What the tribulation period will be like

This text is for all those who want to know what the tribulation period will be like.  Right now, we are in a biblical period called “the times of the Gentiles.”  .  The time will come when God will end the times of the Gentiles, and turn back to the Jews with the Gospel.  Only God knows the time.  The Jewish nation will lead the world into the millennium. Before that happens, God must first purge the world and cleanse it.  All evil will be destroyed that is on the earth.  This time God will not use water, but heat and fire.  Almost all life on earth will be destroyed.  

When God determines that the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, his angel will sound the trumpet of God.  It will be heard all over the earth.  It will probably sound like a giant thunder boom.  Within a blink of the eye, all people, from the day of the crucifixion of Christ until that day of the trumpet, all who have believed in Christ and have already died and are in heaven with Christ, will descend downward from heaven and be given a new eternal fleshly body to inhabit.  During that same instant, all the people now living on the planet that believe in Christ will immediately leave their fleshly body and meet Christ and the dead in Christ in the air where they also will be given new eternal bodies.  And the Holy Spirit and all those that believed in Christ will go back into heaven with Christ.

Back on earth, the people will experience life without the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Evil will then begin to take over people’s thoughts and desires, as it was back in the days of Noah. Life at first will go on as normal.  People will still get up and go to work and send kids to school.  It will start out pretty much the way things were before the rapture. Very soon after the rapture the seven year tribulation period will begin.  Some verses in the Bible call it the time of Jacob’s trouble.  It’s a seven year period of trials and torment upon the earth, with the end result of convincing the Jews that Christ was their Messiah.   The tribulation period is broken down into two parts. During the first three and a half years there will be steady worsening of plagues going out upon the earth.  During the last three and a half years the plagues worsen.  The Bible compares the seven years to the birth pains of a woman’s pregnancy.  Things get worse and worse as it gets closer to the end.  People will be so miserable, hot, hungry, thirsty and in constant pain that they will seek death to come upon them.  The last three and a half years will be the worst time the people of earth have ever experienced since the creation.  God cast Satan and all his demons out of their heavenly domains and down to earth.  Back in the days of Noah, certain angelic beings left their habitation that God had given them, and they came down to earth and mated with the women of earth.  That event caused the women of earth to give birth to children who were evil and murderous and much more powerful than humans.  This happens again at the midpoint of the tribulation.

Right after the rapture of the body of Christ, God will turn back to his chosen people, the Jewish nation.  Their desire will be to rebuild the temple of old (if they haven’t already) and begin animal sacrifices to try to access God again as they did in the days of Moses.  A world leader will arise and be a very smooth talker.  He will be on the world scene and will find favor with all the world’s leaders.  He will even be able to strike a peace accord between the Jews and the Arabs.  They will sign a seven year peace treaty between them.  That peace accord will kick off the last seven years of life on earth as we know it. This new world leader the bible calls the antichrist or in Revelations he is called the beast.  He will recruit for himself a religious leader to form a new world religion.  He is called the false prophet.  He will call upon the people of the earth to worship the antichrist.  The false prophet will begin setting up a one world religion.  All religions will be rolled up into this one religion.  There will be a lot of so called Christians (that never really believed in Christ) on the earth at this time.  All those denominations that do not believe in the rapture will not get to partake of the rapture.  All those that believe in Jesus, but do not believe him to be God, will not be taken in the rapture.  When the false prophet demands their loyalty to this new religion they will have but two choices.  Join or be killed. By this point most of them will know why they missed out on the rapture and would rather be executed than to give their loyalty to the one world religion.  There will be mass executions of these, but their reward will be given to them by Christ.  Upon their deaths, they will immediately ascend before the throne of God and be given white robes. 

The antichrist will also set up a world system of government causing everyone to receive his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.  People will not be able to buy or sell unless they have this mark. Anyone who receives this mark will not be given any amnesty from God, nor will they ever be allowed to repent and be saved from spending an eternity in hell.  Their souls will be eternally doomed from the instant they receive the devil’s mark.  Those who are willing to die instead of accepting this mark, and accept the belief that Jesus is the Messiah, will be saved and will enter into God’s rest after they are killed.  You only need to look at the Nazi regime of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s to get some idea of what this regime will be like.  It will start out in the revised Roman Empire consisting of ten nations in Europe.  Whether it will spread to the US, China or Russia nobody knows for sure.  Regardless, the entire planet will suffer during this seven year period.

Right after the peace treaty between Israel and the Arab Nations are signed, God will send down from heaven to Jerusalem two prophets.  They will be like the prophets of old.  I personally believe them to be Moses and Elijah.  They will stand on the streets of Jerusalem and preach for the people of the world to repent and get ready for the coming of the Messiah for the Jew first and then for the gentile.  They will try to convince the Jews and the world not to follow the way of the false prophet or the antichrist, but to look to God.  The people of the earth, not having the Holy Spirit any longer, will be deceived by the false prophet, and will mock the two prophets.  They will be made fun of, just as Christ is now on late night talk and comedy shows.  The prophets will have the power to stop the rain and send the earth into severe drought, famine and bring plaques upon the earth just like Moses brought upon the pharaoh of Egypt, and Elijah brought upon unbelieving Israel.  All these will be signs for the people to believe the prophets.  But instead of the people repenting, they will just turn against God even more.  They will hate God for the plagues and choose to believe the signs and miracles of the false prophet and hate the two witnesses. I believe that as the seven seals and seven trumpets of Revelations are unleashed upon the earth (during this first three and half years), it will be in form of plagues called forth by the two prophets.  These plagues, just like the ones in Egypt, should convince people of God’s supremacy and bring them to repentance and belief, but as Egypt did, so will they, and will only curse God for the plagues brought upon them.

The antichrist will gather world leaders and bring war to the earth.  The powerful will conquer the weaker nations. Peace will be taken from the rest of the earth and all people will learn of war. Famine will come upon the earth because of the lack of rain brought on by the two prophets and the wars, and food will become scarce and very expensive.  Animals will become wild and vicious and start turning on people.  Even the peaceful animals will change their demeanor and become violent and haters of humans.  One fourth of the earth’s population will die of war, hunger and animal attacks.  Right now there are approximately 7.5 billion people on the earth, which means that around 1.9 billion people will die in the first couple of years of the tribulation period. There will be a change in the Sun and Moon, and the Sun will turn black and the Moon red as blood, and intense heat will cover the earth. There will be a great earthquake and meteor showers will rain down on the earth.  Tidal waves will destroy all the islands.  God will stop all the wind from blowing upon the earth.  Still people will refuse to repent and seek God.  With no rain, no wind and intense heat many will crave water, but not find any. The angels of God say this is only but the beginning of the torment the world will face.

God will turn to the Jews and pull out of them 144,000 young men from the twelve tribes of Israel that have devoted their entire lives to service God.  He will put a mark on their foreheads and not allow the devil or his false prophet to harm them, nor will the plagues of the earth affect them, just as the plagues upon Egypt didn’t affect the Jews.  They will go throughout all the world teaching about the coming Messiah and his coming kingdom.  Many will hear and believe, but they will be martyred when caught by the evil world religious system.

Hail stones mingling with fire will rain down upon the earth and one third of all trees and grass will be destroyed. Still the people won’t believe. 

Another round of asteroids will fall into the seas, and one third of all sea life will die, and one third of all ships will be destroyed and the seas will turn red from the blood. Still the people won’t believe.

Another round of fire from heaven will fall, landing upon one third of all the rivers of the world.  The fish in the rivers, lakes and ponds will die and the water will become poisonous, and many people will die from the poisonous waters.  Still the people of earth will choose their idols and false religion instead of the one true God.

The sun will begin to show its light one third less per day as normal, and so will the moon.  So the days will be one third shorter than normal and the nights will be one third shorter.

When the people still refuse to believe, God will send forth an angel and he will open the bottomless pit.  When he does, black putrid smoke will rise up and  darken the sky so the sun cannot give its light, and great intense heat will rise out of the pit covering the already scorched earth with more heat.  The angel of God will also release the demon Apollyon, who God has kept locked up in the pit.  With him will flow out millions of insect like creatures.  They will spread throughout the earth, and will bite people causing sores that will sting as a scorpion and hurt for up to five months. They will attach any person that doesn’t have the seal of God on their foreheads. 

There will be war in heaven and God will cast Satan and the angels that followed him out of heaven and send them down to earth.  The fallen angels will immediately begin going through the earth where the people will begin to worship them and make idols after them.   They will  show great signs and bring fire down from heaven, and one third of the people will die, about 1.9 billion, but still they will not turn to God.  Apollyon will attack the two prophets and kill them.  The whole world will watch, be glad and rejoice, because of the torment the two prophets brought upon the earth.  Their bodies will lie in the streets untouched for three days.  The Antichrist will declare himself to be God and will enter the Jews’ new temple and defile it.  Satan and the antichrist will make war with the Jews, determined to rub them out completely once and for all.  The world will be convinced by the antichrist that the Jews are to blame for all these plagues.  The world will turn on the Jews and the world leaders will make plans to destroy them all.   God will have prepared a secret place for his remnant and led away one third of the Jews into this secret hiding place.  Only God will know of this place and for the next (last) three and a half years God will protect these Jews and look after them.  They will learn of Christ and will finally believe in him during this time.  Satan will try and send an army after them, but before they can catch up with the fleeing Jews, the ground will open and swallow all those that are pursuing them.  That will conclude the first three and a half years, and we are now entering the last three and a half years upon earth before God restores everything.

After three days the two dead prophets will come back to life and stand on their feet showing themselves before the entire world.  They will then ascend back into heaven with the entire world watching.  Intense fear will then grip the hearts of all people, because they now will know the end is near. The false prophet will send an army into Israel to begin the slaughter of the Jews that remain.  They will kill the men and boys and ravage the women.  Only the remnant that God hid will remain alive, and very few Jews will escape.  God will then begin releasing the last seven plagues upon the earth.

A sore similar to a boil will begin forming all over the bodies of those who have the mark of the antichrist. They will hurt, itch and seep puss day and night and there will be no cure, and it will torment all those who have the mark.

All the oceans and seas will turn into blood and all the fish in them will die.  Nothing will remain alive in the oceans.

All the fresh water lakes and rivers will turn into blood, and every living thing in them will die.  All fresh water will turn to blood.  Since the false prophet spilled the blood of all the saints, God will give the people of the earth only blood to drink.

The sun will begin to erupt and the temperature on the earth will begin to get even hotter.

The sun will turn dark and there will now be darkness over the kingdoms of the antichrist and false prophet.  And the people of the earth will begin to gnaw their tongues because of the heat, lack of water and the sores and constant pain.  Satan and his fallen angels will ravage the people of the earth now knowing they only have a short time left before God casts them into the lake of fire for all eternity.  The fallen angels will raven the women of the earth as they did in the days before the flood of Noah.

The leaders of the world will begin to set in motion a military move designed to wipe out the Jews left on earth once and for all because the world will blame the Jews for all their torment. They will begin to gather their armies.  They will know there is a remnant of Jews hiding in Israel and they will be out to find and destroy them with Satan’s help.  They will be convinced that if they can find and destroy the last remaining Jews, then the world will turn back to normal again, and they can recreate their own paradise.

By this time, the great river Euphrates will have dried up, and they will see this as an opportunity to send their armies from the east into Israel, to find the remnant and destroy them all and their God with them.  I’m sure the commanders of these human armies will have confidence in the ability of Satan and the new angelic warriors to pull off an easy victory.  An army of two hundred million soldiers from the East, will begin moving up the dry river bed. The other leaders of the world will assemble their armies together and march up to Israel. They will descend upon it from the north, south east and west.  It will be the famous battle of Armageddon, man and Satan out to try to destroy God once and for all, and take his creation from him by force.

The voice of a Godly angel will shout out from heaven, “It is done!”  Then the sky over the armies of the world will light up with lightning bolts, in a tremendous display, attacking the armies. The thunder will boom and crack in continuous earsplitting sounds that goes on for days without letting up, and the lightning strikes will be rapid and constant upon the armies.  Then earthquakes will begin to shake the ground and open up under the armies, causing their men and equipment to fall into the cracks.  100 pound hailstones will rain down upon them that remain, crushing the remaining equipment and soldiers with them.  It will be a relentless pounding without let up until all the armies are completely destroyed.  When the storm finally passes, if there are any survivors they will only be a very few.  The heat of the sun will melt the hailstones and the waters mingled with the blood of the dead, and flow out of Israel down the dried up Euphrates riverbed.  The bloody water will run as deep as a horse’s bridle and as wide as the river banks for one hundred and eighty miles in length.

With the world armies destroyed, and the world leaders trying to find a place to hide from the wrath of God being poured out upon the earth, Christ and his believers will make their return to the earth. The angels of God will gather up the angels of Satan and cast them into the lake of fire where they will be tormented day and night forever and forever.  God’s angels will also gather up the antichrist and false prophet.  Even though they are human and still living, they will not be given a chance for redemption.  They will not even be judged, but the angel will take them alive and bind them, and cast them into the lake of fire where Satan’s angels are.   The angels of God will also take Satan and bind him with chains, and he will be cast into the bottomless pit where he will remain throughout most of the thousand year reign of Christ.

There will be survivors left upon the earth on all the different continents.  They will be gathered together and will be separated as sheep and goats.  Any living, with the mark of the beast, will be cast into hell, not the lake of fire.  Those that refused the mark will be allowed to accept Christ as their God, and enter into the kingdom of Christ.  Christ will release the Jews he’s been keeping and they will reenter Jerusalem with Christ.  Christ will set up his kingdom and it will last for one thousand years.  Christ will turn back the animals’ hearts, and they will no longer be carnivorous, but will eat of the fruit of the ground.  There will be no dangerous creature upon the earth.  Little children will be able to play with deadly snakes without fear of being bitten, or play with lions or tigers without fear.  Christ will rule the earth with a rod of iron, there will be no evil anywhere upon the earth.  The curse of Adam will be lifted, and the ground will bear fruit and grain in abundance, and fruit trees will be heavy laden with ripe fruit all year around.  The earth will go back to the way God originally created it.  People’s diet will be fruit, vegetables, grains and fish. 

Near the end of the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ, Satan will be loosed from his chains for a short time.  He will go forth throughout the earth testing and tempting these new peoples and nations.  The earth will be populated with millions of people that have never been tempted like we have been.  The ones that survive this final temptation will enter into the new heaven and new earth that God will create after the thousand years.  The ones that fail will enter the judgment. 

After the thousand years are up, God will remove every soul that has ended up in hell since the beginning.  They will all stand before the throne of God and be judged.  If their names are not found written in the book of life, they will not be allowed to enter into the new heaven and earth, but will be cast into the lake of fire that was created for Satan and his demons.  This is called the second death, eternal torment.