The last three and a half years will be for the Lord, on the positive side, to bring in His eternal kingdom and the eternal righteousness (Rev. 11:15; Dan. 9:24). When the Lord returns and the age is consummated, there will be no more unrighteousness. The earth today has really been corrupted. There is no present remedy to its unrighteous and evil situation. Eventually, however, the Lord will sweep away all the evil persons and things into the lake of fire. Then there will be the eternal kingdom of Christ with His righteousness, which is the righteousness of the ages, the eternal righteousness.
According to the Lord's promise to the overcomers in Revelation 3:10—that the overcomers will be kept out of the hour of trial which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth—the rapture of the overcomers, both the man-child in Revelation 12 and the firstfruit in Revelation 14, must be before the sixth seal, the supernatural calamities on the earth and on the heavens (Rev. 6:12-17). After further study, I believe that it is not reasonable to believe that the Lord would leave His overcomers to pass through the supernatural calamities of the sixth seal. Furthermore, according to Joel 2:30-31, there will not be much difference in time between the sixth seal and the first five trumpets (Rev. 9:1-11). Joel 2:30-31 firstly has the "blood" of the first and second trumpets, the "fire" of the first, second, and third trumpets (Rev. 8:7-10), the "smoke" of the fifth trumpet (Rev. 9:1-3), and then the "sun" and "moon" of the sixth seal (Rev. 6:12). Revelation 9:4 compared with 7:3 indicates that the fifth trumpet is very close to the sixth seal. The first five trumpets are a direct continuation of the sixth seal. Therefore, the sixth seal is the initiation of the great tribulation and should be considered as a part of "the hour of trial." The overcomers will be raptured before the sixth seal.
The initiation of the great tribulation, as the supernatural calamities that take place in the sixth seal, may occur immediately before the three and a half years or just at the beginning of the three and a half years.
One hundred forty-four thousand of God's chosen Israelites will be sealed before the opening of the seventh seal, to preserve them from the plagues of the seven trumpets (Rev. 7:1-8; 9:4b). God is continually taking care of Israel in spite of their present unbelief. In the restoration of the nation of Israel, which began in 1948, the Jews returned to their fathers' land in unbelief. They will become as sinful as "Sodom" (cf. Isa. 1:9-10; 3:9; Jer. 23:14) and as worldly as "Egypt" (Rev. 11:8; cf. Ezek. 23:3, 8, 19, 27) until the return of Christ, their Messiah, when "all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26). Before the opening of the seventh seal, God will seal all the Israelites whom He intends to preserve.