"And they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
temple to the new city. (The center of the new city is God and the Lamb. In Revelation 3:12, following the words "temple of My God" is the expression "he shall by no means go out anymore." This no doubt refers to the time of the new heaven and the new earth when God and the Lamb will be the temple.) (6) The Bible clearly says that there are Christians who need not pass through the tribulation (Rev. 3:10; Luke 21:36). (7) If the people spoken of in Revelation 7:9 are those who pass through the great tribulation, then they must be those who die when the nations trample the holy temple. But according to Revelation 11:2, the church should not be included there. How then could the people in 7:9 be those who come out of the three and a half years of great tribulation? (8) The three and a half years of great tribulation are especially related to the Jews. Daniel 12:1 says, "And there will be a time of distress, such as never occurred since there came to be a nation until that time; and at that time your people, every one found written in the book, will be delivered." This passage together with Matthew 24:16-18 describes the condition of the Jews in particular. God's main goal in having the great tribulation is to deal with the Jews. In Jeremiah 30:7 the time of Jacob's trouble clearly refers to the Jews. The tribulation spoken of in Revelation in several passages points to the church (e.g., 1:9; 2:9-10, 13). John 16:33 also says that affliction is the portion of the church in the world. The time is long, and the suffering is hard. That is why it is called "great." But it is not the three and a half years of the "great tribulation." The "great tribulation" in Revelation 2:22 is different from that in 7:14 in the original text. It is also different from the great tribulation of the three and a half years elsewhere mentioned in Revelation. (In Acts 14:22 the phrase "through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God" refers to the experiences of the ones who are entering into the kingdom of God.) 3. Revelation 7:14b "And they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." The word "robes" here is plural. Robes, plural, signify righteousnesses. But here the righteousness is the righteousness of the saints themselves; it does not refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteousness. Robe, singular, refers to the righteousness (Isa. 61:10) which is Christ Himself (Jer. 23:6). Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). We put Him on to come before God. This righteousness does not need to be washed in the blood.