Revelation 3:10 | Merrill F. Unger

Dr. Merrill F. Unger

“Kept from the Hour of Testing, 10-13. This promise, 10b, seems to indicate that the Church, of which the Philadelphian church was representative, will be glorified and taken to heaven before the Great Tribulation begins, 10. The promise applies to all who are Christ’s, ‘because you have kept [observed, obeyed] the word of My patience,’ i.e., the gospel of Christ’s death by which one becomes a Christian. The expression, ‘I also will keep you from,’ means to ‘protect someone from something’ (Prov 7:5; Jn 17:15). Since that ‘hour’ from which they are to be kept is worldwide and inescapable for all earth dwellers, 10c, ‘kept from’ suggests removal from the scene upon which the ‘hour’ transpires. The ‘trouble’ or ‘testing,’ 10d, has reference to the day of the Lord, Daniel’s 70th week, the final seven years of terrible trouble which will engulf the earth, the time described in Rev 6—19. The promise relates to Christ’s advent for His own, 11a (Jn 14:1-3; 1 Thess 4:13-17; 1 Cor 15:51-52) and the rewards of Christians, here called overcomers, 11b-13. Believers will be clearly identified as God's own possession and the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, 12 (cf. 21:2-3, 10). Christ’s ‘new name’ will then be revealed.”[1]

Reference:

[1] Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Handbook (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966, 1977), p. 849, emphasis and brackets his.