Hi Greg,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Believe me - I have studied umpteen scholarly commentaries on the final 7 years. Daniel 9:26 / 27 etc. If anything, it is all noise and conjecture. Nobody is truly sure - me included. People have mulled over a gap between the rapture - thereby giving time for an earthly Temple to be built - and the Great Trib etc. Where in scripture does it say that? Where in scripture does it say there will be a 7 year trib? It ALL hinges on the person in Daniel 9:27. Do you believe this is speaking of the AC or do you believe it is speaking of Christ?
Don't you find it telling that Jerusalem was attacked and fully brought down in 70 AD...exactly to the year? 70 years from the birth of Jesus Christ? In the middle of those 70 years, our LORD started and ended His ministry. I am not going to be pedantic and say that our LORD's ministry was exactly 3.5 years....but most scholars agree that this is the case. Most scholars agree that our LORD Jesus was between the age of 30-35 years old when He was crucified. Even if it is proved Jesus was 33 years of age when He was crucified - let's not split hairs. It is as near as dammit to half of seventy. Kind of the middle of a week, wouldn't you say?
Daniel 9:24 is specific. 70 years are given to put an end to iniquity finish transgression, atone for wickedness, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy and anoint the most Holy. Well - Israel did not manage these things from 0 to 70 AD. It seems they had to fight tooth and nail for another 70 years of chances.
Fast forward to the future. Between the years of 1941 to 1945 (WW2) the Jewish people served harsh trials in concentration camps. They suffered in these camps - tortured and put to death by the millions - for a time period of approx. 3.5 years. In fact - if we take the entire saga from the year of Kristalnacht in 1938 through to the end of the war - 1945....we get a total of 7 years. Only after these horrendous years of suffering was Israel allowed to crawl her way back into the Holy Land. Would you not call their suffering, tribulation? Do you believe this time served does not count in the grand scheme of things? There are many scriptures that could be alluding to the Holocaust. Psalm 102 has been referred to as the Holocaust Psalm by some.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
Modern day Israel has marked her 72nd year in the land. 70 years have been and gone! We are two years over. How come?? Are we waiting for Israel to mark off another 1.5 years to make it to maturation BEFORE a 7 year tribulation kicks in? How perverse. Our Father God is not a God of confusion. We are either 2 years over because we are already in tribulation OR .....what? Give me one good reason why?
When the man of sin sits himself in God's Temple and starts yammering off about being god himself - he is sitting in God's Temple. A Temple that Almighty God says specifically, is His. Not some man-made, AC approved building - hastily put together for the purpose of restarting the animal sacrifices in. Almighty God would never call this rubbish, HIS Temple. I fully believe Natan and Caroline's testimony that the Holy Temple will descend from heaven - where it currently resides.
Reading the Book of Revelation, this earth is going to take a terrible beating from asteroid strikes etc. So severe that this planet is going to be placed out of kilter. The days and nights will be shortened and the passage of time itself will be confusing.
Once Almighty God's wrath comes - it comes. It will be absolutely severe. Israel will be attacked. Ezekiel 38 and Isaiah 17. It will be full on, Great Tribulation.
Whilst I respect all the research that has gone into the question of the final years and I respect the people who still believe in a final 7 years of tribulation - I reject the theory. All the top scholars I have approached re this, have been generous with their time and research. Sending me their files etc. It is not as if I haven't looked at this from both sides of the coin.
I care about the people left behind after the rapture. They will be asking....3.5 years? 7 years to go? Which one? I am grateful that I do not need to shoulder this burden. Almighty God has everything in hand.
Blessings to you, Greg. And to all the Doves.