In Revelation the Church of Philadelphia is told that it shall have tribulation for 10 days and that an open door is set before it. If days mean years they would have tribulation for 10 years before the open door escape.
 
Sept. 11, 2001 seemed to be a turning point toward a period of increased tribulation. Wars and rumors of wars and natural disasters seemed to increase after that event and the world seemed thrust into a time of tribulation that hints at the much worse 7 year Tribulation period prophesied in scripture. Could 9/11/2001 have been the beginning of those things forecast to occur in the Tribulation period?The times since then do seem to be a steadily escalating sample of the final 7 year period, with people lately talking about the apocalypse due to what is going on. Fairly recently a Newsweek cover mentioned the apocalypse due to Japan and asked what's next? After the cover more apocalyptic-like events have occurred with the twister outbreak and the horrific flooding in the MidWest. Indeed the twister outbreak may break all records and we may be looking at a 500 year flood in the MidWest. In September there may be a PA state declared and who knows what other mega-disasters will occur before then with Al-Qaeda vowing revenge and possibly having some kind of nuclear device in reserve to use in the event of Bin Laden's demise.