Steve McReynolds
When asked which signs would indicate His return, Jesus said,
15″So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel�let the reader understand� 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. 18Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 19How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now�and never to be equaled again. 22If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. (Matt. 24:15-22, NIV).
Matthew emphasizes the Lord�s return in the context of an unexampled time of �great distress,� which is initiated by ��the abomination that causes desolation.� This is almost universally understood as an attempt by someone to demand worship of himself rather than of God in the temple.
Immediately after the great distress Jesus will return, but no one can know exactly when:
29″Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 30”At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other�36″No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matt. 24:29-31, 36, NIV).
Please refer to the figure below for clarification:
The Problem of a 3-1/2 Year-Long Great Distress
An apparent contradiction arises, however, which all views attempt to reconcile: On the one hand, Jesus said His return will be immediately at the end of the great distress. Some have concluded that the distress lasts precisely 3-1/2 years. Some texts appear to say it lasts for 42 months, or 1,260 days, which equates to 3-1/2 years in prophetic years (Rev. 11:2-3; 12:6). However, Jesus also said His return would be at a time at which �no one knows the day or hour,� thus, it cannot be 3-1/2 years from the abomination that causes desolation, or one could tell the exact day and hour. Thus, the problem:
a. Jesus� return is after the great distress, which is apparently 3-1/2 years.
b. Jesus� return is after the great distress, at an unknown time.
So, which is it? The solution may lie in a peculiar phrase used in Daniel and Revelation. Although some texts seem to assign the equivalent of 3-1/2 years in either days or months, other texts seem to state that the time of great tribulation will last for �a time, times, and a half a time� (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 12:14). Confident that point �a� above must be true�that the great distress lasts for 3-1/2 years�many conclude that �a time, times, and a half a time� is precisely 3-1/2 years. However, this assumption is problematic for several reasons.
First, it ignores the Lord�s explicit statement that �If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.� Second, �it ignores �b� above, whereby Jesus� return must be at an unknown hour, and yet immediately follow the great distress. Third, the Greek word kairos used in Revelation 12:14 does not mean any specific length of time, per se.
So, how are points �a� and �b� reconciled?
A Possible Solution�The Pre-Wrath Rapture Model
Others (John Calvin, John Goldingay, Theodor F.D. Kliefoth, Carl F. Keil, et. al.)(1) have proposed that �a time, times, and a half a time� does not represent 3-1/2 years. Rather, it indicates a period that would seem to go on without end, and then will suddenly be ended�a perfect paraphrase of how Jesus described His return in Matthew 24, by the way. It is as if 3-1/2 years was granted to Satan during the great distress, but then God decides to cut it shorter than 3-1/2 years after all. Incidentally, Jesus said of that time:
�For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now�and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened� (Matt. 24:21-22).
So, the solution appears to be that, what was originally intended to last 3-1/2 years is shortened to a lesser amount. How short? Only God knows�Jesus� exact point:
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father� (Matt. 24:36, NIV).
As for the length of the great distress in The Book of Daniel, Daniel himself was also told that he could not know its length,
5 �Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. 6 One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?” 7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.” 8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” 9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end� (Dan. 12:5-9, NIV).
The reader should not be discouraged that the length of the great distress cannot be known; Jesus did not know how long it was, and Daniel was not able to discover its length, either. Rather, we should be encouraged, because the fact that we cannot know the length further ensures that Scripture lines up with other Scripture. You cannot know how long it will last, so that you cannot know when Jesus will return. Problem solved.
(1) For instance, see John Goldingay, f.n. 1; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of Daniel, trans. By Thomas Myers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1948), 68; Carl F. Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949), 244; and Theodor F.D. Kleifoth, Das Buch Daniels (Schwerin: A.W. Sandmeyer, 1868), s.v. �Daniel 7:7,� cited in Keil, 244.
