Daniel 12:12: “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. 

Jesus spoke about a coming tribulation that would be unrivalled and unparalleled in intensity, of a magnitude that the world has not seen nor ever again will. He was in effect quoting Daniel the prophet about a time of tribulation that would begin in the nation of Israel and spread to every nation of the world. This was in response to a question that His disciples asked Him, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’

Jesus made it clear that this tribulation would be an end time event, one as we shall see, would precede His return for His elect, His Church, His Bride.

This event has traditionally been referred to by Bible scholars as the ‘great tribulation’, and it would be even more accurate to refer to it as the ‘greatest tribulation in the history of mankind’. This should give us a picture of the horrors it will entail.

Jesus went on to say that if those days of tribulation had not been cut short by divine foreordained intervention, ‘no flesh would be saved’ (Matt. 24:22), i.e. no human life would be left on the earth. He added that this ‘cutting short of the period of tribulation would be for the sake of the elect’. Who are the ‘elect’? The nation of Israel, the Jews are God’s chosen people, His elect . In the New Testament Scriptures, especially the Pauline epistles however, refer to all those who have trusted in the Messiah, the saints, the believers as the ‘elect'. (See Romans 11:7, Titus 1:1, Romans 8:33, Colossians 3:12). But the best way to understand what Christ Himself meant when He referred to a group of people called the ‘elect’ is to examine His own words in the same chapter and context. In Matt 24, verse 24, He speaks of the possibility of this elect group being deceived by false christs and false prophets that would perform great signs and wonders. This makes it even clearer then that this group comprises believers in Christ.

It is amply clear then that Christians globally will be subject to this tribulation.

Although Jesus was addressing his Jewish disciples , He was evidently speaking of a future event, at the end of the age, one that would be a major sign preceding His return, that would affect the entire population of Christians that would be present at the time. Daniel 12:1 shows that this tribulation would involve the nation of israel, Daniel’s own people, for whom He had made confession for and sought God’s mercy for. In Rev 12:1, John was shown a vision of a “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars”. Comparing this vision with Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:9 of the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing before him, a symbol of Jacob, his father, who became Israel, this woman is interpreted to be the nation Israel who gave birth to the male child, the Messiah Christ. This woman is pursued by the dragon, Satan, and flees to the wilderness where she is protected by God in a place prepared for her for a period of 1260 days. This is a picture of the nation of Israel being persecuted by Satan, a future event. This number is significant and repeated several times in Scripture ( a period of 42 months or three and a half years) and shows the fury of the Satanically inspired Antichrist against Israel. We see here that the tribulation then is the manifestation of Satans’ fury, through the engine of his vengeance and wrath, Antichrist.

Rev. 12:12: Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

The great tribulation has been confused with the wrath of God. Scripture shows however , that it is the wrath of satan, initially directed at Israel. The wrath of God is a separate event which follows the great tribulation and is poured out on an unrepentant earth after the Church, having gone through the tribulation has been raptured.

Rev. 12:17 speaks of Satan, being unsuccessful in his attempts to persecute the ‘woman’, national Israel, going after ‘the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ’. This persecution, then will extend to the saints, the Church, us believers who bear the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Jesus, prefaced this event by referring to an ‘abomination of desolation’ first spoken of by the prophet Daniel who lived hundreds of years before the time of Jesus. He warned that this event, the abomination of desolation standing in the Holy place would be the sign that we would have to watch for, the event that would signal the beginning of the tribulation and its subsequent progression.

Matt. 24:15: “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand)
16: “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
17: Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
18: And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
21: then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

What will mark the end of the tribulation? What did Jesus say?

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet,and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” Matt. 24:31.

The end of the tribulation will be marked by tremendous signs in the heavens and by the return of Christ for His Church ! These signs in the heavens spoken of by Christ coincide with John’s vision of the opening of the sixth seal, the sun beingdarkened and the moon becoming blood, among other signs, the seal immediately preceding the return of Christ.

Rev. 6:12: I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
13: And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
14: Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

The span of the time of the great tribulation will be sandwiched between the setting up of the abomination of the desolation in the Holy Place (of the temple at Jerusalem….we will examine this in more detail in subsequent articles) and the return of Christ, His second coming at which the Church will be raptured.

What is the abomination of desolation?

In order to understand what this is, we must first look at the ‘man of sin’, the ‘man of lawlessness’ , the ‘man of perdition’ (2 Thess. 3:8) popularly known as the “antichrist”, although this is a misnomer. (Perdition’ denotes eternal damnation and the other person in the Bible to be referred to as the ‘son of perdition’ is Judas, who betrayed His Master. )

This man, is portrayed in Revelation 13 as the beast that arose from the sea (v 1). He is characterized by his blasphemous nature (v 1). This man will be empowered by Satan (v 2) who will give him worldwide power and authority. He will thus be a dictator who will arise in the future who will be the perpetrator of the greatest tribulation of both the nation of Israel and the Church. Rev. 13 also shows a coalition of ten nations who will join forces with him. Verse 7 states that this man will ‘make war with the saints and overcome them’. This is the single most important piece of information that we must keep in mind. Antichrist will persecute the church during the period of the great tribulation and overcome them.

Daniel the prophet was given much information by way of visions, dreams and angelic encounters about events that would transpire towards the end of the age. In Daniel 7, this ‘man of sin’ is introduced as the ‘little horn’ that had eyes like a man and a mouth that spoke pompous words. His kingdom was depicted by a terrifying and exceedingly strong beast that caused destruction and devastation of the entire earth (Dan 7:7 – 8,23). Daniel saw this ‘little horn’ ‘ making war with the saints and overcoming them’ (V 11). This war/persecution against us, the saints continued until the Ancient of Days came, Jesus at His second coming. It is amply clear that the Church will be subject to the persecution of the antichrist and reprieve will only come by the coming of Christ Jesus when we will also be raptured .

The persecution will involve much bloodshed (Dan. 11:33) and death and martyrdom for the Name of Christ. Rev 13 says,

9: If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
10: If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Revelation 7:9-14 shows an innumerable multitude of people dressed in white and waving palm branches. These are the ones that have ‘come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb’. Clearly then these are the saints that were martyred for the Name of Christ and refused to deny their faith in the face of the greatest persecution in the history of Christianity.

Rev 12:11: And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

The ‘overcoming’ that Christians will be called to do will be over the mark of Antichrist/the beast and his name (Rev. 15:2). This will be addressed in subsequent articles.

In 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 1-4, Paul speaks of the ‘day of Christ’ (v 2) the day of His second coming, being preceded by two events : 1. The falling away and 2. The revealing of the ‘man of sin’. He emphasized that Christ would not return unless these two events had first taken place.

In referring to this ‘man of sin’ (man of lawlessness/son of perdition) who would oppose and exalt Himself over all that is called God and is worshipped ( a blasphemer) Paul was referring to Daniel 11:36.

Antichrist will be a blasphemer, a reviler of God and one who opposes the One true God and any deity (Daniel 7:8, Revelation 13:5–6, 2 Thessalonians 2:4) He will be a dictator who actively persecutes the saints, thus causing the tribulation and his end will be at the hands of Christ Himself at His second coming ..whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of His nostrils and the brightness of His coming.

This man in sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God and opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God would constitute this ‘abomination of desolation’.

Strong’s definition for ‘abomination’ and ‘desolate/desolation’

Desolate: שָׁמֵם shâmêm, shaw-mame'; a primitive root; to stun (or intransitively, grow numb), i.e. devastate or (figuratively) stupefy (both usually in a passive sense):—make amazed, be astonied, (be an) astonish(-ment), (be, bring into, unto, lay, lie, make) desolate(-ion, places), be destitute, destroy (self), (lay, lie, make) waste, wonder

Daniel makes repeated references to this ‘abomination that makes desolate’ (Dan 9:26-27, 11:31).

It is also called the ‘abomination that causes desolation’. In Ezekiel 8: 6-10, God shows Ezekiel the host of idols Israel was worshipping which God called an ‘abomination’. Likewise, the abomination of desolation that Daniel and Jesus referred to will be an image made of the antichrist. Rev 13 shows that the false prophet, Antichrist’s right hand man will be the one to instigate the fashioning of this idol which will be placed in the Holy Place of the temple yet to be built in Jerusalem.

Rev 13:14-16 also speaks of a second beast, the false prophet who will aid and abet the man of sin. He will cause an idolatrous image of the antichrist to be fashioned, will give breath to it and cause it to speak and be erected to be worshipped. All those that will not worship this image will be killed. There will widespread bloodshed and massacre of those who stand for their faith and refuse to worship the beast. Also, every individual on the face of the earth will be forced to take a mark bearing the name / number of the beast, antichrist on their forehead or right arm. Refusal to do so will result in inability to buy or sell. The plight of the Christian then will be to either take the mark and forfeit his soul ( v17 ) or to face certain starvation and death. This is called the “mark of the beast”, i.e. the mark of the antichrist and will be addressed in depth later.

This period of tribulation will be a time of testing and refinement of the Body of Christ into His Bride, pure and without spot or wrinkle. Dan. 12, which speaks of the tribulation says thus:

10: Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.

We have seen that the great tribulation will be perpetrated by the antichrist. It will begin with the man of sin sitting in the Holy place of (future) temple of God in Jerusalem. He and his armies will invade Jerusalem, which will lead to its eventual devastation over a period of 1260 days. This is why Jesus warned that those in Jerusalem at the time must flee and that a flight on the Sabbath, when there are severe restrictions to travel in the nation of Israel, would compound the difficulty of fleeing. (Matt. 24:16-20)

Daniel 11:33 speaks of multitudes that will ‘fall by the sword, flame, captivity and plundering’ for many days ( we will see how many days this will last) under the tyranny of Antichrist, the ‘king’ that will arise in the future. These multitudes are described as the ‘wise’, those that teach and instruct others about the events that are transpiring at the time. This will comprise those among the saints that will understand that the prophetic Scriptures that were written hundreds of years ago regarding the rise of an evil ‘king’, dictator under whom Christians will be persecuted and martyred.

The Duration of the Great Tribulation

The Book of Daniel and Revelation states repeatedly that Antichrist will both be given authority to reign and persecute the saints for a period of 1260 days forty two months, a ‘time, times and half a time’ or a period of three and a half years.

Daniel 12:6: And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?”
7: And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. 

Biblically, a ‘time’ refers to a period of a year which then adds up to a length of three and a half years as the following verse confirms. (In Dan 4:32 for example, the seven ‘times’ that were to pass over King Nebuchadnezzar before he regained his senses is the equivalent of a period of seven years).

Revelation 13:5: And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.

How the great tribulation will play out and what it’s impetus will be shall be examined in a future article. To reiterate and summarize, 1. The great tribulation is the wrath of Satan on the nation of Israel and the saints, the Church through the ‘man of sin’. 2. It will be the most brutal period of persecution in the history of mankind 3. It will last 1260 days/42 months/three and a half years. 4. It will begin with the placing of the abomination of desolation in the Holy place of the future temple in Jerusalem 5. It will end when Christ returns at His second coming when the living saints will be raptured 6. The Church will go through the tribulation and there will be globally widespread bloodshed and martyrdom.