See also: Great Tribulation
📖 Biblical Definition
The great tribulation is the period of intense distress and affliction foretold by Christ in the Olivet Discourse—“then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be”—and echoed in the book of Revelation. Its interpretation divides the eschatological schools. Preterists identify it chiefly with the catastrophic siege and destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when the horrors Christ described—famine, slaughter, the desolation of the temple—fell upon that generation as He said they would. Amillennialists often read it as characterizing the whole present age, in which the church endures tribulation between the advents, intensifying toward the end. Historic premillennialists expect a climactic future tribulation through which the church will pass before Christ returns to reign. Dispensationalists posit a distinct future seven-year tribulation, derived from a particular reading of Daniel’s seventieth week, from which the church is removed by a pretribulational rapture. Across these differences, Scripture is clear that tribulation is the appointed path of the people of God—“in the world ye shall have tribulation”—and that through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom. The debate concerns the timing, duration, and uniqueness of the great tribulation, not whether the saints are called to endure affliction with patience and hope.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines TRIBULATION as severe affliction, distress of mind, or vexation—the threshing of the soul; the “great tribulation” is the supreme distress foretold by Christ.
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TRIBULATION, n. — Severe affliction; distresses of life; vexations. In Scripture, it often denotes the troubles and distresses which proceed from persecution.
The phrase “great tribulation” (Matt. xxiv. 21; Rev. vii. 14) denotes the supreme season of distress foretold by Christ, variously located by interpreters.
📖 Key Scripture
Matthew 24:21 — "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
Revelation 7:14 — "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
John 16:33 — "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
Acts 14:22 — "...and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
No major postmodern redefinition; the timing is an intramural debate. The corruption is the sensational fixation that maps a future seven-year tribulation onto current headlines and breeds escapist dread.
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The interpretation of the great tribulation is a genuine debate among orthodox Christians—whether it fell upon Jerusalem in A.D. 70, characterizes the whole church age, or awaits a climactic future—and each view marshals serious exegesis of the Olivet Discourse and Revelation. This is honest disagreement over the timing and scope of the distress Christ foretold, not a contest between faith and unbelief. The faithful in every camp agree that tribulation is the appointed road of the saints and that the Lamb’s redeemed come out of great tribulation with robes washed white in His blood.
The corruption attaches to the popular dispensational treatment, which converts the great tribulation into a precisely timed future seven-year program and then labors to map its seals, trumpets, and bowls onto the daily news. This fixation breeds two ills: a sensationalism that reads geopolitics as coded prophecy and lurches from one failed identification to the next, and an escapism that, expecting the church to be raptured out before the trouble begins, loses the New Testament’s sober summons to endure. Scripture prepares the saints not to escape tribulation but to overcome in it, of good cheer because Christ has overcome the world.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The image is the tribulum, the threshing-sledge; the Greek thlipsis (pressure, affliction) names the crushing distress, qualified as megalē (great).
Usage
"Preterists read the great tribulation as the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem; dispensationalists, as a future seven-year period."
"Scripture prepares the saints to overcome in tribulation, not to be whisked away from it."
"The redeemed of Revelation come out of great tribulation with robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb."
📖 In the Text
Chapters of the reading Bible where this entry is linked.