End Time Biblical Prophecy Revealed
By Thomas Taylor
PART 4 — THE TRIBULATION – NOT SEVEN YEARS LONG
Daniel 9:26-27 — “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 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.”
Nearly every end-time scholar reads this passage and concludes it describes a seven-year tribulation period driven by the Antichrist. On both counts, I disagree — and I think a careful reading of the text itself exposes why.
Start with the subject of verse 27. The popular teaching inserts the Antichrist as the “he” who confirms the covenant. But look at the grammar. The nearest preceding subject in the passage is not “the prince who is to come” — it is Messiah. And the Hebrew word translated “confirm” is higbir — which means to make strong, to cause to prevail, to ratify something already existing. It is not negotiation language. It is fulfillment language. Jesus did not negotiate a new covenant. He ratified — higbir — the New Covenant already promised in Jeremiah 31, through His ministry and His blood.
He confirmed the covenant with many. He ministered for exactly 3.5 years, from His baptism to the cross. In the midst of the week — at the cross — He caused the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, because His death rendered the entire Levitical sacrificial system permanently obsolete (Hebrews 10). Daniel 9:27 is almost entirely a verse about Jesus.
So why does the Antichrist appear at all in this passage? Because Israel rejected their Messiah — and that rejection had a cost. Jesus named it Himself in John 5:43: “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.” The final 3.5 years of the 70th week — the half that belonged to Jesus and that Israel forfeited at the cross — do not disappear. They transfer. The Antichrist fulfills what Israel refused to let Christ complete.
This means the 70th week is not a future seven-year block waiting to happen. Jesus already fulfilled the first half. What remains on the prophetic clock is 3.5 years. Not seven. The phrase “seven-year tribulation” does not appear anywhere in the Bible. Not once. What Daniel 9 actually shows us is that the Antichrist will operate during the second half of the 70th week — 3.5 years, the portion Israel forfeited. That is the duration of the Great Tribulation.
LEADING UP TO THE END
Before the Great Tribulation begins, there is a setup — a long, deliberate construction of the conditions that make it possible. The Seven Seals of Revelation describe this process. They are largely depicting what is happening in the unseen spiritual realm. The Seals are the big picture. They began over 2,000 years ago with the release of the spirit of Antichrist (1 John 4:3). Jesus in Matthew 24 gives us the corresponding ground-level picture — the actual events on earth that unfold in the final generation (Matthew 24:32-34).
When you lay Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 side by side, they are describing the same sequence from two different vantage points. Matthew shows what is happening in the natural realm in the final generation. Revelation shows what is happening in the spiritual realm over a longer arc.
| SEAL | MATTHEW 24 | REVELATION 6 | COMMENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seal 1 — False Christ / spirit of antichrist over religion | “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” (v.4-5) | “A white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” (v.1-2) | The release of the spirit of antichrist ages ago. The mixing of Christianity with paganism — syncretism — began in the 4th century. Now we see the world uniting all religions, including false Christianity, while excluding genuine Bible-believing faith. False Christians are multiplying; true Christians are being persecuted. The demonic forces behind this will drive a coming apostasy (v.10; 2 Thess. 2:3). The Antichrist himself will step into global prominence quietly and gradually. He will not be identified by the vast majority of Christianity at this point. |
| Seal 2 — War / spirit of antichrist over government | “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars… nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” (v.6-7) | “A red horse: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” (v.3-4) | Wars have always existed. But in the end there will be tumults, riots, and uprisings affecting nearly every nation. The 19th century gave us the rise of Socialism and Communism. The 20th gave us world wars. More are coming. |
| Seal 3 — Famine / spirit of antichrist over economics | “There shall be famines.” (v.7) | “A black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. A measure of wheat for a penny…” (v.5-6) | Economic collapse and famine. The 19th century produced monopolies and corruption. The 20th produced the Great Depression. Stock market crashes, recessions, and manufactured scarcity have continued ever since — and will culminate in the global economic control apparatus being built right now. |
| Seal 4 — Death / spirit of antichrist over nature | “Pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (v.7-8) | “A pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death… power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth.” (v.7-8) | Diseases, plagues, and natural disasters increasing in intensity and frequency. Up to a quarter of humanity affected. “Earthquakes” here likely includes violent weather events — hurricanes, storms, tornadoes. |
| Seal 5 — Persecution of Jews and Christians | “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” (v.9) | “The souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” (v.9) | This is where the Great Tribulation begins. Power is given to the Antichrist to continue 42 months. The Abomination of Desolation occurs during this time. The Antichrist moves against Jews first, then the Church. |
| Seal 6 — Astronomical events | “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” (v.29) | “The sun became black as sackcloth… the moon became as blood… the stars of heaven fell unto the earth.” (v.12-14) | The astronomical events preceding the Day of the Lord. The world is thrown into darkness by a catastrophic impact event. Over two billion people will die from the consequences. Those who survive will emerge to find the world they knew is gone. |
HOW THE ANTICHRIST GETS THERE
Understanding the Seals also means understanding the mechanism by which the Antichrist rises to global power. He does not build his empire from scratch. He inherits — and then destroys and or sequesters — a system that was built before him.
We are watching that system being built right now.
The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals represent the most aggressive push toward centralized global government in human history. On the surface the goals sound benevolent — end poverty, end hunger, clean water for all. But what they actually mean is: control world finance, control the food supply, control energy, control healthcare, control education, control land and water, and assign a legal identity number to every human being on earth. Goal 16, point 9 states plainly: “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.” A global numbering system for all humanity. The precursor to the Mark of the Beast is being designed in committee meetings.
This UN system is not the Antichrist’s final order. It is the Problem he will appear to solve. He will revise the UN!
This is the oldest political formula in history: Problem, Reaction, Solution. You manufacture — or deliberately cultivate — an intolerable problem. You wait for the population to cry out in desperation. Then you deliver the solution you always intended, which the people would never have accepted without the suffering first. Agenda 2030’s global governance apparatus, with its crushing redistribution, surveillance, elimination of private property, and erasure of national sovereignty, will generate exactly the desperation required. Nations will resist. Economies will fracture. People will suffer under a system that promised equity and delivered tyranny.
When the conditions are sufficiently unbearable, the Antichrist steps in — not as the builder of the globalist system, but as its destroyer. He appears to overthrow the corrupt international order. He speaks the language of national sovereignty and individual dignity. He defeats the establishment. And the world, having suffered under what came before, runs to him with open arms.
That is how Revelation 13:4 makes sense: “Who is like the Beast? Who can make war against him?” That is not the language of a conquered population. That is the language of a liberated one — or a population that believes it has been liberated. He does not terrorize them into worship. He wins it.
Satan has always worked most effectively in the shadows. He is working now. The Antichrist is likely already operating behind institutions, possibly as one of the architects of the very system that will eventually be swept away and replaced with his own absolute control. He will not be publicly identified until the restrainer is removed (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8). By the time he steps into the open, the platform will already be built.
THE GREAT TRIBULATION IS 3.5 YEARS
So what is the actual duration of the Great Tribulation? The Bible does not leave this ambiguous. It states the same time period repeatedly, in multiple forms, across multiple books:
Daniel 7:25 — “They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
Daniel 12:7 — “It shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”
Revelation 11:2 — “They will trample the holy city for forty-two months.”
Revelation 12:6 — “They should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”
Revelation 13:5, 7 — “It was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months… it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation.”
Notice what is not in that list: seven years. It is not there. It is never there. What the Bible states — over and over and over, in prophetic language, in days, in months, in symbolic time-fractions — is 3.5 years. That is the consistent, unambiguous duration of the Great Tribulation.
What triggers the beginning of the Great Tribulation is not yet fully clear from Scripture — the exact starting event has not been definitively revealed. What is clear is its duration: 3.5 years. The Abomination of Desolation is a landmark event that occurs within the Great Tribulation, not the event that starts it:
Matthew 24:21 — “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.”
Revelation echoes it:
Revelation 7:14 — “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Those are the only two references to “great tribulation” in the entire Bible. Both point to the same 3.5-year period. There is no textual basis for a seven-year tribulation. It is a tradition built on a misreading of Daniel 9:27, which — as shown above — is primarily a Christ verse.
JEWS FIRST
Matthew 24:20-22 — “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”
The persecution of the Jewish people during the Great Tribulation will be the worst in all of human history. The antisemitism of the world will reach its culmination. The scale of what is coming cannot be adequately described in words.
Zechariah 13:8-9 — “In all the land, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined.”
Two-thirds of the Jewish people will be killed. The remaining third will be refined through that fire, call on the name of the Lord, and be saved.
Zechariah 14:2 — “For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity.”
The Antichrist’s campaign against Israel will be total. But he will not finish it. God will cut the days short.
Deuteronomy 32, addressed specifically to the Jewish people (v.9), describes exactly what drives this judgment:
“But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked… then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (v.15)
“I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.” (v.20)
“To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand.” (v.35)
Israel has rejected Jesus — the Rock of their salvation — for two thousand years. The Great Tribulation is in part the consequence of that rejection. And yet God is not finished with Israel. Those who believe will be saved. They will be raptured and join the Church. The 144,000 (Revelation 7:4; 14:1) are literal Jewish believers — 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes. The Church does not have twelve tribes. The 144,000 are not a metaphor for the Church.
Paul’s declaration in Romans 11:26 — “And so all Israel shall be saved” — will be fulfilled. The Deliverer will come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION
I know the popular position. You are going to be raptured before any of this touches you. The Church escapes clean before the Antichrist begins his work. It is a comforting teaching. It is also wrong — and the stakes of being wrong about it are severe.
The pre-tribulation rapture is not a conclusion derived from the text. It is an assumption layered onto the text, built on centuries of tradition, and taught with such confidence that most believers have never stopped to question it. It is a house of cards. And the people who hold it — precious brothers and sisters in Christ — are being set up for the greatest crisis of faith in Church history.
Christians will face the Antichrist’s persecution. The Bible says so plainly:
Daniel 7:21 — “The same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.”
Daniel 7:25 — “He shall wear out the saints of the Most High… and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
That is not ambiguous. The saints — believers — are given into his hand for 3.5 years.
Now, here is the critical distinction: the Antichrist’s persecution is not the wrath of God. The Antichrist does not work for God. God does not employ the devil as His instrument of judgment. The tribulation that believers will face during the Great Tribulation is the devil’s rage — not divine wrath. In every single instance in Scripture where God poured out His wrath, not one of His obedient people was harmed. Noah’s flood. Sodom and Gomorrah. The Egyptian plagues. In each case, those who followed God’s instructions were completely protected.
God’s wrath begins after the sixth seal:
Revelation 6:16-17 — “Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
The wrath of God does not begin with the first seal. The first six seals are the works of Satan bringing tribulation upon the earth. God’s wrath is poured out beginning at the seventh seal — after which the Church is raptured, before the bowls of wrath are poured out.
This is the pre-wrath, post-tribulation rapture of the Church. We will be here for the Antichrist’s persecution. We will not be here for the bowls of God’s wrath. That is the biblical position.
Matthew 24:14 is often cited as a current-age verse: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Read it in context. It appears in the middle of Jesus’ description of the final 3.5 years. Yes, we are preaching the gospel globally now — but this verse describes an evangelistic surge during the Great Tribulation itself, when the stakes are ultimate and the harvest will be unlike anything the world has ever seen. Many will be saved during the worst period in human history.
The Church will be tested. Some will fall away. But those who endure will overcome — and will be arrayed in white, united with their Lord either through martyrdom or rapture at the seventh seal, before the wrath of God falls on all that remains.
The true outpouring of the Holy Spirit of truth happens before the 5th shofar and 5th vial is poured. Revelation 7:3-4,13-14 Revelation 9:4! Joel 2:28-29-this happens in the homes of God’s people and their family members (read Isaiah 26:20-21)! the people of God flee all man made churches, anything of the identical jesus christ movement. then Joel 2:30 which shows the aftermath of the sixth and fifth shofar sounds and fifth and sixth vial poured. then Joel 2:31-32 happens…
must watch and hear video on youtube titled, “Christ testimony of the churches -around the world.” there are two identical Jesus Christ revelation 17:8. most of revelation is happening in the spirit world. that’s why Jesus said it would be like the days of Noah and Lot. the abomination of desolation is happening in the spirit realm inside all these man made buildings set up for worship. the Christians and catholics, etc are not aware of what’s happening to them and around them in these places, (churches -any four wall building representing God to gather believers of Christ). these churches around the world are all connected to “The Great City” Revelation 11, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt and Mystery of iniquity. Church leaders around the world are searching of the earthly signs. this will not happen until the very last day and hour. God will not allow man to destroy the earth with nuclear bombs. read matthew 3:12 and Revelation 20:9. God sends his son to the earth with the fire behind him consuming all his enemies which are left from the resurrection of the dead and those that are alive. the body of Christ is gathered as the son of man appears at last sound of shofar, he is coming while the wheat are gathered and the tares are left as the chaff and earth is consumed by the fire of God.