Revelation: Chapter 7 Timelines

Setting

It may be instructive to briefly elaborate on the following chart related to the information presented in Revelation 6:1-17 and Revelation 7:1-17, which is the timeline for the tribulation saints. This group of believers in Christ Jesus will not exist until after the snatching away (rapture) of the church, and then the man of sin is revealed, 2Thessalonians 2:6-9. The point of the following graphic is to illustrate several significant events described in scripture that will occur in heaven and on earth, as well as the possible sequence of those events. Along the vertical are contemporary events, whereas along the horizontal are events that occur sequentially, with time increasing from left to right. Scripture commentators have no wholesale agreement concerning these events before the tribulation occurs (with the signing of the seven-year covenant between the Antichrist and Israel), as outlined below. What is presented below is how these future events, relative to the church's rapture, may occur. It is expected that the events in heaven, beginning with the Lord opening the first of seven seals on the scroll, will coincide with the signing of the seven-year covenant between the Antichrist and Israel. These two events reveal two actions: the first is the true beginning of the seven years of tribulation, and the second is the revealing of the man, the Antichrist.

In Revelation 7, there is a pause in activities for John to capture four events that God wants to amplify before continuing to the next set of judgments. These events are identified: four angels hurting Earth, sealing the 144,000 Israelites, John meeting the great tribulation saints, and the songs of praise. First, there is a pause in any further activity before the opening of the seventh seal. This is shown as a green vertical line in the first half of the tribulation. During the pause, is the another judgment being executed on the earth, where four angels were assigned to stop the wind blowing everywhere on Earth. This is shown in the following graphic: a dark grey figure of four angels surrounding the Earth, with a fifth who commands them to wait. This pause is to allow the sealing of the 144,000 Israelites, then their judgment will resume, indicated by the black horizontal arrow, pointing to the right. This is to show their influence during the remaining seven-year tribulation. They may be a part of the next several judgments, since all their impacts are similar.

The next event is the sealing of the 144,000 believing Israelis, Revelation 7:3-8. Discussion on this event is located where the 144,000 are identified from every tribe. An essential addition to the discussion is the importance of our actions in our lives today and their impact on future generations. The arrangement of Judah and Reuben illustrates this, whereas the firstborn, Reuben, should have been first. Still, scripture shows that his misbehavior with his father’s concubine lost him the right of firstborn, which rippled down the generations. On the following chart, the sealing of the 144,000 is seen with the dashed red circle, early in the first half of the tribulation.

Afterward is the identification of the great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, who stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, Revelation 7:9. These are the great tribulation saints, who are represented by the dark green horizontal line from just before the mid-tribulation point through the great tribulation. On this graph, the great tribulation saints are placed adjacent to the group of martyred saints revealed with the opening of the fifth seal, Revelation 6:9-11. They were the ones who had asked the Lord for vengeance, but were told to wait a little longer until their numbers had reached a predetermined point. Placing the two groups adjacent to one another on the final chart at the bottom of this page is to illustrate that the stress of persecution against the saints continues unabated, regardless of who the source is that is killing them.

Finally, the fourth event in this chapter is all of the songs sung and shouts of praise to God, by the tribulation saints. This is symbolized in the graphic with the harp, encircled by the dashed circle at the top of the timeline.

The last graphic is the aggregate of all the chapters of Revelation to this point. All four events have been integrated into the chart, as seen below.