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Transcript 293D — How Long Will the Tribulation Last?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening. I would like to ask you if it mentions anywhere in the Bible just exactly how long the tribulation is going to last. And if it does, is that a symbolic number or an actual number? And I'll take my answer on the air.
HC: All right. Fine. Thank you. Good night.
The question is raised, How long will the tribulation, the final tribulation that must come against the believers, last? When we study the Bible regarding this question, there are four numbers that relate to the question.
The first number is seventy years. The Bible teaches that God came against Israel and said that they would be afflicted for seventy years because of their rebellion against God. And this is found in a number of places. I think immediately of II Chronicles 36, where we read of the destruction of Judea. They went into exile in Babylon (verse 21), "to fulfill the Word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbath. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years." Now that's one figure that God gives to us as a possible length of time for tribulation.
Now incidentally, this first period of seventy years is a literal period that did exist for Israel. It went from 609 BC, when Josiah was killed, until 539 BC, when Babylon was overcome by the Medes and the Persians. And at that time the first contingent of Jews returned to Jerusalem. During that seventy year period Israel was in deep trouble. During the first part of this seventy year period, from 609 BC, the Egyptians troubled Israel, and then the Babylonians troubled them, and then finally, in 587 BC, Babylon actually destroyed Israel. And it was not until 539 BC, seventy years after Josiah's death in 609 BC, that Israel began to return to its own land. This was the first fulfillment of this seventy years.
But nevertheless, the language of this seventy years has end time implications and certainly must be a number to be considered when we're thinking about the length of the final tribulation.
The second number that must be considered is the period from 609 BC, until 587 BC, when Judah was destroyed by Babylon, a period of twenty-three years. That too could be related in some sense to the final tribulation.
The third number that must be considered is a number found in Acts 7. This is a surprising place to look for a number relating to the final tribulation, but it really does, because in Acts 7 Stephen is preaching, and he's talking about the famine that came on the land at the time that Joseph had become Prime Minister over Egypt. And in verse 11 of Acts 7 he says, "Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. And our fathers could find no food."
Now the interesting thing about this phrase "great affliction" is that this phrase is only found three places in the Bible. It's found in Matthew 24:21, where it says, "And then there will be great tribulation." The word tribulation in Matthew 24:21 is the identical word to the word that we find here in verse 11 of Acts, "great affliction" or "great tribulation," the Greek word is the same.
The other place where this term "great tribulation" or "great affliction" is found is in Revelation 7, but there the context surely indicates that it's talking about the sum total of all the tribulation that believers will endure throughout time.
And so we're attracted to Acts 7, because we have the same language that we find in Matthew 24:21, where it talks about the tribulation period. Now this tribulation was a seven year period. You'll recall that the famine existed in the land for seven years, but actually, at the end of two years Jacob and his family came into Egypt under the care and keeping of Joseph. So they actually only experienced two years. But tribulation was to continue seven years.
So here are three choices. There's seventy years, there's twenty-three years, and there is seven years. Now there are those who talk about Daniel 9:27 as the tribulation period, or as referring to the tribulation period. But that context has nothing at all to do with the tribulation period. That's talking about something altogether different.
When we continue to study the Bible, however, we discover that those days will be shortened. Those days will be shortened. Do you remember you read that in Matthew 24? Maybe that won't be recalled very quickly. But let me read it, "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. And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."
Now this sets up a very interesting analogy. Tribulation, which is called "great tribulation," identical language to Matthew 24:21, that the family of Jacob went under, should have lasted seven years. The famine was in the land seven years. It was shortened for the, however, to two years, because after two years they came under the care and keeping of Joseph in Egypt, where there was sufficient grain for them.
So in their case it was shortened. It should have been seven years, but it was shortened to two years. Isn't that interesting? And so we look at these other tribulation numbers that are suggested in the Bible – the seventy years that I spoke about, and the twenty-three years – and we sense that it probably won't be either of these, but it will be a shortened period.
And lo and behold, when we go to Daniel 8, we find a period of time there that is a time of tribulation, it is a time when the Gospel is silenced. The continual has been taken away. The place of the sanctuary has been overthrown. And it speaks there of a period of 2300 evenings and mornings, which is about six years and four months.
Now this is a significant number: 2,300 evenings and mornings, because it relates in number fashion to the twenty-three years we've already spoken about. God very frequently uses numbers in a symbolical fashion to illustrate a spiritual truth. Twenty-three years, 2300 evenings and mornings. Two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings is much shorter than twenty-three years, and certainly shorter than the seventy years.
So I believe that this is the length of the period when the Gospel will be silenced. It relates to the other numbers, it matches the requirements of Matthew 24:21, that those days will be shortened. They should have been much longer, like the twenty-three years or the seventy years. But they will be shortened down to 2300 evenings and mornings.
Now the question logically could be asked, how do you know that that's a literal period of time? When we search the Bible for other language concerning evenings and mornings, the one outstanding place where we find reference to this is Genesis 1, where God created in six days. And each time it says there was evening and morning, one day.
From the context of Genesis 1, as well as from everything else the Bible teaches, we know that those were twenty-four hour days. They were literal days. And if this is so in Genesis 1, and there is no other evidence in the Bible to offer anything else contrary to this, we must then conclude that the 2300 evenings and mornings of Daniel 8 are twenty-four hour periods of time. This then would give us a little more than six years as the period when the Gospel is silenced. That will be the time when the tribulation will be most severe for the believers, inasmuch as it will be a dreadful time, without people being saved, without any opportunity to share the Gospel. Wickedness will have increased. There will be great trauma in the world because of other judgments that have come against the world because of their apostasy. But all of this will end with Christ Himself coming on the clouds of glory.