According to the Bible, this seven-year period called the
Tribulation will be basically divided into two halves. In
the first half, Antichrist appears to be the great
benefactor and protector and friend of Israel, but in the
middle of that seven-year period he will turn against the
people of Israel and begin
desolating it severely and
that’s why Jesus called the second half "the great
tribulation,"
the likes of which has never been since the
beginning of the world or ever will be again. In other
words, the second half of this 70th
week
of Daniel 9 will be the unparalleled time of
trouble
for the world.
What does Matthew 24 tell us about the Seventieth Week of
Daniel?
The impression here in Matthew 24 is that Jesus is
spelling out things in chronological order for this future
period of time. The abomination of desolation takes place
in the middle of the 70th
week. That’s followed by the three and a half year Great
Tribulation, but He’s saying here—at least the implication
is—that before the abomination of desolation in the 70th
week you will have transpired in the world what Jesus
called "the beginning of sorrows," literally, the
beginning of birth pangs.
Jesus is telling us here the things that will be involved
in the beginning of birth pangs. You will have false
messiahs, those who will appear upon the world scene
saying, "I’m the Messiah." In addition, the earth will
experience wars and rumors of wars. You’ll have nation
rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom. The earth
will experience famines, pestilences, earthquakes in many
different places. Jesus says all those are the beginning
of birth pangs.
The impression is that’s what will be transpiring on the
face of the earth before the abomination of desolation in
the middle of the 70th
week, so the implication is, these beginning of birth
pangs will be taking place during the first half of the 70th
week; in other words, during the first three and a half
years. So that it’s not going to be an easy time in many
places in the world, even during the first three and a
half years.
Now, the interesting thing is, when you go to the Old
Testament, you have references there to these kinds of
things which will happen in the future and you have Hebrew
words which are the parallel of our English word
tribulation, even the parallel of the Greek word for
tribulation. So the implication is that these beginning of
birth pangs are also descriptive of what you could call
tribulation.
Notice another interesting implication here. He talks here
about the beginning of birth pangs. That very
expression indicates that there will be more birth pangs
coming after: the beginning of birth pangs and then there
will be later birth pangs. He’s drawing a metaphor with
the birth cycle of birth pangs of a woman as she’s about
to deliver a new life into the world. She has birth pangs
at the beginning. They’re severe, they cause pain. But,
there will be more severe birth pangs, what we often call
hard labor birth pangs, after her beginning birth
pangs.
So Jesus is saying that during the first half of the 70th
week you have severe things going on in the world, but not
as severe as the things that are going to come later on.
In the beginning, in the first half of the 70th
week, you have the beginning birth pangs or tribulation,
but in the second half you’re going to have great
tribulation, much more intense agony than with just
tribulation of the first half; and therefore, in the
second half, the great tribulation, that’s when you have
the severe, hard labor birth pangs transpiring here on
planet Earth.
So, this seven-year period of time, whether you call it
the Tribulation Period, since you have tribulation the
first half and great tribulation the second half,
or whether you choose to call it the 70th
week of Daniel 9 from Daniel 9:27, either way, we’re
talking about this seven-year period of time immediately
before the glorious Second Coming of Christ back to planet
Earth to set up God’s Millennial Kingdom while we’re here
on planet Earth.
