I would very much like to know the views of WLC on the 7 year tribulation period. Will Christian believers have to pass through the tribulation as well ?

Question: I would very much like to know the views of WLC on the 7 year tribulation period. Will Christian believers have to pass through the tribulation as well ?

Answer: The Evangelical Christian doctrine of the Tribulation is based on a futurist interpretation of 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.” The concept confines the fulfilment of this text to the future. It is associated to the doctrine of the rapture, which is thought to take place before, after, or in the middle of the seven years of tribulation.

WLC takes a completely different approach, a so-called historicist one rather than the futurist. The doctrine of the tribulation is dependent on the doctrine of the rapture, which WLC rejects completely. WLC sees prophecy to describe world events down to the visible, literal, cataclismic second coming of Christ, at which time the righteous dead will be resurrected to join the righteous living to meet the Lord in the air, and the wicked will be destroyed by the brightness of his coming. There will be no secret rapture and no seven years of tribulation.

WLC sees Matthew 24:21 to refer primarily to the tribulation of the Jewish nation predicted by Christ and fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. A primary difficulty with the Tribulation doctrine is the context of Matthew 24:20, that predicts that the hardships of the Tribulation will include the Sabbath. Most people who believe the Tribulation doctrine do not keep the Sabbath, so the text cannot apply to the church as they view it, which does not keep the Sabbath. Many historicists see Matthew 24:21 as beginning in 70 A.D., but extending to the persecution of the Jews down through history, ending in either 1948 or 1967, when the State of Israel was established and when it took over Jerusalem. WLC does not adhere to that historicist position, but it does not rule out a secondary application of Matthew 24:21 as predicting the Time of Trouble just before Christ's second coming.

The WLC doctrine of the Time of Trouble is based on Daniel 12:1 “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” A clear and helpful description of those events is found in Ellen G. White's book The Great Controversy, chapter 39. This chapter contains a commentary on the several Bible texts upon which the doctrine is based.