So much misunderstanding on all these issues makes me wonder if we study and if we ask God to reveal His wonders unto us, or if we just accept what other men have passed down unto as truths, which in reality are men's truths.
Then Nehemiah 66 says God "SHORTENS THE TRIBULATION" but God/Jesus never says no such thing, at least as he and others understand it. I can't understand how people can't get these simple concepts right. God makes the 70th week centered around a 1260 event in the Middle of the Week, but we are supposed to believe God CHANGES His plans and designs, which would late all prophecy, all because people see Jesus saying that He and the Father SHORTENED the coming tribulation period, but they fail to comprehend that God/Jesus SHORTENED IT to the PLANNED 7 YEARS !! God doesn't have to REPLAN ANYTHING. Jesus is telling us that the TROUBLES that will come were PREPLANNED to only be allowed to last 7 years via the 70th week and 3.5 years via the Greatest ever Troubles on this earth. God doesn't shorten the coming 3.5 years of troubles, he SHORTENED what the Anti-Christ would have pulled off on this earth if God/Jesus had not decided with PRE KNOWLEDGE to end those troubles after 3.5 years, and thus announced via PROPHECY that the Beast would rule 1260 days. That 1270 days IS THE SHORTENED PERIOD. Doesn't Jesus kill him? Well is not that Gid shortening the life span of the Beast to 1260 days? These things are not that complex tbh. God can not lie, so He says the est rules for 1260 days and Jesus says the Tribulation will be SHORTENED, and people actually can not grasp that Jesus is saying from a NATURAL LIFE SPAN top only 1260 days !!
You are correct here it that, the predetermined time is 7 years. When Jesus says, "If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved," He is basically saying 'If the time was allowed to go beyond the predetermined 7 years and specifically the last 3 1/2 years, then no one on earth would survive.' So you are correct in your understanding of this.
The 70 weeks are designed to get Israel to repent, IF, they had repented 2000 years ago I am convinced Jesus would have set the Kingdom up in 70 AD and saved them from the Romans at that time, but God knowing all knew they would not repent. So, God turned His back on Israel for nigh 2000 years, allowing the YOUNGER Gentiles to gain the mantle just like He did Jacob over Esau.
If Israel would have repented at that time then it would mean that Jesus would not have been crucified and all of the prophesies regarding Him such as Psalms 16:10 "They pierced My hands and My feet" would not have been fulfilled and we would all still be in our sins, because there would be no blood covering our sins. Just sayin.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us ALL TIME on this earth is tribulation. So, the Church Age is Tribulation, the 70th week is tribulation, and the 3.5 years is the GREATEST EVER TRIBULATIONS SEEN.
And in REv. 20:4 we CLEARLY SEE that those who refused the Mark of the Beast are ALL JUDGED here in Rev. 20:4 which is AFTER the Second Coming !! So, scripture specifically tells us those seen in REv. 7:9-17 can not be from the 70th week, yet we just go on believing it's them anyway !! (Not me of course, I know those are from the GREAT CHURCH AGE TRIBULATION, where millions of our brothers were indeed slaughtered for the name of Jesus)
You have the timing points correct, but your analysis of Israel's punishment is off a wee bit. But your timing is spot on.
Your error here is that you are pigeonholing the word 'Tribulation.' The trials and tribulation that Jesus said believers would have as a result of our faith in Him, is what believers have been experiencing for 2000 years up to this present day. These tribulations come at the hands of men and the powers of darkness.
In opposition, the tribulation during that last seven years will be God's tribulation, His wrath upon a Christ rejecting world. This is also the time that He will deal with Israel and Jerusalem in fulfillment of the decree that was made regarding the 70 sevens "to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place." That said, the church will not be exposed to that seven years of God's tribulation/wrath, because Jesus already suffered God's wrath on behalf of every believer within the church, satisfying it completely.
"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." - Isaiah 53:5
This is why those seen in Rev. 7:9-17 came out of the GREAT TRIBULATION, (2000 some odd year Church Age Period), because God can describe more than one thing s GREAT, it is us who try to limit His vocabulary.
That group that no one can count from every nation, people, tribe and language (Gentiles), are those who will become believers in Christ after the church has been gathered and during the time of God's wrath.
John had previously written letters to the seven churches. Then in Chapter seven he sees this group of which the elder asks him "These in white robes who are they are where did they come from." The very fact that the elder is asking John this demonstrates that this is not the church but another group. In further support of this, John doesn't know who they are.
Something to always keep in mind is the absence of the word 'ekklesia' translated as 'church.' Throughout Revelation chapters 1 thru 3 the word ekklesia/church is used 19 times, with the last appearance being at the very end of chapter 3. After that it suddenly disappears from print and with good reason. The next event that takes place is that John hears a voice that sounds like a trumpet which says, "come up here and I will show you what must take place after this." That voice that sounds like a trumpet is the same one that was speaking with John identified as the Lord Jesus in Rev.1:10, which is another clue to the reader. In 1 Thess.4:16, we read the following:
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air."
That "Trumpet of God" in 1 Thess.4:16 is synonymous with that voice that will sound like a trumpet saying "come up here" in Rev.4:1
The key to understanding the chronological order is found in Revelation 1:19 when Jesus told John to write:
What you have seen = Everything John wrote from Rev.1:1 to Rev.1:19
What is now = Represented by the letters to the seven churches, which is also represents the entire church age
What will take place later = The events which take place after the "what is now," i.e. what takes place after the church period
That said, we are currently still living in the "what is now" portion of what John was told to write. Very soon now that voice that sounds like a trumpet is going to say "come up here" resurrecting the dead, changing the living in Christ and removing us from the earth. Once that takes place, then the "what will take place later" will begin. This is exactly why the word ekklesia/church is no longer seen after the end of chapter 3 and is nowhere to be found in the narrative of God's wrath. The next time the word appears is in Rev.22:16 which is outside of the narrative. The church is also referred to as the bride in Rev.19:6-8 as she is attending the wedding of the Lamb in heaven, which again demonstrates that the church/bride is already in heaven.
Once the church has been gathered from the earth as promise in John 14:1-3 and 1 Thess.4:16-17, then God will pick up right where He left off with Israel and Jerusalem in fulfillment of that 70th seven year period, know as the tribulation, the hour of trial, the wrath of God. The events of wrath in Revelation will be the fulfillment of the long prophesied 'Day of the Lord.'
Those in the 70t week do not get Raptured to Heaven, Jesus reveals this unto us in TWO WAYS. The 5th Seal and in Rev. 20:4. Jesus SPECIFICALLY STATES that those under the Altar at the 5th Seal will not gain vengeance until ALL of their brothers have been killed in LIKE MANNER as they have [by the Anti-Christ over his 42-month rule].
Those martyrs under the altar at the 5th seal, will be those who will have been killed during the first 3 1/2 years of that seven year period. The church will have already been gather to the Lord prior to the 1st seal being opened, which initiates God's wrath. Their brothers who are killed in like manner will be those saints who die during the last 3 1/2 years by order of the beast. These are the same ones who are mentioned in Rev.13:7 of whom the beast makes war against and conquers for 42 months, which is that last 3 1/2 years of that last seven year period. They are also those who John sees being resurrected in Rev.20:4-6 who will not have worshiped the beast, his image nor received his mark.
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