Revelation 6:17

This "great day of their wrath" is the Tribulation, Daniel’s seventieth week (cf. Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:1; Joel 2:2; Matthew 24:21). These people will not turn to God in repentance but from Him in terror (cf. Isaiah 2:19; Isaiah 2:21; Hosea 10:8; Luke 23:30). By the end of the sixth seal judgment, they will know that what they are experiencing is the outpouring of His wrath. This is the first part of the judgment phase of the day of the Lord (cf. Joel 2:11; Joel 2:30-31; Isaiah 2:10-11; Isaiah 2:19-21; Isaiah 13:8-13; Isaiah 26:17-19; Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 34:8; Isaiah 66:7-9; Jeremiah 30:6-8; Ezekiel 32:7-8; Hosea 10:8; Micah 4:9-10; Matthew 24:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). The day of the Lord includes Daniel’s seventieth week (seven years) of judgment, Christ’s return to the earth, and His 1,000 year reign on the earth. Some have sought to limit the day of the Lord to Armageddon only. [Note: E.g., Gundry, pp. 91-92.] But this view fails to take all the day of the Lord data in Scripture into account.

The Tribulation will be a distinct judgment of God unique from other times of distress that the earth has ever experienced (Jeremiah 30:7). It will be worldwide and severe. Furthermore everyone will not only know that it is a divine judgment, but they will act like it by seeking death to hide from God, not just from these calamities. The judgments of the sixth seal appear to be a foreshadowing of the similar but even greater judgments that will come at the end of the Tribulation, just before Jesus Christ returns to the earth (cf. Revelation 16:17-21; Matthew 24:21).

"The cosmic disturbances immediately before the beginning of the Joel 3 Day of the Lord and the Second Coming of Christ immediately after the Great Tribulation are not the same as those of the sixth seal. The cosmic disturbances immediately before the beginning of the Joel 3 Day of the Lord and the Second Coming of Christ will occur at the end of the 70th week, but those of the sixth seal will occur and end considerably before then." [Note: Showers, p. 70.]

Other cosmic disturbances appear in the Great Tribulation before the one described in Joel 3 occurs, namely, those associated with the fourth and fifth trumpets and the sixth bowl (Revelation 8:12; Revelation 9:1-11; Revelation 16:12-16). Joel 3 does not refer to a cosmic disturbance before the Tribulation begins.

Postmillennialists and amillennialists interpret the revelation of tribulation in chapters 6-18 as a symbolic description of various troubles that have come and will come on believers before Jesus Christ’s second coming. [Note: See David Chilton, Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion; idem,The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation; and David S. Clark, The Message from Patmos: A Postmillennial Commentary on the Book of Revelation, for postmillennial views. William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors, is one of the most carefully argued amillennial commentaries, as is Beale’s. Hailey is also clear, while Herman Hoeksema’s Behold, He Cometh! is comprehensive.] They do not believe the Tribulation will be a specific seven-year period of the unique outpouring of God’s wrath yet future.

Posttribulationists believe the church will be on earth during the Tribulation. Among premillennialists there are pretribulationists (those who believe that the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation) and posttribulationists (those who believe that the Rapture will occur at the end of the Tribulation, immediately before or concurrent with the Second Coming). Gundry, a posttribulationist, held that sufferings Christians experience during the Tribulation will not come as a result of God’s penal judgments but will be persecutions that arise "from other quarters." [Note: Gundry, p. 51.] He viewed the martyrs of this period as Christians (believers living between the day of Pentecost and the Rapture) rather than as tribulation saints.

Marvin Rosenthal argued, correctly I believe, that the first four seals describe what Jesus called "the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:8). [Note: Marvin Rosenthal, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church. See Robert Van Kampen, The Sign, for a similar view.] He equated this period with the first half of Daniel’s seventieth week (i.e., three and one-half years, or 42 months). However, he wrote, incorrectly I believe, that the fifth and sixth seals picture "the Great Tribulation" (Matthew 24:21), which he limited to the following 21 months, not the whole second half of Daniel’s seventieth week. He further argued, also incorrectly, that the seventh seal begins "the day of the Lord" (Joel 2:1-2), which will only be the final quarter of Daniel’s seventieth week, namely, the remaining 21 months. He placed the Rapture at the beginning of the day of the Lord, which he believed would be the only period of wrath poured out. Thus since the Rapture will occur before it, according to his scheme, we can expect a "Pre-wrath Rapture." [Note: For refutations of Rosenthal’s view, see Paul S. Karleen, The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church-Is it Biblical?; Gerald B. Stanton, "A Review of The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church," Bibliotheca Sacra 148:589 (January-March 1991):90-111; John A. McLean, "Another Look at Rosenthal’s ’Pre-Wrath Rapture’," Bibliotheca Sacra 148:592 (October-December 1991):387-98; and Renald E. Showers, The Pre-Wrath Rapture View: An Examination and Critique.]