Thus it is plain and sure that, if we are subject to scripture, no evidence appears that the church, the Christian body, passes through the great coming tribulation before this age ends. The proof-texts apply expressly and exclusively to Jews and Gentiles, with the striking exemption from that hour of those who keep the patience of Christ. This, though pledged to the Philadelphian overcomers, no saint of sound judgment would limit to such, any more than other words of comfort similarly vouchsafed to the various seven churches.
But this is not all. With that lack of spiritual discernment, which is now and has been for ages characteristic of Christendom, the absurd error prevails, even among many earnest students of prophecy, that because all scripture is for us, our edification and use, it is therefore about us. Any serious consideration must assuredly shatter such an assumption. Is it then left to uncertainty or guesswork? In no way. Nor is time the great interpreter, or history, as sages have said. Not so, but as for all scripture, so for its prophetic part, it is the Holy Spirit. Inasmuch as He inspired to write it, so does He give understanding of God's mind in it to those who wait in dependence on the Lord for it, and thus weigh well not only the text but the context, and other scriptures converging on the same point.
Those, however, who hastily take for granted that the future tribulation must be shared by the members of Christ, have gone farther astray in their zeal, and yield to random invective and rash abuse. This we may leave, and seek to help them in and by the truth, as we give heed to all they argue.
Is it said “that it is from a blend of impatience and cowardice” people look for saints to be caught up before the last tribulation? Also, “that it is by this very persecution that ALL saints in all places shall be brought to be made simultaneously ready for the Lord at His appearing?” Such thoughts, if we prefer silence on their spirit, betray a total want of divinely given intelligence. Suffering for righteousness' sake, and yet more for Christ's name, is a high privilege; and God has given it in the fullest measure to the members of Christ, though really to all saints from the beginning. Our Lord was here as in all else supreme; and as He said, The disciple is not above his Master, but everyone perfected shall be as his Master. Yea rejoins the great apostle, and all that will live piously in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted. Hence the faithful, not of the world as Christ is not, should be prepared for it beyond all throughout their pilgrimage.
But the future tribulation has a quite different source and character. In its most terrible form it will be a penal infliction of God on the consummation of Jewish apostasy, when the abomination of desolation is set up in the holy place. Those who rejected and by hand of lawless men crucified their own Messiah, the Son of God, will worship the Antichrist in the temple of God, showing that he himself is God. If without parallel for severity of judicial woe, it is because of the unparalleled audacity of lawlessness, and Satan's power in the Beast of the west joining the False Prophet of the east in contempt of Jehovah and His Christ. What has this specific crisis to do with our being granted to suffer for Christ's sake? Indeed the Lord (instead of calling on the godly Jews to stay and suffer when God is thus visiting His guilty people, not only for their final apostasy but for their bowing down to the man of sin as the true God in His house) bids the godly remnant flee forthwith, regardless even of clothes or anything else save their lives. So in. the minor case of the days of vengeance that befell Jerusalem, when the murderers were destroyed and their city burnt, it was no question of suffering as a privilege, but of a retributive dealing of God; and the Lord therefore directed those that heeded His words to escape when they saw Jerusalem compassed with armies. Was this “a blend of impatience and cowardice”? Shame on the false system, which thus misleads saints to slight Christ and ignore God's word.
Undoubtedly it will be a short time of unexampled trial. And we know too that there will be martyrdom once more, and a later group answering to a former one, as Rev. 20:44And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4) concisely assures us (cf. Rev. 6:9-119And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. (Revelation 6:9‑11)). Those who died for rejecting the Beast, like the earlier faithful, shall rise in the blessed resurrection and reign with Christ; as those whose life was spared shall enjoy the kingdom under Christ. They are both parts of the godly Jews, with converted Gentiles also, at the time of the end; but there is no union in one body like the church, which at this time is only seen symbolically, and on high, as the book of Revelation teaches.
(Concluded.)