Why do some feel the great invasion from the North has to take place before the Tribulation begins?
Some place the northern invasion before the Tribulation because of a seven-year element. They point to Ezekiel 39, where after this great destruction, verse 12 speaks of seven months, and they connect that aftermath to the seven-year Tribulation. This is the main argument for that pre-Tribulation timing.
Les explains that he returned to Ezekiel because he did not want to skip this point. He identifies it as the main argument of those who feel the great invasion from the North must take place before the Tribulation begins, because of a seven-year element. In Ezekiel 39, after the great destruction, verse 9 describes burning weapons. Ezekiel wrote in the language of his day, but in our present time he would have said artillery, tanks, trucks, armored personnel carriers, and weapons of war. They spoil those who spoiled them and rob those who robbed them. God gives Gog a place of graves, and verse 12 says seven months shall the... The supplied context ends there.
And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: