An Exposition of Matthew Twenty-Four on the Second Coming of Christ

THE DAYS OF TRIBULATION SHORTENED

VERSE 22: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” EMTF 34.4

The Papacy was clothed with civil power to punish heretics for 1260 years; and had not the period of tribulation of the elect in the providence of God been shortened, the martyrdom of the church would have continued to 1798, in which event, according to the Scriptures, no flesh of the elect would have been saved. But the reformation under Martin Luther and those associated with this great reformer, modified this tribulation, and continued to restrain the rage and consume the power of the Papacy until 1773, when the suppression of the Jesuits put an end to the tribulation. In this prophetic discourse of our Lord, we are brought down into the eighteenth century, very near the present time. We should naturally expect, then, that the instructions and warnings of the next verses would be applicable to this generation. EMTF 34.5