What is the Tribulation?

Most of us have heard the term or the concept of ‘tribulation.’ And when we hear that word we ordinarily think of hardship and discomforting times. Historically there have been many times of hardship and struggle for personal survival; often from warfare, famine, and pestilence. Those tragedies of the past ordinarily resulted from natural disasters or from unplanned events such as warfare. Never in history, however, have these periods of tribulation and hardship been forecast and prophesied centuries before they occurred. This new tribulation, the one prophesied in the Bible, is one that takes a different approach. It’s something that will happen as a result of purposeful evil from Satan, not from some unusual but normal event.

This tribulation period will result from a direct action by an Islamic nation to destroy Israel. This attack, both nuclear and conventional, will create such havoc on sea lanes and other transportation sources that a great shortage of supplies, produce, and products will result. Although Revelation speaks of ships and the ocean, this was written before Apostle John could even imagine such things as trucks and highways. To John, these transportation vehicles were all ‘ships at sea.’ The new and sudden attack on Israel, probably by Iran, will cease world trade to cross-feed many necessary items. And there are many examples. The overview is suggested in Revelation 18, Verse 11:

“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.” It continues in Verses 14-18:

“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to naught. And every ship master, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off. And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying What city is like unto this great city!”

This great city written of here is that great Babylon. In Revelation, Babylon represents the world religion of Islam. Likely, the two colors identified in the paragraph above, purple and scarlet, represent the wealth source of Islam, which is oil. Those two colors are associated with the color amber. Amber is the natural color of oil. When John wrote Revelation, he had no idea what to call oil. He saw only the colors of the substance. Therefore, this writing would suggest that oil would not flow onto the world markets during this time of major battles in the Middle East. The tribulation will result from the lack of production and shipping produce and products on the world market. This book describes and explains the consequences – the tribulation that follows.