A closer look at that verse, in the context of the chapter, and the whole of Revelation, suggests that it is not at all speaking of a seven-year tribulation period. “The great tribulation” is translated from the Greek in various English translations in many different ways – the great suffering, the great affliction, very bad trouble, the terrific suffering, the terrible persecution, the great oppression, great distress, much trouble, and the great ordeal. One English translation, interestingly, reads “they who have come out of the Great Tribulation.” The translators clearly reveal their theological bias by translating the Greek as a formal title. Quite audacious, if I may say so.
Technically, the Greek word, thlipsis, translates best as tribulation, suffering, affliction, or persecution. The word tribulation actually comes from the Latin word tribulum, an object made of a heavy plank of wood with sharp barbs on the underside, used to drag over grain for threshing. Tribulation is perhaps the best word to translate thlipsis, because it tends to incorporate the concepts of affliction, suffering, turmoil and persecution. But that does not give license to use Tribulation as the name of a seven-year dispensation invented in the 1840’s by John Darby. That is pure shenanigans, a very misleading false teaching, 200 years old now.
The great tribulation being spoken of in this verse is not a seven- year period called the Great Tribulation. The chapter clearly does not suggest that. Those who come out of the great affliction were a great multitude that no one could count and they were wearing white robes (Rev 7:9). If the verse were speaking of people that will get saved during the Great Tribulation, who would then die and go to heaven, it probably would not be a multitude so great that it could not be numbered. Furthermore, saints wearing white robes are mentioned throughout the church age in Revelation, starting with the churches of Sardis and Laodicea (Rev 3:4-5; 18). Saints wearing white robes is mentioned again in reference to the twenty-four elders (4:4), and also the martyrs of the church age highlighted in the fifth seal (Rev 6:11).
What is being revealed to John in Revelation 7 is an innumerable host of saints worshipping God in concert with the elders and angels. They wear white robes, having been made holy and righteous by the blood of the Lamb. They have entered an eternal peace, having come out of great tribulation throughout the Church Age. Amidst all the turmoil, destruction, and judgment portrayed in Revelation, John is given a reassuring vision that the saints of the Church age go immediately into God’s heaven when they die, into the presence of Jesus. Based on other scriptures, we believe that while the spirits of the saints await reuniting with their resurrection bodies they are in a cognitive, spiritual state of peace, holiness, and worship.
I can give
testimony that once the Great Tribulation concept is tossed overboard,
Revelation takes on much clearer meaning. The seven-headed beast of Revelation
13 no longer represents the Antichrist, but rather seven nations, the last of
which is America. The trumpets of Revelation 8-9 cannot be judgments poured out
by God in the Great Tribulation. They can be seen for what they are, seven
warnings to mankind of God’s imminent judgment, five of them already occurring
over the last 100 years. And the often-used idiom of “three and a half years”
no longer needs to represent one half of the seven-year period. It can take on its
own unique meaning. The second coming of Christ no longer has to be split into
two events. The argument over pre-trib rapture becomes a moot point since there
is no Tribulation. The rapture of the saints occurs concurrently with the
coming of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And lastly, some severe events
in the very lasts day unfortunately come into clear focus – the destruction of
America, the rise of the man of lawlessness, and the build up to Armageddon –
events that will occur while Christians are still here on the earth.
