Real Bible Truths The Tribulation is a time of great trouble upon the Earth and is mentioned several times in the Bible. Most Christians say it is a 7 year period and have divided it in half between the “Lesser Tribulation” and the “Greater Tribulation“. The last half, the Greater Tribulation is when the Antichrist is in power and rules all Nations.
This 7 year Tribulation is taught in many Churches today and has become accepted by most prophecy students yet very few Christians really know where it comes from. And although the Bible mentions tribulation, where does it say that it will last for 7 years? Well that is the reason for this study, to show where it actually comes from and how long it will last.
Now the Bible never says in either the Old or New Testaments that there would be seven years of Tribulation. I promise you, it is not in there. If you get a Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and try to look it up you will not find it because it simply is not in there. So where does it come from?
The 7 years of Tribulation comes from an Old Testament prophecy about the coming Messiah called “The 70 Weeks of Daniel”. Yet even in this prophecy, it never says there will be 7 years of Tribulation. This study on the Tribulation is really an introductory of the main study and prophecy “The 70 Weeks of Daniel”, where I will go through the entire prophecy step by step.
But I wanted to do a quick study on just the 7 years of Tribulation first in order to clear a few things up that so many people have gotten wrong.
HERE IS WHERE IT COMES FROM
The 7 years of Tribulation comes from the 70th Week of Daniel. Not the whole 70 weeks, just the last week in the prophecy. This is exactly what the prophecy teachers are calling the 7 years of Tribulation. You can read the whole prophecy here. (Dan. 9:24-27)
But the first thing to understand is that the 70 Weeks of Daniel are not normal weeks of days. In other words the 70 Weeks of Daniel are not 490 days (70 weeks x 7 days), they are weeks of years. That means we are talking about 490 years. We know this of a certainty because most of the prophecy has already been fulfilled when Christ arrived on the 69th week or 483 years later. There is no dispute about this among the prophecy teachers. But it is that last remaining week, (the 70th) that is the focus of this study.
Ok, lets get to the meat of this; Since the 70 Weeks of Daniel is weeks of years, this means that the last week, the 70th week represents a 7 year period of time. This time period is where they get the idea of a 7 year period of Tribulation. See the diagram below.
But the problem is that half of this last week has already been fulfilled. It was fulfilled by Jesus, and only the last 3 1/2 years still remains. Now we are currently living in a Prophecy Time Gap that has lasted for more than 2000 years. In other words Christ stopped, or put a hold on the rest of the prophecy when He was crucified. And it will begin again at a given time.
What I am saying is that there is not 7 years of Tribulation coming, there is only 3 1/2 years of Tribulation coming because the first 3 1/2 years was fulfilled 2000 years ago. This is what most prophecy students and teachers are getting wrong. Let me explain.
The first 69 Weeks of the prophecy came to a close when Jesus Christ came on the scene. That is what was supposed to mark the 69th week, His appearance. Here is that part of the prophecy below;
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:…
It was a time frame to let the Jews know when they could expect the Messiah to arrive. There would be 7 weeks and then 62 weeks for a total of 69 weeks and then the Messiah would appear.
Now a score in the Bible is 20, and threescore is 60, so threescore and two would be 62. Therefore, 7 weeks + 62 weeks = 69 weeks. But again, not 69 weeks of days, but 69 weeks of years for a total of 483 years until the appearing of the Messiah.
So from the commandment to restore Jerusalem until the Messiah appears would span 483 years and this is exactly what happened and Jesus came on the scene. Which is the main reason we know it was weeks of years and not weeks of days. Because Jesus came on the scene 483 years after the Jews were given the commandment to restore Jerusalem.
But here is where it goes so wrong for many studying this.
His appearance! When was His official appearance? Was it when He was born? When He died? or When He revealed who He was? The exact appearance time is critical to understanding this because it makes a big difference on how much time remains.
Most prophecy students assume it is the moment He died on the cross. And if that is true, then a full week (7 years) in the prophecy will still be ahead of us. But that doesn’t make sense! The prophecy was about his “appearance“, not His “departure”! So the 69th week can not represent His death and departure, because it was to mark His arrival.
What if the appearance meant His birth? Well if Jesus was born on the 69th week, and only the 70th week remained (one more week of years), then the 70th week would have ended when Jesus was only 7 years old. So it can’t represent His birth either because Christ hadn’t even started His ministry yet. And how could the Jews recognize the coming Messiah if He was only a child? No one knew who He was until He was 30 years of age.
His appearance prophesied in Dan. 9:25 (unto the Messiah) can not represent His Death or His Birth. It must then represent when He was found. More specifically it was His introduction or announcement to the world that He is here and that He IS the long awaited Messiah. And here is that introduction below.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
This is Jesus’ official introduction! He has taken this passage of the Bible (Isaiah 61) and has applied it to Himself. He has publicly announced who He is and has confirmed the promises of His coming and of the covenant. And His confirmation was prophesied by Daniel over 500 years earlier in the prophecy of the “70 Weeks of Daniel”.
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.
Now here is a perfect example why it is important to know Which Bible is the Real Bible. Most modern bibles today say “he shall make a covenant”. But to confirm the covenant is entirely different then making a new one. Confirm and Make are two totally different words that are not interchangeable. The King James Bible got this right by using the word “confirm”, because it was Jesus who historically confirmed the covenant. Look at this next verse that proves this;
And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
This verse proves that Christ confirmed the covenant. And the King James makes perfect sense.
So this passage is NOT about the Antichrist making a 7 year covenant like most people are teaching today! It is about Jesus confirming the original covenant that God made with His people. This prophecy isn’t about the Antichrist at all, it is about Jesus Christ !
I mean just look at the two scriptures above verse 27. Look at Dan. 9:25 and 9:26. Who is the subject? The Bible clearly identifies the subject as the Messiah! So when it gets down to verse 27 and it says “he shall confirm the covenant”, its still talking about the main subject. The “HE” is still the subject and it is Jesus Christ the Messiah, NOT the Antichrist!
The only way the subject could be changed is to introduce a new subject by name or title. So if the subject changed to the Antichrist, it should have read something like the following;
And the lawless one shall confirm the covenant, or
And the man of sin shall confirm the covenant, or
And the Antichrist shall confirm the covenant.
But do you understand that a new subject must be identified? If you are talking about one person and then a few sentences later you say “HE”, then the first subject is what is implied. You would have to identify a new subject if you were trying to introduce or change the original subject. And nowhere in this prophecy does it mention the Antichrist by name, title or even indicates him at all. It is a complete fabrication. But one more thing;
Even if the True Word of God said “he shall make a covenant” the subject still doesn’t change. The subject is still the Messiah regardless of which Bible you may be reading from. Either way, the Antichrist is never the subject here or even a side thought. The subject is the Messiah and it’s about His appearance, not the appearance of the Antichrist.
Try reading this passage from the True word of God, the King James Bible, then it makes perfect sense. And listen for a moment on how much sense this really makes; once you know that the subject is actually the Messiah, it all falls into place.
The prophecy says He shall confirm the covenant for one week. And what do you think that week is? It is the 70th week. He came on the 69th week and now He is confirming the covenant for one more week, (the 70th week), the last remaining week of the prophecy. And this was at the beginnings of His ministry when He went into the synagogue that day to read from Isaiah at age 30. That began the 70th week, or what they are calling the 7 years of Tribulation.
But how long did Jesus’ ministry last? It lasted for 3 1/2 years. So if on the 69th week Jesus confirmed the covenant for one week, and he died 3 1/2 years later, that means He was crucified right in the middle of the week with only 3 1/2 years remaining. And isn’t it interesting to know that the book of Revelation only mentions a 3 1/2 year period of time in connection with the Antichrist? See Rev. 13:5. But Revelation never mentions a 7 year Tribulation. And it gets even better.
What happens in the middle of the week according to the prophecy? Here is what it says; “in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,“. The midst of the week means middle and what happens is that He causes the sacrifices to cease. That is exactly what Christ did!
When He was crucified, He became the final sacrifice for sin and we no longer do sacrifices. He officially stopped the sacrifices and made them to cease! Maybe not in the literal way, but that doesn’t matter because they became null and void according to God, and in God’s eyes that is all that matters. So He caused the sacrifices to cease. Jesus, not the Antichrist.
When Jesus was crucified, that ended the first half of the 70th week of Daniel or the “Lesser Tribulation”. The “Greater Tribulation” however is still unfulfilled and is mentioned several times in the book of Revelation. This time period only lasts for 3 1/2 years although measured in different ways. See the following verses;
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 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 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 will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
All these verses are describing the very same 3 1/2 year period of time. It is all about the “Greater Tribulation” period. So there is no 7 Years of Tribulation coming, the Lesser Tribulation has already been fulfilled, only the Greater Tribulation still remains.
I know this was a long winded explanation of the 7 year Tribulation time, but to correctly understand the Tribulation it is important to understand where it comes from. For greater details and a full explanation of the “70 Weeks of Daniel“, see the study on it.
The bottom line here is that 7 years of Tribulation is never mentioned in the Bible but the idea comes from a prophecy called “The 70 Weeks Of Daniel”, where the last week, the 70th week is thought to be this 7 years of Tribulation. However half of this 70th week has already been fulfilled in Jesus Christ after He confirmed the Covenant at the beginnings of His Ministry. Now only 3 1/2 years is all that remains of the Tribulation.