The Great Tribulation and the Great Commission—Disciples, Witnesses, and Martyrs

The Great Commission and the Great Tribulation Run Concurrently

It is common for Christians to discuss the Great Commission in a missionary context and to consider and develop its role as the final marching orders coming from Jesus to his church. In Matthew 28:18–20, we read, “And Jesus came and said to them, `All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

It is also common for Christians interested in eschatology to discuss and debate the nature of the great tribulation (i.e., “when?” and “how long?”). In a previous essay (The Great Tribulation -- When and How Long?), I wrote,

In light of the tendency to relegate a time of "great" tribulation to the distant past or the immediate future, it is important to briefly survey the biblical teaching on this topic. When we do so, it becomes clear that the time of “great tribulation” cannot be tied exclusively to the events of A.D. 70, nor to the seven years immediately before our Lord’s return. The Bible does not speak of tribulation in this manner, and as we know, many of God’s people have already faced periods of horrific tribulation following the days of Christ’s redemptive tribulation on the cross, and that such tribulation for the people of God will continue until Jesus returns at the end of the age to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new.

But it is not often that the Great Commission and the tribulation are discussed in relation to each other (they are connected), and seen as running in parallel throughout the entire inter-advental age. Each give us quite different perspectives on the same period of time—this present evil age. In what follows, I will attempt to draw out and highlight the connection between the mission of the church to go out among the nations, and the opposition from those nations which that mission generates. Jesus himself tells us that this mission extends throughout this present evil age (“I am with until the end of the age”), and provides the context of the nature and mission of the church which Jesus established—to make disciples. It also is apparent that this mission will be conducted in an atmosphere of hostility—i,e., the age of tribulation. Recall, that Jesus told his disciples to expect as much. In Matthew 10:16–22, Jesus warned them,

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

The Reason for the Hostility

God’s people will be hated because of who Jesus is, what he came to do, and because his word exposes the sinful things people do in secret. John 3:19 makes this point quite clearly. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” The preaching of the law and the gospel in their proper relationship exposes sin for what it is (the breaking of God’s commandments) and offers the only hope of deliverance from the wrath of God to come (Christ’s saving merits, received by faith alone).

Such hostility arises from the fact that Christian preaching is essentially a truth claim. To preach the gospel properly assumes the truth of Jesus’s words in John 14:6. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” To proclaim that Jesus is the way is to say all other religious claims are false. This puts any Christian who trusts in Jesus for deliverance from the wrath to come at the end of the age in fundamental intellectual conflict with those who are not Christians. The exclusive nature of Christian preaching becomes evident when the Christian preacher proclaims “Jesus is Lord.” To make that claim is to say “Caesar isn’t Lord.” This is why Christians often find themselves in the presence of those who find Christian claims offensive, non-inclusive, and indeed subversive since a Christian’s primary loyalty is to Christ, not a political party, a social movement, to the state, or to its leader. Therefore, the reason why this age is described as one of tribulation is because Christians will inevitably face hostility and persecution due to the content of their faith (Christ’s person and work) and the gospel they preach (Christ crucified and risen).

The Legal Authority of the Witnesses

In the midst of the trials and troubles foretold of the age of tribulation, Jesus assigns to his church the task of “bearing witness” to his person and work, which is the content of the gospel his people are to preach so as to fulfill Jesus’s commission. We see this connection in Luke 24:48, where Jesus tells his disciples, “You are witnesses of these things,” while similarly in Acts 1:8, he says to them, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In John 15:27, Jesus told his disciples, “and you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” The notion of bearing “witness” here applies specifically to the apostles and depends upon the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. But in the Great Commission, the proclamation of Christ’s disciples is now extended to “all nations,” and to “ends of the earth” (through the mission of the church which the disciples will found).

In light of the world’s hatred of our Lord’s chosen witnesses, it is important to consider the precise nature and authority of that to which his people bear witness, as well as the consequences for doing so. According to J. A. Heyns, “particularly in view of their task in this world, believers are also called witnesses.” This is a “juridical concept” as witnesses speak the facts about which they are familiar as though in a courtroom setting.[1] Those who hear the proclamation from God’s chosen witnesses (i.e., the gospel) are confronted by those who have legal authority granted them by the judge of the whole earth to bear witness of their guilt and expose refusal to embrace the truth. In this sense, those who preach the gospel function as witnesses in a legal proceeding, by giving testimony challenging (and refuting) the claims being made by the defendants. Although those who reject the gospel ironically see themselves as confronting those who are bearing false witness—those who dare tell them that they are guilty before God and are in desperate need of a Savior—the reality is that those who challenge God’s witnesses have their guilt before God exposed all the more by rejecting those whom God has sent to bring his evidence against them. We need to see this in the proper perspective. God is the judge. It is unbelievers who are on trial—not those whom God sent to bear witness. Christian preaching gives the evidence against them—that they are guilty before God because God has provided a remedy for the guilt of sin, which those on trial willingly reject, and who then dare to persecute the witnesses whom God sends to confront them.

The Death (Martyrdom) of the Witnesses

We may tend to think of this in an individual sense (i.e., those who preach the gospel will often face hostility), but this takes on the nature of a cosmic struggle as well. In Revelation 11-12, John extends this image of “witnessing” to mission of the church as a whole. In Revelation 11:3-13, John assigns to the church of the present age a role as “two witnesses” who prophesy for 42 months.[2] These witnesses are the two olive trees of Zechariah 4, which point to the power of the Spirit as the basis for both the origin and authority of the message of the two witnesses. Recall, that when God asked Zechariah if he knew what the menorah imagery meant, and he replied that he did not know, the angel responded: “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (4:3-6). It is this testimony (prophecy—i.e., preaching the gospel) which gets the witnesses killed in the last days (the last period in human history before the final consummation).

The same sort of scene unfolds in Revelation12:17, where it is the woman (Israel, or more likely Mary, the mother of the Messiah) and her offspring (the church) who “keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”[3] This loyalty to God and his word has unpleasant consequences—the dragon is furious at those who refuse to follow him and then makes war on them bringing about “tribulation” (cf. Revelation 7:14, 13:7, 15)

The Church — God’s Embassy on the Earth During the Time of Tribulation

Closely related to the idea of the church as God’s witnesses, is the understanding that the church functions as God’s embassy on earth from which Christians serve as “ambassadors” sent by Christ into all the earth.[4] Paul uses this image in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” In this case, the ambassadors sent by God to preach the reconciling gospel are sent by the church, with the Lord of the church’s full authority, to bring a particular message which fulfills Christ’s commission—God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

The ambassador brings the message given him by the king whom he serves. The ambassador is not free to make up his own message. Because the message comes from the great king, it comes with the king’s authority, even if given through the means of an agent—the ambassador, who is, in this case, the minister sent to preach/prophesy as directed by the king. To show hostility to the ambassador and reject his message is to reject the king who sent him. But this is no mere earthly king, president, or prime minister—the one who sends the ambassador is the Creator and Redeemer. Once his message is delivered to the intended audience from the heavenly court, all those who hear it are legally obligated to obey it (i.e, believe its contents and do as it commands). To reject the witness sent by the king, or even to do bodily harm to the king’s messengers (i.e., the killing of the “two witnesses” as described above), is to greatly increase the gravity of the eventual verdict. The king will mete out the verdict required by his holy justice. Paul calls this “the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

To Attempt to Fulfill the Great Commission Is to Provoke the Dragon Unto Wrath

The struggle then, between those who seek to fulfill the great commission in the midst of a hostile people who serve the dragon (even if unwittingly), is yet another indication that the great commission and the great tribulation run concurrently. The church and its ministers are to preach the message them given them by the Lord of the church until the Lord returns. To bear “witness” is to serve as an official ambassador from the Creator-Redeemer with a divine summons to a rebellious people who already stand condemned before the heavenly court. While the message is one of free and complete reconciliation with the offended king (including the forgiveness of all past offenses, and the granting of a new standing before him), the very nature of the witness bearing with the king’s authority only gives further opportunity for the unbelieving world to continue to rebel against the king and persecute his ambassadors.

Even though the king’s “great” commission to bear witness is given in an age of great tribulation, God’s kingdom will steadily advance to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). When the king determines that the end of the age is at hand, his kingdom will be consummated and the tribulation experienced by his people will give way to eternal life in a new heaven and earth, the home of righteousness. And it is the dragon and his henchmen who are thrown into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10).

Note: For yet another concurrent event in New Testament eschatology see, The Binding of Satan

_________________________________

[1] J. A. Heyns, The Church, 62.

[2] Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb, 170-171.

[3] Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb, 179-183.

[4] Horton, People and Place, 32-33.