The Tribulation in the Book of Revelation

Revelation 5-18

There is a period in human history described in the bible as The Tribulation when God will do battle with mankind and truly horrifying events will unfold until God is triumphant. Just before it happens God will remove the church from the earth along with the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit. When this happens there will be an outbreak of evil, the likes of which the earth has never seen before. And God is so gracious that he has forewarned mankind by telling us in the bible just what is going to happen.

There are a number of places in the bible where we can learn about The Tribulation but the place where we can get the most detail from is the Book of Revelation. The Tribulation is described in chapters 5 to 18 but it is not written down in strict chronological order and not everyone who reads it is aware of this. As John the Apostle is taken through the events by an angel every so often there is a pause whilst he is shown certain aspects of The Tribulation in more detail. I am going to call this Fill In. So some parts of these chapters take us through the sequence of events whilst others describe various aspects of The Tribulation which are not in chronological order (the Fill In parts).

The chronological parts are identified by the use of seals, trumpets and vials (bowls). So when you read those parts that describe the opening of seals, the blowing of trumpets or the pouring out of vials you know that you are reading the chronological parts of The Tribulation.

I have created a table below to show you which sections are in chronological order and which sections are fill in.