The Rosetta Principle:

On a trip to London, I visited the British Museum where the Rosetta Stone is exhibited. While in Egypt, Napoleon's engineers discovered a curious stele (a monument with writings on it) which bore inscriptions in three languages. One of these languages was the enigmatic Egyptian hieroglyphic, but the others were ancient Greek and Demotic. Using the known Koine Greek language, the mysterious ancient language of the Pharaohs was deciphered. This serves as an object lesson for prophetic scriptural interpretation: Apply the known to understand the unknown, use the transparent to observe the opaque, employ the obvious to unveil the mysterious.

Finding the Hook:

Applying the Rosetta principle of deduction to the Book of Revelation, there must be logical events which stand out and, when correlated, comprise a cohesive framework for interpretation, i.e. we should find the same thing being said in different passages which serve as a common point for interpretation - an interpretational hook. Indeed, one of the most obvious occurrences in the entire vision is the consistent mention of a great earthquake. The events which accompany the great earthquake in each of the various judgments: seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls; indicate the occurrence of a great battle between forces from the East and the rest of the world in the valley of Har Megiddo (rendered Armageddon in English).

Immediately following the great earthquake, all three serial judgments end with the ultimate divine punctuation: silence in heaven just before His return, His coming, and a resounding "It is done" (at the cross Jesus yelled "it is finished" but at the end, all heaven declares the finale). All of these events comprise what is theologically known as the "Parousia", a Greek term which simply means Christ's visible and physical appearing (see Mat. 24:27 "the coming"). The Parousia is co-temporary with Armageddon and is the Point C of the prophetic ABCs. Point C occurs as the ending point of the seven-year Tribulation period. After points A-B-C, the prophetic Word discusses the one-thousand-year millennial reign of Christ beginning at Point D. Then finally, Point E begins with the Final Battle of "Gog and Magog" and the Great White Throne Judgment (which launches us into an Eternity with a New Earth and New Heavens). We have to distinguish between tribulation with a small "t", which has been occurring for centuries, and Tribulation with a capital "T" which is a unique time frame that only occurs at the end of secular human history.

To put this into a timeline: 

The beginning of the seven-year Tribulation is Point A

 The middle of the Tribulation is Point B

The grand finale is Point C

Millennial Reign is Point D

The Battle of Gog and Magog & -- Great White Throne Judgement is Point E