It was the whole Trinity, which at the beginning of creation said, 'Let us make man' (Gen. 1:26). It was the whole Trinity again, which at the beginning of the Gospel seemed to say, 'Let us save man' (Mt. 3:16-17).
J.C. Ryle

The First Half Of The Tribulati

The First Half Of The Tribulati

The First Half Of the Tribulation

Question: Can you show some verse showing the first three-and-a-half years of the Tribulation, or do you believe that was fulfilled in the Book of Acts?

Answer: Well, the only Scripture you have for that is Daniel. Come to Daniel chapter 9. And in Daniel chapter 9, the reason why you have to eventually get three-and-a-half years is because a seven-year period is given here. Daniel 9. Now, to whether anything goes wrong during those first three-and-a-half years, that isn’t given. But, I’ll show you the problem you’re going to get into if you don’t allow for a full seven years.

All right, Daniel 9, verse 25: “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…” that’s 49 years “…and threescore and two weeks…” another 434 years. “The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.” Christ dies. “But not for himself.” He dies for you. “And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” 70 A.D. (Semicolon)–“And the end thereof…” he steps over to the Tribulation “…shall be with a flood.” Has to be, because there’s a flood in Revelation 12. And it’s a literal flood. “And unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Now, here’s the problem: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” You know what those weeks are; those are periods of seven years. They have to be that long, because if you took them as literal weeks, you’d have Christ coming about 300 B.C. So they have to be years.

Now, he says, “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.”

All right, if you take that thing and put that thing out chronologically, you get a thing like this. Now, whatever goes wrong, here’s the seven-year period. And, in the midst of the week, the Antichrist breaks the covenant and causes the sacrifice to cease.

Sacrifice? Well, then, there’s a sacrifice going on then for three-and-a-half years before he breaks the covenant. All right, you’ve got to have three-and-a-half years here, where somebody’s offering a sacrifice.at a Temple. Well, if they’re offering a sacrifice at the Temple, what’s that got to do with me? Turn to Matthew chapter 24. How are you going to be around to see that? Matthew 24. Now the trouble is, these birds are always looking at Matthew 24. In Matthew 24, you couldn’t find the church in there with a flashlight. All right, Matthew chapter 24, verse 16: “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” That isn’t you. Verse 15: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…” That isn’t you.

Verse 20: “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day.” That isn’t you, either! “For then shall be great tribulation, such as…” so forth, and so on.

All right, that “great tribulation,” if it begins right there, then you’ve got to have the Antichrist on this earth for three-and-a-half years, with a covenant with the Jew and a rebuilt Temple–right there, during that time.

And when that time comes, in Matthew chapter 24 look at this, Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Do you know what’s being preached in here? The gospel of the kingdom. That ain’t the gospel you’re supposed to preach! It’s got nothing to do with you at all!

Every one of these nuts gets in Matthew 24, and they just roll it up into pralines and pecans until they’re just nutty! They can’t get out of Matthew 24.

Now, you better get out of Matthew 24, and I’ll show you why. In that passage, in Matthew chapter 24, look at this. Verse 30: “The Son of man.” Verse 37: :The Son of man.” Verse 44: “The Son of man.” The term “Son of man” doesn’t occur one time in the Pauline epistles! Not once! Paul writes thirteen epistles, and not one time does he ever say, “The Son of man.” “The Son of man” is not a designation to a saved Gentile in the church . It’s a Jewish designation to Israel. Now, how do you know that? Verse 30: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” Who are the signs for, folks? The Jews! O.K., why are they fooling around in Matthew 24?

They’re living and dying in Matthew 24, and Matthew 24 ain’t got nothin’ to do with you at all! It’s talking about somebody in here; whoever’s in here, they’re at a Temple, and they’re going into that Temple, and they’re preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and they’re offering sacrifices. That isn’t you.

Now could it be, you go in here, and then come up here (Mid-Tribulation), and then all hell breaks loose over here? Well, it could be. It could be. But you’ve got problems. Turn to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Now, this is a matter of chronology. When you get into these things, it’s really obscure. And, you know, I always thought the Rapture would be in 1989. But I was very careful, every time I preached that message, to say, “If our calendar’s right.” I always would put that in there. Because I know the brethren, you know. So I would stand up there and say, “If our calendar is right, then the Rapture could not be any later than 1989.” I would never say how much earlier it could be, because nobody knows when it could be. It could be right this minute! So, I would say, “It can’t be any later than 1989.”

Now, when I did that, here’s what I was doing. And, again, these chronological matters are open to debate. I’m saying this. I’m saying the date for the Advent is 2000 A.D. Now, I’m sure of that–if the calendar is right. Now, there’s always that “if.”

All right, if you take seven years–Daniel’s seventieth week–then you get a Rapture of maximum date of 1993. Now, all the scholars say Christ was born in 4 B.C. They all say that. Pick up any book you’ve got there, and look at the margin; the date for Christ is 4 B.C. They say that when Pope Gregory changed the calendar, you had to allow for a four-year’s difference in the old Ptolemaic system. So they all say that Christ was born in 4 B.C.

If He was born in 4 B.C., you’d have to subtract four, and that would make a last date for the Rapture 1989.

Well, He didn’t come, did He?

Well, maybe He wasn’t born in 4 B.C. Maybe He was born in 3 B.C. Now, that won’t work. In that case, He should have come last year. Well, he was born in 2 B.C. Then, He would have to come this year.

Suppose He was born in 1 B.C.? You’ll have to wait until 1992.

Suppose He was born when He was born? That’s a soul-shattering thought! If He was born when He was born, then the Rapture is 1993–if you allow for Daniel’s seventieth week.

Now, if you’re going to allow that you have to go into the first half of Daniel’s seventieth week, then you’ve got to step it up again. You’ve got to step it up to 1996. And a half.

Then there are more problems there than that. You see, some of Daniel’s seventieth week might have taken place in the Book of Acts. I mean, there’s a period there from Acts 1 to Acts 7 where the chronology is still running. And after Acts chapter 7, God cuts it off–but you don’t know what the distance is between Acts 1 and Acts 7. You know some of it; you know fifty days. Because there are fifty days to Pentecost. You allow for fifty days. But then you’ve got to go beyond that to Acts 7. So maybe a half year’s already gone. So, according to that date, a mid-Tribulation Rapture would be 1997.

Now, do you see how elusive that thing is? I mean, the Lord picks that thing. When the Bible says no man can know the day or the hour, it’s not because you couldn’t know if you knew something, it’s because the chronologies are so screwed up you couldn’t find out!

I mean, folks, you’re living in the craziest age the world has ever seen. Guys bragging about England bombing golf balls, you know, and go for the aperture on a bunker there at 32,000 feet–they can’t even fix your back! You got a bad back? They can’t fix it! You got a cold? They can’t fix it either! Try opening a clam. Nobody has invented a machine yet that’ll open a clam; you open them with knives! Isn’t that the way?

I mean, you’re living in the wildest age the world has ever seen. Now, they’ve got all these computers that go to the moon and photograph Jupiter–and there isn’t a man on this earth who can tell you what today is chronologically! They don’t even know! You say, “It’s 1991.” You don’t know that!

The problem is, one verse leads to another, and that brings up two more problems, and that brings up this thought, and that goes over here. Now, let me show this before I get where I was going. I want to show you a picture of how mad this world is. All right, let me tell you something. There isn’t any educated man in this town who knows what month of the year this month is.

You say, “It’s the first month.” That proves you’re all crazy. It couldn’t possibly be the first month; and I’ll show you why. January–February–March–April. I mean, when the college professors at Southern Cal don’t know what month it is, you’ve got problems! Here’s May, and here’s June, and here’s July, and here’s August.

One–two–three–four–five–six–seven–eight. August is the eighth month. September, October, November, December. Nine–ten–eleven–twelve. You say, “Yeah, that’s it.” That can’t possibly be it! Not by the wildest stroke of depraved imagination! You’d have to throw out your dictionary to get that!

“Sept” is seven. And “Octogon,” “Octopus,” is eight, and Novemberis “novena,” and that’s nine, and December is a “decimal,” and that’s ten.

Now, who doesn’t know that but every professor in America? “This is the first month in the year”–not by the wildest stretch of depraved imagination! No way in the world, man!

That is the twelfth month (December)–according to them. According to a dictionary, that’s the tenth month. That’s the eleventh (January), that’s the twelfth (February), and your first month is the Jewish first month–Passover. In the English calendar. On the English calendar, the first month of the year is March. And there isn’t any Ph.D. in America who knows that. Except one, but he’s crazy anyway; you can’t trust him!

I’ll just show you, so you’ll see the age we’re living in. You talk about bananas gone bonkers! All right, Revelation chapter 1. Now watch this. Revelation 1:20; the seven churches. End of the chapter; “seven churches.” 2:1: “The angel of the church;” 2, verse 7: “churches”; 2, verse 11: “churches”; 2, verse 17, “churches”; 2, verse 29, “churches”; 3:1, “church”; 3:6, “churches”; 3:7, “church”; 3:13, “churches”; 3:14, “church”; 3:22, “churches.”

Now, you see that word “churches” in 3:22? That’s the last time that thing shows up. The last chapter in the Bible is an invitation from the churches in Revelation 22; that’s after eternity has started. There is no church present in Revelation 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19–and the Antichrist doesn’t show up until Revelation 6. Look at it. Turn to Revelation 6, verse 2. There he is. Revelation 6:2. There isn’t a church in sight when that bird shows up.

In Revelation 6, verse 2, he’s not showing up as the “son of perdition,” at Jerusalem killing folks. He’s showing up as a world leader on a white horse–an Arabian–an Arabian–an Arabian–white horse.

On an Arabian white horse. And when he shows up–“Peace!” “Peace!” “Peace!” “Peace!” So if you’ve got Christians going through here, you’ve got a funny sign here, because there’s no more church before that bird shows up. The church is gone. So, you’ve got problems.