A Future Period of Tribulation

God's judgment upon the Jewish people, which began in the time of Daniel and Ezekiel, will not be completed until a future period of seven years of tribulation.

From the beginning of time, God has progressively revealed Himself to us. We have come to know who He is, what He is like, and about His plan for us bit by bit as we read through His Word. He also informed us about the future in a progressive manner.

God began to tell His people about things still future to us (people of the twenty-first century) through Daniel and Ezekiel in the sixth century B.C. Centuries later, Jesus filled in some of the blanks with a message He gave on the Mount of Olives. Then John the Apostle pulled the puzzle together in his book of the Revelation. By looking at all of these writings, we can come to understand the principal question that the Jews had in Jesus' day: when would Messiah come? It was more complicated than they realized.

Daniel used “the decree to rebuild Jerusalem” as his starting point. Then he used difficult-to-understand formulas of sevens of years which included seven sevens (49), 62 sevens (434) and one more seven (7)—70 sevens in all—to measure time until the Messiah would come. But Daniel also states that the coming Messiah will be cut off somewhere within those time periods (after the 62 sevens) and then the city and the temple will be destroyed again by the people of a future evil ruler. He wrote that the end will come with its floods, desolations, and wars. And still there would be the final seven in which that evil ruler will make a covenant with Israel but will break that covenant halfway through its time, desecrating the temple.

In 444 B.C. a decree went out to rebuild Jerusalem, and it was completed about 49 years later (the first seven sevens). Jesus the Messiah came and was crucified hundreds of years later and within a short time afterward (A.D. 70), the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. According to Daniel, these events would occur before the beginning of the seventieth seven. During that seven a ruler from the people who destroyed Jerusalem would come and desecrate the temple by insisting he be worshiped in that place which was built for worship of the living God. For that to happen, an undetermined amount of time must pass before the seventieth seven takes place—at least time for the temple to be rebuilt! The period in which we are now living (called The Church Age by some) is that undetermined amount of time. The seventieth seven will begin when a ruler who comes from the people that destroyed the city in 70 A.D. (Romans/Europeans) establishes a seven-year treaty with many Jews. Then halfway through the seven years, he will desecrate the temple (presently still not rebuilt).

It is after those still future seven years of terrible suffering and tribulation that Messiah will return, destroy the beastly Antichrist ruler, and establish His kingdom.