CHAPTER TWELVE
"It preserves the credibility of Christ's word that Christians will be kept from the Tribulation." 1
The central question before us is simply this: Did Christ promise to keep Christians from the Tribulation? Pre-Tribbers profess that such a promise is found in Revelation 3:10. There we read, "Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth." (Revelation 3:10). To assess this pre-Trib claim, we must first determine exactly what is meant by two key phrases: They are "keep from" and "the hour of testing."
The meaning of "keep from."
Pre-Tribbers hold that the Greek word for "from" (ek) should be interpreted "out of." That being the case, they believe the church "will be kept out of the hour of trial." 2 This, of course, would require a physical removal of the church before the hour of testing. Post-Tribulationists, on the other hand, do not think such a removal is necessary. That is because they believe "keep from" should be interpreted in the sense that the Lord will sustain and protect them through the trial. For support, they note a similar usage of ek in John 17:15. There the Lord said, "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one." So, which is correct? According to noted scholar, Leon Morris, "The Greek is capable of either meaning." 3 Thus, to argue that "keep from" requires the removal of the church is to be guilty of the fallacy of begging the question.
LaHaye does, however, raise a point which is worth considering. As part of this argument he alludes to the fact that believers will be martyred during the Tribulation. No doubt, for those who are martyred, the promise of being "kept through the trial" might, at least at first glance, ring a little hollow. There is a passage in Luke, however, which may shed light on the meaning of the Lord's promise. Speaking of the last days, He announced, "But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My name." Then He continued by saying, "Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives." (Luke 21:16-19). What this passage teaches is that surviving this life should not be our primary concern. Rather, we should be concerned that we remain faithful to our Lord, even unto persecution and death, and thus attain eternal life. With this in mind, it may well be that "keeping us from the hour of testing" is the Lord's way of saying He will see to it that we remain faithful to Him, no matter what that "hour" brings.
The meaning of the "hour of testing."
From the text, it seems clear that the hour of testing is a reference to the cataclysmic events of the end-times. The question is, does it represent the entire seven-year Tribulation, as pre-Tribbers assume? Or does it refer to a smaller segment of the Tribulation—such as the period of the bowl judgments? Unfortunately, we can determine little from the text itself. The Greek word for hour is variously used to denote "a short while" (I Thessalonians 2:17), a twelfth of a night or day, and even a definite point in time, i.e., "the hour is at hand" (Matthew 26:45). Nowhere, however, is it ever identified with a seven-year Tribulation period. All this to say, there does not appear to be a Biblical warrant for assuming the hour of testing encompasses the entire Tribulation. That means pre-Tribbers cannot assume that being delivered from the "hour of testing" is the same as being delivered from the Tribulation. Therefore, the claim of a promise of deliverance from the Tribulation in Revelation 3:10 is based on a logical fallacy—begging the question.
It appears that, once more, pre-Tribulationists are guilty of putting words in the Lord's mouth. The so-called promise to keep Christians from the Tribulation simply cannot be supported from Scripture. Therefore, using that assumption as a premise in arguing for the pre-Trib view can only result in an unsound conclusion. Moreover, this supposed promise directly contradicts the words of our Lord when He said, "Then they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name." For all these reasons, Reason # 11 should have no bearing on whether one should be a pre-Tribulationist.
Notes on Chapter 12.
Last Updated November 18, 1997 by Larry Simmons