What the Great Tribulation Will be Like – An Overview of 7 Key Features

What will the Great Tribulation be Like? This page provides a link to a You Tube video which describes these 7 key features.  Also, an outline of this study is provided below.

7 Key Features of the Great Tribulation – An Overview

 

Common Evangelical Beliefs about the Great Tribulation

• False Beliefs about the conditions of the Great Tribulation
• Most premillennialists believe that the church will be gone (secret rapture)
• Catastrophic earthly disasters – Earthquakes, darkness, heavenly signs
• Economic calamities, famine, diseases
• Tyranny of the antichrist (world leader) over national Israel and the world
• Literal mark of the beast (hand / forehead) in order to buy or sell
• Etc.

 

Review from the Millennium Series

• Millennium is a symbol for the Church Age
• Understanding the Millennium allows for a clear understanding of the order of the end-time events:
  • Church Age
  • Great Tribulation
  • The Last Day
    • A.k.a., Day of Redemption, Day of Judgment, Day of Darkness, Second Coming of Christ (Rapture), Day of the Lord, etc.

 

7 Key Features of the Great Tribulation

• Appears ‘normal’ from world’s perspective
  • ‘Thief in the night’, eating, drinking, marrying, working, etc.
• Antichrist
  • Man of sin / little horn / beast, etc.
• Abomination of Desolation
  • Worship of Satan through idolatry
• Deception
  • Removal of the ‘daily’, spiritual famine, false prophets, false christs, etc.
• Iniquity / unrighteousness
• Persecution and disunity
  • Captivity, scattering and spiritual killing in the church
• Babylon
  • False Christianity, churches, etc.

 

Feature 1 – All Appears Normal from the World’s Perspective

• A Thief in the Night
  • For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  (1Th 5:2-4)
• Other Examples:
  • Days of Noah – Eating, drinking, marrying – Mat 24:37-39
  • Days of Lot – Eating, drinking, buying and selling, Building – Luke 17:28-30
  • Two in Bed, Two Grinding, Two in Field – Luke 17:34-36

 

Feature 2 – The Antichrist

• (A.k.a., Beast, Man of Sin, Son of Perdition, Little Horn, King of the North, etc.)
• Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.  (1John 2:18)
• Many other names for the end-time antichrist:
  • Man of sin, son of perdition, lawless one – 2 Thess 2:3, 8
  • The Beast – Rev 13:1-10
  • The 7^th Head of the scarlet-colored beast – Rev 17:10
  • The Little Horn – Dan 7:8, Dan 8:9
  • The King of the North – Dan 11:40
  • Etc.
• Definition of an Antichrist
  • Antichrist
  • Against Christ (Prophet, Priest, King)
  • Prophet – Word of God
  • Priest – Christ is only way to salvation
  • King – Obedience
  • Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son.  (1Jn 2:22)
  • And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.  (1Jn 4:3)
• Actions of the Antichrist
• Pride Examples:
  • Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God… Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness (2Th 2:4, 7, 9-10)
  • And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.  (Rev 13:7)

Feature 3 – The Abomination of Desolation

• Abomination of Desolation
• When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place … For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.  (Mat 24:15,21)
• 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. (Dan 9:27)
• Abomination – refers to idolatry
• Desolation – causes judgment / scattering of the church
  • Worship of Satan’s Kingdom

Feature 4 – Deception

 

• False Teaching / False Christs
• Deception
  • And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Rev 20:3)
  • Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish …  (2Th 2:9-10)
  • … false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders … if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.  (Mat 24:24)
  • And his [little horn] power shall be mighty … And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many … (Dan 8:24-25)

Feature 5 – Iniquity / Unrighteousness

• Iniquity / Unrighteousness
  • And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Mat 24:12)
  • … And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  (2Th 2:10)
• Days of Noah (Mat 24:37-29)
  • And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.  (Gen 6:5-8)
• Days of Lot (Luke 17:28-30)
  • And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds (2 Pet 2:7-8)

Feature 6 – Persecution and Disunity of the Church

• Persecution / Disunity
  • 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. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. (Mat 24:9-10)
  • Hate = spiritual killing (1 John 3:15)
• … when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up … and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. (Dan 8:23-24)
• And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.  (Rev 13:7)

Feature 7 – Babylon

• False Christianity
• Persecution and Spiritual Fornication
• Persecution of True Christians:
  • And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus …  (Rev 17:6)
• False gods and idolatry:
  • … Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.  (Rev 18:2-3)

 

Summary of the Great Tribulation Features:

• 1. Appears ‘normal’ from world’s perspective
  2. Antichrist
  3. Abomination of Desolation
  4. Deception
  5. Iniquity / unrighteousness
  6. Persecution and disunity
  7. Babylon