The Great Tribulation and the Church — Zac Poonen

Tribulation as a New Covenant Reality

Today, I want to speak about a word which is never found in the Old Testament but is found frequently in the New Testament, which means it's a distinctively New Covenant word. And it'll surprise you what it is.

It's the word tribulation. Have you ever thought of that as a New Covenant word? We always think of New Covenant as overcoming sin, overcoming Satan. But here is a word that's never found once in the entire Old Testament, which is three-quarters of the Bible, because that was not the way God led the Israelites.

The Israelites had what we could call a health, wealth gospel. It was good news for them. And gospel just means good news. And the condition was that they should obey God's commandments. Deuteronomy 28 is the perfect example of the health, wealth gospel.

If you obey me, I'll give you health, I'll give you wealth. There's one more thing they say there, which today's preachers don't say, I'll give you many children. They don't preach that part today. But everything else they preach today, it's an Old Covenant gospel.

And if you don't obey me, you'll be poor and you'll be sick. That's Deuteronomy 28. That's not the New Covenant. And there's no tribulation in the Old Covenant at all, not even the word. But when it comes to the New Covenant, Jesus spoke about tribulation as one of the main signs of his second coming, deception and tribulation.

Jesus’ Teaching in Matthew 24

So turn with me to Deuteronomy, sorry, Matthew chapter 24, Matthew 24, where the disciples asked Jesus specifically when he said to them in verse two, see all these stones in the temple, they're all going to be destroyed.

Not one stone will be left on the other. The whole thing is going to be flattened. And that happened about nearly 40 years after Jesus said it, when the Roman soldiers came and destroyed the whole temple.

But they asked him then, when will this be? That means when will this temple be destroyed? Second, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? The end of the age is really when Christ comes again of this particular age.

So they asked him two questions. This temple is going to be destroyed. When's that going to be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And many people think of the things mentioned in verse six and seven, wars, rumors of wars, nation rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines and earthquakes.

These are the things most people think of, but that is just mentioned in two sentences and that's it. But, two other things that Jesus mentioned frequently in this as the answer to their question was deception.

Verse four, see to it that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name. That means they'll come in Jesus name. And they will say that I am the Christ. That means they will say that's right, Jesus is the Messiah.

And then they will mislead you. He's not saying that somebody will stand up and say, I'm Jesus Christ, who will be deceived by that? See, there should not be an inverted comma there, there are no inverted commas in the original language.

Many will come in his name saying he is the Christ. That's what he's saying. Many will come in my name and saying I'm the Christ, but they will deceive you. So in other words, these are Christian preachers who not saying that they themselves are Christ, they are saying Jesus is the Christ, but they will deceive you.

They'll come in Jesus name. And he again repeats deception later, we've looked at that earlier. And then he says, but there's wars and rumors of wars and we see a lot of the evil and, you know, the suicide bombers and people being killed and terrorism just increasing day by day.

But he says in verse 8, these are only the beginning of birth pangs. There's a new age being born and Jesus compares it to the birth of a baby. And every mother who's had a child knows that before the baby is born, there's this time of tremendous pain before the delivery of the baby, part of the sorrows that God said to Eve she would have in childbirth.

And those are called birth pangs or the birth pains before the baby is born. But wives still want to have babies because, see, that's only for a short period, the birth pain. But think that I can have a child after that, it's going to be a joy and a pleasure for me for a lifetime.

So that's the picture, a short period of birth pain that a mother is willing to go through because as a result of it, at the end of it, she gets a child that'll be a tremendous joy to her forever. And like Jesus said later on, he said in another place, she forgets about her birth pains when the baby is born.

So the coming of the Lord and the new age is compared to the birth of a baby and a new development, but it's going to be preceded like in every childbirth with a period of birth pains. And he says there's famines and earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars and all is going to be just the beginning of those birth pains.

And then what are the continuing of those birth pains? You know, the birth pain becomes more and more. So I understand from mothers that before the baby is born and they scream and cry, but they don't, but they still want a baby.

And one who's gone through that will want to have another baby. How is that? Because the baby brings so much joy, the first one brought so much joy, they say, I don't want to stop with that. But what about the birth pain?

Oh, I'm willing to go through that. That is the attitude that Jesus was saying we should have as we approach the end, because here is the continuing of those birth pains that before the new age is going to be born, then they will deliver you to tribulation.

The first time the word occurs in the Bible, birth pains, tribulation from men, not tribulation from God. There are a couple of verses, I think only two verses in the Bible that speak about tribulation as coming from God, one in Romans 2 and the other in Revelation 2.

But every other place where tribulation is mentioned, it's always tribulation from men. There's a difference between tribulation from men and the wrath of God. Wrath of God is God's anger against sin.

Tribulation is almost always given from men and the two places where tribulation is mentioned as coming from God is like a period of punishment for some sinful way somebody lived in. It's a reaping of what they have sown, like it says in Galatians 6, a person will reap what they have sown.

That's not the wrath of God. Not even in those two references in Romans 2 and Revelation 2. But tribulation throughout scripture is generally always referring to man troubling Christians because of their faith.

Man persecuting Christians for their faith. This is what we need to understand clearly. They, men, will deliver you to tribulation and they will kill you, birth pains. That's why the early Christians were willing to be killed when they were thrown to the lions or burned to the stake.

They said, these are birth pains, a baby is going to be born, a new age is going to come. You ask the mother, are you willing to go through this or you don't want a baby? No, I'm willing to go through it, I want the baby.

That is the attitude. These are the birth pains that are going to usher in a new age, a kingdom of God on earth. They will kill you and, listen to this, you'll be hated by some nations, no, you'll be hated by every single nation on the face of the earth because you have my name.

Now, some nations in the olden days used to be called Christian nations. They are no longer called Christian nations now because they don't behave like Christians. But once upon a time, they were called Christian nations because there were a high percentage of people in those countries who were Christians, just like a high percentage of India are Hindus.

So a high percentage in many Western nations were Christians, not today. Today most of them are atheists and even those who call themselves Christians are either old covenant Christians or nominal Christians.

Even those who are born again are mostly old covenant Christians, so they're not really new covenant Christians at all. But once upon a time, they were called Christian nations and then in those days, those nations did not persecute people for the Christian faith.

But today it's changing. Even in those countries, things are changing that if a person stands up for their convictions, for example, a simple thing like a court registrar says, I cannot sign a certificate of a marriage between two men.

Somebody did that in a Western country. You know what happened to that lady? She was imprisoned because the Supreme Court said two men can get married. And she was standing up for a Christian conviction.

That's just one example. There are many other examples. There was another case of a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for the marriage of two men. He says, I won't celebrate that type of thing.

And he was, the court ordered him to pay a huge fine. He had to close down his shop because he stood up for Christ. Can you imagine? I mean, that doesn't even happen in this country. So so-called Christian nations are no longer Christian.

You will be hated in all nations for my name's sake, because you stand up for Jesus. These are little, little tribulations and it will gradually build up to greater things. Imprisonment, it happened, as I said to this person, and it can be for worse things and you stand up for the Lord.

And it can happen in this country too. I don't think it's only sort of countries which are predominantly non-Christian in religion. When Jesus said, all nations, you'll be hated. Tribulation in all nations of different degrees.

Finally, the final ultimate end is being killed, verse nine. And when these tribulation, when the tribulation begins in the last days, and remember the question at the beginning, when, what is a sign of your coming?

And he didn't speak much about the famines and earthquakes and wars, but he speaks a lot about tribulation. At that time, many will fall away from the faith. And that is going to happen. Many will fall away, not one or two.

They say, hey, we, they will deny the Lord like Peter. No, I don't know him. They won't say Jesus Christ is Lord. They'll be even willing to say some other name as their, his Lord to save their life. You know, like the three Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel's story, how they were told to bow down to the idol or will be thrown into a furnace.

And we had a drama on that once where the compromisers tell them, hey, listen, listen, God looks at your heart, man, the compromisers say. What does it matter if you just bow down? In your heart, you're not bowing down.

And then even if you do bow down, get up and then confess your sin to God. He forgives you. You're okay. And you'll save your life. And they said, no. It's like teaching, telling a child to cheat in the exam and afterwards ask Jesus to forgive you.

You'll pass. Isn't that a better way than failing? Now don't get any ideas. I'm saying that's not the way. You're denying the Lord then. So when they will fall away because they don't want to pay the price of even in a little thing like in an office where you won't get a promotion because you stand up for Christ.

And so some Christians don't want it to be known too much that they are wholehearted disciples of Jesus. Non-Christians are not afraid to be known as non-Christians. They have marks on their forehead showing that they are non-Christians.

They have calendars near their table with some idle picture that show they are non-Christians, but you'll never find a Christian or hardly ever find a Christian with a calendar with a verse on it near a table.

They're a little ashamed of it. These are the ones who will fall away. They'll be ashamed to be seen carrying a Bible. You see, these are the little, little things by which I remember when I was in the Navy, I wanted, I couldn't openly preach, but I said I wanted every ship and every naval base I'm in, wherever I work, without openly preaching, I want people to know that I'm a Christian.

So I'd keep a Bible on my table and keep some Christian booklets there. And those days we didn't have these calendars with verses, but if I had one, I'd hung that up too. And I never preached to anybody, but that's my table and that's my little office.

I can put what I like there. And there were people who were offended. There were people who marched me up before the commanding officer because of what I did. I say, fine. Those are the days when I was 23 years old, where God gave me a spiritual backbone and prepared me for the ministry he had for me to stand up for the truth.

And I believe many of you young people, God is preparing you now. The little, little tests that you find in your office, it's not tribulation. It's a very small thing, but if you're faithful there, God will lead you to a higher and higher levels of tribulation where you can be a great witness for Christ.

And maybe one day, if it is the Lord's will, it'll be a great honor. I think it'll be a great honor if you are martyred for Christ's sake. There's no greater, better way to die as far as I'm concerned.

I don't want to die of old age or cancer, I'd rather be a martyr for Christ any day. Don't you want to be that? And not only they'll fall away, they'll betray one another. They will join up with the anti-Christian people and say, okay, I'll tell you where these people are and I'll give you their addresses and their phone numbers.

You can contact them to save their own life. That's what it says, they will deliver up one another, and verse 10, they will hate one another. This is not non-Christians hating Christians, these are Christians hating one another, Christians taking one another to court.

It's already happened. So it'll happen more because they're not gonna be true to the Lord. And these little, little things are what's gonna prepare us for a great thing. It's a great honor to be taken to court for Jesus' sake.

Jesus himself was taken to court by religious people. It's a great honor to lose a promotion in your job for Jesus' sake. It's a great honor if some customer won't accept the product you're trying to sell and you lose your reputation as a salesman because you're known as a Christian.

I'm not saying we should go around openly preaching, but you should not be ashamed to be known that you're a Christian. And especially if you have a non-Christian name, people think you're a Hindu. Don't let them get away with it.

Let them know you're a Christian in some other way. And false prophets will arise and mislead many, and that's mostly on television. All over the world now in Christian television, there are false prophets.

90 of them teaching you the old covenant teaching that you can be rich and you can be healthy, that Jesus came to give us wealth and health. He came to give us spiritual wealth and spiritual health and spiritual children.

That's how I read Deuteronomy 28 converted to new covenant language. Spiritual wealth, spiritual health, spiritual children, and no spiritual sickness. That's how I read Deuteronomy 28, but these folks don't read it like that.

False Prophets and the Test of Spiritual Fruit

False prophets leading, misleading many, mainly because they want their money. You'll almost never find a preacher nowadays who doesn't take a collection. Jesus never took a collection in his entire life.

The apostles never took a collection. They never took money from people they prayed on heels. There's a world of difference. These are the false prophets of today. It's mainly by their, Jesus said, by their fruit you shall know them, not by their gifts.

Very important to distinguish gifts and fruit. False prophets may have gifts, but they won't have fruit. If you turn with me to Matthew chapter 7, you see there Jesus said that. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, he said, this way is narrow.

Very few will find it, Matthew 7, verse 14. And connection with that, he says beware of false prophets. That means false prophets are those who will not preach the Sermon on the Mount. You go to a church which does not preach the Sermon on the Mount, it's full of false prophets.

You watch a television program. Tell me the television programs where you've heard people speaking against dirty thoughts and anger and the love of money. These are the things mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount on anxiety.

They're not even mentioned because they ignore this narrow way. Those are the false prophets and you will know them, verse 16, by their fruits. Again in verse 20, you will know them by their fruits. Say, Lord, what about gifts?

Gifts are mentioned in verse 22. Those who cast out demons, heal the sick, do miracles, prophesy. They are sent to hell because there's sin in their life. Fruit and gift are contrasted there. And there you see the false prophets.

That whole section, verse 13 to 23, shows false prophets may have gifts. They go to hell because of sin. They don't preach holiness and they're not holy themselves. By their fruit, the fruit of the spirit marks out a true prophet.

The gifts of the spirit, a true prophet may have Jesus at it, but a false prophet may also have it. So you won't be able to distinguish by gifts. So never evaluate a man by his spiritual gifts. Nobody who preaches in this pulpit should ever be evaluated by his preaching ability.

Don't evaluate me by my preaching ability, because that's a gift. God can give it to others. It's by the fruit of one's life, particularly one's attitude to money. That's one of the clear tests, and one's attitude to poor people.

Most false prophets only hang around with the rich people, and the big shots, and the bishops, and the cardinals. Okay, and there's gonna be a tremendous amount of sin, verse 12. Lawlessness is gonna increase in the last days, and many people's love will grow cold.

Love for Jesus will cool off when there's a lot of sin in the world. You can ask yourself, did you love Jesus more when you were converted many years ago? Why is your love for Jesus less today when you started earning more money?

Maybe you're earning today six or seven times what you earned when you were converted, or ten times what you earned when you were converted. Those days you were poor, and you loved Jesus. You didn't have much of this world's goods, but you loved the Lord.

But now you have so much money, you have time to go into restaurants endlessly. Those days you couldn't even afford to go to a restaurant once in a year. But now you go every week. You have a lot of money to throw around.

It's your money, right, not God's money. You can spend it as you like. Your love has grown cold. You don't realize it. You don't have so much time to study the Bible now. You have plenty of time to. In those days you didn't have the Internet.

Now you have the Internet, where there's no time to read the Bible, no time to study the Bible. Those days you never went to a movie. Now, there are interesting movies that you watch. The love of many will grow cold because sin is going to increase all around the world.

And it's not gross sin like adultery and murder. It's very subtle by which the devil makes God's people compromise and lose their love for Jesus Christ. If you love Jesus, you'll want to spend time with him.

When a boy and a girl are in love with each other, they always want to spend time together. When we love Christ with all our heart, we want to spend time with him. We want to know his word. We want to know his ways.

We want to understand him. If you want to spend more time with the Internet and the movies than with Jesus Christ, you know where your heart is. Love will grow cold. And when love for Christ grows cold, love for one another will also grow cold.

It'll be easily offended with people, easily get hurt. Yeah, it's gonna be true in the last days. I decided many years ago that I'll never get offended. Never, no matter what somebody does or what somebody does not do, what somebody says or what somebody does not say.

I am the one who decides whether I'm gonna get offended. Getting offended is because of pride. Many will get offended. But, verse 13, the one who endures in love till the end will be saved. I want to be saved.

And here it says I can be saved if I endure in love to Jesus and love for one another, and I want to do that. I want to endure in fervent love for Jesus Christ, increasing love. In other words, I want to love Jesus more today than I loved him 56 years ago, when I first gave my life completely to Christ, much more.

Otherwise, I'm not going in the right direction. The Bible says the path of the righteous is like the shining light that shines brighter and brighter and brighter until the perfect day means more and more love, like I always ask married people.

Do you love each other more than the day you were married? I tell people on the day of their marriage, this is the day when you should have loved each other the least. On the wedding day, it should be the day when you loved each other the least.

Every other day thereafter, you should love your partner more, so that you look back to your wedding day and say, that was the day I loved my partner the least. Now I love her much more. Now I love him much more.

And same with Christ. As I look back to the day I was converted, and what all I was willing to sacrifice for him those days out of love, today it should be much more, much more fervent. Remember this, take these words seriously.

Because of sin, the love of many will grow cold. The one who endures in love to the end will be saved. Another thing, verse 14, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world. Now that's not the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

What is the gospel of the kingdom of God? Very important to understand that. Romans 14, 17 says, Romans 14, and verse 17 says, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. It's not going to restaurants and having a lot of fancy food, wasting your money on all that, no.

The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness means a life of overcoming sin, a life of partaking of God's nature, a life of holiness. How many people are preaching that gospel today?

Peace means perfect peace with God, clear conscience all the time. Peace in our heart means complete freedom from all anxiety and fear and peace with one another. That means you have forgiven everybody, you have asked forgiveness from everybody.

You have returned all money that you have taken wrongfully as peace from your side, even if other people don't love you. Peace, how many people are preaching that today, that gospel? And joy, rejoice in the Lord always, 24 -7.

How many people are preaching that gospel today? I've almost never heard it on television or in any church. The gospel of the kingdom, Romans 14, 17, Matthew 24, verse 14. This gospel will be preached in the whole world.

How can a few people, very few people, who are preaching this gospel, preach it in the whole world through the Internet? I mean, it's not mentioned there, but the Lord knew all about what's gonna happen.

It will be preached in the whole world. The whole world will hear that you can come to a life of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And others will oppose it, they'll call it heresy, but that is the gospel of the kingdom.

And if you have heard that gospel in this church, it's your responsibility to share it with others. If you say you don't know how to preach it, get a book that costs, the same as the price of a cup of coffee.

Can you give a cup of coffee to a friend? Why don't you give him a book? You can't preach it yourself. Take a little book that preaches it and give it to a friend as a gift for a birthday or a New Year gift or something like that.

It's very easy to spread the gospel if you want to. We must be inventive in our mind. How can I spread the gospel? I don't have the gift of preaching, or I'm very shy when I go to a person. Maybe I can mail him a book if I don't even want to meet him personally, with a note inside saying, here's something that's blessed me.

This is the gospel of the kingdom. I want to share it with you, which says it'll be preached in the whole world. You can have a part in that. It doesn't say everybody will be converted through it, no.

Maybe 1 of the people you preach to will respond. It says it'll be a witness, that's all. It'll be preached as a witness to all nations. There is a life of righteousness, peace, and joy that you can have.

Then the end will come. It's being preached today around the world. And this is another indication that the end is near. Because 25 years ago it was not being preached around the whole world as much as it is today.

So don't just think of wars and terrorism and rumors of wars. The gospel of the kingdom is being preached. It's one of the proofs that the end is near. And then it speaks about, you know, the first question was, when will this temple be destroyed?

And Jesus speaks about a few things concerning that first question. Remember, two questions. When will the temple be destroyed? And when will the end of the age be? So first about the temple being destroyed.

When you see the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel, and that was happened when the Romans sacrificed a pig on the altar in the temple in Jerusalem in 70, 80, 40 years after. Christ was crucified.

Then, he's talking to the Jews of that time. This is the answer to the first question. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the housetop not go down to get the things in the house.

Just run without your possessions. Like they say, when your plane crashes, don't wait to pick up your bags. Just get out of the plane. Run. And one who's in the field, don't go back to get your cloak.

Run, because it's going to be, it's going to be very difficult in those days. He's speaking about the Jews in those days when Jerusalem was attacked, and those who were pregnant had a very difficult time.

And speaking about the Jews, obviously, in verse 20, it says, pray that it won't be a Sabbath day, when you're not supposed to travel too much. Pray for that. So that's obviously referring to the answer to the first question.

And then he combines these two, you know? Here's the answer to the second question coming up. And then there'll be a great tribulation. This is the answer to the second question, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world.

They ask two questions together, and Jesus answers one, and then goes on to the answer to the second one. Great tribulation, that is an expression referring to what is going to happen just before Christ's coming, a period of three and a half years, when the Antichrist will rule the world, and it's called in the Bible a period of great tribulation.

So that's going to happen, and then unless those days would cut short, no life would be saved, and if anyone says to you at that time, here is Christ, or there is Christ, or they say he came secretly, without anybody knowing, he suddenly came and raptured a few people.

Don't believe them. There are lots of Christians preaching what is called a secret rapture, and it is a teaching that Christ's coming will be in two stages. One, he'll come secretly in the clouds and take away people.

That means suddenly people will disappear from their houses, and drivers of cars will disappear, and drivers of planes will disappear if they're born again. And they'll all be taken up suddenly, and the others will be left behind to face the great tribulation.

As if the great tribulation from men is a punishment from God, no. That's why you need to distinguish between the wrath of God and tribulation from men. The great tribulation is from men. There are calamities in the last days.

There have been calamities all through history. And in calamities, even believers suffer. For example, when there are floods, there are believers in those areas who suffer. When there are earthquakes, there are believers also who suffer.

So wherever there's been calamity in all these 2 ,000 years, wherever there are believers there, they suffer too. If there's a flu, believers can get it. So we need to distinguish between that and the wrath of God.

Believers will never face the wrath of God, that's clear. But the great tribulation is not the wrath of God. And then it says, when there are people who say this, as I said, that Christ will come secretly, seven years before his final coming.

And take Christians out. And I wanna tell you something about it because it's a very popular teaching, totally not found in scripture at all. I wanna say to you, there's not a single verse, not a single verse, anywhere in the Bible that says Jesus will come secretly.

But yet there are people who believe it. And if you wanna know the history of it, I've researched it. 175 years ago, there was a young woman in England, two young women, who, they were in their teenage, teenage girls who said they received some spirit.

And they began to say all types of things. And they were almost the first people who spoke about the secret rapture. From the time of the apostles till 1830, nobody spoke about it. Not Martin Luther, not John Wesley, nobody.

But these women started preaching and some people started listening to it. And there were some preachers there who promoted it, along with other things. And then the leaders of the brethren, there was a man called J .N. Darby, who picked it up and promoted it.

And that became something that is widespread and began to spread through all the world over a period of time. And one of the earliest Bible study Bibles was written by a man called Scofield. The first Scofield reference Bible, he promoted it, particularly after the Second World War, and now it has become worldwide.

Most people, they get their knowledge from these men without carefully studying the scripture themselves. I wanna tell you, I was in the brethren when I was converted. I didn't know anything about the Bible.

And the first four years after I was born again, I believed it myself. And I even preached on it. But then I was a little baby, and I started studying the scriptures. And about four or maybe five years after I was converted, I saw the truth.

That nowhere in the Bible, as I studied the Bible those first five, six years after I was converted, I found nowhere in the Bible does it say, Jesus will come secretly raptured. So I said, Lord, I don't care if all the brethren people teach it, and I don't care if all the Pentecostals teach it, I don't care if all Christendom teaches it, I don't see it in scripture.

That's how I've discovered many things, which very few people speak about, cuz it's in scripture. That's what changed my life. And I would recommend to you that, don't just believe what people say. Look for a scripture.

If somebody says there's gonna be a secret rapture, ask him, where is it written? Show me the verse. I heard of a man who offered in America a $10 ,000 check to anyone who can show me one verse in the Bible.

He advertised it over television and internet and everything. Nobody came to claim it, because there isn't a verse in the Bible. Then he says, in the verse 24, false Christ, false messiahs. You know, there are some Indian godmen also who claim to be messiahs.

The word Christ means messiahs. False prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders. So false prophets can show great signs and wonders. Remember that. It's not only true prophets. So don't believe that every sign and wonder that you see, even if it's in Jesus' name.

Because Matthew 7, they come to Jesus and say, Lord, in your name we did this. Don't believe it. That's why I say, be careful about all these healing meetings and all these people who pretend to do great miracles on the stage and all.

They're not really, a lot of it is hypnotism. They're like magicians. You know, if you've ever seen a magic show on television or something or internet, you'll see that you're really amazed how they do it.

And they're more spectacular than some of these healers in the way they deceive people. It's all hypnotism and tricks. Be careful in these last days. And Jesus said, behold, I've told you in advance, and I say the same thing.