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Luke 18:
Rev 7:
Is this gathering exclusively for those who have experienced the great tribulation?
The wording suggests yes.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:
Maybe not.
Will Jesus find faith on the earth by the end of the great tribulation?8b When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Rev 7:
John described a great gathering of believers after the great tribulation.9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
The definite article was repeated in the Greek: τῆς θλίψεως τῆς μεγάλης, the tribulation the great.13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.
Is this gathering exclusively for those who have experienced the great tribulation?
The wording suggests yes.
However, the broader context suggests otherwise.They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:
Gill was similar:including also retrospectively all the tribulation which the saints of all ages have had to pass through.
Pulpit Commentary"the great tribulation", out of which they came, is not to be restrained to any particular time of trouble, but includes all that has been, is, or shall be; as all the afflictions of the saints under the Old Testament.
Is this gathering exclusively for those who have experienced the great tribulation?The repeated article is especially emphatic. The question arises What is "the great tribulation" referred to? Probably all the tribulation which has been passed through by the redeemed, all that which pertained to the life though which they have passed.
Maybe not.