Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study #15 of Romans 2, and we are going to read Romans 2:8-11:

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.

I will stop reading there. We are continuing in this verse by verse Bible study in Romans, and we have come to this passage that is very informative and revealing concerning God’s end time judgment program. In these verses that we just read, the Lord is laying down a two-step judgment program, as well as a two-step salvation program, and He does so with the reference to “of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.” We will get into that later.

But, first, we want to get into that word “tribulation,” and let us listen carefully to what is being said in these verses. Back in verse 5, God spoke of “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” and then He spoke of rendering to every man according to his deeds or works. Then He said, “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.” That is, “tribulation and anguish” is the judgment – it is the punishment or penalty for not obeying the truth, but for obeying unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. One who is guilty of this will experience “tribulation and anguish,” and it will come to the Jew and Gentile alike because God is no respecter of persons.

This is letting us know that God’s tribulation is His judgment. When there is a tribulation period, it is a judgment period. Tribulation is synonymous with judgment. And we recognize that, and we have been saying this for many years. For example, when we say, “judgment begins at the house of God,” we are speaking of the churches being under the wrath of God during the time of Great Tribulation. The judgment on the churches is equivalent to the Great Tribulation, making them one and the same. The Great Tribulation was the time of judgment on the churches.

And this is followed by the judgment on the world. I think we understood that tribulation and judgment were synonymous on the churches, but we did not really catch that idea as much when we thought of the final judgment on the world. When May 21, 2011 came, it was the beginning of Judgment Day and the prolonged judgment period, but we did not think of it so much as being a time of tribulation on the world. It was always put in terms of Judgment Day being the day of wrath and the day of the Lord, but I cannot remember anyone talking about references to the world’s tribulation. (That is not to say there could not have been a theologian somewhere that referred to it in that way, but I am not aware of it.) I believe that this understanding we have arrived at in these days after that tribulation, the Great Tribulation, is that the final judgment on all the inhabitants of the world is a second tribulation period. And this is very helpful because it does follow the pattern of the first tribulation of the judgment on the churches, which was a spiritual judgment.

And now God has brought to pass a spiritual judgment on the world. The cup of His wrath had been given to those in the churches and congregations for 23 years, spiritually, and now that same cup is being given to the unsaved people of the earth, and they are drinking of it, spiritually. And based on what is being laid out, this period will be 23 inclusive years or 2 actual years, as the biblical evidence points to the year 2033. There are two tribulation periods, one following the other. They are two judgment periods. And this second tribulation period we are currently in as God is judging the world will end with God destroying the world on the last day.

The word “tribulation” in Romans 2:9 is Strong’s #2347, and it is the word “thlipsis,” and it is the typical word for “tribulation.” It is the same Greek word we find in Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

It is also the word used earlier in Matthew 24:21:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

The words “great tribulation” is “megas thlipsis,” and this is the same word we see in 2Thessalonians 1. In the context of Christ’s second coming, we read in 2Thessalonians 1:6:

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

The word “recompense” is a word that means “to repay.” What does it mean that God will repay tribulation to them that trouble you? Who troubled us? It was Satan and his forces, Gog and Magog, as God loosed Satan at the time of the end (1988), and Satan came immediately against the camp of the saints, overcame them, and took his seat in the temple (the churches) as the man of sin, showing himself that he is God. Then the judgment was carried out over those 23 years of Great Tribulation, and it was the time of trouble to the people of God.

But after exactly 23 years (a full 8,400 days) was completed (from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011), the judgment or tribulation completed. Then God “turned the tables” and He looked to Satan, finding fault with him and his emissaries. How dare they have stretched forth their hand against God’s anointed? The churches had been anointed, as it were, to be God’s outward representatives on the earth, just as King Saul had been anointed to be king. When one would touch King Saul, it was a very serious matter, even though he was apostate, and he was seeking to persecute and murder David. And yet, there was to be justice upon the one that dared to put forth his hand upon King Saul, against God’s anointed. So, too, justice must be done according to the Word of God against those that would dare (that is the only way to put it) to be so arrogant and proud as to stretch forth their hand against an individual or institution that God has an intimate relationship with, as the churches were the caretakers of the oracles of God. For almost two thousand years, they were considered holy due to that relationship with the Spirit of God that dwelled in the midst of them, and there ought to have been respect and honor shown to the churches, even when they were not walking uprightly.

But Satan came against the churches to destroy them. And, yes, God used Satan as a destroying weapon. The book of Jeremiah sets up King Nebuchadnezzar as a type and figure of Satan who was carrying out the task of destroying Judah, the historical land of Israel. And, yet God called Nebuchadnezzar “my servant” as he was accomplishing that task. And in Jeremiah 25, it explains this whole idea of the “recompense of tribulation,” in Jeremiah 25:9-11:

Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith JEHOVAH, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Israel was included. They were the objects of the wrath of God, and there was 70 years of service to the king of Babylon (Satan), typifying the entirety of the Great Tribulation period, which was 23 actual years, as I mentioned earlier from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011. During that period of time the churches were being judged, just as Judah was being judged for 70 historical years from 609 B. C. to 539 B. C.

Then God says in Jeremiah 25:12-13:

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

God is indicating that after 70 years, or after the Tribulation…which is why God says in Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…” There is no hesitation. One tribulation or judgment took place, beginning on the house of God, the churches, and then immediately after that came judgment on the world. And Jeremiah 25 is a historical parable that taught spiritual things, and immediately after that 70 years in the year 539 B. C., the Medes and the Persians took the kingdom of Babylon and slew the king of Babylon. Then Cyrus, also known as Darius, king of the Medes and Persians, ruled over the king of Babylon, and he was then called the king of Babylon. It was Darius or Cyrus, and that is significant because God calls him “my anointed” in Isaiah 45:1, and he would build the city.

The word “anointed” is also the same word translated as “Messiah,” so King Darius is clearly a type and figure of Christ, the Messiah, who would come in judgment upon Babylon (the world), and He took the kingdom immediately after the Tribulation, and He also took the title of the king of Babylon, just as Mordecai took the house of Haman and ruled the house of Haman, after Haman was hanged on the seventeenth day of the second month. And Haman was also a type of Satan.

So when May 21, 2011 came and the Tribulation or judgment on the churches was finished, God then began judging Satan and the kingdom of Satan, which consists of all the nations or all the unsaved people of the earth. Christ took the kingdom and He has been ruling as King of kings and Lord of lords, and He is not ruling for the benefit or good of the (unsaved) inhabitants of the earth, but to punish them. He is punishing the wicked and ruling with a rod of iron. Everything fits harmoniously together. So we see that 2Thessalonians 1 refers to repaying them. Let me read it again, 2Thessalonians 1:6:

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

Remember, Judgment Day is the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Then it says in 2Thessalonians 1:7:

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

We have talked about this repeatedly regarding the word “revealed” being a Word that identifies with revelation in the Scriptures, just as in Romans 2:5 regarding “the day of wrath and revelation.” It is a time when Christ is revealed “in the clouds,” but not in the physical skies above. Remember, this is the Bible, and “clouds” have a spiritual meaning. They represent the commandments of God. Christ is “revealed” as having come as Judge of the earth, spiritually, in the commandments, and the whole Bible is the commandments of God. So it is the Scripture itself that has revealed Christ coming as Judge. It has revealed the judgment and wrath of God. Then it says in 2Thessalonians 1:8:

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

And this also fits in with Romans 2:8:

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth…

Christ is judging in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel in this “second tribulation,” just as 1Peter 4:17 indicated. Let us quickly go there and read that. Normally, we have been quoting just the first part of the verse over the course of the last several years. As it said in 1Peter 4:17:

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God…

This was the Great Tribulation and its judgment on the churches. “Tribulation and anguish…of the Jew first,” but we will get more into that later.

Then it says in 1Peter 4:17:

…and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Do you see it? It is the “second tribulation,” or the repayment of the tribulation. It is the Jew first, but also the Gentile. As it said in Romans 2:9:

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

The Gentile would be the one that does not obey the Gospel, or the truth. And the Jew would be a type and figure of the churches (the professed Christians), as Israel typified the churches. Judgment begins at the house of God, and the language “house of God” directs us back to the building of the temple. In Matthew 24:16, it says, “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” It has to do with the end of the world because Jesus was answering the disciples’ question in that chapter: “and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” And Christ then spoke of those in Judaea fleeing to the mountains, He was not speaking of the physical and of Judah and the physical Jews. He even says at the end of our chapter in Romans 2:28:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly…

Then in the next verse, He says in Romans 2:29:

But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly…

You see, God is not concerned with the outward Jew and the outward land of Judaea. Remember, God ended His relationship with Israel and the land of Judah in 33 A. D. when the veil of the temple was rent in twain as Christ went to the cross. They then ceased to be the holy people of God. They became just another nation and people of the earth, like any other people, from that point forward. For the 1,955 years of the church age, the people of God would be comprised of Jews and Gentiles from all nations of the world that would form the corporate churches, the outward representations of God’s kingdom to the people of the earth. (There is also an eternal church that consists only of Jews and Gentiles that God has saved.)

But, again, the judgment of God was first on the churches, followed by judgment on the world, and they are typified as those that “obey not the gospel” and “obey not the truth.” They are the recipients of the recompense of the (present) tribulation.

One other thing concerning this word “tribulation,” which is “thlipsis,” Strong’s #2347. It comes from #2346. It is the word “thlibō,” which is also found in an interesting place, if we go to Matthew 7:13-14:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

This may be a little involved, but I hope you can follow along. The word “thlibō,” that is related to “thlipsis,” is translated here as “narrow,” where it says, “narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.” We can understand that it is basically saying, “tribulation is the way, which leadeth unto life.” If we look at it in the sense of God’s timetable and His program of times and seasons, at the end of time. He has two consecutive periods of tribulation, the judgment or tribulation on the churches, followed by the judgment and repayment of tribulation on the world. And God’s people go through it.

And what have we seen? It is a time of severe testing and a time of severe “troubles,” especially during the Great Tribulation when there were those that troubled us. And many have turned back, but it is also a refining of the “gold, silver precious stones,” as we are getting purified. It seems that those that identify with the truth are becoming less and less, even though God saved a great multitude. People are being “peeled away,” as it were, and they are not making it through the narrow way that God has established, and it is the Word of God that has established that “way,” as Christ is the Word, and the way, the truth and the life.

So we can see why “narrow” would identify with tribulation. If you make it through the tribulation, you make it through the narrow way and you will enter into eternal life, because that is what will come on the last day when Christ will raise you up.

Also, interestingly, it says back in Romans 2:9 that there will be “tribulation and anguish,” and the word “anguish” is Strong’s #4730, and we are going to look at a few different Strong’s numbers, if you can follow along. The word “anguish” is a compound word that is made up of the word translated as “strait” here in Matthew 7, #4728, and a word meaning “land,” #5561. So it is “strait land.” So, again, enter ye in at the strait gate, and to get through the strait gate or the “land of anguish,” you have to go through the tribulation. There is tribulation and anguish, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. However, it says, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Tribulation and anguish can be understood to equal the “strait gate.”