Intro to the End Times is a series walking through some of the key themes of the story of Jesus’ return from a historic premillennial perspective, with special focus on knowing the heart of Jesus as we partner with God through the most dramatic chapter of human history.
As we discussed in an earlier post, the end times are good and bad all at once. Similarly, the characters in play represent both heroes and antagonists. Some of these might be familiar to you, but others you might not have considered before.
Good Guys
Of course Jesus is our central Good Guy, and He uses many others to accomplish His purposes in partnership with Him.
1. God the Father
The Father is the one ultimately running the show, together with the Son and the Spirit. At the time of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus said that no one knew the timing of the last days except the Father only (Mt. 24:36). The end times belong to God the Father; they are His end times and all the purposes of His heart will be accomplished during the unfolding of the judgment and redemption that will mark those days.
2. Jesus (the Bridegroom, King, Judge, Lamb, etc)
Jesus is the one destined to be at center stage forever when He comes. He is coming back to judge the nations, marry His bride, and rule as king forever. (In a recent post, we talked about Jesus in these three roles, as bridegroom, king, and judge.)
3. The Holy Spirit
The ministry of the Holy Spirit will be more active than ever during the end times as He fulfills every prophecy written about the last generation. The Joel 2:28-32 outpouring will finally occur in fullness, and the entire church will walk in unprecedented power, fully submitted and in agreement with God. The Holy Spirit will do the work in our hearts to bring us into full love and maturity, so we can be the equally yoked “bride in white” of Revelation 19:7-8.
4. Angels of God
Angels appear many times in Revelation and other end times passages. They are servants of God who do His bidding on the earth and in the spiritual realm, often protecting and supporting His people. In the end time drama, there are specific angels with specific assignments to accomplish. (In fact, the word “angel” appears 79 times in the book of Revelation!)
5. Prayer Movement
Before Jesus comes back, the understanding and expression of Christianity will shift to center more around night and day prayer and worship than at any time in history. We’re already seeing many expressions of this on the earth today:
- Praying churches – Congregations that prioritize prayer as a primary ministry, running multiple hours of prayer daily (Example: Upper Room)
- Houses of prayer – Prayer ministries that run as many consistent hours of prayer as possible, though they may or may not run 24/7 (Example: The Prayer Room)
- Prayer burns – Monthly, annual, or occasional night and day prayer “burns” for a set length of time (Example: Burn 24-7)
- Stadium prayer events – Large events rallying people to prayer and fasting for revival (Example: Contend and its predecessor TheCall)
- Prayer towers – Prayer rooms where one person at a time takes a turn praying in shifts 24/7 (Example: Indonesia prayer towers)
6. Two Witnesses
There will be two powerful prophets in the last days drama with a unique ministry (Zc. 4:1-14, Ma. 3:1, 4:5-6, Re. 11:1-12). These two men will prophetically proclaim the word of God and back it up with unprecedented power, such as fire coming out of their mouths to kill their enemies. For the three and a half years of the great tribulation they will perform miracles, prophesy in power, and encourage the church immensely. At the end of the three and a half years, God will allow the antichrist to kill them, but they will rise from the dead three and a half days later.
7. Prophets of God
Many will follow in the footsteps of the two witnesses by also operating in a great measure of authority. They will release power across the earth, perform similar miracles, and give similar prophetic words, to a lesser extent (Eph. 4:11-13; Re. 11:18, 16:6, 18:20-24). Also, God will out His Spirit on all His people, so that all saints will prophesy with a new measure of clarity and boldness (Jo. 2:28-32).
Bad Guys
Everything Satan does is a counterfeit of what God does. God has His Christ, and Satan has his antichrist. God has His Bride, and Satan has his harlot. God will have a great revival, and Satan will have a great falling away.
1. Satan:
Satan is described as the father of lies and a roaring lion and a crafty serpent (Jn. 8:44, 1 Pe. 5:8, Ge. 3:1). If you look at God’s ultimate end time objectives and think of Satan aiming for the opposite of every one, that’s a good start. Ultimately, he wants what he has always wanted: to deceive humanity into worshipping him as god. He will mostly do this through the antichrist and false prophet, along with the Harlot Babylon. He behaves like an animal backed into a corner, holding nothing back and lashing out “because he knows that his time is short.” (Re. 12:12) At the same time, he is arrogant past all rationality in attempting to thwart God’s purposes.
2. Harlot Babylon:
Babylon is one of the largest end times themes in scripture (check out especially Re. 17-18 and Je. 50-51). The Harlot Babylon will be a worldwide culture of every kind of wickedness that also has tangible systemic realities affecting politics, economics, religion, etc. The harlot system will “soften up” the world to receive the antichrist.
3. Antichrist:
The antichrist will be Satan’s main instrument during the end times. This man will rise to power and deceive the earth. He will sign a seven-year peace treaty with Israel and the surrounding nations which begins the seven-year tribulation, then in the middle of the seven years he will break the treaty and declare himself to be God and go on a killing spree against all who oppose him. This event is called the “abomination of desolation” (Da. 9:27). (Da. 7:7-25, 8:23-25, 9:26-27, 11:31-45; Mt. 24:15-24; 2Th. 2:1-12; Re. 13:1-8, 11:7-10)
4. The False Prophet:
The antichrist is gonna need a right hand man. His job is to deceive the world and direct them to worship the antichrist. He will speak persuasively and have great demonic power. He will be the one administrating the antichrist religion, including the image of the antichrist that the entire world will be commanded to worship. (Re. 13:11-17, 16:13, 19:20, 20:10)
5. Other False Prophets:
Just like there will be many of God’s prophets following in the footsteps of the two witnessed, there will be many other false prophets following in the footsteps of the antichrist’s chief false prophet. They will operate in demonic authority and power across the earth (Dt. 13:1-5; Isa. 44:24-27; Je. 50:36; Zc. 13:1-6; Mt. 7:15-23, 24:11, 24; Mk. 13:22; 2Pe. 2:1; 1Jn. 4:1). These prophets will perform false signs and wonders that will also lead many people astray (Re. 13:12, 13, 14, 15, 16:14, 17:8).
6. Wicked Men:
Evil will reach its fullness in the last generation. People will embrace every sort of wickedness imaginable, including slavery, murder, witchcraft, theft, sexual immorally, brutality, abuse, and betrayal (Re. 18:13, 9:21; 2Ti. 3:2-3; Mt. 10:21).
Distinguishing Light and Darkness
The final generation, especially the final three and a half years, will be the most intense the earth has ever experienced. As God is separating light from darkness, the wheat and the tares are growing up together (Mt. 13:24-30). In the final chapter, there will be no more grey area; the cast of characters on the end time stage will either be fully aligned with God or fully aligned with the enemy.
At the same time, I don’t want to say that it will be easy to tell the difference; the enemy’s camp will be really deceptive and convincing. That’s why it’s so crucial to get grounded in the Word ahead of time so that we can distinguish truth from lies. As Daniel says, “He shall seduce with flattery… but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand.” (Da. 11:32-33) Let’s be those who know our God and are equipped with wisdom to make many understand the truth!
