“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NKJV)

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt. 24:21NKJV)

Every now and then I get a question from someone who says even though the pre-trib position seems to make sense scripturally, they can’t accept it because Jesus said we would have tribulation in this world, and that must mean the church will go through at least the first part of the Tribulation. When they say this they’re thinking of the first 3 ½ years.

Let’s get this straight.  There is no mention anywhere in the Bible of a seven year tribulation. According to Strong’s Concordance the Greek word translated tribulation in these two passages appears 45 times in the New Testament and tribulation is the English word of choice in  21 of them, including the two above.  It comes from a root meaning “to press” as grapes are pressed.  When used metaphorically it can mean oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, hardship, or trouble.  But while tribulation is the word that appears in both these verses, their intent is completely different.

What Does That Mean?
In John 16:33 Jesus said, in effect, that becoming a believer doesn’t mean your troubles are over. Troubles are characteristic of this world and as long as you’re in it you’ll have them.  But He has overcome this world and through faith in Him you will over come it too.

He was referring to the fact that because of our faith we can have peace even in times of trouble (Phil 4:4-7).  First because we know he’s working everything in our lives together for our good (Romans 8:28) and second because one day this will all be over and we’ll live in a state of eternal peace and happiness with Him. Therefore we should focus on that world not this one (2 Cor. 4:16-18). When you read the passage in context you can see that John 16:33 is meant for the entire Church Age and addresses individuals and our individual lives.

A Different Matter
But  Matt. 24:21 is a different matter altogether.  First of all it applies to a specific period of time, commencing on the heels of the abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15) and ending just before the 2nd Coming (Matt. 24:29). And Jesus prefaced the word tribulation with “great” saying nothing like it has ever happened in the history of the world, or ever will happen again.  From other references we know the Great Tribulation will last for 3 ½ years and will be far more severe than anyone can imagine. So much so that if the Lord doesn’t return to put an end to it, not a single human will survive (Matt. 24:22)

So as far as the Bible is concerned, there are two kinds of tribulation.   The first is the general condition of our fallen creation.  Hardship, illness, persecution and other kinds of unfair treatment, and a general state of uncertainty characterize our world.  These are facts of human life that to a greater or lesser extent have impacted all human beings throughout the Age of Man.  This is the tribulation Jesus spoke of in John 16:33.  Of the 21 times the word tribulation appears in the New Testament (KJV) 16 of them are in this context.

Then, there’s the Great Tribulation.  Three and one half years of extreme judgments that will fall upon just one generation, the one alive just before the second coming.  This is the focus of Matt. 24:21 and just four other verses (Matt. 24:29, Mark 13:24, Rev. 2:22, Rev. 7:14)  . You can see that the conditions of the two kinds of tribulation are very different. Whenever the word tribulation appears it’s referring to one of these two kinds and you know which one the Bible has in view by looking at context in which the word is being used. But you’ll never see it used to describe the seven years just prior to the 2ndComing.

Where Did That Come From?
So how did the idea of a seven year tribulation originate? Well if it didn’t come from God, it had to have come from man.   In researching this, I was not able to discover who first taught this, but I believe it started in the days when even the most learned scholars didn’t realize that Israel would be reborn.  Neither did they understand that the Age of Grace didn’t follow the Age of Law but rather interrupted it seven years short of its completion.  So calling the last seven years by their Old Testament name, Daniel’s 70th Week, didn’t make sense because doing so implied that Israel would come back from the dead and play a part in the End Times.  This is something most scholars believed would not happen.

Even so there were seven years that had to be  accounted for.  The last three and a half were easy, Jesus  had already named them the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:21).  That just left the first three and a half. These have been variously called the beginning of sorrows or the false peace or the tribulation period, but eventually scholars incorrectly began calling the entire seven year period the tribulation with the last half being the Great Tribulation.  Since the rapture takes place before the seven years begin, it has also been incorrectly named.  Instead of being pre-trib, it’s really pre 70th Week.

So What’s The Problem?
Other questions I’ve received concern the effect of this incorrect interpretation. “Why does it matter?” they ask.  It matters because it isn’t Biblical.  And what’s more it’s confusing, as questions I get on the End Times demonstrate.   Many people don’t distinguish between the two uses of the word tribulation and incorrectly use  John 16:33 and similar passages to deny the pre-trib rapture.

For example, Acts 14:21-22 (KJV) is another passage some times used to question the pre-trib rapture.

And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,

Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Paul and Barnabas were encouraging new gentile converts to keep the faith in spite of the hardship and persecution they were facing, in effect saying it was something that should be expected as a result of their profession of faith. Reading about the current plight of Christians in places like India, Indonesia and China shows us these things are still going on in the world. Even in America we’re becoming used to seeing two things our constitution forbids. Persecution of Christians and promotion of other religions.  But like it was in Paul’s day this has nothing to do with the Great Tribulation, and everything to do with religious persecution.

Also, referring to Daniel’s 70th Week (which concerns Israel) as the tribulation (which is world wide) hides the fact that Israel and the Church can’t co-exist during that time.  Because of this, many Christians don’t realize that during Daniel’s 70th Week God’s focus will be on Israel, with its Old Covenant Temple, animal sacrifice, keeping the commandments and all things Jewish.  How can the dispensation of Law and the Dispensation of Grace exist in the same place at the same time when the two are theologically incompatible?  Truth be told this is perhaps the most compelling reason for a pre 70th Week rapture.

After We’re Gone
In Romans 11:25-27 Paul said that Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in, but after that Israel will be saved. The Greek word for hardening also means blinded.  This is a clear indication that God’s unfinished business with Israel won’t be concluded until he’s finished with the Church.  We know He won’t be finished with us until the rapture.  Until then Israel will remain at least partly blinded to the truth, just as Jesus warned would happen in Luke 19:41-44.

This sentiment was echoed at the Council of Jerusalem when James disclosed that God would first take from the Gentiles a people for Himself (the Church) and after that would turn again to Israel (Acts 15:13-18).  In Greek the phrase translated take from literally means “to take in order to carry away from” and is another reference to the rapture.

These two passages of Scripture are not widely used in defense of the pre-trib rapture because they speak to the theology behind the Church’s disappearance rather than the event itself.  But they’re extremely helpful in putting the missing week of Daniel 9:24-27 in its proper perspective.  It’s the remaining 7 years of God’s assignment for Israel to complete 6 tasks in preparation for the coming Kingdom, as outlined in Daniel 9:24,

“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 (place).”

The phrase seventy sevens means seventy weeks of years, or 490 years. Some of these tasks were at least partially completed in the 483rd year at the time of the Crucifixion.  But Israel’s rejection of the Messiah stopped the clock 7 years short of the total leaving the rest undone.  These 7 years are yet to be completed, but as Paul and James both specified, the clock will not start running again until the Church disappears. This is what makes knowing all about Daniel’s 70th Week so important to the Church. It helps us understand why the rapture can’t happen during any part of it.

The Bible is not a book of generalities, it’s a book of specifics.  Those last 7 years are missing and must be completed.  When you read the Bible literally, as was intended, there’s no sense in which they can be placed in the past.  They’re part of the future and they’re not called the tribulation, they’re called Daniel’s 70th Week.

Then the angel who talked with me returned and wakened me, as a man is wakened from his sleep. He asked me, “What do you see?”

I answered, “I see a solid gold lamp stand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”

I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”

He answered, “Do you not know what these are?”

“No, my lord,” I replied.

So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.

“What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ”

Then the word of the LORD came to me: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.

“Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

“(These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range throughout the earth.)” (Zechariah 4:1-10)

The Hebrew word for plumb line can also mean chosen stone and I think both meanings are in view here.  The plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand signifies his supervision of the Temple’s construction.  The chosen stone represents the Messiah (1 Peter 2:6) and the seven eyes mean He sees everything.  This tells us the Lord Himself is the project manager.

Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lamp stand?”

Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?”

He replied, “Do you not know what these are?”

“No, my lord,” I said.

So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”(Zech 4:11-14)

What Time Is It?

It was February 15, 519 BC. Twenty years earlier the Jews had come back to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, and following several abortive attempts had given up trying to rebuild their Temple.

To justify quitting, some had speculated that the reason for their difficulty was that the time wasn’t right (Haggai 1:2). So God sent them two prophets, Haggai to admonish them and Zechariah to encourage them, and it had worked. On the day Haggai spoke his 2nd message to them, they had begun work on the Temple again.

But the task seemed so intimidating. The older ones could still remember Solomon’s Temple, destroyed in the siege of Jerusalem  some 90 years earlier after standing in the city for nearly 400 years. In Solomon’s time the nation was wealthy beyond measure and they were at peace with all their neighbors. But now they were just a rag-tag group of ex-captives, constantly harassed by their enemies. How would they ever hope to replace their beautiful Temple, so costly and magnificent?

And The Answer is …

During that long February night in 519 BC Zechariah had a series of visions, eight in all. The one above was the Lord’s answer to their questions about the Temple. Yes they had possessed much wealth and had many resources during Solomon’s time, and now they had precious little. But this temple would be built just the same. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” said the Lord (Zech. 4:6).

Three years later the Temple was completed, and while it couldn’t compare to the splendor and glory of the earlier Temple of Solomon, Haggai had promised them that the glory of this Temple would exceed that of the first one (Haggai 2:9),  and he was right. It was modified and renovated beyond recognition, first during the Hasmonean period that followed the Macabbean revolt, and then again by King Herod.  Of this Temple the rabbis would say, “One who has not seen the Temple from the time of Herod has never seen a magnificent building.”  But more than that, it was the Temple visited by the Lord during His time on earth.

Got Oil?

And with what symbolism did the Lord represent His Spirit in Zechariah’s vision? Oil. Oil from the olive trees, sustaining the only source of light in the Temple, the seven-branched lamp stand called the menorah. It’s from verses like these that oil has come to stand for the Holy Spirit when used symbolically.

Often the Holy Spirit’s work is accomplished through men and women set apart for the purpose, also explained in the vision.

Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lamp stand?”
Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?”

He replied, “Do you not know what these are?”
“No, my lord,” I said.

So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”(Zech 4:11-14)

In Israel the High Priest and the Ruler were always anointed with oil symbolizing their calling. In Zechariah’s time they were Joshua and Zerubbabel.  In the Church today, we anoint with oil those we believe the Lord has called to minister to us or govern over us. The oil signifies our belief that the Holy Spirit has set them apart for this purpose and is working through them.  When we anoint the sick with oil, as instructed in James 5:14, we’re symbolizing the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit to perform a healing miracle in them.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well (James 5:15).  Oil, the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Double Vision

Frequently the messages of prophets concerned events far in the future. In those cases the Lord arranged a double fulfillment of the prophecies He gave them. The first one was only a partial fulfillment, and took place fairly soon. Its purpose was to validate the prophecy so the people would know it truly came from the Lord. This protected the credibility of the prophet (Deut. 18:21-22) and verified the accuracy of the long-term fulfillment for the generation that would experience it in the future.

A good example is the prophecy of the virgin birth given by Isaiah (Isa. 7:14). In giving it, Isaiah used a Hebrew word that could mean either virgin or young woman. This was to permit a partial fulfillment in his time that would validate the prophecy.

And sure enough, a short time later Isaiah’s wife became pregnant and gave birth to a boy the Lord called Immanuel. As he had prophesied, before the boy was old enough to speak, the Northern Kingdom was overrun by the Assyrians. (Isa. 8:1-10) The partial fulfillment had come to pass.

Six hundred years later, after Isaiah, his family, and the Assyrian invasion were ancient history, Jewish scholars translating Isaiah’s writings into Greek saw the future Messianic fulfillment in the prophecy. They chose a word that could only describe a woman who has never experienced sexual intercourse, because they believed it spoke of a virgin birth. One hundred fifty years after that, the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus.

While both fulfillments contained specific outcomes that were important in Israel’s history, a young woman giving birth was hardly the unique event that Isaiah needed to show the nation that God was with them (“Immanuel” in Hebrew). That would take nothing less than the only virgin birth in human history, which by the way also fulfilled a prophecy given to the serpent in the Garden.  The “Seed of the Woman” (a biological impossibility) would bring about his downfall.

Two More Sons Of Oil

In Zech. 4:11-14 we have one of those double fulfillments. First the immediate one; Zerubbabel the Governor and Joshua the High Priest would be God’s two anointed ones (literally sons of oil), charged with completing the Temple construction. In the vision they were the two olive trees from whom the oil flowed, signifying the Holy Spirit working through them. In the process, Zechariah’s appointment as a prophet was confirmed as promised in verse 8 of his vision, since Zerubbabel, who started the project, also completed it.  “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.”

But the use of the phrase “Lord of all the Earth” in verse 14 is a clue to another later fulfillment. It’s used only four times in scripture, twice in Joshua 3 where the Lord stopped the flow of the Jordan River so the people could cross on dry ground, here inZech. 4, and in Revelation 11:4 the only other place where it’s used in conjunction with two men called by God for extraordinary service. (Four is often called the number of the earth because on the fourth day the creation of earth itself was complete.  Then it was populated. Day five brought fish and birds, and on day 6 animals and man were created.)

These men are the two witnesses who will be sent to Israel to display signs and wonders during the Great Tribulation. Performing the miracles of Moses and Elijah and preaching the sermons of Peter and Paul, they too will be “sons of oil,” set apart for miraculous work, anointed with the Holy Spirit for extraordinary service, and supernaturally protected by Him till their ministry is complete.  “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”(Rev. 11:4) The wording is straight out of Zechariah’s vision.

Beginning just before the Great Tribulation and lasting for 1260 days, their ministry bridges the two halves of Daniel’s 70th week.   Their purpose is to prepare Israel for the coming Messiah in the ultimate fulfillment of another dual prophecy.  This one appears through out the Old and New Testaments, and is the two comings of the Messiah.

When their ministry is complete, the Lord will remove His supernatural protection and they’ll be killed in the streets of Jerusalem.  In the ultimate sign of contempt they’ll be denied burial, their bodies left in the street where they fall.  But in one final unmistakable message, they’ll rise from the dead three and a half days later, ascending into heaven in full view of an astonished world.  Shortly afterward,  the Spirit of grace and supplication will sweep over God’s people and their eyes will be opened to the Messiah, the one they have pierced (Zech 12:10).  Once again two sons of oil will have accomplished their mission.  ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.