SEMESTER 6
190 – The Conditions of the Great Tribulations
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: THEOLOGY VI LESSON # 90
ESCHATOLOGY – THE KINGDOM OF GOD – THE GREAT TRIBULATION PERIOD CONDITIONS DURING
Read: Mat 24:21-29
INTRODUCTION:
1. In connection with this passage, consider also Mark 13:14-26, Revelation 2:21-23, and Revelation 7:14.
2. I have read, in your hearing, every place where this word appears, speaking of a particular period of time.
3. However, these Scriptures more than suffice to assure that there is a time rightly called “The Great Tribulation.”
4. It is possible that no other issue, with as few Scriptures, has so much discussion directed to it.
5. No doubt, this is because it is equated to the horrors of the book of Revelation.
6. Before we can speak definitively of its conditions, we must determine if the preceding equation is accurate.
I. HOW CAN WE LOCATE THE GREAT TRIBULATION IN TIME
1. Many of our Christian forefathers thought they were living in this period. Explain why.
2. I am sure they were wrong, and they would now readily agree.
3. I, and they, know this because Christ’s return did not culminate their suffering.
4. Scripture clearly teaches that this Great Tribulation is immediately followed by Christ’s return in glory. (Mat. 24:29-30, Mk. 13:24-26)
5. Explain the error of trying to make the word immediately in Matthew 24:29 only mean suddenly.
6. If the book of Revelation has any chronological order at all, Revelation 19 would teach us this. So, in time, here it is.(Hear on tape.)
II. WHAT THEN ARE THESE CONDITIONS
1. A period of unique tribulation. Have the preceding ones not been essentially repetitious?
2. But the book of Revelation gives us a view of tribulation like we have never seen.
3. A time of false christs and false prophets showing great wonders. (Mat. 24:24, Rev. 16:13-14, Rev. 19:20)
4. A time of the revelation of the man of sin. (II Thes. 2:1-10) (A man who praises sin)
5. The death of 25% of the earth’s population (Rev. 6:8), then a third of what was left. (Rev. 9:15)
6. A fire of world-wide magnitude (Rev. 8:7-11) and global water pollution.
7. A time of the receiving of the mark of the number of the name of the beast. (Rev. 13:13-17)
8. We are sure by the time of the beast’s destruction that all this is to come during the tribulation period. Note: Rev. 19:20.
9. World-wide economic desolation.
III: By the fall of Babylon
III. CONCLUSIONS TO BE DRAWN FROM THESE CONDITIONS
1. Unless we spiritualize them to total meaninglessness, they are yet in the future.
2. We are not talking of a long period (1260 years), but a very short period. (Mat. 24:22)
3. This is a period when the death rate is different from any which has ever been. (Mat. 24:21-22)
4. The issues are difficult enough, that we should not be presumptuous.
5. This period is to precede our Lord’s return in glory, not the rapture of the saints, but His return with them.