'Left Behind' Bible Study: Week 2, 'Tribulation Force'

(Bible study by John Myers)

What did Jesus say the Tribulation will be like?

Matthew 24:21-22

²¹"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. ²²"Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Who will be saved during the Tribulation?

Revelation: 7:9-17

   ⁹After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; ¹⁰and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
   ¹¹And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen."
   ¹³Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?"
   ¹⁴I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
   ¹⁵"For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
   ¹⁶"They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; ¹⁷for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

Gabriel reveals the Seventy Weeks to Daniel

Daniel 9:20-27

   ²⁰Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, ²¹while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.
   ²²He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding.
   ²³"At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.
   ²⁴"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.
   ²⁵"So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.
   ²⁶"Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
   ²⁷"And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."

Commentary from "Revelation Unveiled" by Tim LaHaye, pages 133-136.

Go to Left Behind Bible Study Week 3, The Antichrist, 'Nicolae'

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian speaker, Sunday School teacher and Bible study author since 1977.)