By Jack Kinsella
In the Old Testament, the unrepentant Israel was pictured as an adulterous wife. (Hosea 2:1-8) In the New Testament, the Church is depicted as the Bride of Christ.
In ancient Israel, marriage was a three-phased operation. The first phase was the betrothal, or engagement. The second was the coming of the bridegroom to claim his bride. The third phase was the marriage supper, held at the home of the bridegroom.
Our spiritual relationship with Christ follows this model. Our spiritual ‘betrothal’ takes place at the moment of salvation. The coming of the Bridegroom to claim His bride is a prefiguration of the Rapture.
John’s vision in Revelation 19 completes the picture with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb which takes place in Heaven.
“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.”
Let’s take a sneak peek at what is in store for us at our wedding dinner and see what we can learn from it.
Assessment
This passage in Chapter 19 is the first corporate appearance made by the Church since Revelation 4:1 when John heard a voice from Heaven saying “Come up hither!” From Revelation 4:2 until this point in Revelation, John’s narrative has focused on the judgments being meted out to those that “dwell upon the earth” and the corresponding events in Heaven.
There are four views of when the Marriage Supper of the Lamb takes place. About the only thing that is universally agreed-upon is that it takes place after the Rapture and the Believer’s judgment at the Bema Seat.
The post-Tribulation view is that it takes place in the air while the Church is being raptured. In this view, the Church rises into the air, is judged at the Bema Seat, participates in the celebration, then immediately returns to earth with Jesus to participate in the Battle of Armageddon.
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (Jude 1:13-14)
The Pre-Tribulation view is that the Bema Seat Believer’s judgment and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb takes place while the judgments of the Tribulation are being meted out to those that dwell upon the earth.
There are two other views, “Mid-Trib” and “Pre-Wrath” that place the Rapture and Marriage Supper somewhere around the middle of the seven year Tribulation. The Pre-Wrath view differs from Mid-Trib in that Mid-Tribbers agree that Daniel’s 70th Week is divided in half into two periods of 42 months each. Revelation 13:5 says that the second half of the Tribulation lasts 42 months. Daniel 9:27 says the antichrist breaks the covenant with the years halfway through the seven years.
Also, Daniel 7:25 where the “time, times, and half a time” (time=1 year; times=2 years; half a time=1/2 year; total of 3 1/2 years) also refers to “great tribulation.”
Pre-wrath argues that the Tribulation isn’t seven years long, but is an undefined period of time during the last 3 1/2 years of Daniel’s 70th Week.
Revelation 11:2-3 speaks of 1290 days and 42 months, Daniel 12:11-12 refers to both 1290 days and 1335 days. These days have a reference to the midpoint of the tribulation.
(The additional days in Daniel 12 may include the time at the end for the judgment of the nations (Matthew 25:31-46) and time for the setting up of Christ’s millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:4-6).)
So the length of the Tribulation Period is probably one of the most CLEARLY defined in Scripture.
“And He saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” (Revelation 19:9)
Who are those “called” or “invited” to the marriage supper of the Lamb? Is that the Church? Many opponents of pretribulationism say so. Does it make sense? Were you ‘invited’ to your own wedding? Without them, there would be no supper. The hosts are not ‘called’ to their wedding. They call others. The Bride and the Bridegroom host the wedding from their place of honor. They are not guests.
The guests are the Tribulation martyrs, the saints of the Old Testament and the hosts of heaven.
The Bride is pictured as arrayed in fine linen.
“And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” (Revelation 19:8)
The opponents of pretribulationism argue that suggests the Church must suffer through tribulation to cleanse and purify her in preparation for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Church is purified by tribulation. The Church is purified and sanctified by the shed Blood of Christ which imputes righteousness, or the Church is not sanctified or purified at all — and never can be.
It is BECAUSE the Church is clothed in fine linen that the Bema judgment has already taken place. That is where the rewards are given out. Note the description of the armies that return with Christ:
“And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” (Revelation 19:14)
The phrase, “Fine linen, white and clean” is mentioned twice. Once at the Marriage supper, (v. 9) and once here.
John’s description of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb confirms the following order of events, or it all collapses.
First, the Rapture. Then the Bema Judgment. Then comes the marriage supper. Finally, the return to earth with the Lord at Armageddon. The length of the Tribulation Period is the full seventieth Week of Daniel, or its purpose is meaningless and Daniel must be ripped from our Bibles.
Daniel 9:26-27 says it is determined for the Jewish people. Jeremiah 30:7 says it is the time of “Jacob’s Trouble”. Revelation says one purpose is to judge a Christ rejecting world (Revelation 9:21) and Zechariah 12:10 says its other purpose is to bring about the national redemption of Israel.
No matter how hard one tries to make the Church fit with the purpose of the Tribulation, to make it so, one has to diminish the Lord and elevate mankind. The sacrifice is sufficient for a person to be saved individually, but it isn’t enough to save one generation all at once.
The average guy has to go through average tribulation throughout his life, but if he trusts Jesus, he is saved from judgment. The ONLY purpose for the Tribulation Period IS judgment. Every generation of believers in New Testament history was judged at the Cross and found blameless if they covered by the Blood of Christ.
Except this one.
What happened to C.S. Lewis when he died? Did he have to go through the Tribulation to go to heaven? What about H. A. Ironside? D. L. Moody? Or pick your famous (and now dead) Christian from history. When they died, were they subjected to judgment for sin? Or was their sin covered?
If they didn’t have to go through the Tribulation Period, then why should the last generation?
Are we worse than previous generations that did not? Or is Jesus growing weaker as time passes?
The bedrock doctrine of Christianity is salvation by grace through faith. Nothing more is necessary than God’s grace and our faith.
The Tribulation Period is not the 1st century. Jesus is not building His Church — He is judging those who persecuted it. To judge the Church at the same time is to render the purpose for judgment meaningless.
It adds a special judgment to this generation not meted out to believers of previous generations. It diminishes Christ by demanding additional payment for sins from those whose sins were already paid for.
If salvation is a gift of grace and not of works, lest any man should boast, then what is salvation to the last generation? Bait and switch? You’re saved until the Tribulation and then you have to start over?
Wherefore comfort one another with these words?
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