Coming Attractions Part III – The Great Tribulation

This is a continuing series of posts where I am summarizing and reflecting on the sermons in our senior pastor’s four part series on biblical prophecy, “So What’s Next?”.

• Introduction to the End Times
• Reflection on the first sermon
• Reflection on the second sermon
• Reflection on the third sermon – part I
• Reflection on the third sermon – part II – The Rapture

In the dispensational scheme of the end times, immediately following The Rapture of the church, the rest of the world is subjected to a 7 year period of intense persecution and suffering called the Great Tribulation. This persecution and suffering is largely inflicted by the leadership of the most evil individual the world has ever known, the anti-Christ.

The church is spared this suffering because it has been already removed from the world.

My view (amillennial) is that the ‘tribulation’ spoken of in various sections of Scripture is the ongoing suffering and persecution of believers as they spread the gospel to all nations. It is not a limited, specific 7 year period where the church is not even present in the world.

As mentioned in the previous post on the rapture, the dispensational interpretation of the end times is fully driven by the interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27. Since one specific text was not used during the ‘Great Tribulation’ section of the sermon, I am going to briefly look at the Daniel passage because it is so crucial for understanding where the view comes from.

Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.
— Daniel 9:24-27

Huh? You’re probably scratching your head right now (as you should be).

This prophecy is complex, and it takes a lot of thought and exegesis to interpret it. I won’t attempt that here, I just want to tell you the basics of two opposing interpretations.

And, I’d like to point out that the entire dispensational scheme of the end times depends on their interpretation of these three verses. It colors how they read all the New Testament texts and how they place events within certain timelines and apportion them out to Israel or the Church.

Now, everyone agrees that this prophecy begins by dealing with the Old Testament nation of Israel – I believe I am correct in stating that the first 69 weeks is more or less agreed upon to be referring to the nation of Israel prior to the first coming of Jesus Christ.

However, the major differences come in the interpretation of verses 26 and 27.

Dispensational View
In the dispensational view, the entire prophecy is dealing solely with the nation of Israel; the church isn’t in the picture by any means.

The final week (the seventieth week) from verse 27, is identified as the period of the Great Tribulation. The one who “makes a strong covenant with many” is the anti-Christ, and the “many” is the re-established nation of Israel.

This refers to a peace treaty that Israel makes with the anti-Christ figure, marking out the starting point of the Great Tribulation period. It will last for 7 years (1 “week” in this prophecy).

Now if you recall, the Great Tribulation doesn’t begin until the church is taken out of the world.

So, if the first 69 weeks are dealing with Old Testament Israel, and the 70th week is dealing with the Great Tribulation, where is this entire period of time when the church is present and expanding among the nations?

In order for this to work, there must be a “gap” in the prophecy between the 69th week (Old Testament Israel) and the beginning of the 70th week. And this is exactly what the dispensational view does. The church age has been called by many dispensationalists the “great parenthesis” or “plan B”, or the “gap”.

This is derived directly from this interpretation of this passage in Daniel; in the church age the pause button is pressed and the prophecy is suspended until the church is removed and Israel is re-established.

Only then does the 70th week start, and hence, the 7 year Great Tribulation.

Amillennial View
In the view that I hold, the interpretation is starkly different. Of most importance, the one who “makes a strong covenant with many” is Christ, and the “many” is the church – all who believe in Him (Jew or Gentile). And therefore, the 70th week is the entire church age.

Christ is the “annointed one” that will be “cut off and have nothing”; and this, in fact, is how the strong covenant with many is made.

You really can’t get more opposite than these two interpretations – the amillennialist holds that Christ and the church is in view in verses 26 and 27. The dispensationalist holds that the anti-Christ and national Israel is in view.

So, which one is correct?
Well, that’s for you to decide. And there is so much more detail that has to go into an honest discussion of the end times in general, and of this short section in Daniel; I’m just trying to scrape the surface for you on these issues.

But, here’s the question: which interpretation of the seventy weeks in Daniel 9 fits better with the New Testament presentation of the end times?

In other words, if you take the New Testament on it’s own terms and define what the end times will look like, would you ever arrive at the dispensationalist view?

I personally don’t think you can; I think that the interpretation of Daniel 9 (which I consider to be a shaky interpretation to begin with) is read back into the New Testament passages on the end times and they are made to fit the scheme.