I encourage you to follow my new series on the Tribulation in the Book of Revelation. Jesus left this vision within the vision about the tribulation because He knew we would need further instruction about the days in which we are now living. Here is my introduction to the series:
Many believe that the Tribulation happened with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. or it will happen at a time that is still yet future to us. But what did Jesus have to say about it?
Almost 40 years after the Apostle Paul penned his letters to the New Testament Church, Jesus appeared in a vision to the Apostle John to reveal when it would happen.
He withheld this revelation from the first century disciples, including Paul:
John 16:12 (CHV) I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
The word bear means to carry a burden. Jesus knew that He did not need to trouble His first century Church with details about the deliverance of His Church from a world empire at the end of the age. He knew the trials that awaited His Church and how difficult it would be for them to prevail in their present persecutions if they became preoccupied with when it would end.
Thus, Paul’s revelation of the “Mystery”, that he received in the Arabian desert, would remain incomplete until the end of the age. John referred to this in his vision of the seventh trumpet at the end of the Great Tribulation:
Revelation 10:5-7 (CHV) And the angel that I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that are in it, and the earth, and the things that are in it, and the sea, and the things that are in it, that there would be no more delay. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he begins to sound, the mystery of God will be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets.
In part one of this series, I will explain that the Great Tribulation, described by Jesus in Matthew 24, is portrayed by the seven trumpets of the Book of Revelation. And through a vision within this vision, He reveals that it neither happened in 70 A.D nor is it in the future, but it is happening now.