The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Daniel 9:24-27, “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
25 “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.
26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
27 “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

Jeremiah 30:7, “’Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s distress, But he will be saved from it.”

The purpose of the tribulation is one of Divine Judgment upon the Jewish nation. The
nature of the tribulation is a period of divine wrath and judgment. The Scriptures teach
that God’s wrath is not directed against His Church!

1.“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Thes. 5:9).
2.“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
(Rom. 8:1).

The Tribulation is a time of wrath and judgment throughout its seven years. The Scriptures teach that the Church will be delivered from the wrath of God, and is “…to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (I Thes. 1:10).

The Antichrist will reign during the seven years of Tribulation (cf. Rev. 13:7). Everyone will be in subjection to him. Were the Church to be on Earth during that time, it would be in subjection to the Antichrist rather than the Christ. That is why the Church will have been Raptured prior to the Tribulation.

The Thessalonian believers were in confusion regardin the resurrection. Paul wrote them that believers who were alive at Christ’s coming for His own would have no advantage over believers who had died. If the Thessalonians had believed the Church would go through the Tribulation, they would either have rejoiced that some had missed the Tribulation, or would have reasoned that it was better to be with the Father in Heaven than to suffer on the Earth.

The New Testament epistles are amazingly silent regarding the Tribulation. This silence itself argues for the Church’s absence during the Tribulation era. Further, the Tribulation foretold by the Old Testament prophets always relates to Israel (Malachi 4:5-6).

While unconverted, unbelieving Gentiles will doubtlessly experience the Great Tribulation along with the nation of Israel, the absence of any Gentiles in the fiery furnace experience (Dan. 3:22ff) serves to emphasize that the Great Tribulation is primarily a judgment upon the Jews for their having rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

This is why I pray urgently and witness fervently that people may come to know Jesus!
Do you know Him? He is your only hope of escaping Hell and Earth’s most tumultous era! Ask Him today to forgive you of your sins. Life is uncertain. Jesus is certain!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom