FACT 3: THE EARTH WILL EXPERIENCE UNPARALLELED TROUBLE

When the Antichrist is revealed, the stage will be set for the terrible events of the tribulation. After this satanically empowered leader rises to prominence, the stage will be set for the most distressing period of all history. For 3 ½ years he will conduct a reign of terror, bringing death to multitudes, both Jew and Gentile. But in addition to this reign of terror, the earth will experience unparalleled trouble as God’s wrath is poured out on all mankind (Is. 13:6-11).

The Nations Trouble

The nations will not go unpunished by the hand of God. They will live to hate the day they cast their lot with God’s archenemy. For generations their leaders will have rejected God and mocked His Son. A just punishment will befall them in the 7-year period called “the tribulation.”

Two sections of the New Testament describe the events of these 7 years: Matthew 24 and Revelation6-16. These prophetic details indicate how mankind will suffer during this frightening time:

MATTHEW 24
• False christs
• Wars
• Rumors of war
• Nation against nation
• Famines
• Earthquakes
• Killing
• Betrayal
• Flight
• Pestilence

REVELATION 6-16

The Seals (Rev. 6)

• Antichrist
• War
• Famine
• Death
• Martyrdom
• Global destruction
• The trumpet begin

The Trumpets (Rev. 8-9)

• vegetation destroyed
• death at sea
• fresh water poisoned
• the heavens struck
• terrible locusts
• death by demons
• the bowl judgments begin

The Bowls (Rev. 15-16)

• ugly sores
• death of marine life
• fresh water contaminated
• unbearable heat
• darkness and pain
• demonic hordes
• earthquake and hail



The suffering and death that will fall on the nations during the tribulation is indescribably horrible. Millions upon millions will die in the terrible outpouring of God’s wrath. Yet the majority will not repent. Though they “gnawed their tongues” in agony, they will continue to curse the God of heaven and refuse to trust in Him (Rev. 16: 10-11). There will be a great multitude of Gentiles, however, who will turn to God during the tribulation. John refers to them as “great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues” (Rev. 7:9).


Israel Troubled

There actually two purposes for the 7 years of tribulation. The first, as we have already seen, is the punishment of the nations. A second is to bring Israel to the place where she can be restored to the position of spiritual favor she once held in God’s eyes. Israel will suffer with nations – only more intensely. This is “the time of Jacob’s trouble” prophesied by Jeremiah: Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it (Jer. 30:7).

The tribulation will be a time of suffering and death for all mankind. But the Jews will be the hardest hit by the terror of those awful days. Zechariah predicted that two thirds of all Jews on earth will die during the tribulation (13:8-9). But the suffering will bring Israel to repentance.

The prophet Ezekiel described Israel’s conversion with these beautiful words: I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of you flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God (Ezek. 30:24-28).

Biblical descriptions of Israel’s restoration are also given in Ezekiel 37 (the valley of dry bones) and Zechariah 12: 10-11.

The spiritual restoration of Israel as a nation will take place at the return of Jesus Christ to earth at the end of the tribulation. When He returns to rescue them from being annihilated by the Antichrist, they will nationally accept Him as their Messiah and Savior, even though individually a large number of Jews will already have been converted (Rev. 7: 1-8).

After hundreds of generations of hardhearted disbelief, the people of Israel will trust in Jesus Christ as their true Messiah. In terrible agony, inflicted by the Antichrist, they will turn in faith to the Lord Jesus. This brings us to the next event in God’s program for the endtimes, the return of Jesus Christ to earth.