The commission specifically highlights imprisoned Christians along with Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and others targeted by Beijing’s religious controls.
A Washington briefing yesterday brought together representatives of several persecuted religious communities to discuss Chinese Communist Party repression and concerns that intimidation extends into the United States.
So What?
Christians should absolutely demand freedom for imprisoned Christians in China.
But will we also demand freedom for the Muslim, Buddhist or Falun Gong prisoner? We should, because religious liberty isn’t Christianity asking government for preferential treatment.
We’ll be looking closely at questions and answers about “The Great Tribulation” in a four-part series, starting with Part One here.
Part One: Does Revelation Actually Describe a Seven-Year Tribulation?
Ask most prophecy teachers about the Great Tribulation and you’ll probably get a detailed seven-year timeline involving the Antichrist, the Beast, global war, and judgments arriving one after another.
You might even get a chart.
But if we’re going to understand Revelation, we should begin with what the book actually says—not with the chart.
The phrase “great tribulation” appears in Revelation 7:14, where John sees a huge crowd standing before God:
“These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” — Revelation 7:14, KJV
The Greek word translated “tribulation,” thlipsis, means pressure, distress, affliction, or suffering. It was not a special word reserved only for a future end-times disaster. In fact, John opens Revelation by calling himself his readers’ “companion in tribulation” (Revelation 1:9).
The believers in Smyrna were also experiencing tribulation and were warned that some of them would be imprisoned (Revelation 2:9–10). In Pergamum, a believer named Antipas had already been killed (Revelation 2:13).
For those Christians, tribulation wasn’t a theological theory. They lived under Roman authority in cities where emperor worship was part of public life. Refusing to honor Caesar and the Roman gods could cost them friendships, employment, freedom, or life itself.
Revelation does mention periods of 42 months, 1,260 days, and “a time, times, and half a time.” Each equals approximately three and a half years and draws from the symbolic language of Daniel. What Revelation does not do is combine two of those periods, call the result seven years, and name it “the Great Tribulation.”
The familiar seven-year scenario comes from connecting Revelation with a particular interpretation of Daniel’s seventieth week and several other passages. That may be a valid theological argument, but readers should know that the complete system is assembled from several texts. It is not plainly laid out in Revelation.
So What?
John’s first readers probably weren’t calculating how many years remained before suffering began. They were trying to remain faithful while suffering was already happening.
That changes the question. Instead of beginning with, “When will the Great Tribulation happen?” perhaps we should first ask:
What did tribulation mean within the Jewish and biblical world John’s readers already knew?
A major Associated Press report published Monday examines the escalating dispute at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Pastor Sarah Lucas of Foundations for Nations publicly condemned traditional Arapaho practices—including the Sundance and sacred pipe ceremonies—as “idol worship.” The sermon triggered protests, and Northern Arapaho leaders have told the church to leave.
There’s a legal complication: the church sits inside reservation boundaries but on privately owned land, making the tribe’s authority to remove it uncertain. Attendance at the church has reportedly fallen by roughly half, and tribal leaders have adopted new rules requiring religious organizations to obtain approval before operating on tribal lands.
Can Christians respect another person’s religious freedom while simultaneously telling them their religion is false? Biblically, yes.
Paul didn’t arrive in pagan Athens and announce that every religion was equally true. He saw a city filled with idols—and then reasoned with the people about the God they didn’t know.
So What?
Christians shouldn’t mock Native Americans or pretend the brutal history of forced religious assimilation never happened.
But neither should a Christian pastor be required to say something she believes is worship of another god is compatible with Christianity. Respecting someone’s right to believe something is not the same as agreeing that what they believe is true.
That’s religious liberty.
But let’s be clear about the basic tenet of our faith as declared by Jesus Christ, and let’s not hesitate to speak the truth boldly:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” — John 14:6 (KJV)
Never forget. Because the people who invoke the name of their god as they slaughter thousands of innocent men, women, and children never forget.
Because the spiritual darkness that animates their hatred and inspires the evil acts they commit never rests.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
But it appears that too many in our country have indeed forgotten over the past 25 years. Hopefully not enough to open the door to a shocking reminder.
Here are four quotes from four different Christian voices on themes in the Book of Zechariah:
Charles Spurgeon — on Zechariah 12:10 and God’s work of grace:
“Every work of grace begins with God.” Spurgeon saw Zechariah’s promise of the “spirit of grace and of supplications” as pointing ultimately toward Christ and God’s initiative in redemption. (The Spurgeon Library)
John Calvin — on God’s presence among His people:
“God is never idle while he dwells in his people.” Commenting on Zechariah’s restoration promises, Calvin emphasizes that God’s presence produces actual transformation—truth and holiness, not merely religious identity. (Enduring Word)
David Guzik — on Zechariah 6 and the promised Priest-King:
“God’s promised blessing in the future means that He wants the work to continue right now.” Guzik draws an important practical lesson from Zechariah: future hope isn’t an excuse for sitting around waiting for prophecy to happen. It should produce faithfulness in the present. (Enduring Word)
James Montgomery Boice — on Zechariah 8:23:
“We are all clinging to the seamless robe of that one Jew, Jesus of Nazareth.” Boice understood Zechariah’s picture of the nations seeking God through Israel as ultimately pointing toward Jesus—the Jewish Messiah through whom God’s blessing reaches the nations. (Enduring Word)
An American bishop says churches shouldn’t become nightclubs to attract young people
American Catholic Bishop Robert Barron has publicly criticized London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for entering a multiyear partnership with nightclub company Fabric to stage musical events inside the cathedral. New York Post
Barron argues the attempt to attract younger people by making sacred spaces more like secular entertainment venues misunderstands what spiritually curious young people actually want. The controversy follows similar debates over silent discos and other events staged inside historic churches.
Churches have spent decades adding coffee bars, concert lighting, giant screens, skinny jeans and worship music that sounds like Coldplay circa 2008. All of those ‘features’ are part of the reason I personally have no interest in modern churchianity.
So What?
I think young people who are seeking spiritual meaning want something other than the cultural experiences they can find for a dime a dozen anywhere and everywhere. They want something deeper and they’re looking in other places for it, like in ancient liturgy, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Bible study and traditional Christian practices.
The answer isn’t found in making Christianity look more like the culture.
Imagine being a Christian in first-century Asia Minor. Roman banners hang over your city. Coins carry the emperor’s image. Temples praise Caesar. Soldiers enforce his laws. Rome controls politics, trade, religion, and public life.
Then John’s Revelation is read aloud:
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea….” — Revelation 13:1, KJV
Nobody in the room asks, “Could this be a twenty-first-century president, celebrity, or tech mogul?”
They already know what the monster looks like.
John builds the Beast from the creatures in Daniel 7, where terrifying animals symbolize kingdoms that conquer and oppress. His Beast has features of a leopard, bear, and lion—as if history’s worst empires had been stitched together into one giant political monster.
For John’s readers, that monster was Roman imperial power.
Rome claimed to bring peace and civilization, but it maintained that “peace” through armies, executions, slavery, and fear. Emperors accepted divine honors, and anyone refusing to play along could be viewed as disloyal. The Beast represents the Empire as a system, although individual emperors—especially the brutal Nero—could become the human face of that system.
Revelation 17 provides another enormous clue: the Beast’s seven heads represent seven mountains and seven kings. Rome was famously associated with seven hills. John wasn’t tossing random monsters into a religious horror movie. He was exposing Rome’s spiritual identity.
There is also a second beast, rising from the land. It looks somewhat like a lamb but speaks like the Dragon, Satan, from whom the Beasts get their power and marching orders. It represents the local religious and political machinery that encouraged people to honor Rome and worship imperial power. In modern terms, the first Beast wielded the sword; the second handled the propaganda.
Mainstream biblical scholarship broadly places these images within the world of Roman rule. Futurist interpreters often expect a final ruler who will display the same characteristics, but the Beast’s original identity cannot simply be removed from the first century and turned into one man waiting at the end of history.
So What?
Revelation’s imagery had a meaning before it had a modern application. Rome had become a beastly empire by demanding the loyalty and worship that belonged to God.
Its continuing application: Any nation, ideology, institution, or leader can become beastlike when power becomes sacred, truth becomes optional, and people are crushed for refusing to conform.
The Beast doesn’t need seven literal heads, it only needs people willing to worship power.
A new national political debate is emerging around candidates such as Texas Democrat James Talarico, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon and Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed, who are explicitly incorporating faith into their campaigns. Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell accused progressive candidates today of “virtue-signaling” to Christian voters rather than authentically representing biblical Christianity. See story here.
For decades, Republicans have enjoyed something close to ownership of America’s public Christian vocabulary. That may be changing, and that would be a good thing.
Let Republicans quote Jesus. Let Democrats quote Jesus.
Phillipians 1:15-18
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Listen to them all then open the Bible and check them all.
Jesus isn’t Republican or Democrat, and Scripture shouldn’t be retrofitted to whichever political platform we already support.
