9 [NLT] After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 And they were shouting with a great roar,

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 7:10b NASB

White robes and not red robes soaked in the blood of the martyrs. Remember them from the Fifth Seal in Apocalypse 8 – Martyrs + the saints cry out?

An Apocalypse of the Multitudes

Christians tend to assume that the multitudes in the great tribulation are all Christ followers; that is, NOT Jews.

I don’t think so.

בַּצַּ֣ר לְךָ֔ וּמְצָא֕וּךָ כֹּ֖ל הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה בְּאַחֲרִית֙ הַיָּמִ֔ים וְשַׁבְתָּ֙ עַד־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֖ בְּקֹלֹֽו׃

בַּצַּ֣ר לְךָ֔ וּמְצָא֕וּךָ כֹּ֖ל הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה בְּאַחֲרִית֙ הַיָּמִ֔ים וְשַׁבְתָּ֙ עַד־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֖ בְּקֹלֹֽו׃

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:30-31 :: Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) —
When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee,
even in the latter days..

Furthermore, the saints under the altar may not ALL be those who died for the witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some of them may have been faithful Jews.

Certainly the case of the multitudes risen now into the witness of these end-time events includes both Jews and Gentiles (‘all nations’); but what is TRIBULATION, a much maligned description of apocalypse in these last days?

The Messiah, Christ Jesus spoke of it.

The Lord Jesus also spoke of those who truly do not understand because of the place where the Gospel is sown in their hearts, so let’s define it.

Tribulation defined – צַר

the Great Tribulation, of course, would be more so than the ordinary troubles of mortals 

1. narrow, tight
2. straits, distress
3. adversary, foe, enemy, oppressor
4. hard pebble, flint

Think of the contemporary metaphor of being ‘between a rock and a hard place.’

It’s from צָרַר tsârar, tsaw-rar’; a primitive root;

• to cramp, literally or figuratively, transitive or intransitive:—adversary, (be in) afflict(-ion), beseige, bind (up), (be in, bring) distress, enemy, narrower, oppress, pangs, shut up, be in a strait (trouble), vex.

None of these are situations in which any hope and the great tribulation to which Jesus reveals here for the end of the end times is beyond any human grasp of the full WRATH OF GOD against sin!

The Gospel of Matthew

Parable of the Sower

applied here (if you have eyes to see)

13: .. and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed.. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away…

And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;

For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes

and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’

The Gospel of Matthew 13:14-15 NKJV; The Messiah Jesus saying why MANY will not receive the Word of God

• Could this include MULTITUDES of 21st century ‘christians’ failing to come near the Throne of the Lamb?

Why else would a seeker-friendly ‘church‘ avoid the tight spot of preaching repentance to which the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John calls us.

The Parable of the Sower Explained

18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom.. he who received the seed on stony places,

..this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while.

For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

Matthew 13:20b-21 NKJV – Jesus telling of ‘christians’ who will abandon faith when pressed hard by the world – parable of the sower

θλῖψις – Tribulation

The KJV translates Strong’s G2347 in the following manner: tribulation (21x), affliction (17x), trouble (3x), anguish (1x), persecution (1x), burdened (1x), to be afflicted (with G1519) (1x).

• a pressing, pressing together, pressure
• metaph. oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” stated Thomas Paine of freedom against nations ‘under God;’ our opposition of a world revolting against empires of man’s making, claiming God or Christ, even Idol or Prophet as excuse for the seed sown in hard places.

The Lord Jesus warned of a greater tribulation yet to come:

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.

The Gospel of Matthew 24:21-22 KJV

To be continued... 

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