There is, it seems, increasing confusion among the people of God as to whether the Church will go through the tribulation. From a paper by J.N. Darby, a few thoughts are gleaned and set forth in this column which, I trust, will help answer the question.

First of all, will there be a tribulation? The only way we can know is by the Word of God. Let me turn to the Scriptures that prophesy that such a time will come. Then let me point out what the passages themselves indicate as to those who will go through it.

1. The first passage is Jeremiah 30:7. "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it." This time of trouble, then will be greater than any other trouble, and it is spoken of as Jacob's trouble.

2. The next passage is Daniel 12:1. The whole prophecy is the description of what is to happen to Daniel's people in the last days (Daniel 10:14). "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." The tribulation is the tribulation of Daniel's people—the Jewish people.

3. Matthew 24:15, in the words of the Lord Jesus, refers to the same prophecy of Daniel 12 and verse 11. The 24th of Matthew is, from verses 1-44, strictly Jewish. Those who are in Judea are to flee to the mountains. The abomination which causes desolation stands in the holy place, that is, the temple in Jerusalem. They are to pray their flight is not on the Sabbath. All is local and Jewish and has no application to the Christian hope based upon meeting Christ in the air (1 Thess. 4:16,17). What is in question is "flesh" being "saved" (i.e., life spared on earth, Matt. 24:22).

4. Mark 13:19 has reference to the same event, and uses the same terms.

All of these four passages which speak of the coming tribulation apply distinctively to Jerusalem, Judea and the Jews—not to the Church.

When the Church is addressed, as it is in Revelation 3:10, we learn that she will be kept out of the hour which shall come to try others. "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from (Greek, "out of") the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

In the four passages which speak of the tribulation we have seen they apply directly to the Jews on the one side, and exclude the Church from it on the other. In the passage addressed to the Church, the Lord promises she will be kept out of the tribulation.