How Do I
Prepare for the Great Tribulation?
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Jesus has prepared a
final test for the world to find out
who loves Him and His truth. It will
not be enough to be sincere and
dedicated when the test is applied.
Hitler was sincere and dedicated to
the terrible ideas and the world
suffered at his hands. Sincerity is
not the most important element in
life. The most important point is TRUTH.
Who loves and seeks more of God’s
Truth ? Who lives up to all
the truth he knows? Who loves the
truth of God so much that he would be
willing to suffer and die for its
sake?
John saw the saints
struggling to defend truth at the end
of the world. He says, “Then
the dragon was enraged at the woman
and went off to make war against the
rest of her offspring – those
who obey God’s commandments and
hold the testimony of Jesus.” Revelation
12:17. As he watched, John saw the
martyrdom of the saints that occurs
during the fifth seal and John was
told, “This calls for
patient endurance on the part of the
saints who obey God’s
commandments and remain faithful to
Jesus.” Revelation
14:12.
In 1844, Jesus began
judging the dead. Their deeds and
actions are recorded in the books of
record. However, how does Jesus judge
the living? Their lives are still
being lived out. They continue to
make choices. Because the world is so
diverse with languages, cultures and
religious beliefs, God has designed
the judgment of the living in such a
way that the living will choose their
own eternal destiny. As each person
makes his decision about the gospel,
Jesus eternally seals them in it!
Here’s a brief scenario:
Jesus sends His four
dreadful judgments to awaken and
arose the earth to the sinfulness of
its course. These four judgments
(also described in Ezekiel 14) arrest
the indifference of the people of
earth to the gospel so they can hear
the final gospel call. These four
judgments are so extensive that every
mind on earth is forced to consider
them. While people are considering
the meaning of the judgments, they
will be open to hear the everlasting
gospel, which contains an explanation
of these judgments. As the people of
earth contemplate the full gospel,
they are invited to do something that
most have never done – yield
their lives to the truth contained in
the Bible. The gospel clearly calls
for obedience to the King of Kings.
This is how the Bible becomes the
center of a great controversy. This
is why John says of the saints, they “…obey
God’s commandments and remain
faithful to Jesus.” Revelation
14:12. Satan, on the other hand, sees
to it that circumstances will be so
difficult that no one will be able to
obey God’s commandments unless
they are willing to live by faith!
The saints will not be able to buy or
sell! The point is that salvation
will only come by faith and the
saints will have the faith to obey!
Trust and obey
James clearly saw the
true relationship between obedience
and faith. He says, “You
see that a person is justified by
what he does and not by faith alone.
…I will show you my faith by
what I do.” James 2:18, 24.
So, what moves God to
send judgments upon peoples and
nations? Notice what Jesus said to
Isaiah, “See, the Lord
is going to lay waste the earth and
devastate it; he will ruin its face
and scatter its inhabitants… the
earth will be completely laid waste
and totally plundered. The Lord has
spoken this word. The earth dries up
and withers, and the world languishes
and withers, the exalted of the earth
languish. The earth is defiled by its
people; they have disobey the laws,
violated the statutes and broken the
everlasting covenant. Therefore, a
curse consumes the earth; its people
must bear their guilt. Therefore
earth’s inhabitants are burned
up, and very few are left.” Isaiah
24:1-6.
Isaiah was well aware
of the hardness of people’s
hearts. He said, “…When
your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn
righteousness. Though grace is shown
to the wicked, they do not learn
righteousness; even in a land of
uprightness they go on doing evil and
regard not the majesty of the
Lord.” Isaiah 26: 9,
10.
Jesus loves
mercy and He loves justice
Jesus holds each
person accountable for their deeds.
When people get away with murder,
lying, stealing and cheating, evil
rapidly grows. It’s like nuclear
fission. It’s a chain reaction
that cannot be stopped. The runaway
result is that sin spreads until
almost every person is controlled or
contaminated with it. When people,
cities, nations or even the world
reaches a point where love has no
redeeming effect, Jesus sets His
mercy aside and steps in with
redeeming judgments. These judgments
are sent to arouse people with the
sinfulness of their course!
Ezekiel 14: 12-27
gives a very clear explanation of the
four judgments used in the fourth
seal. “The word of the
Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, if
a country sins against me by being
unfaithful and I stretch out my hand
against it to cut off its food supply
and send famine upon it and kill its
men and their animals, even if these
three men – Noah, Daniel and Job
were in it, they could save only them
selves by their righteousness,
declares the Sovereign Lord.
Or if I send wild
beasts through that country and they
leave it childless and it
becomes desolate so that no one can
pass through it because of the
beasts…. Or if I bring a sword
against that country and say,
‘Let the sword pass throughout
the land’… Or if I send a
plague into the land and pour out my
wrath upon it through bloodshed,
killing its men and their
animals…
How much worse
will it be when I send against
Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments
– sword and famine and wild
beasts and plague; to kill its men
and their animals. Yet, there will be
some survivors – sons and
daughters who will be brought out of
it. They will come to you, and when
you see their conduct and their
actions, you will be consoled
regarding the disaster I have brought
upon Jerusalem – every disaster
I have brought upon it… for you
know that I have done nothing in it
without cause.” Ezekiel
14: 12-23.
Notice the prophecy of
Hosea: “The days of
punishment are coming, the days of
reckoning are at hand… because
your sins are so many and your
hostility so great, the prophet is
considered a fool, the inspired man a
maniac.” Hosea 9:7.
Through Moses, God
warned the Israelites, “if
you obey the Lord your God and keep
His commands and decrees that are
written… the Lord thy God shall
bless you in the land you are
entering to possess. But if your
heart turns away, and you are not
obedient, and if you are drawn away
to bow down to other gods and worship
them… you will certainly be
destroyed…” Deuteronomy
30: 10-18.
New Testament
warnings
If you think that the
above warnings only apply to Old
Testament days, consider the
following warnings from the New
Testament:
Peter said, “For
if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but sent them to hell, (the
Greek word translated hell is
“tartarosas” - the Greek
equivalent to the bottomless pit),
putting them into gloomy dungeons to
be held for judgment; if he did not
spare the ancient world when he
brought the flood on its ungodly
people, but protected Noah, a
preacher of righteousness, and seven
others; if he condemned the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to
ashes, and made them an example of
what is going to happen to the
ungodly…the Lord knows how to
rescue godly men…and to hold the
unrighteous for the day of
judgment.” II
Peter 2: 4-9.
Revelation says,
“…Come out of her
(Babylon), my people, so that you do
not share in her sins, so that you
will not receive any of her plagues;
for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her
crimes… Therefore, in one day
her plagues will overtake her: death,
mourning and famine. She will be
consumed by fire, for mighty is the
Lord God who judges her.”
Revelation 18: 4, 5, 8.
John says, “I
saw in heaven another great and
marvelous sigh: seven angels with the
seven last plagues – last,
because with them God’s wrath is
completed.” Revelation
15:1.
From the above
examples, it is evident that God has
sent and will send judgments upon the
world either in an effort to save or
to punish. We need to notice two
specific points.
First:
In the case of corporate judgment
(judgment upon groups of people), God
initially offered mercy to those who
would turn from wrong doing. In
Noah’s day, the ark was open to
whomsoever would get on board. In
Sodom and Gomorrah, God could not
even find ten righteous people, but
did save Lot and some of his family.
In Jericho, the harlot Rehab and her
family were saved, In Nineveh; the
entire city was saved through
repentance!
While cities, nations
and earth itself may fill up their
cups of iniquity, God seeks to save
those who love Him and spares them
from His judgments. II Peter 3:9 says
that, “(Jesus) is
patient with you, not wanting anyone
to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance!” This is divine
mercy.
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The balance between
divine justice and divine mercy is
divine love.
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Secondly:
God sends judgments upon people when
their wicked acts take them beyond redeeming
love. It is important to understand
that there is a point of NO
return where divine mercy is no
longer available. It can be called
the point of no return, the
unpardonable sin or the close of
probation (mercy). A person, city,
nation and even earth itself can
commit the unpardonable sin! When
this point is reached, destruction
follows.
Consider this
interesting verse from Revelation 16:
5,6. “Then I heard the
angel in charge of the waters say:
‘You are just in these
judgments, you who are and who were,
the Holy One, because you have so
judged; for they have shed the blood
of your saints and prophets, and you
have given them blood to drink as
they deserve.’”
The context of this
verse is found during the seven last
plagues, which are yet future. In
this text, an angel has just poured
out of the seven last plagues
upon earth. More will be said about
these horrible plagues later; but for
now, it is important to notice that
the angels, impartial observers of
human conduct, declare God to be true
and righteous for having punished
human beings in this manner!
“Here is divine justice,”
the third angel exclaims. We ask,
“how can this be?” The
balance between divine mercy and
divine justice is divine love.
This is hard thing to
understand at times. How can God be
all merciful, all forgiving, and yet
be able to execute punishment?
Review the
reasons for judgments
Judgments are not
pleasurable acts to God. The Bible
calls them, “His strange
work.” See Isaiah 28: 21. Why
does He send them? God sends
punishments upon people or nations
for at least two reasons:
First:
He tries to bring evildoers to
repentance through warnings. However,
if the warnings go unheeded, He sends
destruction to sober evildoers. If
they defiantly refuse to turn from
their evil, a point is finally
reached where mercy is no longer
meaningful. In fact, extended mercy
only allows evil, violence and
suffering to needlessly continue.
Some argue that the
God of the Old Testament is not the
same God described in the New
Testament. This is not true! Jesus is
always the same, yesterday, today and
tomorrow (See Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews
1: 10-12). He is longsuffering, yet,
as in the eviction of Satan and his
angels from heaven, (Ezekiel 28:
14-17, Revelation 12: 7,9) Jesus has
clearly demonstrated that in heaven
there is a point where mercy becomes
meaningless and justice must prevail.
As said earlier, Satan
would have us misunderstand
God’s love. He would have us
picture God as either a vengeful
tyrant that zaps those who disagree
with Him or a God that does not
concern Himself with our sins. Either
concept is wrong. The first concept
is the foundation of the doctrine of
an eternally burning hell. The second
concept is the basis for amoral and
decadent behavior. Those who
understand that they will meet their
Maker and have to give account for
their deeds are careful with their
actions!
Secondly:
God sends judgments upon earth to get
man’s attention. People forget
God. They forget He owns the
universe. We can forget that God
means exactly what He says. Satan
leads the world to distort or magnify
God’s patience incorrectly. His
long-suffering is taken for granted
and sinners become bold in their acts
of sin (see Ecclesiastes 8:11 and
Zephaniah 1:12). We may forget or
even deny that judgments and justice
eventually come, but the Bible record
is not obscure on this matter. The
fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, Jericho,
and the people who lived before the
Flood prove that God rises up when
sin reaches an intolerable level.
The
tribulation begins with opening of
the fourth seal.
The final test of
mankind involves a time of great
tribulation. Jesus spoke to his
disciples about the magnitude of
these judgments at the end of the
world. He said, “For
there shall be great tribulation such
as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time, no, nor ever
shall be.” Matthew
24:21. The time of trouble grows with
intensity too. When the seven last
plagues occur, it is tribulation
beyond our comprehension. “…There
will be a time of distress such as
has not happened from the beginning
of nations until then.”
Daniel 12:1.
Revelation clearly
predicts and describes the coming
events that compose the great
tribulation. We are not left to guess
what the trouble is or why it comes.
As you can now understand, global
trouble begins with the opening of
the fourth seal!
