In Matthew 24:29 (NASB), Christ says “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
The sequence of events in Revelation (starting in chapter 6), goes like this…
- 1st Seal: white horse – crowned rider goes out with bow conquering and to conquer (false Christ?)
- 2nd Seal: red horse – rider goes out with sword, peace is removed from the earth
- 3rd Seal: black horse – price of grain rises significantly
- 4th Seal: ashen horse – death and hades go out to kill 1/4 of the earth with war, pestilence, famine, and wild beasts
- 5th Seal: martyrs cry out asking for vengeance and are told to wait until the full number of martyrs has come in
This is the sequence of events after the Lamb breaks the sixth seal …
- great earthquake
- sun becomes black
- moon becomes like blood
- stars fall to earth
- sky splits, every mountain and island is moved
- everyone tries to hide from the presence of God in fear, as the day of wrath has come
- four angels hold the winds from blowing
- 144,000 from the tribes of Isreal are sealed
- John looks and notices a great multitude before the throne from every nation, people, tribe and tongue, who came out of the great tribulation
After all of this, the seventh seal is broken, followed by a half hour of silence, then the blowing of the trumpets, then the wrath of God.
The popular view seems to be that the rapture will come before the tribulation. I’ve done a great deal of bible study into the endtimes scriptures and I have to say that I see no biblical basis for this view. Christ’s own words in Matthew 24 make it very clear that Christians will be around for at least the beginning of the tribulation.
He says that those days will be cut short for the sake of the elect, and the signs and markers that Christ give tie in with the precursors to the appearance of the multitude at the throne.
I’ll have to lay out a full study of this after I’ve gone back through Daniel and a few other books, but the more times I read this stuff the more sure I am that those who are still alive will have to endure at least part of the tribulation.
