Text:    Revelation 11:1-3

Sermon in a prayer:  The Bible appears to teach that our present phase of history will end with a literal seven year period of worldwide difficulty and turmoil.

Introduction:  "Inconvenient" truths                  

Two "inconvenient" biblical truths—

#1  Revelation appears to teach that our present phase of history will end with two consecutive periods of 3 1/2 years.

42 months—Revelation 11:2                                                                                                1260 days—Revelation 11:3; 12:6                                                                                             3 ½ years—Revelation 12:14

#2  Daniel gives the detailed framework for this seven year period—Daniel 9:25-27, Nehemiah 2:1 (April, 445 BC).

25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.

26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.  (NIV)