Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #11 of Revelation, chapter 7, and we are going to be reading Revelation 7:13-14:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Here, we have a very important question that was asked and God Himself is the one asking the question, as He is the one referred to (literally) as “one out of the elders.”  So this was the Lord Jesus Christ who answered the question: “What are these which are arrayed in white robes? Or, in other words, “Who are those that are arrayed in white robes?” 

We know that since they are clothed in white, this indicates they had become saved and had their sins washed away and, therefore, this spotless, pure and holy covering of the “white robe” indicates the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet, who are they?  “And whence came they?’  And this is also a very important question because this chapter in Revelation 7 details the “144,000” that are the “firstfruits unto God.”  We have been able to identify them as all those that God saved during the church age.

Then, after the numbering of twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel (totaling 144,000), verse 9 adds: “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;” Where did these come from?  From where are they?  They are not among the 144,000; they are not of the tribes of Israel, as God described them in this particular chapter, but they are from various peoples of the world; they are not, so to speak, “of Israel.” That means that, spiritually, the Lord is letting it be known that they are not coming out of the churches and congregations, as the 144,000 did.  These people are found in the world, outside of the churches and congregations, and “whence came they?”  The answer, of course, is given in Revelation 7:14:

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

(Again, the washing of their robes, making them white in the blood of the Lamb, indicates salvation.)  And, even though God Himself asked the question (“And whence came they?”), it is God Himself who also provided the answer.  The Lord knew “from whence they came.”  These are the ones “which came out of great tribulation.”

Just as the “144,000” were identified with “firstfruits” in Revelation 14 and, therefore, with Pentecost and the church age, so, too, this statement which says this group came “out of great tribulation” identifies a specific time in God’s overall program of times and seasons.  (There can be no other time period in view.)  So let us look up these two words for “great tribulation,” which in the Greek is “megas – thlipsis.”   We get our English word “mega” from this and whenever anyone speaks of something being “mega,” it is speaking of something “great” or “grand,” such as in the word “megaphone,” which amplifies sound and causes it to sound in a greater way.   

So this is “mega” tribulation; it is not the typical, normal kind of tribulation.  The fact that God calls it “megas – thlipsis,” or “great tribulation,” sets it apart from the normative, expected “tribulation” that each Christian experiences during his time of sojourning in this world; we know that the Lord Jesus said, in John 16:33: “In the world ye shall have tribulation.”  That is the same word for “tribulation,” but Jesus did not say (and this is significant), “In the world you will have great tribulation.”  No – it is just “tribulation,” and that is the case for all of God’s people in all time periods; in this evil world we do experience tribulation, but not “great tribulation.”  Great tribulation is something reserved for a specific time period that would not be like any other time period and we will learn that when we find one of the places where the term “great tribulation” is mentioned.  It is only mentioned three other times in the Bible.  We read in Matthew 24:20-23:

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Now, here, in this passage, God makes reference to “great tribulation,” and He sets it apart with this statement: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”  There is something very different about that time period which is vastly different from the typical tribulation that God’s people experience as they live their lives in this world.

God also speaks of those days of the “great tribulation” being shortened, and He makes the statement: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”  It is not until our time, after God had opened up the Scriptures, that we can understand these things in exact detail; we realize that the Great Tribulation was (I say “was,” because it is past now) a 23-year period that began on May 21, 1988 and concluded exactly 23 years later on May 21, 2011.  At the beginning of that period, there was 2,300 “evening mornings,” or about six years and four months, in which virtually no one was being saved in the world, and no one at all was being saved in the churches.  And if anyone were being saved, it would have had to have been out in the world.  The language of the Bible allows for the saving of just a handful of people, but it also allows that it is possible that no one was saved during that time. 

But God “shortened” those days; that is, He shortened the character of the 2,300 “evening mornings”.  But if God had not shortened it and if the entire 23 years took upon that same character, then the elect would not have become saved and, therefore, God shortened the impact of the 2,300 “evening mornings.”  Then, at the end of that point in time (in September of 1994), He stretched forth His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people; and God began to send forth the “latter rain,” the second Jubilee (at the beginning of the Great Tribulation period), to save all sorts of people from outside of the churches and congregations, but within the churches, during the entire 23-year period, no one was becoming saved, but outside God did begin to bring the “latter rain” and bless individuals outside of the churches, saving a great many, which Revelation 7 calls “a great multitude,” during the “little season” (about 17 years) of the last part of the 23-year Great Tribulation period; that was the pouring out of the “latter rain” and the bringing in of the final harvest, the precious fruit that would be presented to God, finally, at the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.  So these verses here in Matthew 24 only allow for a very different period of time than had previously ever existed.  It does not allow for the idea that the Great Tribulation and the great multitude that came out of it is really referring to the entire church age or the entire New Testament era.  No – that idea is contrary to what the Bible says.  God clearly sets it apart.  Remember that Matthew 24 is Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question: “What shall be the sign of they coming, and of the end of the world?”  And, in that context, in response to that particular question, the Lord Jesus speaks of “great tribulation,” and that is because that is the time that the Great Tribulation would occur, at the time of the end.

Now another place that we find these two words (“megas–thlipsis”) is in Acts 7:11:

Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.

The two English words “great affliction” is a translation of the same two Greek words translated as “great tribulation.”  It could have very well been translated that way here: “Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great tribulation.”  It so happens that the historic account mentioned in Acts 7 is the time of “famine” in the days of Joseph, a seven-year famine.  By identifying that famine, or dearth, that came over Egypt and Canaan as “great tribulation,” God is indicating that it is a type and figure of the Great Tribulation that would eventually come at the end of the world.   

So we can look at that historical account in the Book of Genesis and learn some information about the period of Great Tribulation.  And what we do learn is that, first of all, there was a “dearth” over Egypt and Canaan, which would picture the world and the churches, as Canaan was the Promised Land, the land where Jacob and his family dwelt (Israel) and that would typify the church and the famine was over both Egypt and Canaan.  But then there came a dividing point in that famine.  After two years, Joseph revealed himself to his brethren and arranged for his entire family, including his father Jacob, to be brought into Egypt to be nourished by Joseph for the time remaining of the famine. 

That is a beautiful picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did in revealing Himself to His people through the Scriptures and drawing them out of the churches and congregations and into “the world,” where the Lord Jesus would take care of their spiritual needs – nourishing them spiritually through His Word.  So we see, again, that the Great Tribulation impacted both the world and the churches in that picture, yet the land of Canaan continued to be under the grievous dearth or famine throughout the entire seven years, but in Egypt there was “bread.”  So during the 23-year Great Tribulation period, which that famine typified, there was grievous spiritual famine in the churches throughout this period (“a famine of hearing the word of God”), but outside in the world, after the initial 2,300 evening mornings, there was “bread” and God was saving a great multitude.

There is one last place (the fourth place) in the Bible we will look at.  We have looked at Revelation 7:14, Matthew 24:21, Acts 7:11 and the fourth place is also in the Book of Revelation, where the two words “megas – thlipsis” are found together.  It is in Revelation 2, one of the addresses to the seven churches, and it is the church at Thyatira.  We need to remember that what God said to each church, He was saying to the churches (plural) and it had application to the entire corporate body of the New Testament churches and congregations.  It says in Revelation 2:20-23:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

Now, here, again God is joining these two words with the falling away of the churches, just as He did in Matthew 24.  If you recall, after we read that there would be “great tribulation,” then the Bible immediately began to warn that there would be false Christs and false apostles in association with that.  In Acts 7, there was a famine in Canaan, which typified the churches and, here in Revelation 2, God is addressing one of the seven churches, but (again) this address has application to all churches and He is telling them that they have not been faithful because they allowed this woman Jezebel to teach and to seduce God’s servant – to commit fornication – and that would be a reference to spiritual fornication which the churches did (and do) every time they are unfaithful to the Word of God and to the doctrines of the Bible.  Then God says in Revelation 2:21:

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

And that “space” was the entire space of the church age – 1,955 years.  That was quite a long space in which the churches had opportunity to repent and to turn from their “high places” and to renounce the errors they upheld in their confessions and creeds and to uplift and exalt the Word of God above themselves and above the teachings of their theologians, and so forth; and they did not repent.  Therefore, God came at the appointed time and “visited” the churches to see what they had done and He found them unrepentant and, therefore, He said in Revelation 2:22:

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation…

You see, again, this is not the normative, or typical, tribulation that refers to the entire church age, but a reference to that which comes at the end of the church age – the end of the allotted space given them in which they could have repented.  It is at the time of the end, when judgment began at the house of God, and it is the time which the Bible has a great deal to say about.  So this pinpoints the period of Great Tribulation to a particular time and season which took place at the end of the church age.  Since God has opened up the Biblical calendar of history, we can pinpoint the timing, as I mentioned earlier, to the very day: 23 exact years; 8,400 exact days, from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011.  Then on that particular date after the complete 23-year Great Tribulation period, in the year 2,011, which happened to be precisely 7,000 years from the flood and on the exact day the 23-year period ended, on May 21, 2011; and this date also had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of 2/17 (the seventeenth day of the second month) and that day matched up perfectly with the information in Genesis 7: after seven days, God shut Noah and his family and the animals into the ark and brought the flood on the self-same day. 

That is exactly why we declared that May 21, 2011 would be Judgment Day: the day that God would shut the door to Heaven; the day He would complete His salvation program because He would have saved a great multitude that came “out of great tribulation” at that point in time (they all had their salvation secured and their safety guaranteed through that salvation and, therefore, they would have entered into safe chambers where no harm could come to them, even as they remained on the earth during the (ongoing) Day of Judgment).  This is really the response to the question: “From whence came they?”  Then Revelation 7:14 responds: “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation.”  These are the final fruits; the early rain brought the firstfruits; the latter rain brought the final fruits that would be gathered during the Feast of Ingathering held simultaneously with the Feast Tabernacles. 

There are no more periods of “rain,” which means there can be no more periods of “fruit.”  This is it.  This is the completion of God’s salvation program.  This is why it is so important for us to understand where we are in relationship to the Great Tribulation period.

Some people are very quick to say, “Well, God is still saving.  He would not shut the door.  He is still saving.”  In fact, they insist He is still saving.  They are basically just like those that are saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” (in the Day of Judgment), once God had shut the door.

Now let us go to Luke 13 and remember the question that was asked in Revelation 7: “From whence came they?”  And the response was: “These are they which came out of great tribulation.”  In Luke 13, we are going to read about the Day of Judgment and it says in Luke 13:24-25:

Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

That word “whence” is the very same word found in Revelation 7: “Whence came they?”  And there was an answer – God knew “from whence” that great multitude came.  But, here, in Luke 13, at the time that the door to heaven is shut (and that completely identifies with May 21, 2011), there will come “many” that are knocking at the door and saying, “Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are.”  The Lord is saying, “You are not of those that were among my firstfruits, the 144,000.  I do not see you there.  And, also, you are not part of the great multitude that came out of great tribulation and were the final fruit of the harvest.  I do not see you there.  From whence came ye?”

And, of course, they have no answer.  They have no period in time which they can claim; they have no “rain” which they can point to which would indicate that there would be another period of fruit.  And, therefore, the answer from the Lord is: “I know you not whence ye are.”  “I do not know where you come from.  You do not come from the only times and seasons in my salvation program.  You are endeavoring to (it seems) begin another season and another time period in which you would force me to save – to open the door to heaven.  That will not happen.” 

It says in Luke 13:26-27:

Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.

The door never opens.  There is no acknowledgement or recognition of these people.  They cannot be placed in any period of time in which God was saving.  The day of salvation ended and they were continuing as though it were still God’s program to save.  Yet, God had completed His salvation program and He had gathered that “great multitude” and they were now before Him, and there are no others.