This is a question that many have asked, and the answer is very clearly written for us in the Holy Bible.
What is the great tribulation?
The “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21, Revelation 2:22), or “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7), is a time yet to come in which the children of Israel, and all the nations with them, shall experience a time of judgment, torment, and wrath so terrible, such as has never been upon the face of the earth.
”For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
Matthew 24:21
”For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.”
Mark 13:19
“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”
Luke 21:20-22
That great tribulation will be the time that God will be purifying the people of Israel as silver is tried in a furnace of fire. Those Christ hating rebellious Jews that have been against the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel will be destroyed with terrible plagues and punishments and will die and go to everlasting hellfire; and the remnant of them that will believe God’s word shall be delivered, and the Lord Jesus Christ shall reveal himself to them and they will know him, and they shall be brought afterward into the promised land to inhabit it and live there for a thousand years and beget children there.
“And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.
And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”
Isaiah 65:19-25
How long will the great tribulation be?
In the book of Daniel, chapter 9, we read:
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
(Verses 24-27)
These seventy weeks are weeks of years. This period of time began when the 70 years of captivity had been accomplished for the Jews in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:10), and Cyrus the king of Persia (the Persians had then conquered the Babylonians) gave the decree to rebuild the temple and the city, in the days of Ezra the priest, and so the Jews began to leave Babylon and go back to Jerusalem to build the temple and the city again. (For an understanding of these things, please refer to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah)
From that time, until the time that our Lord Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan river, was anointed with the Holy Ghost, and began the work that he was sent to do, was 69 weeks of years, or 483 years. And at that time began the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy.
That 70th week was cut in half when our Lord Jesus was cut off in the midst of the week, according to the scripture (Daniel 9:26,27). Our Lord Jesus ministered to the people of Israel for 3 and a half years, as we can see by the gospel according to John, if we count the times that the Passover was observed:
1. John 2:13
2. John 6:4
3. John 11:55
This is further established by the word “times” in the scripture; which is from the Greek word kairos, meaning a season, or appointed time [of the year].
Daniel 12:7
”And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”Revelation 12:14
”And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
”And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”Revelation 12:14
”And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
The Bible says that God placed the sun, moon and stars in the heavens for times and for seasons (Genesis 1:14); and therefore we know that the phrase, “a time, and times, and half a time”, means 3 and a half years, or three annual Passovers and half a year.
That is the amount of time that Jesus our Lord ministered to the Jews, from the day that he was baptized to begin his work (which was six months before we read of the first Passover that occurred in the book of John), until the third Passover afterward, which is the day that he was crucified and died, and God raised him from the dead three days later.
And, being that 3 and a half days is exactly half of a week, 3 and a half years is also half of the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy…and so the seventieth week was cut off in the midst, and there was thenceforth a pause in the fulfillment of the prophecy, until the appointed time when the abomination that maketh desolate (Daniel 11:31, 12:11, Matthew 24:15, Mark 13,:14) shall be placed in the temple in Jerusalem, and then the second half of that week will commence.
This abomination is a reference to a man called “Lucifer, the son of perdition, the man of sin” (Isaiah 14:12, 2 Thessalonians 2:3), who will set up an image of himself to be worshiped when the Jews build again their temple that the Romans destroyed in 70 A.D.
“And he [the false prophet] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.“
Revelation 13:13-15
The rebellious Jews who reject their Messiah have been waiting and wanting to build their temple again for centuries, and have not been able to because the Catholic church created the Islamic religion in the sixth century A.D., and the Islamists built their “Dome of the Rock Mosque” right on that site where the temple was, and must be. That temple can be built in no other place. It must be right there where God Almighty ordained it to be in the beginning.
And so, when the rebellious Jews are finally made able to build their temple again, right on that spot (whenever God makes the way for them to do so), they will again begin to offer sacrifices according to the law of Moses, contrary to the word of God; for Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, and no flesh shall be justified by the works of the law (Galatians 2:16).
And, as the Lord Jesus said,
“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”
John 5:43
Thus, the rebellious Jews, in disobeying the word of God and going about to offer sacrifices according to the law, denying their own Messiah who was slain as a Lamb for them according to the scriptures, their darkened hearts and minds will blind them so that they will receive a false Messiah, called by another name; and they will allow that false Messiah (Lucifer, the antichrist) to build an image to himself in the temple and defile it, and they will worship that image, just as their fathers worshiped Nebuchadnezzar’s image in Babylon (Daniel 3); and then the wrath of God Almighty shall come up in his face, and THEN will begin that time of great tribulation; and it will last for the duration of that seventieth week, which is 3 and a half years.
As it is written,
Revelation 11:2,3
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Revelation 12:6
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
Revelation 13:5
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
One thousand two hundred and threescore days = forty and two months = three and a half years.
(One year according to the Hebrew calendar is 360 days.)
So, we conclude from the scripture that:
1. There were to be 70 weeks (of years) from the time of the decree to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto Messiah, the Prince.2. There passed 69 of those weeks (483 years) until the Messiah came to Israel.3. When Messiah was baptized and began his ministry, he fulfilled his course in 3 and a half years, or half of the 70th week, and the week was cut off in the midst.4. The second half of that 70th week will resume when Antichrist will place an image of himself in the temple in Jerusalem, and that great tribulation shall commence, and will last for 3 and a half years.
And then, the Lord shall return from heaven with ten thousand of his saints, and take the kingdom in Jerusalem, and he shall reign over all the earth with a rod of iron for ever and ever.
Amen.
Maranatha.
Come soon, Lord Jesus.