In light of the tendency to relegate a time of “great” tribulation to the distant past or imminent future, it is important to survey the biblical teaching in this regard. As we will see, this time of “great tribulation” cannot be tied exclusively to the events of A.D. 70, or to the very end. God’s people may face such tribulation throughout the entire time from Christ’s redemptive tribulation on the cross, until the end of the age.
This is an important question for several reasons. First, when most people think of the great tribulation, they are thinking of the dispensational idea that at (or about) the time of the Rapture, the world enters a seven-year period of tribulation in which the Antichrist comes to power after the unexpected removal of all believers. The Antichrist then makes a seven-year peace treaty with Israel, only to turn upon Israel after three and a half years, plunging the world into a geo-political crisis which ends with the battle of Armageddon. Dispensationalists believe this is a time of horrific cruelty and that only way to be saved during this period is to refuse to take the mark of the beast, and not worship the beast or his image. The main problem with this interpretation is that it is nowhere found in Scripture.
A second reason why this question is important has to do with the rise of various forms of preterism (full-preterism, which is considered a heresy; and so-called “partial” preterism, which is not) which contend that Christ returned in A.D. 70 to execute judgment upon apostate Israel, the city of Jerusalem, and the Jewish temple and its sacrificial system. Those who hold to the various forms of preterism believe that this great tribulation spoken of by Jesus (Matthew 24:21) has come and gone with the events associated with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans.
In light of the tendency to relegate a time of “great” tribulation to the distant past or imminent future, it is important to survey the biblical teaching in this regard. As we will see, this time of “great tribulation” cannot be tied exclusively to the events of A.D. 70, or to the very end. God’s people may face such tribulation throughout the entire time from Christ’s redemptive tribulation on the cross, until the end of the age.
Virtually all scholars agree that the basis for the three references in the New Testament to a “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21; Revelation 2:22; 7:14) is Daniel 12:1, which reads: “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.”
In Daniel’s prophecy not only is this period of suffering tied to the time of the end (i.e., the mention of the general resurrection in vv.2-3), but the basis for the tribulation God’s people face is their covenant loyalty to God in the face of external persecution (by the state) and false teaching (from within) which causes the apostasy of many within the covenant community (cf. Daniel 11:30-39; 44; 12:10).
