THE GREAT TRIBULATION (1) | WHAT IS IT?

1. The Great Tribulation: What Is It?

a) In the Bible we read about the Great Tribulation, a time of trouble and difficulty as never before seen on the earth, leading up to the Millennium.

b) This terrible period is right at the end of time.  Satan knows his time is short, and does what he can to persecute God’s people and lead as many as he can astray. His servant, the Antichrist, attempts to do away with God entirely, but God is still almighty, and this is the hour of His judgment. Yet even in this terrible time God repeatedly gives grace for people to repent and be saved.

c) From the account of events in Revelation 3-19 we can see that the Great Tribulation has three stages.

i) The first stage is marked by the breaking of seven seals in heaven and it culminates in the rapture of the bride of Christ up to heaven and the harlot being cast off of the beast’s back.

ii) The second stage is marked by the blowing of seven trumpets in heaven. This is a period where the beast will be in contention with the “second fruits;” those who were not along in the rapture but choose now to serve God. This stage ends in the reaping of the “second fruits” up to heaven and Satan being thrown out of heaven and down to earth.

iii) The third stage is God’s outpouring of wrath over Satan, the beast, and the Antichrist and their followers. It is marked by the emptying of seven bowls of wrath over the earth. After this Jesus Christ returns to earth with His followers, marking the end of the Great Tribulation and ushering in the Millennium, a thousand years of peace.