Hour of Trial

Hour of Trial 

[Rev 3:10 LSB]  ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

Pre-Tribbers often use this passage as a justification for a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church.

Revelation 3:10 is explicitly conditional: “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you…"

If this verse is teaching the rapture, then it can only apply to those who meet the condition— those who "endure patiently".  This directly implies a partial rapture, where only the holiest Christians are taken, and the rest are left behind. Yet pretribulationists themselves reject the idea of a partial rapture. 

If Revelation 3:10 applies universally to all Christians, then so must the other promises and warnings in the surrounding letters.  For example from the mouth of Yeshua:

[Rev 2:10 LSB]  Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Pretrib interpreters selectively apply 3:10 as a universal promise while ignoring equally direct statements that speak of suffering and martyrdom.  This reveals an inconsistent hermeneutic principal to suit their own needs.

Jesus Himself taught in His High Priestly prayer: 

[Joh 17:15 LSB]  I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

Here the same Greek word tēréō (“to keep, to guard”) is used. Jesus explicitly rejects the idea of removal - He asks not that His disciples be taken out, but that they be preserved while still in the world. 

Similarly, preservation is not escape but protection.  Just as food is "kept" through winter by preservation, so God "keeps" His people through tribulation. 

I could just end this blog here.  The argument is over.

What exactly is "the hour of testing"?  Pre-Tribbers claim it is the entire duration of the 70th week.  Rest assured... it is not.  

First, what is the primary message of this passage?  Endurance and overcoming.

[Rev 3:11 LSB]  I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

That is the overall message to all of the churches in the Revelation.  They are all to be overcomers and endure until the end.

In response to the church’s keeping of His standards, Yeshua promises to keep it from the hour of trial.  Tērēsō ("I will keep") is a form of τηω (tēreō, “I keep, preserve”). This is a verb that at times emphasizes watchful care.

The full expression is: kagō se tērēsō ek tēs hōras tou peirasmou (“I will keep you from the hour of trial”). Understanding "the hour of trial" to be the future period of trouble just before Christ’s personal return to earth at the end of the 70th week.

If He meant, "I will keep you from the tribulation period in it's entirety" don't you think He would have made that clear?  Give me a break!  This is the pre-tribber grasping for straws.

Yeshua reaffirms this to them in the very next verse.  In other words, I will keep you from the hour of trial because:

[Rev 3:11 LSB]  I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

Does Yeshua come at the beginning of the 70th week?  No.

The participle τς μελλoσης (tēs mellousēs, "which is about to") modifies hōras ("hour") rather than πειασμo (peirasmou, "trial"), showing that it is the hour, not the trial, that is prominent in the statement. It is exemption from the period of time that is emphasized.

By implication, this deliverance (from the period of time) will coincide with Christ’s return mentioned in the very next verse: "I will come soon" (3:11).

Identification of tēs hōras tou peirasmou (“the hour of trial”) is not difficult.

It is directed against tēs oikoumenēs holēs (“the whole inhabited earth”), not just Philadelphia.  It is designed to try tous katoikountas epi tēs gēs (“those who dwell upon the earth”).

It is a significant period that will impact the whole world just prior to Christ’s personal return to earth.

This is a company of people constantly in view throughout the Apocalypse as objects of God’s wrath because of their rebellion against Him.

It is the time known to the Jews as the "Messianic woes", as seen in the visions beginning at Revelation 4 as coming upon the world. It is to be a time of distress on the world before the coming of Christ, one known as the Day of the Lord, during the Great Tribulation.

The trials of this period are designed to test the wicked, either to lead them to repentance or to punish them for failing to repent.  These trials/tribulations are also designed to test Christians.

The "hour of trial" does not encompass the entirety of Daniel's 70th week.  We're told time, and time again, throughout Scripture that we will be enduring through, at least, part of the Great Tribulation (second half of the 70th week).

These verses below do not refer to unbelieving Jews or Gentiles.  These verses speak directly to the Church.  Why would unbelieving Jews even heed these messages... He's speaking to His Bride!  The unbelieving Jews, apart from the remnant (144,000 sealed), don't escape the wrath of God - we do!  The Church!  

The wrath of God, the Day of the Lord, etc. does not commence until the seventh seal, which isn't released until well into the Great Tribulation period... towards the end of the 70th week.

All of these events below are well into Daniel's 70th week. 

[Dan 7:21 LSB]  “I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overcoming them

[Dan 7:25 LSB]  ‘He will speak words against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make changes in seasons and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

[Mat 24:9-10 LSB]  “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. [10]  And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.

[Mar 13:9 LSB]  “But see to yourselves; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be beaten in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a witness to them.

[Mar 13:11-13 LSB]  “And when they lead you away, delivering you up, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. [12]  And brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. [13]  And you will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

All of the above from Mark is BEFORE the mid-point of the 70th week:

[Mar 13:14 LSB]  But when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing where it should not be (let the reader understand)...

Mark 13:14 signals the switch from “Beginning of birth pains” to the “Great Tribulation” period… the second half of Daniel’s 70th week.  But after that tribulation... THEN Yeshua comes to rescue us:

[Mar 13:24 LSB]  “But in those days, after that tribulation, THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT,

Luke tells us the same thing:

[Luk 21:12-15 LSB]  “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. [13] It will result in an opportunity for your testimony. [14] So set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; [15] for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.

Pre-Tribbers will also claim the Church isn't mentioned after Revelation 4:1. Not only is this a strange argument to prove a pre-trib rapture, but it is completely false.  

The reason all of this this matters is because the primary way the Church is consistently described throughout Revelation is as "overcomers", - laying down their lives as faithful witnesses. The pre-trib teaching robs the Church of preparing to be overcomers and faithful witnesses.

The claim that we are removed robs us of the call to prepare to endure patiently, to live as faithful witness martyrs, to lay down our lives for Yeshua and the Gospel.

What about the martyrs and their soon-to-be martyred brothers?

[Rev 6:9 LSB]  And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the witness which they had maintained;

[Rev 6:11 LSB]  And a white robe was given to each of them; and it was told to them that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.

Satan went after the woman, but failed.  Who did he turn his attention to?

[Rev 12:10-11 LSB]  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. [11]  “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witness, and they did not love their life even to death.

[Rev 12:17 LSB]  So the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the witness of Jesus.

What about the prayers of the saints?

[Rev 5:8 LSB]  And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

[Rev 8:3 LSB]  And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.

[Rev 8:4 LSB]  And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints, out of the angel’s hand, before God.

These are not unbelieving Jews... they're Christians:

[Rev 11:18 LSB]  “And the nations were enraged, and Your rage came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Your slaves—the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

[Rev 13:7 LSB]  And it was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.

Again... who does this remind you of?  Maybe the Christians from Jesus Olivet Discourse?

[Rev 13:10 LSB]  If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.

[Rev 14:12-13 LSB]  Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. [13]  And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

How can one overcome the beast and his image if one has been raptured out of this world prior to the beast even showing up in the world?

[Rev 15:2 LSB]  Then I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who have overcome the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

[Rev 17:6 LSB]  Then I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.

[Rev 19:8 LSB]  And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

[Mat 24:13 LSB]  But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

The pre-trib rapture scenario is a lie straight out of the mouth of Satan.  It is designed to lead believers astray and break their spirit when they find themselves confronted by the beast.  They will be a good portion of those, spoken of by Paul, who fall away from the faith.

[2Th 2:3-4 LSB]  Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, [4]  who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the sanctuary of God, exhibiting himself as being God.

I could literally post a thousand more examples, but this page would again become too long... 

We weren’t promised to be rescued from tribulation - we were promised to be kept through tribulation and rescued from wrath. They are two different things.

[2Ti 3:1 LSB]  But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come. [7]  always learning and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.