The Great Tribulation

The resurrection is more powerful than the cross. Light is more powerful than darkness (John 1:9). Good is more powerful than evil, for Christ now reigns from on high. The legacy of the "second Adam," Jesus Christ, is more powerful in history than the legacy of the first Adam. Grace is more powerful than sin.

You believe this, don't you?

Why, then, should Christians believe that some great tribulation faces them in the future—a tribula­tion so great that nothing like it in history has ever occurred? 

The answer is: they shouldn't. Why not? Because the great tribulation is behind us. 

This book introduces readers to the theology of judgment: specifically, God's judgment sanctions against Israel. The sanctions were curses. God gave blessings to the church and cursings to rebellious Israel, which had crucified the Lord and publicly called God's judgment down on themselves: "Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:25). God's cursings on ancient Israel in A.D. 70 matched their crime, the crucifixion of Christ. This crime was the greatest (worst) in history; their punishment was also the greatest (worst) in history. To call anything else "the great tribulation" is to downplay the im­mensity of that generation's crime.

Jesus warned His people of a great tribulation to come in the very near future. In the chapter on the great tribulation in Matthew, Christ's words are recorded: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:34). We know from the parallel passage in Luke that the great trib­ulation would be the destruction of Jerusalem by an army, which turned out to be the Roman army:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem com­passed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof draweth nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there­ into. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled (Luke 21:20-22).

David Chilton's magnificent commentary on the Book of Revelation is appropriately called The Days of Vengeance. This little book is a brief survey of those sections of Revelation that deal with the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. 

David Chilton (1951-1997) was a beloved Reformed pastor, popular conference speaker, and bestselling author. Widely published in periodicals such as World Magazine, Tabletalk, and the Sacramento Union, his clear and cogent style and his wry sense of humor gained him an appreciative audience worldwide. His books include Days of Vengeance, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators, Paradise Restored, and Power in the Blood.

Specs: Paperback or PDF Download; 214 pages