The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Lorraine Hannaford of Ontario, Canada from the tape, GC 1301-L, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 14."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1980. All Rights Reserved.

Question

Revelation 20:4-5 indicates that we will be going through the tribulation. I was wondering if you would comment on those verses, in fact that this is the first resurrection.

Answer

As far as Revelation chapter 20:4-5 saying, "This proves we’ll go through the tribulation," there’s no passage in the Bible, in my mind, one passage, that proves that we will or we won’t. You have to cover the whole body of truth.

"And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." [Revelation 20:4-5]

You know when I did a series on, “Will the Church go through the Tribulation?” I think I preached six hours on that, because there is so much scripture to deal with. Now, I believe that if you go into Revelation 20, what you have here is a statement about the fact that you do have some people, he’s saying here that those who go into the kingdom and reign with Christ will be those who have not worshipped the beast or his image, nor received the mark on their foreheads or in their hands. There is no question in my mind that the saints of the tribulation are in view here, because that’s the context of what’s happening. You see in chapter 19 you have Armageddon, you have this great holocaust of Armageddon, you’re in the tribulation here. And so you’re dealing with those people.

Now there are only two groups of people in the tribulation. The first group would be those who were sinful; those who took the mark of the beast, they are described in the last part of chapter 19 as those who are slaughtered and those who are massacred and those who are cast in the lake of fire, right? And all of that. The other side are those who are the redeemed. And so in order to sum up the whole of human history to that point, he simply discusses where those who were the redeemed out of the tribulation are going to fit into the picture. He’s not discussing the church saints at this point. In fact they don’t really get into the picture until chapter 21 when the bride comes down from heaven. And then the church enters into the scene. The very fact that they come down to earth from heaven is indicative of the fact that they’ve been up there. So I think you just have to take the whole context, and see it in that perspective. And if you have further questions we have a whole series of tapes on “Will the Church go through the Tribulation?”

To me the key thing in not believing we go through the tribulation is that I believe the Bible gives us a blessed hope not a miserable one. I’m not looking for the tribulation; I’m looking for the Lord. So I think that’s the key thing.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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