33. The Tribulation (End-Times Series Part 14)

Welcome to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 33, The Tribulation. Part one, the ruining of good words in the epicenter of crazy. Amid a bounty of red-capped toadstools, psychedelic peace signs, and long-haired hippies, the word gay lost its mirth and merry undertones, morphing into the new moniker for sodomy in the 1960s.

This same kind of word assassination has taken place today, changing common-sense words like mother into birthing person, or cold-blooded murder into women's health care. If I had to guess, one of the top job skills on Satan's resume that I might be inclined to wager a bet on would be word shifting, but that's the topic for another episode.

For now, let it just suffice to say that words often lose their good meaning, and when that happens, the crazy ensues. Now, in the evangelical world, our little rotten apple hasn't fallen far from Babylon's big tree.

The Olivet Discourse and the Meaning of Tribulation

Instead of mythologizing what a woman is to fit a transgender agenda, we have mythologized what a tribulation is to fit a left-behind storyline. And as a result, a century and a half of Christians have become necessarily confused by what Jesus meant in his Olivet Discourse, which is Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21.

Today, we want to continue unraveling this mangled cord called eschatology, and we want to share a sober biblical view that reclaims a forgotten biblical word. Matthew 24, 9 says, Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.

Now, to begin, I would not be gratifying the popular seven-year supercycle of future cataclysmic phenomenon known as the Great Tribulation as a viable option for what the word tribulation actually means.

The Bible tells us not to answer a fool according to his folly, and taking such an approach would certainly be akin to groveling in the eschatological pig slop, if you know what I mean. Further, we will not be citing newspaper articles about Israel, we won't be hunting down any red heifers, and we certainly won't be treating isolated Bible passages like breadcrumbs in a forest leading us to grandma's house or however that metaphor goes.

In this episode today, we're going to look at the words that are on the page, and we're going to ask some common sense questions. I want to assume a very helpful body of data that's been covered in the previous episodes of this series, so you can go back and check those out either on wherever you listen to your podcast and wherever you read your blogs, you can check those out.

But I want us to look at some scriptures that are going to prove the point and provide some Greek references on the side, maybe so we sound really smart. But in the end, I want us to know what this word means, and to that end, let us gaily begin.

See what I did there? Part three, the meaning of words. The first word of importance in this sentence is they. In this context, they does not refer to any YouTube social influencers ever changing pronouns, but to a specific group of people.

That group is not a 21st century cohort of American liberal God haters, but a first century cadre of Jewish and Gentile haters of God who were scattered throughout the Roman Empire who were persecuting the church.

That's what they refers to. Remember, Jesus is educating his disciples on when their temple is going to be destroyed, and he's helping them understand what signs are going to accompany that event, and he's showing them how all of this is going to change the course of redemptive history forever.

See Matthew 24 1 through 3. Jesus is not lapsing into a moment of temporary ADD to harangue about a future seven year tribulation that was irrelevant to his disciples. He is appropriately warning them that they will be beaten, bruised, killed, and persecuted by them, the God haters.

He is telling them what they will soon be facing in their service to him. That is the context, and that is the first word that we will cover. The second word is another very technical, very complicated, very controversial word called you.

In this sentence, you is not referring to you and I. It's not referring to us or some future audience of post-moderns who are going to rip this passage clean out of its context. No, you in this passage meant the very disciples that Jesus was speaking to since that's how conversations work.

I mean, we barely even think about it when you are looking right at the person that you are speaking to, and you're answering specific questions that they have directed at you, and then you pull you, the word you out of your repertoire of available phrases.

The only conceivable reason that you would do that is because you're talking to them about them. In this scene, Jesus is not looking past his disciples to talk to us. He's looking at them, talking to them about things that are going to happen to them in their lifetime.

Tribulation that they're going to face in their walk. This point is essential for us to grasp. Third, the third word, we need to understand what tribulation means. We know who's going to be persecuting them.

That's they. We know who it's Jesus is talking to. That's you. Now let's talk about the word tribulation. What does it mean? Now, according to our really smart Greek lexicon, the English word for tribulation comes from the Greek word theripsis.

Instead of a plague-filled future septennial, the word actually means troubles or trials that are going to inflict distress and suffering upon men. Now, I'm going to list out a few passages where this word is used.

You can look up these passages for your reference. Matthew 13 .21, Mark 13 .19, John 16 .33, Acts 11 .19, Acts 14 .22, Acts 20 .23, Romans 5 .3 -5, Romans 8 .35, Romans 12 .12, 2 Corinthians 1 .4, 2 Corinthians 1 .8, 2 Corinthians 7 .4, Philippians 4 .14, Colossians 1 .24, 1 Thessalonians 1 .6, 1 Thessalonians 3 .3 -4, 2 Thessalonians 1 .4, and Revelation 1 .9.

When you look up these passages, sorry, I know that that's hard to listen to. When you look up these passages, you're going to realize that this is not talking about a future seven-year period of really, really bad stuff that's going to happen to us.

What you'll realize is this word is just a common word for people who suffer in the context of all those passages that I just gave you. It's about New Testament first century people suffering for Jesus.

That's what those passages mean. That's why I shared all of them with you so you can go look them up. And this is precisely what Jesus was prophesying over his disciples. And this is exactly what happened to them in the years after Jesus's crucifixion.

The Labor Motif in Matthew 24

Part four, the labor motif. Now, before citing some examples of tribulation from the New Testament, I want to share a brief reminder about the labor motif that is being worked out and it's found in this chapter, chapter 24 of Matthew.

Like a woman in labor, the birth pangs will begin with a certain level of intensity. Then as time moves along, the pain from her contractions will inevitably grow in magnitude and frequency as the pregnancy nears its terminus.

In much the same way, the signs that Jesus has given, the ones he's been forecasting here, will begin with increasing intensity until everything that Jesus has predicted comes true, Matthew 24, 8. So far, we've looked at signs like earthquakes and famines, which will increase in intensity from the time Jesus is raised in 8030 to the downfall of Jerusalem in 8070.

We have also shown how the proliferation of false prophets and messianic figures only became worse as the hour drew near to the fall of the city. Now, today, we're going to be looking at how the sign of persecution and tribulation went from bad to worse in the church's first 40 years of existence and how the historical record of the first century church's persecution is sufficient to prove that Jesus intended the tribulation to happen to them and not to some future version of us.

The Infant Church in Tribulation

Part five, the infant church in tribulation. Like all good evangelicals, I affirm that life begins at conception in the womb. Yet, the joy of a plus-signed pregnancy test will only last for a moment before morning sicknesses, foot aches, hormone imbalances, insensitive husbands, and 40 weeks of discomfort and bloating all come about, which is eclipsed only by the tremendous pain of that human life moving her way down the birth canal to make her appearance known.

Praise God for our wives. Praise God for women and all that they endure to propagate this species. So, I want to give a shout out to all the women who are listening, but I also want to compare this metaphor of childbirth to what happened to the early church because it's strikingly similar.

In much the same way, the church was conceived at the resurrection of Jesus Christ and she grew rapidly during those first 40 years of gestation. But it wasn't until the end of those 40 years, the great pains associated with the downfall of Mosaic Judaism, that she was thrust upon the world as the only way to know and approach the one true God, Yahweh.

At that point, there was a competition. The Jews were saying, no, we're the right way to approach Yahweh. Christians were saying, no, we're the right way to approach Yahweh through Jesus Christ. Now, after 80, 70, the Christian church is the only way to know God, which corresponds to Jesus' message.

I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, especially not through a temple and priests and sacrifices because he did away with it. Now, these labor pains are going to increase in intensity over the 40 years period that we're talking about and their persecutions are actually going to increase as well.

For instance, Jesus told the disciples even before he went to the cross that they were going to soon be arrested, betrayed, persecuted, murdered, and handed over to the Jewish synagogues where all of these atrocities were going to be taking place, Matthew 10, 17 through 25.

And again, in Matthew 23, 34 through 37. Jesus even warns the disciples that a future hour would come when the murdering of Christians would be viewed by the religious as an act of piety, John 16, 2. Those tribulations would begin in a matter of days from the crucifixion, which we will now lay out briefly.

Not many days after the first Pentecost, the apostles were arrested by the Jews for teaching about Jesus in the city of Jerusalem, Acts 4, 1 through 3. After being released from prison, they were jailed again, just one chapter later, in Acts 5, 17 through 20.

On that occasion, the angel of the Lord helped them escape so that they could go on preaching Christ in the city. But that day of preaching caused the apostles to get arrested a third time, whipped in the same way that Jesus was whipped before he was crucified, and released with injuries and scars that would cling to their bodies for a lifetime.

And that was just the beginning of their tribulations. Soon, the Jews would take to murdering Christians in the open street, as they did with Stephen, Acts 7, 54 through 60. They would send young zealots like Saul of Tarsus as hitmen to find, arrest, and even kill believers who were hiding in various cities in Judea, Acts 8, 1 through 3.

When one of those hitmen converted to Christianity, that's Paul, the Jews sought to have him murdered as well, Acts 9, 23 through 25. The book of Acts even calls this period a period of great persecution, Acts 8, 1, or maybe you might even be tempted to say it was a great tribulation.

Just saying. The wanton violence that the Jews were inflicted caused many in the early church to scatter to places outside of Judea and to take homes throughout the Roman world, Acts 11, 19. This was not true for the majority of the apostles and early church leaders, however, who stayed back in Jerusalem in order to preach the gospel and warn that city to flee the wrath that was to come that Jesus had prophesied.

But that decision, while from the Lord, would cost the apostles dearly. For instance, James, who was one of the most important early leaders in the Jerusalem church, was brutally murdered by Herod Agrippa, who saw that killing Christians would please the Jewish masses, Acts 12, 1 through 3.

This same fate would have happened to Peter as well had God not sent an earthquake and an angel to deliver him from his cell on death row in Jerusalem, Acts 12, 4 through 11. Now, as these persecutions were heating up for the apostles in Jerusalem, the converted Paul was now divinely tasked with taking the gospel to the Gentiles using local Jewish synagogues in various towns as a base of operation.

So what we have is that the book of Acts in chapter 12 shifts away from the tremendous persecution that the Christians were facing in Jerusalem, and it shifts to discuss what Paul is going to have happen in the Roman world, which is fascinating because Jesus says that not only will the Jews persecute them, but the Romans or the world will persecute them as well.

So we have this fulfillment here, even in the book of Acts, of this being persecuted all over the world motif. It fits what Jesus said. So Paul goes to local Jewish synagogues in various towns throughout the Roman empire to set up a base of operation so he can preach the gospel.

Now, at the very beginning of Paul's ministry, many of the Jews and Gentiles believed the gospel. There was a significant group of people who were coming to Christ, but there was also a significant portion of Jews in these synagogues who were lying about him and whipping up the crowds in these cities in opposition to him, which is in Acts 13, 44 through 52.

In Iconium, the frenzy was so intense that Paul was almost stoned and he needed to flee to a surrounding town in order just to continue preaching, Acts 14, 1 through 6. However, at some point in the very next town that Paul goes to, the Jews follow him there and they stone him.

They actually do accomplish stoning him. They believe that he's dead and they leave him for dead in the streets, Acts 14, 19. When Paul woke up from that brutal beating, he went immediately and he encouraged his companions saying these very words.

I want you to hear me very closely. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God, Acts 14, 22. Paul, knowing what Jesus said, because the apostles had already told Paul all of the gospel, they had instructed him in the things that Jesus had taught them.

Paul knew that Jesus had predicted tribulations for the Christians. And here he is saying through many tribulations, through great tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Fascinating. This pattern of Jewish inspired pandemonium and tribulations, whipping cities up into a frenzy, continued throughout Paul's ministry.

See Acts 17, 5 through 8, Acts 17, 13, and Acts 20, verse 3 and 23. Now, as Paul, after his missionary journeys throughout the Roman world, as he was planning to return to Jerusalem in Acts 21, a young believer named Agabus prophesied that if he went to the city, he would be arrested, bound and delivered over to the Gentiles.

So this is where the book of Acts now comes back into the focus of Jerusalem. And the persecutions aren't, they haven't stopped. They've actually gotten worse. If Paul goes back to the city, then he will be delivered over to the Gentiles, Acts 21, 11 through 14.

And Paul determined to go anyway. He believed that this was the will of the Lord. So he goes back, he's violently beaten by the Jews as he returns. And the only thing that stops them from murdering him right then and there is the sheer providence of God who spared his death by having him get arrested by the Romans.

The Romans show up in Acts 21, 31 through 36, confused as to why these people are beating this man in the open street. They arrest him, assuming that he must have done something wrong, but they're really not sure what it was.

And that's what spared Paul's life so that he could write many, many books of the New Testament. Later, when the Jews whipped up a crowd into a fury, the Romans in panic, because they had Paul in custody, they decided to beat Paul in order to appease the Jews.

That's Acts 22, 22 through 24. During the latter portions of the book of Acts, Paul is being transported by the Romans to the city of Rome to stand trial before Caesar for seditious crimes that the Jews were accusing him of.

For example, Acts 24, 5 through 9. Along the way, Paul writes letters to various churches which acknowledge the peculiar degree of suffering and tribulations that the Christians were undergoing. And I just want to, for a moment, share a few of those, because I think they're poignant.

All throughout the book of Acts, we've seen that the Christians were suffering. Paul is a good example of suffering and tribulation. Now we're going to look at his letters that he wrote to the church and see how they suffered.

So, for instance, Paul tells the Roman Christians to praise the Lord God in the midst of their tribulations. That's Romans 5, 3 through 5. He uses that word. Because the tribulations, again he uses this word, cannot separate them from the love of Christ.

Romans 8, 35. Instead of fearing the tribulation that they were going through, they were exhorted to preserve, to persevere through the tribulations with hope, because this kind of living greatly honors the Lord.

Romans 12, 12. To the Corinthian church, Paul counseled them to bless the ones who were persecuting them, to endure the tribulations that they were facing with joy. First Corinthians 4, 12. So that they could encourage other beleaguered saints who were also being persecuted.

Second Corinthians 1, 4. In this, Paul does not pretend that the tribulations that they were enduring were light or easy or somehow, you know, not worthy of being acknowledged. He acknowledges them. Second Corinthians 1, 8 and 4, 8 through 12 and 12, 10.

He's only saying that God is going to bring joy to those who are suffering if they will put their hope in God. Second Corinthians 7, 4. When Paul describes his life as a Christian in the first century to the Corinthian church, he says it like this.

Are they the servants of Christ? I speak as if I'm insane. I am more so. In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without numbers, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.

Second Corinthians 11, 23 through 26. So Paul is fully acquainted with tribulations and he's acknowledging that the people he's writing to are as well. For instance, look at Philippians. Paul thanked them for sharing in his afflictions.

Philippians 4, 14. To the Colossians, he taught them the purpose, that there was purpose in their afflictions. Colossians 1, 24. To the Thessalonian church, he reminded them that they received the word in great tribulations.

First Thessalonians 1, 6. That they were destined for great tribulations. First Thessalonians 3, 3 through 4. And were beaten by the Gentiles in the same way that Paul had been beaten by the Jews in First Thessalonians 2, 14 through 15.

Paul was even overjoyed when churches endured violent beatings to the glory of God. Second Thessalonians 1, 4. Because he said it demonstrated their worthiness to enter into God's newly inaugurated kingdom.

Second Thessalonians 1, 5. So Paul is saying that we have been set apart for suffering. This is the first century Christians that were set apart for suffering. So that they could suffer like Jesus. So that they could prove their worthiness to enter into this new kingdom that Christ had brought.

To the Hebrews, the author suggests that the suffering was vital for their sanctification. And that as they follow Jesus outside of the gates of the old Jerusalem and seek with him the new and true Jerusalem that is from above, they will be persecuted.

Hebrews 13, 13 through 14. For those who remain inside of old Jerusalem, James encouraged them before his death to remain patient under the fiery trial until the judgment coming of Christ against the Jews.

James 1, 2 through 4 and 5, 7. And he told them that this judgment was imminently upon them. James 5, 8 through 9. To Timothy, Paul adjures them to suffer well joining with Paul in his suffering. Second Timothy 1, 8 through 12 and Second Timothy 2, 3.

While remembering that the Lord is sovereign over suffering. Second Timothy 3, 11. He also tells them that all who desire to live a godly life will face tribulation. Second Timothy 3, 12. To the persecuted Christians, the one forced to leave Jerusalem and scattered throughout the Roman Empire, the apostle Peter reminds them that suffering was their God-ordained purpose.

First Peter 2, 20 through 23. And that they ought not be surprised when the fiery trial happens to them. First Peter 4, 12. Because it's their purpose. To the Christians scattered throughout the Roman world, it was their purpose.

First Peter 5, 9. It was Peter, among the other apostles who heard the Lord make these promises. And now years later, he could offer them firm convictions of encouragement for them to stay strong as they endure.

Finally, among that crowd of original apostles who heard the Lord's prophecy in Matthew 24 was John. John would claim to be a fellow partaker in the tribulations that Jesus predicted, Revelation 1, 9.

And he would deliver a personal message from Jesus to one of those seven suffering churches saying this. This is Jesus speaking. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the blasphemy, blasphemy by those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are from the synagogue of Satan.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for 10 days. Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life, Revelation 2, 9 through 10.

External Records of Tribulation

Section six, external records of tribulation. Now, before concluding, I would like to share two incidents that are outside of the New Testament from history that demonstrate the ferocity by which the early Christians were being slaughtered.

We've already looked at the New Testament and it is replete with example after example after example of tribulations that the believers faced. Now, I want us to look into history and see a couple examples.

So in 41 AD, this is 11 years after the crucifixion and resurrection, the last and final Herod, who was named Agrippa, rose to prominence and he was named the unified king of the Jews. At that time, there were multiple different smaller kingships and procuratorships and Herod Agrippa actually united all of that together under his authority so that he gained the title, the king of the Jews.

Ironic even, since it was 11 years after they blasted that title over Jesus's cross. Now, Herod Agrippa, in order to gain favor with his Jewish constituents, seized upon the Christians. He killed numerous followers of Jesus between the years 41 and 44 AD because he saw that it pleased the Jews.

He did all of this until God struck him with a plague that killed him, Acts 12, 20 through 24. Among those Christians that were murdered was James, the earliest leader of the church, and Peter almost would have been murdered as well had he not escaped by divine providence.

This is confirmed in history as well as in scripture. The three-year period of ferocious persecutions led to the widespread evacuation of Christians from the city of Jerusalem and it led them to resettle into various cities throughout the Roman Empire.

Of the cities that they decided to settle in, Rome seemed to be the most common option for the early Christians, which turned out to be fatal for many of them. This was because, along with this being a very pagan city who hated God, it also had a large population of Jews who ostensibly hated God, residing in that city at the time, and the Caesars tended to make decisions with them in mind.

Whenever you have a large base of population in your city, you tend to make decisions so that they don't riot. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, it was reported that it was the Jews in the city who perhaps persuaded Nero to use Christians as scapegoats for a fire that he himself started.

What we know from history is that Nero decided to set fire to about a sixth of the city of Rome so that he could do new building projects because there was no room left for him to build. Tacitus reports it like this, to get rid of the report, that's Nero setting fire to the city, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations called Crestians, which is a Roman misspelling of Christian.

By the populace, Christus, that means Christ, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for a moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty. Then upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of setting fire to the city, but for hatred against mankind.

Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. They were covered with skins of beasts, and they were torn apart by dogs until they perished, or they were nailed to crosses, or they were doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as nightly lamps when daylight had expired.

Tacitus, the Annals of Rome, 1544. Conclusion. After Jesus rose from the dead in 30 AD and until 41 AD, when Herod Agrippa came to power, Christians were being arrested and murdered by jealous Jews all throughout Judea and Jerusalem.

In 8041, Herod centralized his power and organized persecutions against the Christians to disturbing proportions. To avoid religious genocide, the earliest believers fled to cities all throughout the Roman world where Jews were ready and waiting to persecute them there as well.

To top it off, the Roman Emperor Nero, just like Herod, engaged in the systematic killing of Christians by the most inhumane means available to him. When pain-averse modern Christians refuse to share the gospel, when pain-averse modern Christians refuse to go to church and would rather sip chai lattes than see Jesus' kingdom advance, I take great offense at that.

When we spend all of our intellectual capital trying to discern when the great tractor beam in the sky is going to rescue us out of first world problems, I take great offense at that. To hold such a myopic and uninformed view requires an utter ignorance of our history and it dishonors the countless men and women who suffered, bled, and died for the name that we now bear.

Jesus promised awful tribulations for our forefathers and foremothers in the faith and those awful tribulations came on them in full. Furthermore, the reason the church of Jesus Christ is still standing strong today is that generation, that first generation of Christians, that generation of rock-hard believers endured ultimate sufferings with great joy and with great hope, turning the world upside down with their great faith.

Instead of kicking up our feet and being repulsed by discomfort and blending in and having a friendship with the world, I'm praying that this generation of Christians will learn from our elders, that we'll get ice in our veins and we'll turn this world upside down for Christ once more like they did back then.

They're probably not going to kill us for doing so because the world has changed because of the influence of the church, but we should give them every reason to want to. Until next time, thank God that you were not born during that first 40 years of the church with all the awful tribulations that they faced.

Stop believing that these passages don't apply to the original audience and that they apply somehow and only to us and pray that we would get to see the church grow as it did back then. Because as Tertullian once said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and God always grows his church through suffering.

Pray, if you have the backbone for it, that God would grow his church again in the way that God grows his church. Until next time, God bless you and thanks for listening to long episodes about eschatology.