Great Tribulation, from Scofield Reference Notes (1917)

The great tribulation is the period of unexampled trouble predicted in the passages cited under that head from Psalms 2:5 to Revelation 7:14 and described in Re 11.-18. Involving in a measure the whole earth Revelation 3:10 it is yet distinctly “the time of Jacob’s trouble” Jeremiah 30:7 and its vortex Jerusalem and the Holy Land. It involves the people of God who will have returned to Palestine in unbelief. Its duration is three and a half years, or the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel. (See Scofield “Daniel 9:24”) . Revelation 11:2,3 The elements of the tribulation are:

(1) The cruel reign of the “beast out of the sea” Revelation 13:1 who at the beginning of the three and a half years, will break his covenant with the Jews (by virtue of which they will have re-established the temple worship, Daniel 9:27 and show himself in the temple, demanding that he be worshipped as God ; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

(2) The active interposition of Satan “having great wrath” Revelation 12:12 who gives his power to the Beast Revelation 13:4,5.

(3) The unprecedented activity of demons Revelation 9:2,11 and

(4) the terrible “bowl” judgments of Re 16.

The great tribulation will be, however, a period of salvation. An election out of Israel is seen as sealed for God Revelation 7:4-8 and, with an innumerable multitude of Gentiles Revelation 7:9 are said to have come “out of the great tribulation” Revelation 7:14. They are not of the priesthood, the church, to which they seem to stand somewhat in the relation of the Levites to the priests under the Mosaic Covenant. The great tribulation is immediately followed by the return of Christ in glory, and the events associated therewith Matthew 24:29,30.

Revelation 7:14

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of , and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Psalms 2:5

Then shall he speak unto them in his , and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Revelation 3:10

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of , which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Jeremiah 30:7

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of ; but he shall be saved out of it.

Daniel 9:24

are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the , and to anoint the most Holy.

Revelation 11:2-3

2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the : and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

3 And I will give power unto my , and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Revelation 13:1

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of .

Daniel 9:27

And he shall confirm the covenantf 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 he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Matthew 24:15

When ye therefore shall see the , spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

2 Thessalonians 2:4

Who himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Revelation 12:12

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having , because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Revelation 13:4-5

4 And they the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and ; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Revelation 9:2, 11

2 And he opened the ; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name .

Revelation 7:4-8

4 And I heard the number of them which were : and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

5 Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

6 Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand.

7 Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand.

8 Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of were sealed twelve thousand.

Matthew 24:29-30

29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the shall be shaken:

30 And then shall appear the sign of the in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with .

Great Tribulation, from Scofield Reference Notes (1917)

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