When I first started to study the Bible for myself, I was like a man who is trying to walk while shackled to a heavy weight. I had studied the Bible all my life through the lens of Watchtower publications. Now I had preconceptions about what some words meant, and what some terms referred to. Those preconceptions clouded my thinking. To use another metaphor, it would be like building a house on what you believed was solid rock, only to learn that you’re building on sand.
For instance, here’s a phrase that occurs hundreds of times in one form or another in the publications and videos on JW.org.
“The great crowd of other sheep will survive the great tribulation.”
Now, if you have watched the previous video in this series, you’ll know that the great crowd worships God in heaven. They stand in the Most Holy part of the temple worshipping before the throne of God. They are not a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses who survive Armageddon to live on earth as God’s friends. But then, how is it that the great crowd “survives the great tribulation”? The Organization teaches that the anointed, the children of God, are transfigured and taken up to heaven before the start of Armageddon. In that they are correct. The Bible says,
“Look! I tell YOU a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52)
Do you see the conundrum this creates? How can the great crowd survive the great tribulation, if they have been taken to heaven before the great tribulation ends?
The problem for me back when I first started to study these things is that I was accepting Watchtower terminology and definitions without questioning. I was building on a foundation without making sure the foundation was solid. Why doesn’t the Bible talk about surviving the great tribulation. In Revelation 7:14, when John hears about the great crowd, the word “survive” doesn’t appear. Instead, we have this:
“These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation…” (Revelation 7:14)
Coming out of an event isn’t the same as surviving an event, is it? Why was the Organization using a loaded term like “survive”? Were they wrong about what the great tribulation is?
They’ve been wrong about everything else! They are wrong about who the other sheep are. They are wrong about the identity of the great crowd. They are wrong about the 144,000 being a literal number. Could it be that they are also wrong about what the great tribulation is?
If so, they are not alone. Mormons, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, and others also believe that the great tribulation refers to God’s great war at the end of days.
But what does the Bible reveal it to be? That is what interests us.
A good rule of thumb when we start out to analyze a term like “great tribulation” is to go to the original language, in this case, Greek, and see how it was defined at the time it was written.
You see, it all starts with the word, doesn’t it? If I can get you to accept my definition of a word from the very start, then I can more easily lead you down a false path. It is as if I were the one holding the flashlight and telling you to follow me into darkness.
“Don’t be afraid,” I would tell you, “because I have the light. Just follow me to safety.”
That would make you dependent on me, because I alone have the light. That is what religious leaders want you to believe—that they hold the light of truth.
But what if that light is not light, but darkness? What then?
How can a light be darkness, you ask? That seems like a paradox, but it isn’t. Jesus said, “If the light that is in you is really darkness, how great that darkness is!” (Matthew 6:23)
No, my friends. It is much better that you hold your own flashlight to guide you. But even that light can be darkness if your desire is not to know truth, but to satisfy your own longing. For instance, many Jehovah’s Witnesses, to name only one religious group, want to believe they have the way to life. It makes them feel special. An elite group that will be saved while the rest of the world burns in the great tribulation. But are they missing out on the real truth about what the great tribulation is?
To answer that we’ll start by consulting a Greek Lexicon, like Strong’s. There we learn that the Greek word rendered “tribulation” in Revelation 7:14 is θλίψεως, (thlipsis). (Strong’s #2347)
Thlipsis is defined as: “tribulation, affliction, distress, persecution”. Notice that thlipsis isn’t used to refer to destruction, cataclysm, or war.
Strong’s Lexicon informs us that thlipsis is derived from the Greek verb θλίβω (thlibō), meaning "to press" or "to squeeze."
What happens when you press or squeeze grapes? You get the juice out. You extract what is of value to you.
When the elder told John that the great crowd he saw out of all the nations, tribes, peoples, and languages were those who come out of the great tribulation, John understood his meaning right away. That is why he didn’t ask for further clarification. He knew what tribulation meant.
I was taught to believe that John knew that the great tribulation started with the destruction of Babylon the great and ended with Armageddon. I just assumed that was so, because that is what I had been taught to believe. I wasn’t taught to try to look at things through John’s eyes. If I had been, I would have realized that John didn’t know about Babylon the great or Armageddon. At least, not at that moment. He hadn’t yet received those visions. They came later and are recorded from chapters 14 through 18 of Revelation. We’re only in chapter 7 right now.
So, the idea that John understood the great tribulation as the Governing Body teaches is pure self-serving speculation. Though, this does give us an opportunity to explore how subtle use of words can induce us to believe something that isn’t true.
For example, consider this recent Watchtower article from 2021.
“The young man was 18 years old when he got baptized in 1926….As was true of all Bible Students back then, this sincere young man partook of the bread and the wine each year at the Lord’s Evening Meal. However, his entire outlook on life was changed by a history-making talk entitled “The Great Multitude.” That talk was given in 1935 by J. F. Rutherford at a convention in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. What was revealed at that convention?
2 In his talk, Brother Rutherford identified those who would make up the…“great crowd,” mentioned at Revelation 7:9. Until then, this group was thought to be a secondary heavenly class that was less faithful. Brother Rutherford used the Scriptures to explain that the great crowd are not chosen to live in heaven, but they are Christ’s other sheep who will survive “the great tribulation” and live forever on earth.” (Rev. 7:14)
That was ninety years ago, and Witnesses still believe this today. But did you notice the misquote? In Revelation 7:14, the elder tells John that the great crowd come out of the great tribulation. Pretty much every Bible you can find on Biblehub.com uses the term “come out”, not survive. The Greek word here is ἔρχομαι (erchomai) meaning “to come, to go.” Nothing about survival. Even the New World Translation renders it correctly, so why do the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses use the loaded term, survive? And make no mistake, the concept of surviving the great tribulation occurs hundreds of times in Watchtower publications and talks.
They obviously want their readers to believe that this is a life-or-death situation. Either you survive the great tribulation by remaining one of the JW class of other sheep, or you will die.
So why doesn’t the Bible describe it as a life-or-death situation? Why use the term, “come out”?
If you want to figure out for yourself what a Greek word means, it’s best to look at how it is used. The word thlipsis occurs 45 times in the Greek Scriptures. I looked up every occurrence and do you know what I found? Almost without exception, the word is linked to the suffering of God’s servants. It isn’t used to describe war and destruction, but the suffering, persecution, distress and affliction that loyal servants of God have to go through. The foremost of those servants of God is Jesus himself, who led the way, as the writer of Hebrews explains:
“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him and was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:8-10 Berean Standard Bible)
Jesus had to go through suffering. Why? Because obedience has to be proven by testing. It’s easy to obey when things are going your way, but when you’re being squeezed—the root meaning of thlipsis—it’s not so easy. If you endure and do not give in, then your faith acquires a tested quality. Jesus came out of his tribulation as a conqueror by not giving in.
Just before Jesus underwent his greatest trial, he told Simon Peter:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have all of you to sift like wheat. But I begged for you, that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31 Berean Literal Bible)
Satan fears those who are called to become children of God, because he knows they are his enemies. So, he wants to break them while they are still weak in the flesh. The apostles did fail that first test. They all ran off in fear when Jesus was arrested. But that was before they received the holy spirit which came 50 days later at Pentecost.
To highlight the essential nature of the holy spirit for us to endure tribulation for salvation, let’s read from Romans:
“…we glory in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, the One having been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5 BLB)
I invite you to spend the time to scan through every occurrence of thlipsis to see for yourself that it refers not to destruction, but to trials that provide a stressful situation of testing and that the ones being tested are God’s servants.
However, we are not talking about tribulation in general. We are talking about the specific tribulation referred to in Revelation 7:14, “the great tribulation”. The Greek interlinear reveals this.
Notice that the Greek text uses not one, but two definite articles.
tēs thlipseōs tēs megalēs, literally, “the tribulation the great”. Many Slavic languages do not have indefinite nor definite articles and so use other methods to convey specificity. Greek, on the other hand, can convey specificity not only to the noun—in this case, “tribulation”—but to its modifier as well, “great”.
So, the structure used in this passage points to a singular, specific, and extraordinary event. We could express it this way:
“These are the ones who come out of the tribulation, which is specifically, the great one.”
Now there are three other places in the Christian Scriptures where the words “thlipsis megalē” (“great tribulation”) appear. One is in Acts 7:11 which reads:
“Then a famine occurred in all of Egypt and Canaan, and a great tribulation. And our fathers did not find food.” (CPD Version)
There is no definite article modifying “great tribulation” here. So, while this was a serious time of tribulation, it was still a generic affliction or tribulation that God’s servants, Jacob and his family, suffered.
The second occurrence in order of relevance to our discussion is from Revelation 2:20-22:
“But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.” (Revelation 2:20-22 BSB)
In this case, it is God who is imposing “great tribulation” on his own servants, but to what end? To destroy? No, but to discipline in the hope that the suffering will lead to repentance. Again, notice the absence of any definite article that would otherwise make this tribulation special.
Now, since we’re in Revelation, let’s take a short side trip. Don’t worry. It’s relevant to our discussion. Remember that John didn’t ask the elder what he meant by “the great crowd being those who come out of the great tribulation”? Here’s why:
“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9 BSB)
Fascinating, isn’t it? John considers himself to be “our brother and partner in the tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance that are in Jesus.” Why? Because he was suffering in exile on the prison isle of Patmos for obeying God’s Word and bearing witness about Jesus.
John is our partner in the tribulation that is in Jesus.
A picture is forming, isn’t it?
To further emphasize that tribulation has the purpose of preparing us for being God’s children, let’s consider the matter of discipline. I’m going to read this from the New World Translation because it is a verse that the Governing Body loves to apply to justify its disfellowshipping policy. But they totally miss the fact that it applies only to those who are anointed children of God. Let’s read. We’ll start at Hebrews 12:5, 6.
“My son, do not belittle the discipline from Jehovah, nor give up when you are corrected by him; for those whom Jehovah loves he disciplines, in fact, he scourges everyone whom he receives as a son.”
Yes, for this scripture to apply to disfellowshipped people, it means that they are considered by Jehovah’s Witnesses to be anointed children of God. It has to be that way if we look at the context, because the next two verses read:
“You need to endure as part of your discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? But if you have not all shared in receiving this discipline, you are really illegitimate children, and not sons.” (Hebrews 12:7, 8 NWT)
If we are to accept what the Governing Body says about disfellowshipping being an example of Jehovah’s discipline, then all the members of the Governing Body need to be disfellowshipped, because,
“if you have not all shared in receiving this discipline, then you are really illegitimate children and not God’s sons.”
Oops!
But I digress.
Now to the third occurrence of “great tribulation”. This one is significant, because Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught to view it as a part of a type/antitype pairing. I refer to Matthew 24:21.
This reference to “great tribulation” is the one that Jehovah’s Witnesses use to justify their interpretation of Revelation 7:14 about “the great crowd of other sheep surviving the great tribulation”.
Matthew 24:20-22 reads:
“Keep praying that your flight may not occur in wintertime nor on the Sabbath day; for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.” (NWT)
Again, notice the complete absence of the definite article.
The cutting short of this great tribulation refers to the time that the Romans first laid siege to Jerusalem in 66 C.E. The Jews thought they were going to die, and many wanted to rush out to the Roman legions and surrender, while other factions in the city wanted to fight. There seemed to be no way out. Then, suddenly and without explanation, the Roman legions broke camp and fled back home. It was viewed as a great victory by the Jews, but the Christians in the city, moved by holy spirit, knew better. They knew that Jesus’ words had been fulfilled. The tribulation had been cut short, and now was the time to escape.
They had to come out of the city and flee which many did. Perhaps there were some who delayed. Perhaps they had family members who were not Christians, and they stayed to try to convince them to leave. That would have been a mistake, because the opportunity to leave was brief. Jewish zealots knew the Romans would be back and so they didn’t allow men to leave. Christians who tarried would die when Rome returned.
But there is nothing in Scripture linking the tribulation of 66 C.E. with the one that the elder refers to in Revelation 7:14.
The Organization teaches that the great tribulation Jesus referred to was not over, but merely suspended. The Governing Body claims that the tribulation resumed in 70 C.E. and ended with the total destruction of the city. But cut short means just that, cut short, ended, not paused only to resume later. Otherwise, how can we understand Matthew 24:29 which reads:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Matthew 24:29)
What you are reading there is typical apocalyptic language; the type of symbolic language used in the Hebrew Scriptures to describe cataclysmic events brought upon the enemies of God.
Similar language is used to describe what would befall Babylon:
“For the stars of the heavens and their constellations Will not give off their light; The sun will be dark when it rises, And the moon will not shed its light.” (Isaiah 13:10)
And the nation of Edom:
“All the army of the heavens will rot away, And the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. All their army will wither away, As a withered leaf falls from the vine And a shriveled fig from the fig tree.” (Isaiah 34:4)
And a Pharoah of Egypt:
“‘And when you are extinguished I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with clouds, And the moon will not give its light. I will darken all the shining luminaries in the heavens because of you, And I will cover your land with darkness,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.” (Ezekiel 32:7, 8)
This is the same imagery that the Apostle Peter uses at Pentecost before the crowds when he quotes the prophet Joel to tell the Jews who murdered Jesus that they were in the last days.
“On the contrary, this is what was said through the prophet Joel: ‘“And in the last days,” God says,…“I will give wonders in heaven above and signs on earth below—blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and illustrious day of Jehovah comes.” (Acts 2:19, 20)
All of these signs in the heavens occur IMMEDIATELY AFTER the tribulation of those days. So, the predicted great tribulation ended in 66 C.E., and immediately after, in 70 C.E. the Roman army returns and destroys the city.
Everything fits!
But what is special about the great tribulation mentioned in Revelation 7:14 is that it is defined using two definite articles highlighting its uniqueness.
Why is it necessary that the great crowd, who come out of all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages, go through a time of testing, a great tribulation? Again, we go to the example of our Lord Jesus who learned obedience through the things he suffered and was made perfect or complete for the role set before him to become a priest like Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:8-10)
We saw that the great crowd are standing in the naos, the Temple Most Holy where only the Jewish High Priest could go. We also saw that the way into the Most Holy is no longer restricted to just the High Priest, because the curtain was ripped open.
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain…” (Hebrews 10:19, 20 NIV)
Just like Jesus, before God can grant any of us access to the Most Holy to serve as priests for the healing of the nations, we must learn obedience through tribulation, through suffering. Then, and only then, will we be perfected or completed for the tasks ahead.
This was God’s purpose from the start. The first prophesy at Genesis 3:15 speaks of the seed of the woman. That seed is Jesus, but it includes the children of God, Christ’s brothers, who are called and chosen to become a kingdom of priests.
This still leaves many questions unanswered.
Are the faithful men and women of old also part of the great crowd? Are Abel, Enoch, Noah, Moses, Abraham, and the prophets -part of the great crowd? Where will this royal priesthood made up of the children of God serve? Are they going far off to heaven never to return? And who will live on the earth?
The answers to these questions and many more are all there to be found in Scripture. They always have been. We’ve been given the key to our shackles. It’s time to break free of our chains. We are no longer encumbered by false JW theology, nor the theology of any other religious system.
We’ll get to each of those questions, and many more, in this series. Please stay tuned.
Thank you for watching to the end.