When is the tribulation?

Many folks sit around waiting for a special period of 7 terrible years. Funny, Revelation does not mention 7 years even 1 time.

This question is fairly frequent. When, I’m often asked, is the tribulation?

There are several places on the charts were 7 year periods are prominent to the story. Knowing which should draw our attention is unclear. This period either follows the pattern of the Northern Kingdom’s 2550 year period of tribulation, which compressed begins January 2, 2002 or it follows the Southern Kingdom’s historical tribulation period which when mapped through day-for-a-year prophecy begins in January, 2003.

Most of the end-times events recorded in the Bible land on other specific dates and I do not expect either of these points to be particularly prominent.

Update: The Tribulation began with the American invasion of Baghdad in May of 2003. This was the "going down to Babylon" that was the prophetic story expected at the start of the Tribulation. (It is what happened in the historical edition, and time is repeating again.)

Update 2: The June 2006 war between Israel and the various groups in southern Lebanon marked the middle of the tribulation. This was also the start of several other prophetic series...