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At this juncture, the mid-point of the seven-year
tribulation, the true tribulation events begin. Until now, the
prior three and a half years have been very calm. Now the final
half begins - what is known in the Bible as the "Wrath of God",
or the "Day of the Lord". Our God is a merciful, kind God who
gives every man every chance to repent and change his heart if it
does not conform to the Word of God. However, the Word is full
of warnings regarding the consequences of not following God's
commandment to do so. God, although He is merciful, will not
allow those with sinful hearts to enter into His Kingdom. As a
result, there will be a point in time when it will be too late
for them: II Thessalonians 2:10-12 - "And in every sort of evil
that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they
refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God
sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.
And so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth
but have delighted in wickedness."
THE ANTICHRIST AND THE TRIBULATION
At this point in human history, the Tribulation begins - a
period so unparalleled in destruction that if Jesus should not
return, mankind would cease to exist: Matthew 24:21,22 -"For
then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning
of the world until now--and never to be equaled. If those days
had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of
the elect those days will be shortened.", Jeremiah 30:7 - "How
awful that day will be! None will be like it. It will be a time
of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.", Daniel
12:1 - "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your
people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has
not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at
that time your people--everyone whose name is found written in
the book--will be delivered.", Ezekiel 30:3 - "For the day is
near, the day of the LORD is near--a day of clouds, a time of
doom for the nations.", Joel 2:31 - "The sun will be turned to
darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the LORD."
The dreadful results of the tribulation are graphically
portrayed in the Book of Revelation and will not be described in
detail here. There are many good books which can go into detail
for those interested, but the end result is the loss of billions
of lives through famine, war, and natural disasters. Using the
numbers given in Revelation applied to the population of the
earth today, this would result in the loss of four billion lives
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truly a horrible picture.
The Antichrist will persecute the Jews and the Christians
who will turn to Christ during that period. There will be some
left at the beginning of the Tribulation who refuse to worship
the beast and receive his number. These were mentioned in the
beginning of this discussion. According to Revelation, an untold
number will accept Christ during this time and receive
persecution from the Antichrist and his followers - persecution
even unto death. As the end draws near, Jesus will return as He
promised, swiftly taking care of the Antichrist and his cohorts:
Revelation 19:19,20 - "Then I saw the beast (the Antichrist) and
the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make
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