A Sample Chapter from my book: The Antichrist of Revelation:666
Chapter 8
10 Days of Tribulation
The Antichrist’s assault on Christianity and religion is a major facet of the Tribulation.
It is also part of God’s judgments on those who adhere to the beliefs of the many world religions, and the abolition of them. While the Antichrist will attack the adherents of all religion and their destroy their buildings and literature, his main targets are going to be Jews who have become Christians.
The treaty ushers in the final dispensation. The age of the Gentiles will come to a close and the focus will again be on Israel. Eternal life will be evidenced by not taking the Mark of the Beast. Revelation 20:4 tells us that many of these martyrs will be beheaded.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus walks among the lamp stands and speaks to the seven churches. Jesus addresses the church of Smyrna, which are the Tribulation Christians, In His letter to the Church at Smyrna, He starts off by identifying Himself as the First and the Last who was dead but came to life. What is significant about Jesus stating that He is the First and the Last, is this how Jesus identifies Himself to John as He begins to reveal the Revelation Prophecy. They are now in the days of the fulfillment of the Revelation and the end of the age.
He tells them, I know your works, tribulation and poverty (but you are rich. This is because they have not taken the Mark of the Beast and cannot buy or sell and must live on faith. We cannot even imagine what it will be like to live under this kind of oppression. Tribulation Saints will not be able to buy any necessities. They are poor by the world’s standards, but rich in Christ. Jesus then goes on to tell them in verse 9, I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are of the synagogue of Satan. Both the church of Smyrna and Philadelphia do not receive any condemnation by Jesus. and in both letters Jesus makes reference to those who say that they are Jews but are not but are of the Synagogue of Satan. Jesus ends his message by stating in Rev. 2:10:
Do not fear any of those things you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Many have written about these ten days. Some have said it is ten years, others a period of time. I believe Jesus is talking about ten literal days. From the time after the arrest of the Tribulation Saints to their being thrown in prison and executed will be a total of ten days.
Under the US Judicial system, a person arrested for a death penalty crime can wait years on death row before execution. In dictatorships the executions or purges for those who are considered enemies of the State can go pretty quickly. It is not unlikely that the ten days of Revelation are literal ten days and are part of the protocol under the dictatorship. The Antichrist is not interested in imprisoning persons, but killing them.
What is interesting on the ten days of Revelation is that there is a parallel found in Daniel. The book of Daniel lines with the Revelation. Daniel is in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Kingdom because of his intellect and good looks. He tells the eunuch set over him that he does not want to eat the food of the king because he does not want to defile himself. Daniel states in Daniel 1:12 Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Jesus informs Smyrna that they will be tested, and they will have tribulation ten days. Daniel drank water and ate herbs and vegetables. Jesus is the living waters, and among the vegetables and herbs are the acrid herbs of the tribulation they are enduring and will now partake in the suffering of Jesus. The bitter herbs also represent Jesus’s agony while on this Earth and the torment suffered by the Israelites while in bondage and servitude to the Egyptians.
Just as Daniel and his friends who lived on the meager sustenance of vegetables and herbs, the Tribulation Saints are thrown in prison and will only have a roof sheltering them from storm as any provision. The bread of life and Jesus’s fountain of living waters will sustain them.
Daniel and his friends were tested ten days and at the end of the ten days their appearance was better and healthier than the men who ate the portion of the King’s delicacies. During the Tribulation the kings fine foods come from taking the Mark of the Beast. Despite their tribulation they are in a spiritually healthy condition, better than those who take the Mark of the Beast and have this world’s foods and luxuries. To God in heaven, their spiritual face is fatter and healthier than the persons who follow the Antichrist.
You will notice when you continue reading the book of Daniel, that the entire account is written for the Tribulation Saints. As the narrative of Daniel continues, we come to Daniel Chapter 3, the worship of the golden image. Daniel tells us it is sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. We see a double six. Daniel does not worship the image. This mirrors Revelation 13 and the image of the Beast who everyone in the world is going to worship. The Antichrist’s image is hooked up with the Mark of the Beast, and the Revelation tells us that those who worship his image also take the Mark.
Daniel and his friends get thrown into the fiery furnace and there is a fourth person in there with them, and we know this is Jesus. Daniel 11:32 states, “that the people who know God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits” Some will survive against all odds, while others will be killed. Others may start out carrying out great exploits and end up killed.
Again, we see Daniel is spared in the Lion’s den while serving under Darius the Mede. His jealous governors made up a law that they knew Daniel by his faith in God would violate. The penalty was the lion’s den. The lion’s did not harm him. The lion is a symbol of the Babylonian kingdom and as I discussed earlier the lion is also a symbol of the Devil and the Antichrist. Revelation 13:2 describes the Beast as having a mouth like a lion. Just as Jesus is the pride lion from the tribe of Judah, Satan is the scavenger lion seeking whom he may devour.
Where do the Tribulation Saints end up but in the Antichrist’s prison i.e. the lion’s den. The Tribulation Saints when they go to prison will find themselves in the lion’s den because the Antichrist is like his father Satan, a scavenger lion and his government possesses the mouth like a lion. Daniel 6:22 states:
My God send His angel and shut the lion’s mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also O king, I have done no wrong before you.
Although the Tribulation Saints will find themselves in prison and will march to their deaths, essentially they emerge unscathed because Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:28 us not to fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. As Daniel 6:26-27 affirms:
For He is the living God,
And steadfast forever:
His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed,
And His dominion shall endure to the end.
He delivers and rescues,
And He works signs and wonders
In heaven and on Earth,
Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
The lions are the Antichrist, his henchmen, the Devil and all of the powers of darkness that will be involved in this brutal murderous rampage of Christians. The picture of Jesus in the flaming furnace is a message for the Tribulation Christians .As face torture and death, they will not really be killed. The lion’s den which is the prison they find themselves in, and the fiery furnace of their ten-day tribulation has no power over them. Notice what Jesus tells them in the beginning of his letter, He identifies himself as He who was dead and came to life or who was dead and is alive or who died and came to life again. What Jesus is telling them is though they are about to die, like Him, it will be meaningless because in Him, they will live after their death. alive in Christ and unharmed in spirit.
God will be with the Tribulation Saints in a very powerful way. Matthew 10:19-20 and Luke 12:11 tells the Tribulation Saints that when they are arrested and brought before rulers and authorities not to fear what they will say for the Holy Spirit will speak through them in that hour.
We see the martyred under the alter in Revelation 6:9-10 and we are told they are killed for the word of God and their testimony, and they are crying to God to avenge their deaths, in verse 11. they are given their white robes and told to wait longer as their brethren would be killed like they were.
During the Tribulation, you gain salvation by not taking the Mark of the Beast or becoming joined with him ., Jesus states in Revelation the devil is about to throw some of you in prison that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days, and Daniel confirms, and it is written, Please test your servants for ten days and further down it says, so he consented with them in this matter and tested them ten days. These days are literal days from the time after the arrest to execution under the Antichrist’s dictatorship.
So we have the picture of the horrible demonical person of the Antichrist and the climate he will create during the Tribulation. His army is so strong that the Bible tells us that he gathers the nations as a hen gathers its eggs, and as he invades the nations, they do not so much as let out a peep.
Revelation 12:11 states: And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives until death. The Tribulation Saints will have no life in the way that we life in any sense of the word. They will live on the run and their own family members will betray them. They will exist without the necessities of life and face torture and death. The Antichrist will hate Christians with a passion and he is going to seek to eliminate them from the earth.