What Is the Length of the Tribulation Period?

 A "time, times and half a time"(Daniel 7.25) which translates into 3 and a half years.      
But Christ said He would "SHORTEN the days" of the Tribulation(Matthew 24.22).      
So we can dispense with the socalled/nominal length, the "three and a half years."      
So why then do preachers, mindlessly continue to say "three and a half years"?      
How can they just ignore Christ's words to the contrary?      
Do they think Daniel 7.25 is equal in importance to Matthew 24.22 ?      
What Christ said trumps everything else, in my book.      
     
Perhaps these "blind guides" cling to "three and a half years"      
Because they have nothing to replace it with, no specific amount of time,      
That they can say for sure is the length of the Tribulation.      
So let me offer "5 months"(Revelation 9.5, 10) as the solution.      
     
REASONS WHY "5 MONTHS" FITS AS THE REAL LENGTH OF THE TRIBULATION:      
(1)it's shorter than the "three and a half years" given in Daniel 7.25).      
(2)it describes a time of occupation of conquered territory,      
Which is what the Tribulation Period is all about,.      
After the war of conquest is won, the killing ceases.      
That is what Revelation 9 speaks of - a time in which,      
"People want to die, but death flees from them."      
(3)"Five months" (Rev 9.5,10) matches the length of the siege      
of Jerusalem in 70 AD during the Roman-Jewish War.      
Christ puts that first century Trib TOGETHER with the EndTime Trib(Matthew 24.29).    
For we read "..after the Tribulation of those days [in 70 AD],    
the sun and moon will darken, the stars will fall"(Matthew 24.29).    
That last part = the start of the EndTime Tribulation      
for, evidently, mass destruction is occurring.    
It's implied by these ominous words,    
"He sends His angels to gather His Elect [saved souls]...    
From one end of heaven to the other' (Matthew 24.30-31),    
Meaning from horizon to the opposite horizon.    
Angels gather souls when? AT DEATH, of course(Luke 16.22).    
So the context of "the Rapture" in Matthew 24.30-31 is mass death.      
     
The two Tribulation Periods are put side by side for a reason,    
To instruct us - the latter is sort of a mirror image of the former.    
If so, then the latter Tribulation may in fact last for 5 months      
because THAT was the length of the former Tribulation..      
     
PS: Not only is there mass death at the Rapture,    
It is clearly the work of the Antichrist/the Beast.    
For we read that."That day [of the Rapture] cannot come      
except...the Man of Sin, the Son of Destruction be revealed"(2 Thessalonians 2.3)    
"The Son of Destruction" means THE DESTROYER,      
so we can paraphrase this verse like this,    
The Rapture comes as the Destroyer is revealed as such -    
presumably by the DESTRUCTION HE LAUNCHES.    
After all, he will "make war against the saints [the Christian nations]    
And will conquer them. [gaining ] power over every..nation"(Rev 13.7).    
So the mass death back in Mt 24.29-31 is the result      
of the use of WMDs, Weapons of Mass Destruction.