Matthew 24 is wonderful in that it provides us with the order of the things to come. This Chapter begins with the disciples raising the question that all Christians should be asking themselves.

Matthew 24: 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

The next 25 verses provide details of the Tribulation period. Then in the 29th verse, Christ states:

Matthew 24: 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.'

…which denotes a period of time that lies between the Tribulation period and the Day of the LORD.

Matthew 24: 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. 31 And 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.

The prophet Joel confirms this:

Joel 2:31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.


The account of the two witnesses provides us with the duration of the this period in which “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood.“ Notice that there is a period of 3 ½ days (in which the two witnesses lay dead in the streets of Jerusalem) between the end of the 1260 days of the tribulation and the Day of the LORD ( when the two witnesses are resurrected). So the duration of when “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood” is 3 ½ days.

Now notice:

Revelation 6:12
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Conclusion: the sixth seal will be fulfilled during that 3 ½ day period which lies between the end of the Tribulation period and the Day of the LORD.

I believe that the seals, trumpets and vials are in order. If this is true, then the sixth and seventh seal, the trumpets and vials all take place after the Tribulation period.

In Yehoshua,
Guy Smith