We come now to the third section of this book, and to things that are yet future. After
considering the history of Israel, the Chosen People, and of the Church, we can not help
wondering who the true believers of the Tribulation period will be. According to the book of
Revelation, starting with Chapter Four, the next period of human history will be a time of trial
for the earth. This is generally called “The Tribulation,” from Christ’s own words in Matthew
24:9. “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all
nations on account of my name.” The word for “tribulation” is the Greek word thlipsis. This
word literally means “pressure” and can be translated as “affliction, anguish, persecution, or
tribulation.” (Usually the seven-year period after the rapture and before the Second Coming is
called “The Tribulation Period,” however the last 3.5 years is frequently called “the Great
Tribulation” because of the terrible violence loosed on the earth during the last half of these
seven years.)
If Israel has rejected her Messiah and has been blinded, and if true believers from the
Church have been taken away, who then are these believers of the Tribulation period?
Saints and Martyrs of the Tribulation Period
Future believers will basically be the same as the believers of today. They will be
Christians: people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ who have repented of their sins, asked
Christ to come into their lives, and have been “born again,” just like the Christians of the Church
Age (Luke 24:46-47; John 1:12; Revelation 3:20; John 3:3-16).
It is true that God works different ways in every age. The Church, for instance is called
the “Body of Christ” and the Bride of Christ. All Christians are said to be “members one of
another” in a special organic way. The Church was not promised a plot of land, nor a temple nor
an earthly king and inheritance. God’s promises to her are “heavenly” blessings while those given
to Israel are “earthly.”
Actually, salvation has been offered by God to people of all ages on the same basis: that
of grace and faith. God’s grace has always preceded man’s response, because, as the Bible says,
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks
God” (Romans 3:10-11). We have only glimpses of God’s work in other nations down through
history. For instance many Ninevites evidently became believers in the one true God because of
the preaching of Jonah, yet these peoples were not part of believing Israel, or of the Church.
Even in the Garden of Eden God took the initiative to restore our fallen, sinful parents to
fellowship. It was God’s idea to call Abraham and Moses and David. It has always been God’s
idea to call and enable every person to believe. Men do not seek God on their own initiative
(Romans 3). God seeks out and saves everyone who ever comes to know him. The proper
response to God’s call is faith–trust in him, and actions based on that trust. According to
Ephesians 2:8-9, even that faith is a gift from our loving God. “For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no
one can boast.”
In the Old Testament, faith in God involved belief in the promise that He would provide a
payment for sin. That is what the sacrificial system was all about. When an animal was being
sacrificed, the one offering the sacrifice would place his hand on its head and acknowledge that
the innocent animal was dying in his place.
In the New Testament Jesus was shown to be the Messiah and the Savior whose death
provided a once-for-all payment for our sin. Messiah’s sacrifice was retroactively effective for all
those who had believed in the promises that sin would one day be not merely “passed-over” or
“covered”–but removed (John 1:41; 4:25-26; Hebrews 9:26-28; 13:11-12).
Believers of the Tribulation period will undoubtedly have the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38;
Romans 8:9-11), but since they will not be accepted into the dictator’s evil world system, they
will not be allowed into public places of influence, as teachers business leaders, and government
positions, etc. The Holy Spirit in them will not have the same restraining influence that he had
during the Church Age when believers were united in one body, the Body of Christ (2
Thessalonians 2:6-8).
Believers of the Tribulation will not be affiliated with the organization of the Church that
remains on earth following the rapture. That church will be a totally apostate group commonly
called “the harlot church.” After the rapture, some churches will be quite empty, and some may
not be affected much at all, depending on what percentage of true born-again believers belonged
to each church. Many of those who are left behind will actually be relieved to be rid of the
fanatical ones who were taken in the rapture. They will believe whatever lie is proposed by the
Evil One to explain this great disappearance. Some churches will close down, and some will
merely reorganize and go on with their religious activities. These spiritually dead organizations
will not attract new true believers in Christ. They may even turn them in as troublemakers to the
evil government of that time. Therefore, the saints and martyrs of the Tribulation period are
never called the Church (Revelation chapters 4-19). As noted there will indeed exist a “renewed”
church on the earth after the rapture, but she will be a counterfeit, apostate organization and will
give her power to the Beast. She is thus depicted as a prostitute riding the beast in Revelation
chapter 17.
Are you among those who know Christ personally? If you are not sure, we urge you to
turn to Appendix T – Do You Know Christ Personally?
Believers in Christ from All Nations
The covenant with Abraham and his seed was for the purpose of blessing all nations
(Genesis 12:2-3; 22:17-18). It was a promise to an earthly people (“as numerous as the grains of
sand by the sea shore”) and to a heavenly people (“as numerous as the stars of the sky”).
The promise to Abraham was fulfilled specifically in the person and work of Jesus the
Messiah (Galatians 3:16).
In the book of Acts we gain a glimpse of this blessing extended to the Gentiles.
Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a
people for himself. – Acts 15:14
Sudden Belief of Many after the Rapture
Since the rapture will have taken all true Christians, one might ask how there are
believers during The Tribulation. There could well be hundreds of thousands of immediate
conversions right after the rapture by those who had heard the Gospel, and, though they were not
hardened against it, had not yet actually received Christ as Savior. These people will remember
the earnest pleading of friends and family members who had disappeared. They could respond
quickly, turning to Christ in prayer, confessing their sins and asking him to save them.
Thousands of others will not know what to do, but will be convinced in their hearts that
their missing loved ones had been taken by Christ. Perhaps some of them will not believe the lie
that is put forward by the ungodly media, which may be saying that the Earth has at last been
cleansed of its narrow-minded trouble-making Christian extremists. Officials may even suggest
that UFOs had abducted them– our planet’s population has been conditioned for decades now to
believe in the existence of UFOs. See Chapter 13 – The Plot Thickens.
These honest seekers will turn to the Bibles and prophecy books that have been left by
their missing friends. Their minds and hearts will be open to the Gospel when they read it or hear
it explained by the thousands of instant converts. Even if they do not find the truth immediately,
they will respond when evangelists like the 144,000 specially sealed Israelites mentioned below,
boldly proclaim the Gospel during this period.
Messianic (Jewish) Leadership
It is apparent that the spiritual leaders of this period will be “completed” or “fulfilled”
Jews, those who have accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah. They will receive God’s mercy
when they return to him (Romans 11:25-32).
The Central Role of Israel
There are many indications that Israel is once again on center stage of history during the
Tribulation period. Even now, before that time begins, our newspapers and television programs
are preoccupied with the events of the Middle East, and especially of the tiny nation of Israel.
The miraculous rebirth of the nation in 1948 was the fulfillment of the prophecies of Ezekiel
chapters 36 and 37!
The importance of Israel in current events was prophesied in Zechariah:
“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be
besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against
her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will
injure themselves. ” – Zechariah 12:2-3
Israel is also portrayed in the Old Testament as the central nation of major future events.
Especially in the Book of Daniel we are told of a “seventieth week,” a seven year period that still
belongs to Israel’s future.
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an
end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It
will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the
Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will
destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the
end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’
In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the
temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured
out on him.‖ – Daniel 9:24-27
In his classic book The Coming Prince, Sir Robert Anderson, who was a high official in
Scotland Yard, calculated the exact duration of the first sixty nine of these “weeks” of years.
Sixty-nine times seven is four hundred eighty-three. These years were lunar years of exactly 360
days, as in all the biblical references. Anderson showed that from the decree by Artaxerxes
Longimanus to rebuild Jerusalem until the day that Jesus offered himself as Messiah and was
rejected by the officials of Jerusalem (the day of his “Triumphal Entry”), was exactly four
hundred eighty-three years, that is 173,880 days (360 x 483).81
This leaves one seven year period of Israel’s history to be fulfilled before the time of
“everlasting righteousness.” At the beginning of this last seven year period, the Beast (the
“prince” or “ruler” who will come), will make a seven year covenant with Israel, but will break it
in the middle by setting up an “abomination” in the newly rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem
(Revelation 13). This time table agrees exactly with the timing of the Book of Revelation. This
will be shown later. The Beast will have statue of himself set up in the Temple (Daniel’s
“abomination that causes desolation”). This period will last exactly three and one half years, and
will fulfill the second half of Daniel’s seventieth “week.”
This period of upheaval is also characterized in Jeremiah 30:7 as the “Time of Jacob’s
Trouble.”
Perhaps the best way to set the scene for this section is to study the wonderful overview
of Israel’s history in Revelation chapter 12.
