Lately in the media there has been a lot of emphasis on "the end of the world", and some people mention the events described in the very last book of the Bible as the "apocalypse". However, they rarely discuss what sort of events the Bible says will take place. Usually among Christians, this period of time is called "the Tribulation", or sometimes "Daniel's 70th week". I believe this time may be coming very soon, and so here we will examine what the Bible says will happen, in what order, and what it may mean in everyday terms.
What is the Tribulation?
The Tribulation is a period of time described in the book of Revelation, as well as in parts of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other books of the Bible. It is the last 7 years of "normal" human history and will take place sometime in the future. It is not the "end of the world" as most people think of it - in fact there will be people who survive, and the world will continue for another 1000 years afterwards. But that 1000 years will be dramatically different from any other period of time, so perhaps the Tribulation is "the end of the world" - as we know it. During these 7 years, it will be the worst period of time ever experienced by humanity (Matthew 24:21). So basically, take any horrible event in the past, and it will be worse than that.
During these 7 years there will be a series of disasters that will increase in severity. Most of the world's population will die (see my analysis here). Also during this time there will be all sorts of other nasty stuff happening - massive religious persecution, a world dictatorship run by the Antichrist, and many wars. At the end, Jesus himself will return, clear the earth of evil, and will set up a new world government and rule for 1000 years.
So what's the point of the Tribulation? I believe it is because God wants everyone to turn to Him and follow Him, but He has to allow for free will. So one of the best ways to make people start considering God and to put their trust in Him is to turn their world and everything they've known upside down. Often the death of a loved one will make people consider if God exists. If there are massive worldwide disasters that put people's lives at risk, and they see people they know dying, they may be inspired to turn to God. It's better to cause some temporary disasters to cause people to turn to God and be saved than for them to never experience disasters and be thrown into hell. After giving nearly 2000 years since Jesus died of relatively normal peaceful conditions where people can choose to believe in Jesus, God will finish up with 7 years of disasters to try to convince people to make up their minds before Jesus returns.
The Tribulation is also a way of punishing the people who have already rejected God and intend to keep on sinning. However, God promises that those who become Christians will be protected in the Tribulation, and even if they are killed for their faith they will be resurrected and rewarded afterwards. I hope that those who have knowledge of the Bible before the Tribulation starts will see that events match with what is described in Revelation, and this will give proof that the Bible is true and that they should accept Jesus as their saviour.
Finally, the Tribulation is also the last seven years promised to Israel from Daniel 9:24-27: "God has decided that for seventy weeks [of years], your people and your holy city must suffer as the price of their sins. Then evil will disappear, and justice will rule forever; the visions and words of the prophets will come true, and a most holy place will be dedicated.". A "week" means a period of seven years. The 69 weeks of years were completed before Jesus was crucified, then we have a pause called the Church Age for the last 2000 years between when Jesus died and when the Rapture occurs, and the last 7 years are called "Daniel's 70th week" and are yet to be completed during the Tribulation.
Time-line of Events
God has given us descriptions of what will happen during the Tribulation. This is to warn people about what will come and encourage them to turn to God to repent and escape these events (through the Rapture). It will also give people who live through the Tribulation proof that the Bible is true and knowledge of what to expect. So here we'll look at the events that the Bible says will happen during the Tribulation, and I will speculate on what they may mean in everyday terms.
Pre-Tribulation Events
Although it's not necessarily part of the specific Tribulation, there are events that will lead up to it. Most of these are seen in the world today, and so many Biblical prophecy scholars believe the Tribulation may start in the near future. Here's what the Bible says the world would be like before the Tribulation starts:
- Wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6) These will be international wars as well as ethnic wars. (Matthew 24:7).
- People will claim to be God/Jesus (Matthew 24:5).
- People will starve to death (Matthew 24:6)
- There will be earthquakes in various places (Matthew 24:6). This is particularly interesting considering the significant earthquakes over the last year or two.[1] In fact, there is a new report here by scientists which states that severe disasters may increase in the next few years.
- There will be persecution of Christians (Matthew 24:9).
- Evil will increase, and people will not care for each other (Matthew 24:12).
- People will not believe Jesus is coming back, and will mock those who do (1 Peter 3:3-4).
- The Rapture will happen.
- It will be like the days of Noah: "People were eating, drinking, and getting married right up to the day when Noah went into the big boat" (Luke 17:27). This has multiple interpretations. One is that everything is business as normal up to when the Tribulation starts, because people will probably not be getting married during the Tribulation because of all the chaos. Or as Ron Graham theorizes - after the Rapture, worldwide violence will increase, and Ron says the Nephilim (hybrid offspring between women and demons) who existed on earth when Noah lived may return. Ron Graham's idea is a little obscure, so you may be interested in his article here [2] which explains this idea further.
The Seven Seals
Each of God's judgements on humanity is represented as either breaking a "seal" on a scroll, blowing a "trumpet", or emptying a "bowl". These are symbolic ways of showing the order of events that will happen. There are seven of each type of judgement. Some of the future events shown to John (the author of Revelation) in his vision were probably difficult for a 1st century Jew to understand, and that's why things that we would call an asteroid, or comet, or whatever are sometimes described metaphorically instead of scientifically. I have included my own commentary on what I believe each of these events may mean, but it is only a guess. I suspect that when these things happen, the descriptions of the events in Revelation will be very accurate even if we can't guess what they might be now.
The First Seal
After Jesus opens the first seal "Then I saw a white horse. It's rider carried a bow and was given a crown. He had already won some victories and he went out to win more." (Revelation 6:2). Most interpretations show this as being the revealing of the Antichrist as the leader of the New World Order. This is also probably when he makes the 7-year peace treaty with Israel, because that is the sign that he's definitely the Antichrist. I believe this peace treaty may be signed after the battle of Psalm 83 between Israel and nearby neighboring countries. This treaty may allow the rebuilding of the Jewish temple next to the Dome of the Rock. The Antichrist will also do other things during the Tribulation which are discussed more in this article here. It's important to note that starting from the 7 year peace treaty being signed, it is exactly 7 years until Jesus returns, and the Antichrist will declare himself to be God in the Jewish Temple around halfway through - 3.5 years or so.
The Second Seal
When Jesus opens the second seal "Then another horse came out. It was fiery red. And it's rider was given the power to take away all peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another. He was also given a big sword." (Revelation 6:4). Most interpretations say that this horse's rider is "war", so this seal will show the start of major wars - perhaps the Gog-Magog war between Russia/Iran/others and Israel (Ezekiel 38-39). This Gog-Magog war has not happened yet, but is not the battle of Armageddon since that happens at the end of the Tribulation. In Ezekiel, it describes how God will destroy the army that comes to attack Israel from the north by using an earthquake, diseases, rainstorms, hailstones, and burning sulphur (Ezekiel 38:19-23). Then Israel will use the leftover military equipment as fuel that will last for 7 years (Ezekiel 39:9-10), and the burial of enemy troops will take seven months and will use an entire valley as a graveyard (Ezekiel 39:11-16).
The Third Seal
Jesus opens the third seal, and John writes "Then I saw a black horse, and its rider had a balance scale in one hand...'A quart of wheat will cost you a whole days' wages! Three quarts of barley will cost you a day's wages too. But don't ruin the olive oil or the wine." (Revelation 6:5-6). To me, this sounds like something like a worldwide great depression, combined with massive inflation so that a day's pay will only buy one meal.
The US has a huge amount of debt, and if it ever gets to the point where they cannot pay it, the American dollar could collapse and lose value quickly. This would throw the world's economies into disarray - China holds a huge amount of American money, and there are many other countries in debt too. But currently there are many debt issues with other European countries, and this could also possibly lead to severe economic problems and hyperinflation.
In 2011 we have already seen food prices start to rise because of many different factors (oil price increases, last year's Russian heat wave, floods in Pakistan and Australia, etc.)[17]. So perhaps the food prices may rise independently of an economic crash, but the world's economy is still very unstable and some say it is in a worse condition than before the recession began in 2008 [18].
The Fourth Seal
"Then I saw a pale green horse. Its rider was named Death, and Death's kingdom followed behind. They were given power over one fourth of the earth, and they could kill its people with swords, famines, diseases, and wild animals."(Revelation 6:7-8). This seems straightforward enough - 1/4 of the world's population dies from the causes listed above. It could be a very serious plague that kills people, combined with the starvation and wars, and it sounds like even animals will turn against people. I read one commentator who said perhaps this is why the most serious diseases lately have been named "Swine Flu" and "Bird flu" - the animals don't literally kill people, but the diseases they carry do.
Additionally, there are now fears that many common diseases such as cholera and dysentery are mutating to resist all our medicines to treat them![19]. This could lead to a massive re-surge of untreatable deadly diseases which could kill many millions of people.
The Fifth Seal
"I saw under the altar the souls of everyone who had been killed for speaking God's message and telling about their faith. They shouted 'Master, you are holy and faithful! How long will it be before you judge and punish the people of this earth who killed us?'. Then each of those who had been killed was given a white robe and told to rest for a little while - they had to wait until the complete number of the Lord's other servants and followers would be killed." (Revelation 6:9-11).
This is the start of massive religious persecution against Christians, to the point of Christians being martyred for their faith. I suspect this could be due to the emergence of a new world religion, which would persecute and kill anyone who doesn't go along with it. This false religion is discussed in other places in Revelation, and is represented symbolically by the "Whore of Babylon", who is (metaphorically) drunk on the blood of God's saints (Revelation 17:6). This persecution will continue all through the Tribulation, but it probably starts here.
The Sixth Seal
"I looked and saw a great earthquake. The sun turned as dark as sackcloth, and the moon became as red as blood. The stars in the sky fell to earth, just like figs shaken loose by a windstorm. Then the sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all mountains and islands were moved from their places. The kings of the earth, its famous people, and its military leaders hid in caves or behind rocks in the mountains. They hid there together with the rich and the powerful and and with all the slaves and free people. Then they shouted to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us! Hide us from the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb! That terrible day has come! God and the Lamb will show their anger, and who can face it?'" (Revelation 6:12-17).
I believe all of these effects in this judgement could be caused by a large passing space object very near to the earth. Perhaps it is just a large asteroid, or maybe even the fabled "Nibiru" or Planet X which conspiracy theorists like to talk about. If it passes close enough, the gravity might rotate the earth's axis slightly, so that all the "mountains and islands are moved from their places", not in relation to each other, but in relation to the latitute and longitude where they used to be. This would certainly also cause tectonic stresses which would cause large earthquakes. A large passing object could also make sense because it could possibly drag along smaller debris with it, which would turn into the meteorites ("figs") when they hit earth's atmosphere. The dust in the air from the impacts would cause the sun and moon to be dimmed (sometimes dust in the air can make the moon appear red).
It sounds like the people on earth did have enough warning on this so that the leaders and some common people could take shelter in their mountain caves before it happened. This reminds me of a scene in the movie "Deep Impact" where everyone is crowding into the underground military bunker built into the mountains before the asteroid hits earth. Bases like this already exist (see this video[5], and also try a Google search for "Deep Underground Military Base"[6], although most sources are somewhat sketchy), and there are probably mass evacuation procedures in place for when they need to be used.
The Seventh Seal
When the 7th seal is opened, there is silence in heaven, the next 7 trumpet judgements are prepared, and people pray to God. Then it says: "After this, the angel filled the incense container with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. Thunder roared, lightning flashed, and the earth shook."(Revelation 8:5). This seems to be a metaphor for something which causes another earthquake, fire, lighting, and thunder - which are all connected to volcanoes - but we probably won't know for sure what it means until it happens.
The Seven Trumpets
The First Trumpet
"When the first angel blew his trumpet, hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down on the earth. A third of the earth, a third of the trees, and a third of all green plants were burned."(Revelation 8:6-7). So either this disaster affects an area with 1/3 of the earth, trees, and plants in a continuous region (say, all of South America is burnt by something and so there goes the rainforest...), or perhaps a more distributed disaster which affects 30% of the earth's vegetation all over the world.
Perhaps this is the combined effects of many forest-fires and wildfires. Revelation 11 describes two powerful prophets who will appear in Israel during the Tribulation, who will "have the power to lock up the sky and to keep rain from falling" (Revelation 11:6). This may lead to worldwide drought which would make conditions good for forest fires.
The Second Trumpet
"When the second angel blew his trumpet, something like a great fiery mountain was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed."(Revelation 8:8-9). Perhaps this will be an asteroid that hits near the Mediterranean sea, because it is the sea nearest where John lived and there are many military and commercial ships in this area. If you're interested, you can see that the Mediterranean sea is one of the largest areas for shipping traffic on this site here [7].
However, it's also interesting to see that during the economic downturn of 2008, there were huge numbers of unused ships just sitting around various places in the world [8]. So I wonder if after the Third Seal judgement the number of unused ships might increase and be stored together, and the asteroid could hit there. Other possibilities are that following the outbreak of war in the Second seal, a large number of military ships might be in or near the Mediterranean sea, and these could be destroyed.
The sea turning to blood could be a supernatural event due to God, or maybe God will use a more natural method to make the sea turn red. One example of strange red rain showed up in India, which a scientist analyzed and found the rain contained particles that looked like red blood cells, and the cause was never fully determined [9]. There are also "blood" falls in Antarctica which are caused by anaerobic bacteria in the water [10]. So perhaps something like this will cause 1/3 of the sea to go red. This could also be the cause of the death of the marine life, just as in in the plagues of Egypt. Moses said "I will strike the Nile with this stick, and the water will turn into blood. The fish will die, the river will stink, and none of you Egyptians will be able to drink the water."(Exodus 7:18). Although how this effect is related to an asteroid impact is hard to say.
The Third and Fourth Trumpets
"When the third angel blew his trumpet, a great star fell from heaven. It was burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on a third of the springs of water. The name of the star was Bitter, and a third of the water turned bitter. Many people died because the water was so bitter. When the fourth angel blew his trumpet, a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck. They each lost a third of their light. So during a third of the day there was no light, and a third of the night was also without light."(Revelation 8:10-12).
I believe these two Trumpet judgements are connected. As in my article about the Bitter Star here, I saw a video which states that the impact of a large meteor may create sulphur in the atmosphere, which could contaminate water when it comes down as acid rain. This would make the water undrinkable. Also, the ash raised from the impact could reduce the light from the sun and moon, and effectively make it so that times of natural low light (dawn/dusk) appear as night, and reduce the amount of daylight available.
The Fifth Trumpet
"When the fifth angel blew his trumpet, I saw a star fall from the sky to earth. It was given the key to the tunnel that leads down to the deep pit. As it opened the tunnel, smoke poured out like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air turned dark because of the smoke. Locusts came out of the smoke and covered the earth. They were given the same power scorpions have. The locusts were told not to harm the grass on the earth or any plant or any tree. They were to punish only those people who did not have God's mark on their foreheads. The locusts were allowed to make them suffer for five months, but not to kill them. The suffering they caused was like the sting of a scorpion."(Revelation 9:1-6). These locusts are described later as having crowns, human faces, long hair, lions teeth, iron armour, wings, and tails with a stinger (Revelation 9:7-10), and "Their king was the angel in charge of the deep pit. In Hebrew his name was Abaddon, and in Greek it was Apollyon."(Revelation 9:11).
In the annotated comments in my CEV Bible, it states that in this case the Greek word for "star" could possibly mean an angel, instead of a physical object. If the star is an angel, then most likely the other effects (i.e. the smoke, fire, deep pit, locusts etc.) are also spiritual instead of physical. The description of the locusts does not match our normal description of insects either, and therefore should probably be taken metaphorically.
The "deep pit" reminds me of the location that God confines demons to when they don't follow His rules: "You also know about the angels who didn't do their work and left their proper places. God chained them with everlasting chains and is now keeping them in dark pits until the great Day of Judgement." (Jude 1:6). Similarly, Satan will be thrown into this pit for 1000 years after Jesus shows up at the end of the Tribulation: "I saw an angel come down from heaven, carrying the key to the deep pit and a big chain. He chained that dragon for a thousand years. It is that old snake, who is also known as the devil and Satan. Then the angel threw the dragon into the pit. He locked and sealed it."(Revelation 20:1-3). So it could be that an angel comes down to earth, lets out the demons who were in prison in some supernatural location, and lets them wreak havoc on earth and torment people who are not supernaturally protected by God.
The Sixth Trumpet
The sixth trumpet is also strange: "Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice speak from the four corners of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. The voice spoke to the angel and said 'Release the four angels who are tied up beside the great Euphrates River.'. The four angels had been prepared for this very hour and day and month and year. Now they were set free to kill a third of all people." (Revelation 9:13-15). But then after this description, it switches to discussing 200 million war horses, which have strange descriptions - they wear red, blue, and yellow armor, the heads look like lions and their mouths make fire, smoke, and sulphur that kills 1/3 of people, and tails that are poisonous (Revelation 9:16-20).
Tim Lahaye [11] suggests that like the Fifth Trumpet, since this description doesn't make a lot of sense physically, it is probably describing demons - 4 demonic leaders spiritually bound next to the Euphrates river, and 200 million demonic warriors. However, Grant. R. Jeffrey suggest that this is an army which is marching from China towards Israel for a confrontation with the Antichrist [12].
I'm not sure which one is right. The 200 million demon interpretation seems strange, because it only talks about 4 demons being bound, and demons are not referred to as "war horses" anywhere else in the Bible. But it seems like a strange description for a conventional army as well - even trying to fit a modern tank or army equipment into this description doesn't work. The red/yellow/blue armour could mean it is a coalition of Asian forces, instead of one single army. I almost wonder if John was seeing a description of an army but through spiritual terms. For example, the soldiers are strong like lions, move fast like horses, use modern weapons that generate fire/smoke/sulphur (possibly nuclear weapons?), and leave destruction/pollution in their path.
China does have enough people to create a 200 million person army, and if other countries join with them it could be possible. However, the final battle with the Antichrist and the "Kings of the East" (Revelation 16:12) doesn't happen until the battle of Armageddon, which is still several judgements away, and the Euphrates river only dries up to let the Asian army cross in the sixth Bowl judgement.
Perhaps this judgement implies an Asian war, perhaps between China and India using nuclear weapons (which might lead to 1/3 of people being killed, due to the very large and dense population in that region). Besides these guesses, I don't really know what this judgement might be. So I'll give up on this one, and say that the unfortunate people who are around at this time might understand it better.
The Seventh Trumpet
The seventh trumpet is mostly a description of worship in heaven. The last verse is "The door to God's temple in heaven was then opened, and the sacred chest could be seen inside the temple. I saw lighting and heard roars of thunder. The earth trembled and huge hailstones fell to the ground."(Revelation 11:19).
So not much to say about this one - God is getting even more angry with the people who did not repent or stop sinning after the Trumpet Judgements (Revelation 9:20-21), and so He's getting ready for the Bowl judgements. As a side effect there are effects on the earth in the form of an earthquake, thunder, and hailstones. This doesn't seem too bad compared to what's already happened - but it's interesting to wonder what "huge hail" might be like. The largest hailstone in America was recorded at nearly the size of a soccer ball, and hail can fall at 100 miles per hour [13]. So hail that is larger than this might do a whole lot of damage.
The Seven Bowls
The bowl judgements are very nasty, and will probably happen quite quickly after the Trumpet judgments are over.
The First Bowl
"The first angel emptied his bowl on the earth. At once ugly and painful sores broke out on everyone who had the Mark of the Beast and worshipped the idol."(Revelation 16:2). It is interesting to note that experiments with RFID have caused cancer in lab animals. If the Mark of the Beast is an implantable RFID chip, and everyone had it implanted around the same time, it could be that only now the effects start showing up in the form of ugly painful cancer. See articles here that support this point [14],[15].
The excuse that current RFID microchips don't hurt dogs or cats can't really apply to this situation - a dog or cat may have their microchip scanned maybe once in a lifetime if they get lost. But people are going to be using this RFID implant to buy and sell everything, and so that's a lot more radiation which could potentially cause cancer.
The Second and Third Bowls
"The second angel emptied his bowl on the sea. Right away the sea turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died. The third angel emptied his bowl into the rivers and streams. At once they turned to blood."(Revelation 16:3-4). This is probably similar to the second Trumpet judgement, but instead of just 1/3 of the sea, now the entire sea and rivers are turned to blood. If it were due to a spread of anaerobic bacteria, as suggested in the analysis of the Second Trumpet, then it would be expected that the change would be gradual, not instant. Also, following this an angel says to God "You had the right to judge in this way. They poured out the blood of your people and your prophets. So you gave them blood to drink, as they deserve!" (Revelation 16:5-6).
So it is likely that God is so angry that he turns the entire ocean and rivers and lakes into literal blood. Not only is it disgusting, but it kills all remaining sea life, and people everywhere are going to have a very hard time living from now on. We use water on an everyday basis - toilets, showers, drinking, cleaning - can you imagine if all of it turned to blood? I suspect that there may be ways to distill it, because a person will die in 3 days without water, and in Revelation people manage to survive up until after the battle of Armageddon.
The Fourth Bowl
"The fourth angel emptied his bowl on the sun, and it began to scorch people like fire. Everyone was scorched by its great heat, and all of them cursed the name of God who had power over these terrible troubles. But no one turned to God and praised him."(Revelation 16:8-9). This sounds like either a weakening of the earth's magnetic field, or perhaps an intense solar storm or sudden increase in intensity of the sun.
It is interesting that these two things - an increase in the sun's strength and a weakening of earth's protective magnetic field - are predicted to occur in the next few years as the sun moves from a relatively calm period to a more active one [20]. Some scientists say that if earth's magnetic field weakens, solar radiation may heat up the upper atmosphere and cause climate disruptions [21]. The combination of an active sun and a weak magnetic field could indeed cause people to be scorched by the sun by heating the atmosphere and changing our climate. These effects by themselves will be bad, but combined with the lack of water and the probably horrible smell of oceans full of nasty hot blood would make it much worse.
The Fifth Bowl
"The fifth angel emptied his bowl on the throne of the beast. At once darkness covered its kingdom, and its people began biting their tongues in pain. And because of their painful sores, they cursed the God who rules in heaven."(Revelation 16:10-11). This is probably the same type of supernatural darkness that God sent during the plagues of Egypt. "The Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your arm toward the sky, and everything will be covered with darkness thick enough to touch.'. Moses stretched out his arm toward the sky, and Egypt was covered with darkness for three days. During that time, the Egyptians could not see each other or leave their homes, but there was light where the Israelites lived."(Exodus 10:21-23).
This darkness is hard to explain as an eclipse or something like volcanic ash, and it did not affect the Israelites who also lived in Egypt. So it must be a pure supernatural phenomenon caused by God. There's no more need to use scientific causes at this point, because the people recognized it was God causing these events and still didn't turn to Him. Before this point, God may have made His judgements look "natural" so that people could still have time to have faith and trust that God exists, but at this point everyone knows God exists and hates Him, so there's no more need for natural appearances.
The Sixth Bowl
"The sixth angel emptied his bowl on the great Euphrates river, which completely dried up to make a road for the kings from the east."(Revelation 16:12). This is the prelude to the battle of Armageddon. The Euphrates river is a major barrier to land forces coming from China towards Israel, which is where the battle takes place. By it drying up (either supernaturally or perhaps because of the scorching sun in the fourth bowl judgement), the huge coalition of Asian forces can easily cross and come to join the Antichrist in his war against God/Israel. (Revelation 16:14).
The Seventh Bowl
The seventh bowl takes place when the armies of the kings of the east and the Antichrist have met at the battle of Armageddon in northern Israel. "As soon as the seventh angel emptied his bowl in the air, a loud voice from the throne in the temple shouted 'It's done!'. There were flashes of lighting, roars of thunder, and the worst earthquake in all history. The great city of Babylon split into three parts, and the cities of other nations fell...Every island ran away, and the mountains disappeared. Hailstones, weighting about a hundred pounds each, fell from the sky on people. Finally the people cursed God because the hail was so terrible."(Revelation 16:17-21).
This is a rather interesting judgement. This earthquake is going to be absolutely huge! If you thought the earthquake in the sixth Seal judgement was huge - the one that shifts every mountain and island from their places - this one is so big that all mountains fall and all islands are submerged (after all, islands are just tall underwater mountains). It destroys the city of Babylon, which is possibly rebuilt by the Antichrist and is most likely the seat of his government and a huge economic hub of the world. It also has huge hailstones, probably larger than the ones in the Seventh Trumpet. A 7-inch hailstone only weighs about 1.5 pounds [13], so a hundred-pound hailstone would be about 466 inches (38 ft) in diameter. That would be some spectacular hail, and would probably destroy entire buildings.
The Return of Jesus
I believe this may occur at the same time as the seventh bowl judgement, when the armies at Armageddon are fighting and trying to destroy Israel. This is when Jesus comes back to save Israel from destruction, with all the Christians who were raptured, and a whole lot of angels.
"I looked, and I saw that heaven was open, and a white horse was there. Its rider was called Faithful and True, and he is always fair when he judges or goes to war. He had eyes like flames of fire, and he was wearing a lot of crowns. His name was written on him, but he was the only one who knew what that name meant. The rider wore a robe that was covered with blood, and he was known as 'The Word of God'. He was followed by armies from heaven that rode on horses and were dressed in pure white linen. From his mouth a sharp sword went out to attack the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod and will show the fierce anger of God all-Powerful by trampling the grapes in the pit where the wine is made. On the part of the robe that covered his thigh was written, 'KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS'" (Revelation 19:11-16).
But then "I also saw the beast and all the kings of the earth come together. They fought against the rider on the white horse and against his army. But the beast was captured and so was the false prophet... The beast and false prophet were thrown alive into a lake of burning sulphur. But the rest of the army was killed by the sword that came from the mouth of the rider on the horse."(Revelation 19:19-21). There is more description of this in Zechariah: "The Lord will attack those nations like a warrior fighting in battle. He will take his stand on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem, and the mountain will split in half, forming a wide valley that runs from east to west."(Zechariah 14:3-4). I think this earthquake when Jesus reaches the Mount of Olives is probably the same huge earthquake as in the seventh bowl judgement. This is becauase the armies would have a very hard time getting organized to fight after the largest earthquake in all of history, so they must have been organized and fighting before the earthquake, and so the earthquake happens when Jesus returns to earth to start destroying the armies.
This is the ultimate battle of history. Some scholars have suggested the combined armies at Armageddon may be well into the hundreds of millions. Add that to the armies of heaven, and we've got a battle scene larger than any of the ones shown in Star Wars, the Chronicles of Narnia, or the Lord of the Rings. Some have suggested that instead of one instant battle, Jesus and his armies will wage a campaign of war that involves freeing Jerusalem and defending it against the last remnants of the Antichrist's armies. Then Jesus will set up his throne there and will begin ruling the world for 1000 years with the help of his Church and the resurrected Christians who were killed by the Antichrist (they are resurrected at the start of the 1000 years - Revelation 20:4-6).
Conclusion
I hope this summary of Tribulation events will be useful so that when these events do start, it will be clearly recognizable that they were prophesied in the Bible and the Bible is true. The good news is that if you accept Jesus before the Rapture happens, you will get to escape all these disasters and be safe in heaven.
If the Rapture has already happened, there is still time to change your mind. If you acknowledge that God does exist and you ask Jesus to forgive you from your sins and follow him, even if you die in the next few years it doesn't matter, because you'll be rewarded and resurrected when Jesus returns. Once these disasters and Tribulation is over, the world will start over with Jesus as its ruler, and everything will be better, so keep your faith and look forward to when Jesus comes back.
References
[1] www.abovetopsecret.com - Recent Rise in Earthquakes, Why?
[2] www.RaptureReady.com: Evil Days Ahead - Ron Graham
[5] Youtube.com - huge underground food storage cave breaking news
[6] Google.com results - "Deep underground military base"
[7] Marinetraffic.com - Live Ships Map
[8] "Thousands Of Rusting Ship Hulls Are A Fitting Tribute To The Speculative Market Bubble" - by Tyler Durden
[9] Youtube.com - Red/Blood Rain in India, Alien origins?
[10] Atlas Obscura - Blood Falls
[11] Tim Lahaye: Revelation Illustrated and Made Plain
[12] Grant R. Jeffrey Apocalypse: The Coming Judgement of the Nations, p.181
[13] National Geographic News - Largest Hailstone in US History Found
[14] www.wired.com - "Mice Aren't People, but RFID-Related Cancer Still Troubling", by Brandon Keim
[15] www.canadianmedecinenews.com - Implanted RFID Chips Could Cause Cancer
[17] The Globe and Mail - Rising food prices push 44 million into poverty: World Bank
[18] www.raptureready.com - Back to Normal: Global Delusions & Vanities by Wildfred Hahn
[19] www.sciencedaily.com - Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Indian Public Water Supply (2011)
[20]
Increase in Solar Storms Predicted - by Rupert Taylor
[21] www.guardian.co.uk - "Sun's rays to roast Earth as poles flip" by Robin McKie