7 Year Tribulation
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit will guide you into
all truth and through the
Heavenly Gates into the New
Earth
Angels
Here on earth to help us
overcome evil so that we make it
to the Kingdom also recording
our every works and actions.
7 Year Tribulation
By Steve Wohlberg

A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t
correct it is committing another mistake. -Confucius
(551-479 B.C.). The concept of a seven-year Tribulation
is the underlying foundation of the entire Left Behind
scenario (and all other pro-rapture books and movies).
The theory is: rapture first, then seven years of horror.
Book Two of the Left Behind novels declares, “The
disappearances have ushered in the seven year period
of Tribulation” (The Tribulation Force, inside cover).
Book Three reveals, “…the seven-year Tribulation is
nearing the end of its first quarter…” (Nicolae, inside
cover). Book Six tells us, “It’s the midpoint of the
seven-year Tribulation” (The Indwelling, inside cover).
Book Eight begins with, “…the dawn of the second half
of the seven-year Tribulation” (The Mark, inside cover).
Book Eleven opens “six years into the Tribulation, two
and one-half years into the Great Tribulation”
(Armageddon, p. vii). Thus this New York Times, USA-
Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling series of
end times, prophecy books, endorsed by well-
respected church leaders worldwide, is built entirely
around this seven-year framework.
Where does this “seven-year” concept come from
anyway? It may shock you, but if you look for “seven
years of tribulation” in any concordance, you won’t
find it. The truth is, from Genesis to Revelation, there
is no exact passage that specifically mentions a seven-
year period of tribulation at all. Amazingly, the entire
theory is really based on a rather speculative
interpretation of two little words in one single verse.
The text is Daniel 9:27; and the two words are, “one
week.” Let me explain.
The Book of Daniel was written while the Jews were in
Babylon—in exile because of their sins. Daniel 9:24-27
contains a prophecy from the angel Gabriel to
encourage the Jewish people that they would be given
a “second chance” to return to Jerusalem, rebuild their
temple, and ultimately, receive their Messiah (Jesus
Christ). This highly controversial prophecy literally
reads:
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and
upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to
make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and
to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the
most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from
the going forth of the commandment to restore and to
build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks [62
weeks]: the street shall be built again, and the wall,
even in troublous times. And after threescore and two
weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and
the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy
the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war
desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the
covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of
the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation
to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations
he shall make it desolate, even until the
consummation, and that determined shall be poured
out upon the desolate (Daniel 9:24-27 KJV).
Thus we have a prophecy about “seventy weeks.”
Gabriel then subdivides the period into three smaller
periods of seven weeks (verse 25), sixty-two weeks
(verse 25), and one week (verse 27). 7+62+1=70.
Seventy weeks = 490 days. A day in prophecy
represents a year (see Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:
6). Thus 490 days are really 490 years. Without going
into all the chronological details here (I will get more
specific in a later chapter), the prophecy starts with a
direct “commandment to restore and to build
Jerusalem” (verse 25) after the Babylonian captivity
and reaches down to the first coming of Jesus Christ.
After 69 weeks (after 483 years), “shall Messiah be cut
off” (verse 26). All Christian scholars apply this to the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ. After our Lord’s agonizing
death, “the people of the prince that shall come shall
destroy the city and the sanctuary” (verse 26). While
there are differences of opinion as to who “the people
of the prince” refers to, the majority of scholars
nevertheless apply the destruction of “the city and the
sanctuary” to the second destruction of Jerusalem and
its rebuilt sanctuary by Roman armies under Prince
Titus in 70 A.D.

So far, we have seen 69 weeks fulfilled. That leaves
“one week” left, otherwise known as the famous “70th
week of Daniel.” Again, that highly controversial text
literally says:  
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease… (Daniel 9:27 KJV).
Based on the day-year principle (which is valid), the
“one week” remaining in this prophecy must refer to a
period of seven years. Pro-rapture promoters claim
this is the seven-year period of tribulation. Their idea
is that while the first 69 weeks (or 483 years) did reach
to the first coming of Jesus Christ, the prophetic clock
has stopped because the Jewish people largely
rejected Him. Then they slide the 70th week (the last
seven years) all the way down to the end times, call it
the tribulation, and say it applies to the Jewish people
after we’re gone.
Rapture teachers interpret Daniel 9:27 as follows:
(1) “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week.” “He” is the antichrist who will make a covenant
(or peace treaty) with the Jews during the seven years
of tribulation.
(2) “In the midst of the week he shall cause the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease…” In the middle of
the seven-year tribulation, the antichrist will break his
covenant, turn against Israel, and stop their animal
sacrifices.
(3) The phrase, “he shall cause the sacrifice…to
cease” is viewed as irrefutable proof that a Jewish
temple (which includes sacrifices) must be rebuilt on
the Temple Mount inside Jerusalem.
Bestselling author Hal Lindsey in his The Late Great
Planet Earth reflects this current view when he writes
about “God’s last seven years of dealing with the
Jewish people before the long awaited setting up of
the kingdom of God (Daniel 9:27).” (The Late Great
Planet Earth, p. 46) According to Mr. Lindsey, during
those seven years “ ‘the Antichrist,’ breaks his
covenant with the Jewish people and causes the
Jewish temple worship, according to the Law of
Moses, to cease (Daniel 9:27)…We must conclude that
a third Temple will be rebuilt upon its ancient site in
old Jerusalem.” (Ibid.)
Therefore, according to countless modern interpreters,
Daniel 9:27 is applied to a future antichrist, a future
peace treaty made with Israel, a future seven-year
tribulation, and a future rebuilt Jewish temple inside
Jerusalem. And all of this will supposedly start with
the rapture. Honestly, that’s a lot to interpret from that
single verse, especially when Daniel 9:27 says
absolutely nothing about any seven-year tribulation,
antichrist, or rebuilt Jewish temple!
Could there be something wrong with this picture?
You’ll find out in the next chapter.
Taken from Chapter 4 of Steve Wohlberg’s new book,
End Time Delusions: The Rapture, the Antichrist,
Israel, and the End of the World.
Prophecy-minded Christians all over Planet Earth often
engage in a fierce debate about whether Jesus Christ
will return for His Church before the seven years of
tribulation (the “pre-trib” view), in the midst of the
seven years (the “mid-trib” view), or at the end of the
seven years (the “post-trib” view). Yet by far the most
explosive question few seem to be asking is: Is an end-
time "seven-year period of tribulation" really taught in
the Bible in the first place?
In 1945, after months of agonizing deliberation, U.S.
President Harry Truman finally issued orders to drop
two atomic bombs upon Japan in an attempt to end
World War II. On August 6, the “Little Boy” fell on
Hiroshima. Three days later, the “Fat Man” was
released over Nagasaki. Approximately 130,000 people
were instantly vaporized. Many heated discussions
have occurred as to whether or not it was the right
thing to drop those bombs. One thing’s for sure, in the
minds of those who made that fearful decision, they
believed it was for the ultimate good of America.
Dear friend, it is for the benefit of Christians
everywhere that God’s bomb of truth should now be
released over what I have come to call, “The 70th
week of Daniel Delusion.”
As we have seen, the entire 7-year theory is based on
Daniel 9:27, which says:
He shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease… (Daniel 9:27 KJV ).
This may shock you, but historically, the vast majority
of well-respected Bible scholars have not applied
Daniel 9:27 to a seven-year period of tribulation at all.
Neither have they interpreted the “he” as referring to a
future antichrist (as many do today) . Instead, they
applied it to Jesus Christ.
Notice what the world-famous Bible commentary
written by Matthew Henry says about Daniel 9:27: “By
offering himself a sacrifice once and for all he [Jesus]
shall put an end to all the Levitical sacrifices.”(1) T hus
Matthew Henry applied Daniel 9:27 to Christ, not
antichrist. Another famous commentary written by
British Methodist Adam Clarke says that during Daniel
9:27’s “term of seven years,” Jesus Himself would
“confirm or ratify the new covenant with mankind.”(2)
A nother dusty Bible commentary reveals: “He shall
confirm the covenant—Christ. The confirmation of the
covenant is assigned to Him." (3)
Here’s one more statement from a book called, Christ
and Antichrist, published in 1846 by the Presbyterian
Board of Publication in Philadelphia. On page 2, under
Recommendations, are endorsements from many
Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist ministers,
including an official representative of the Southern
Baptist Convention. (4) Commenting on the final week
of Daniel 9:27, that ancient volume states:
…sometime during the remaining seven, he [the
Messiah] was to die as a sacrifice for sin, and thus
bring in “everlasting righteousness.” Here are
allusions to events so palpable, that one would think,
the people among whom they occurred, could not
possibly have misapplied the prophecy. (5)
Okay, here we go. The following ten points provide
logical and convincing evidence that Daniel’s famous
70th week has no application to any future seven-year
tribulation at all. Rather, this great prophetic period
was definitely fulfilled nearly two thousand years ago.
1.        The entire prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 covers a
period of “seventy weeks,” or 490 years. Logic
requires that “seventy weeks” refers to one
consecutive block of time, in other words, to seventy
straight sequential weeks. There is no example in
Scripture (or anywhere else!) of a stated time period
starting, stopping, and then starting again. All biblical
references to time are consecutive: 40 days and 40
nights (see Genesis 7:4), 400 years in Egypt (see
Genesis 15:13), 70 years of captivity (see Daniel 9:2),
etc. In Daniel’s prophecy, the “seventy weeks” were to
begin during the reign of Persia and continue to the
time of the Messiah.
2. Logic also requires that the 70th week follow
immediately after the 69th week. If it doesn’t, then it
cannot properly be called the 70th week!
3. It is illogical to insert a 2,000-year gap between the
69th and 70th week. No hint of a gap is found in the
prophecy itself. There is no gap between the first
seven weeks and the following sixty-two weeks, so
why insert one between the 69th and 70th week?
Note: If you told your child to be in bed in 70 minutes,
you obviously would mean 70 consecutive minutes.
What if five hours later your fully awake son said, “But
dad, I know 69 minutes have passed, but the 70th
minute hasn’t started yet!”? After receiving an
appropriate punishment, he would be swiftly sent to
bed.
4. Daniel 9:27 says nothing about a seven-year period
of “tribulation,” a “rebuilt” Jewish temple, or any
“antichrist.”
5. The stated focus of this prophecy is the Messiah, not
the antichrist. After the Messiah is “cut off” (referring
to Christ’s death), the text says, “And the people of the
prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary.” I n the past, this has been consistently
applied to the destruction of Jerusalem and the second
temple by Roman armies led by Prince Titus in A.D. 70.
11
6. “He shall confirm the covenant.” Paul said “the
covenant” was “confirmed before by God in Christ”
(Galatians 3:17). Jesus Christ came “to confirm the
promises made to the fathers” (Romans 15:8,
emphasis added). In the King James Version, Daniel 9:
27 doesn’t say “ a covenant” or peace treaty, but “ the
covenant,” which applies to the New Covenant.
Nowhere in the Bible does the antichrist make,
confirm, or break a covenant with anyone. The word
“covenant” is Messianic, and always applies to the
Messiah, not the antichrist.
7. “He shall confirm the covenant with many. ” Jesus
Christ said, “This is My blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for many… ” (Matthew 26:28). Behold a
perfect fit! Jesus was quoting Daniel 9:27 specifically.
8. “In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice
and the oblation to cease.” After exactly three and a
half years of holy ministry, Jesus Christ died on the
cross, “in the midst of the week [in the middle of the
seven years].” At the exact moment of His death, “the
veil of the temple was torn in two from top to
bottom…” (Matthew 27:51). This act of God signified
that all animal sacrifices at that moment ceased to be
of value. Why? Because the Perfect Sacrifice had been
offered!
9. “For the overspreading of abominations he shall
make it desolate.” “The abomination of desolation”
(see Matthew 24:15) is not a simple subject, yet we
know that Jesus clearly applied this event to the time
when His followers were to flee from Jerusalem before
the destruction of the second temple in A.D. 70. In a
parallel text to Matthew 24:15, Jesus told His disciples,
“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies
[Roman armies led by Prince Titus], then know that its
desolation is near ” (Luke 21:20, emphasis added). The
disciples did “see” those very events. Because of the
“abominations” of the Pharisees, Jesus told them,
“See! Your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:
38). Thus Gabriel’s statement in Daniel 9:27 about
Jerusalem becoming “desolate” was perfectly fulfilled
in A.D. 70.
10. Gabriel said that the 70-week prophecy specifically
applied to the Jewish people (see Daniel 9:24). During
the period of Christ’s public ministry of 3 1 / 2 years,
the Master’s focus was largely upon “the lost sheep of
the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). After His
resurrection and then for another 3 1/2 years, His
disciples preached mostly to Jews (see Acts 1-6). After
that second 3 1/2 -year period, in 34 A.D., the bold
Stephen was stoned by the Jewish Sanhedrin (see
Acts 7). This infamous deed marked the then-ruling
Jewish leaders’ final, official rejection of the gospel of
our Savior. Then the gospel went to the Gentiles. In
Acts 9, Saul became Paul, the “apostle to the Gentiles”
(Romans 11:13). In Acts 10, God gave Peter a vision
revealing it was now time to preach to the Gentiles
(see Acts 10:1-28). Read also Acts 13:46. Thus
approximately 3 1/2 years after the crucifixion— and at
the end of the 70-week prophecy given f or the Jewish
people—the gospel shifted to the Gentiles exactly as
predicted in Bible prophecy.
The explosive evidence is overwhelming! Point by
point the events of Daniel’s 70th week have been
fulfilled in the past. These eight words found in Daniel
9:27:
“confirm…covenant…many…midst…sacrifice…cease
… abominations…desolate” all find perfect fulfillment
in Jesus Christ and early Christian history.
In the words of that 1846 Presbyterian publication,
The seventy weeks of Daniel therefore, have certainly
ended many centuries ago. We are not to look to the
future for the fulfillment of these predictions. We must
look to the past. And if to the past; where is there one
who can have any adequate claims to being the
subject of these prophecies, but Jesus? He, and he
only can claim them; and to him they most certainly
refer. (7)
…one would think, the people [the Jews] among whom
[these events] occurred, could not possibly have
misapplied the prophecy. (8)
But they did. In fact, one major reason why the Jewish
nation as a whole failed to receive its Messiah was
because its scholars misinterpreted Daniel 9:27. They
failed to see Jesus Christ as the predicted One who
would die in the midst of the 70th week! Amazingly,
the exact same thing is happening today. Sincere
Christian scholars are now misapplying the very same
prophecy.
The entire “seven-year period of tribulation” theory is
an end time delusion, a massive mega-myth. It may
even go down in history as the greatest evangelical
misinterpretation of all time. The whole concept is like
a gigantic bubble. Once Daniel 9:27 is correctly
understood and the sharply-pointed pin of truth is
inserted, “Pop goes the seven years!” It’s a fact: There
is no text in the Bible which teaches a “seven-year
tribulation.” If you hunt for it, you’ll end up like Ponce
de Leon searching for the mystical Fountain of Youth,
but never finding it.
The current debate and tremendous confusion over
pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib is really a smoke screen
of the enemy to hide the real issue. What is the real
issue? We’ll find out when we study what the Book of
Revelation truly teaches about Israel, Babylon the
Great, and Armageddon.
Taken from Chapter 5 of Steve Wohlberg's newest
book, End Time Delusions: The Rapture, the Antichrist,
Israel, and the End of the World.