“G.” Why is “the great multitude which no man could number” said to come out of “the great tribulation” (Rev. 7:14), seeing that it would seem to be drawn from among the heathen, to whom the widest of the three circles of tribulation (“the hour of temptation,” Rev. 3:10) applies?
A. I judge the great tribulation here spoken of to be a general expression for the period of judgment which passes over the earth in the interval between the taking away of the saints to heaven and the appearing of the Lord in judgment with them. It is not the definite tribulation which falls on the Jews in Judea, as given in Matt. 24:16-31. It is a comprehensive and technical expression for the interval or crisis of the world’s history preparatory to the millennium.
Q. Are the dwellers on the earth, of Rev. 14:6, the same class as those thus described in ch. 13:8, and other passages? If so, would it be correct to assume that the “everlasting gospel” is not confined to those nations that are not now under testimony
A. They that dwell on the earth are they who accept this scene as their portion, like Cain. It is an expression characterizing this class of persons in the Apocalypse.
The “everlasting gospel” is a general and final testimony, of a providential character, sent out of God at the time of the end, just before the establishment of the kingdom for a thousand years. I believe its testimony will be very wide in character, embracing all who had not been shut up to judicial blindness, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (2 Thess. 2:10-12.) To such no testimony will be given; it will be sent to all who had not thus been given up of God.
It may be well to mention that the “everlasting gospel” is a warning to the whole world to flee from idolatry and idols, and fear the one God who created all things. It was the general testimony of the Old Testament, and will be the general testimony then, until one God is known from sea to sea, and to the ends of the earth; idols and false worship then are gone fur ever. From this we must distinguish the parenthesis in time, from Pentecost till the rapture of the saints, wherein we have the Church called out by the glad tidings or gospel of His grace, which was not proclaim before this interval, and will not be in that day.