
The Apostle Paul became
annoyed with the Hebrews because they would not
move on to “Algebra II.” He wrote, “In
fact, though by the time you ought to be
teachers, you need someone to teach you the
elementary truths of God’s word all over
again. You need milk, not solid food! No
one who lives on milk, being still an infant, is
acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant
use have trained themselves to distinguish good
from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary
teachings about Christ and go on to
maturity, not laying again the foundation of
repentance from acts that lead to death, and of
faith in god, instruction about baptisms, the
laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead,
and eternal judgment.” (Hebrews
5:12-6:2, italics mine) If Paul were alive today,
I wonder what he would say about the current
condition of Christians and their understanding
of the gospel.
Three
Important Points
The way the gospel will
be presented during the Great Tribulation will be
as it has always been, only on a much grander
scale. God has always used a specific person or
remnant group to accomplish His purposes. During
the tribulation, God will choose and empower
144,000 ordinary people from every religion and
culture to do the job. To be more specific, one
religious body will not present the gospel during
the Great Tribulation and for the most part,
neither scholars nor “men and women of
letters” will present the gospel either! God
looks within the heart (1 Samuel 16:7, 17:10;
Jeremiah 29:13) and He will choose 144,000 humble
messengers that will come from all nationalities
and faiths! Many people may question how this
diverse group will present only one gospel! How
will God accomplish this? In every nation, there
are people who love God with all their heart,
mind and soul. These people are living up to all
they know to be true. These are His sheep. (John
10:16; Romans 2:14,15) Once God presents the
“book of truth” to such people (Ezekiel
2:3-3:4; Revelation 10:8-10) they will rejoice to
understand the gospel! (Matthew 13:23) God will
then empower them to preach to their respective
nations. (Hebrews 8:10-13; Joel 2:28-32; Matthew
24:14) The world will listen because God will
stop the daily affairs of the human race with His
judgments. (Isaiah 26:9,10; Revelation 8 and 9)
As a result of God’s intervention, a
numberless multitude will receive salvation.
Think about it. God is going to save to the
utmost and redeem people from every religion and
nation!
Two
Problems
Before we get into the
elements of the everlasting gospel, I would like
to present two important points for
consideration:
A.
Most Christians believe their church has
the correct interpretation of the gospel. (This
is the reason the Christian community is so
divided – each church is convinced of the
certainty of its position. Many churches use
prophets or authorities outside the Bible to
confirm their claims.) Regardless of
denomination, church leaders, pastors and church
members all believe their version of the
gospel will be preached to all the world and
evangelicals are doing everything within their
power to accomplish “the impossible.” I
say “the impossible” for two reasons:
First, the majority of people living on Earth
have not heard any portion of the gospel after
2,000 years of promotion. According to figures
released by the American Bible Society, it is
currently estimated that more than 3.5 billion
people have never heard of Jesus Christ! Second,
the population of Earth is growing faster than
people sharing the gospel can reach. Yes, through
the miracle of radio and TV, the gospel is being
preached in remote places, but the problem is not
reaching remote places! Radio and TV may beam the
gospel to every nation, but culture and
religion prevent most people from giving the
gospel fair consideration.
History
confirms that it is almost impossible for one man
to prove the superiority of his religion over
that of another man. One cannot count the number
of “holy wars” fought in the name of
God. Figures show that less than 5% of the
world’s population change religions. Can
Moslems convince Jews of the superiority of
Islam? Can Catholics convince Hindus that
Catholicism is right? Can Mormons convince
Jehovah’s Witnesses that Mormonism is
correct? No, the likelihood of change in each
example is slim to none. It is heartbreaking, but
true – when it comes to religion, most
people cannot objectively consider another point
of view if they have already embraced a
particular religion. Religion usually starts in
the cradle and whatever religion a person is born
into, that is the religion they die out of. The
question is, will God allow people to perish
because two men cannot agree with each other? No.
God intends to present the gospel to every person
and in a setting where each person may fully
consider His offer of salvation. To do this, God
must and will break down religious barriers by
sending a series of devastating judgments.
B. During
the Great Tribulation, God will tear down the
enormous loyalty, trust and confidence that each
person places in his or her religion and
religious leaders. This tearing down
(disillusionment) will be painful and sad (and
many will curse God out of deepest bitterness),
but this terrible experience will enable Jews,
Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah
Witnesses, Hindus, Moslems and everyone on earth
to consider the everlasting gospel for what it
really is. (Revelation 10:10,11) God will open
everyone’s mind by a powerful and
overwhelming course of events that no one can
deny. God will put all people on a level playing
field. The light of His Truth will illuminate the
pompous, arrogant claims of religious leaders and
religious systems. (Zechariah 13:7-9) Sadly, the
pride of their hearts will be revealed. In stark
contrast, the 144,000 will present the
everlasting gospel in simple, but powerful terms.
Blazing truth will shame the darkness that is
protected in the name of religion with the same
clarity that daylight defeats darkness. In this
environment, everyone will have an opportunity to
(a) hear the gospel; (b) make a decision (for the
truth or stand against it); (c) have their
resolve about their decision tested by
persecution; and (d) ultimately be sealed or
marked according to their decision. In this
manner, the everlasting gospel will be preached
to every man, woman and child on earth and each
person will have a fair chance to make an
intelligent decision about it.
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