Summary of the chronology
The seals introduce and the trumpets address the time of the great tribulation. This 3 1/2 year period of time begins when the second seal is broken (6:3), "the abomination of desolation is set-up," and ends when "destruction...is poured out on the one who makes desolate" (Dan. 12:11, 9:27 cf. Rev. 19:20). Chapters 11, 12, and 13 provide perspective and supply details important to the preceding narrative of the seals and trumpets (chap. 6-9). Chapters 14 through 19 cover the period of the seventh trumpet (third "woe," i.e. the "bowls of wrath"). This period of the seventh trumpet is relatively short and accounts for the slight difference between 1,260 days (end of the sixth trumpet events, Rev. 11:3) and 1,335 days (destruction of the abominable one, coming of the Lord, Dan. 12:12). (See Figure 3, Chronology of the Book of Revelation.)
The specific 3 1/2 year career of the beast begins when he is "set up" as the "abomination of desolation" and abolishes the "continuity" (i.e. makes "alterations in times and in law," Dan. 12:11, 11:31, 8:13 cf. Dan. 7:25). This can only happen after the saints are slaughtered (second seal) and before the first trumpet. The Chronology of Revelation The chronology of Revelation is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the book to understand. This is not because of a lack of internal keys, but because of eschatological prejudices and external hypotheses often carried by the reader to the text. In other words, difficulty arises when readers attempt to conform the text to a pre-decided scheme.
This is especially apparent today as readers and commentators who, for example, subscribe to a seven-year tribulation period, try to understand and comment on the book. But confusion about the chronology based on a seven-year tribulation is unnecessary because it is not based on Biblical text.
Jesus prepared his disciples to understand the chronology of end-times when He pointed to the abomination spoken of by Daniel; but sadly, His information has been ignored. A seven-year tribulation period is now commonly assumed to be factual, and some modern day scholars tell church members to look for a shopping list of events that neither Jesus, His apostles, nor early church fathers ever pointed to.
The seven-year tribulation belief is universally based on a single passage of the Old Testament, Daniel 9:27, which details the seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy. Ironically, Daniel never mentions a seven-year tribulation, but he does discuss the length of the great tribulation. Both Daniel and John faithfully and repeatedly explain that the great tribulation will be 3 1/2 years in length (Dan. 7:25; 8:14; 9:27; 12:7,11,12; Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14; 13:5). Daniel 9:27 does not point to a seven-year tribulation, but does portray the last half of the seventieth week in terms that suggest tribulation.
Daniel 9:27:
27 “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
It seems apparent that tribulation begins "in the middle of the week" and not before.
In Revelation 10, 11, 12, and 13, the prejudice of a seven-year tribulation hypothesis is immediately damaging to any understanding of the chronology of the book of Revelation. Instead of understanding these chapters as explaining different aspects of the 3 1/2 year period covered by the seals and six trumpets, readers vainly attempt to draw a time-line that accounts for John's repeated reference to 3 1/2 years, all the while wondering why John makes no reference to a seven-year tribulation. (See Chapter 2, The Seventy Weeks.)