What will start the tribulation

Revelation —14, describes the 6th-seal judgment which will take place in the first half of the seven-year tribulation violent earthquakes, cosmic signs in the heavens, and the uprooting of mountains and islands.

The Day of the Lord will include plagues, but also other terrifying events which have not occurred yet. While we are enduring a pandemic now—other plagues in the past have been more serious than this one. Second, the man of lawlessness has not yet been revealed. In the first century, false teachers spread the idea that the Tribulation had already begun.

Paul was speaking of a coming world dictator, the future false messiah, also called the antichrist 1 John and the Beast Rev. Since this person has not yet been revealed, we are not yet in the Day of the Lord. Third, Israel has not signed a covenant with this future false messiah.

Daniel indicates that the end times seven-year tribulation will begin when this future false messiah makes a treaty with the leadership of Israel. It has not yet been signed, so we are not yet in the tribulation.

The other reason was the Abraham Accord Peace Treaty. Trump was recognizing reality. Palestinians have never had a capital or country and for the most part come from Jordan. King David made Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state years ago. A nation has the right to decide on its own capital.

Why should Israel be the exception? The God of Israel is the One who gave them the title deed to the land of Israel. God put His name on Jerusalem forever. It is and always will be the eternal capital of Israel. Woe to those who disagree. The rebirth of the nation of Israel is unique among all nations in world history. Israel exists against all odds.

The most obvious proof God wrote the Bible is the Jews and the nation of Israel. The Bible predicted their exile from the land and return just prior to the second coming of King Jesus.

They even have the same capital Jerusalem and speak Hebrew which was an extinct language. The God of Israel is real! The Bible in Zechariah 12 says that God will destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem. Hundreds of Bible verses say Jerusalem and Israel belongs to the Jews. However, others who hold to this seven-year period would say that the Bible does not teach that Christians would be raptured or removed before these events.

A variant of this argument is that the first three and a half years of the tribulation are the wrath of Satan, while the last three and a half are the wrath of God, so it is at that mark that Christians are removed. Those who believe Christians would be removed at the middle or the end of the seven year period would note that Revelation does not mean that one has to be removed from the situation.

In fact, Jesus prays in John for believers not to be taken out of the world but to be kept from the evil one. Therefore, there is division among those who teach this idea of a rapture and a seven year tribulation period when these events will take place hence the question!

Something else to remember when thinking about this question is that not all Christians believe that these final seven years of Daniel await as discussed a bit in this post last week or that the Book of Revelation offers a timeline of specific events that come in the future see this past post on reading Revelation and the possibility of parallelism.

Thus, not all believe in a seven year tribulation that Christians could be removed from. In fact, a common view through the ages has been that the present time is this period of tribulation, with the Book of Revelation describing the challenges that the church will face throughout time rather than specific events.

There will be an increase in evil at the end as Paul notes in places like 2 Timothy , but with no timeline on the length , with the return of Jesus happening after the man of lawlessness is revealed see 2 Thessalonians 2 , and the church will experience these things.