What part of Revelation will be fulfilled in the tribulation?

A:

The 'Tribulation' is a nineteenth-century theological invention of John Nelson Darby, a British evangelical preacher and founder of the Plymouth Brethren, and is not prophesied or even mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

Barbara R. Rossing (The Rapture Exposed) says that the 'Tribulation' has its origins in 1830, when fifteen-year-old Margaret MacDonald attended a healing service, where she was said to have seen a vision of a two-stage return of Jesus Christ. The story of her vision was adopted and amplified by John Nelson Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren. The belief that Jesus will come again was not new, and Christians have always taught that Jesus will return to earth and that believers should live in anticipation of his second coming. Darby's new teaching was that Christ would return twice. The first return would be in secret, to "Rapture" his church out of the world and up to heaven, before the Tribulation. Christ would return a second time after seven years of global tribulation for non-believers, to establish a Jerusalem-based kingdom on earth.

Revelation does use the Word 'tribulation', but always in the sense of affliction and hardships, and never in the sense that Darby proposed. Revelation also frequently uses

the number seven, but never mentions a future seven-year period of tribulation. Like the Rapture, the timetable of a seven-year period of tribulation is a recent development that dates back only to Darby's nineteenth-century system. It does not actually fulfil anything in the Book of Revelation.

Broadly, The Revelation to John teaches us that God will send a great tribulation on the earth (8:1-9:21); God's message will be heard and His kingdom revealed (10:1-11:19); Satan's war against Christ will fail (12:1-13:18); Christ will come to claim faithful believers but will execute vengeance on unbelievers (ch. 14); the last judgment will reveal God's justice (ch. 15-16); earthly powers who support the antichrist face God's judgment (17:1-19:5); Christ's coming will bring in a new heaven and a new earth (19:6-22:21).