Prophecy · What Is Still Coming
The Great Tribulation
The phrase is Jesus’s own — “then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Behind His words stand two older names for the same horizon: Daniel’s “time of trouble, such as never was,” and Jeremiah’s “time of Jacob’s trouble” — with its strange mercy attached: but he shall be saved out of it. This page lays out the texts, the seven-year architecture the futurist reading builds from them, the duration figures the texts themselves keep repeating, and the one scene Revelation shows on the far side: a multitude no man can number, coming out of it.
His Own Phrase
— Matthew 24:21-22 — and the two readings the quarry itself carriesThe words come from the Olivet Discourse, immediately after the abomination of desolation. How far they reach is the passage’s oldest question, and this site’s own quote quarry carries both answers: Gill and Clarke below read the verses of the A.D. 70 siege — and Josephus’s numbers justify the language — while the futurist reading hears “no, nor ever shall be” as reaching past any past event to a horizon still ahead, since Jesus ties the passage’s end directly to His visible return (24:29-30). Many careful readers hold both: a near fulfillment that prefigures a final one.
For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again. If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.For then shall be great tribulation,.... This is urged as a reason for their speedy flight; since the calamity that would come upon those who should remain in the city, what through the sword, famine, pestilence, murders, robberies, &c. would be such as was not since the beginning of the world, to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748), on Matt 24:21
Except those days should be shortened - Josephus computes the number of those who perished in the siege at eleven hundred thousand, besides those who were slain in other places, War, b. vi. c. 9; and if the Romans had gone on destroying in this manner, the whole nation of the Jews would, in a short time, have been entirely extirpated; but, for the sake of the elect, the Jews, that they might not be utterly destroyed, and for the Christians particularly, the days were shortened.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Matt 24:22
The Older Names
— Daniel 12:1; Jeremiah 30:7 — the horizon before Jesus named itJesus did not coin the idea. Daniel was told of “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” — with Michael standing up for Daniel’s people, and deliverance for “every one that shall be found written in the book.” Jeremiah named the same horizon “the time of Jacob’s trouble” — and both prophets attach the same unexpected ending: saved out of it. In every text, the tribulation is bounded on the far side by rescue; it refines, it does not consume.
“At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning of nations until that time. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.Jacob's trouble — 'but he shall be saved out of it.'
An archangel, not the Lord Jesus; for he is distinguished from "the Lord" in Jude 9. there shall be--rather, "it shall be." time of trouble, such as never was--partially applicable to the time of Antiochus, who was the first subverter of the Jews' religion, and persecutor of its professors, which no other world power had done.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Dan 12:1
There shall be a time of trouble, threatening to all, but ruining to all the implacable enemies of God's kingdom among men, such trouble as never was since there was a nation. To the destruction of Jerusalem, which Christ calls (perhaps with an eye to this prediction) such a great tribulation as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, Matt. xxiv.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Dan 12:1
The Week
— the seven-year architecture, with the texts' own numbersThe week opens
“he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week” — seven years, in Daniel's idiom
The midpoint
“in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” — the abomination set up
The second half — the same span, four ways
“a time, and times, and half a time” · “forty and two months” · “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” — the texts keep converting the same 3½ years into each other's units
The week ends
“immediately after the tribulation of those days… they shall see the Son of man coming” — the return closes it
But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”forty-two months; a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for 42 months.the beast's forty-two months — the same span, again.
Why the arithmetic mattersthe texts' own insistence
Whatever school a reader holds, one textual fact is simply there: Daniel and Revelation keep stating one span in interchangeable units — a time, times and half a time; forty-two months; 1,260 days — always three and a half years, always the second half of Daniel’s divided week. The futurist reading takes the precision at face value as a real future span. The symbolic readings take the repetition as a bounded-evil motif — half of seven, evil cut short. Either way, the Bible’s tribulation has edges: it is measured, permitted, and terminated from above.
What the Texts Say It Is For
— wrath, refining, and harvestScripture assigns the tribulation three purposes at once. Toward the rebellious world-system it is wrath — the seals, trumpets and bowls have their own page. Toward Israel it is refining: Jacob’s trouble ends with Jacob saved, and Zechariah’s furnace ends with “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” And toward the nations it is, astonishingly, harvest — the one scene Revelation stages inside the tribulation’s span that no reader expects: a numberless multitude from every nation, tribe, people and tongue, standing in white before the throne, identified by the elder in exactly the words this page is named for.
Then one of the elders addressed me: “These in white robes,” he asked, “who are they, and where have they come from?” “Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'these are they which came out of great tribulation.'
For yet again a countless throng are revealed, clothed in white and distinguished by palms of victory, celebrating their triumph doubtless over Antichrist, since one of the elders says, "These are they who come out of that great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." For the flesh is the clothing of the soul.
Tertullian· Scorpiace (c. 220), on Rev 7:14
It is not the blood of the martyrs themselves, but the blood of the Lamb, that can wash away sin, and make the soul pure and clean in the sight of God. Other blood stains; this is the only blood that makes the robes of the saints white and clean. The blessedness to which they are now advanced, being thus prepared for it.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Rev 7:14
Where It Points
— bounded by rescue on every sideThe tribulation is never presented in Scripture as the end of the story — it is the labor pains before the kingdom (Matt 24:8), terminated by the return in glory “immediately after” (24:29). Where the church is during it — kept from it, or kept through it — is the timing question weighed honestly at The Rapture, where Marcus states where he lands.
Closing
A trouble with three names — Jesus’s, Daniel’s, Jeremiah’s — a span the texts measure to the day, and a far side crowded with the rescued. Scripture’s darkest chapter is bounded, purposed, and shortened for the elect’s sake, by the only One with authority over calendars.