45. Is the 7-year tribulation clearly mentioned in the NT?

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A reader asks this question on post #29:
“Where does the New Testament clearly mention anything about a 7-year tribulation?"

Here’s the short answer: "Nowhere", because the reader inserted the word “clearly” in the question. But let’s proceed on anyway, and not answer hastily.

Sigh… Here is the problem:
At times, I wish that God had just given us a Bible Dictionary instead of the Bible -- that way everything about a given subject could be looked up and found alphabetically. Or, perhaps, he could have given us a Systematic Theology instead of the Bible, so we could look up each issue topically. Rarely are things easy in the Bible. That is why (among other reasons) we should study the Bible regularly, diligently, continually, and prayerfully.

For instance, we should learn to not take things out of context. The three most important things in Bible study are context, context, and context.
1. The context of the passage within the immediate context (i.e. the chapter),
2. The context of the passage in the book of the Bible being read, and
3. The context of the passage in the whole Bible. (And sometimes it takes the entire Bible to determine the context. The great and complex topic of the rapture/tribulation/second coming/judgment is so broad and so deep that it is like that.)

That is why we do not want to limit our search for the 7-year tribulation period just to the NT. It rarely happens quite as neat and clean as that. Nor as “clearly”.

But here, there is good news, for both the “tribulation” and the “great tribulation” are mentioned in the NT, and both by Jesus! In Matthew 24:21, He says, “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world (or age) until now, nor ever will be.”

The same period is spoken of in Revelation 7:14b […] And he (the angel) said to me, "These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Many other passages in the NT mention just “tribulation” usually speaking of tribulation in general, but sometimes specifically -- for example, in Matt 24:29 when Jesus says, “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

But what about the 7-year issue? Does it tell us somewhere in Matthew that the tribulation period (or great tribulation) will be 7-years?

No, not in Matthew, nor clearly. But as I study the Bible, it helps me to understand that after every verse in the Bible there is an invisible asterisk* that means “Take this verse in the context of the entire Bible”. And the asterisk after “great tribulation” in Matthew says, *see Daniel 9:20-27 and other verses, for a somewhat complex understanding of where the 7-year period comes from.

In its simplest form, in Daniel 9:24 it says that it will take 490 years (70 'sevens' of years) for God to accomplish six (or seven) things in His program for Israel. 483 of those years (69 'sevens' of years) have already occurred and are accounted for in God’s program, but the final 7 years have not yet happened. That 7-year period is still future.

In a future post, I will list and discuss all the Biblical references to
3 ½ years (half the 7-year period), and how the 3 ½ year-long events relate to the 7-year tribulation period, but here I will say simply that most pre-millennialists believe that the 7-year period is the entire tribulation period, and the last half (3 ½ year portion) is the great tribulation.

Thanks for your question! Keep checking, because we will be discussing this some more.