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.
So What Actually Happens When?
Welcome to post #7 of Intro to the End Times! Maybe you were asking this question right off the bat when this series started, but it was important to get some fundamentals in place before we actually start talking timeline. So far we’ve discussed:
- Does God Want Us to Understand the End Times? – Called to Watch
- Why Should We Study the End Times? – Practical Benefits
- Where is the Story Going? – God’s Ultimate Objectives
- How Should We NOT Think About the End Times? – Dismantling Wrong Ideas
- What Are the Signs of the Times? – Things Jesus Said to Watch
- Are the End Times Good or Bad? – The Great and Terrible Day
Earlier in this series, I shared a video on my social media outlining the broad scope of the timeline. I encourage you to watch that video (enjoy the bloopers at the end as well!) and then dive into the rest of this post.
You may also appreciate this pdf download of the timeline of Revelation, as well as two timeline charts. Print them out, keep them in your Bible, look up the verses, and refer to them as needed.
I’ve never written out the timeline in blog form before, but I’ve taught it in internship classes many times, so I’m just going to invite you into my classroom and pretend that I’m standing at the whiteboard and you’re sitting at a table in front of me, leaning forward and asking questions.
What exactly does the timeline look like?
The bulk of the storyline takes place within a seven year timeline commonly called the Tribulation (Da. 9:27). This period is broken into halves, 3 1/2 years and 3 1/2 years, with the second half being more intense. This second 3 1/2 year period (also referred to as “1,260 days”, “forty-two months,” or “time, times, and half a time”, Da. 7:25, 12:7; 11:3, 12:6; Re. 11:2-3, 12:6, 13:5) is called the Great Tribulation (Mt. 24:9, 24:29; Re. 7:14). I’ll come back to these two halves in a minute.
Before these seven years, Jesus promised a period that He referred to as the birth pains that I spent an entire post on earlier (Mt. 24:8, Mk. 13:8). This is an escalating period of global crisis featuring deception and earthquakes and wars (oh my).
The purpose of the birth pains is twofold: 1) to wake the church up to prepare for the things to come, and 2) to create a global context of crisis into which the antichrist can appear as a hero.
Okay, now we’re talking. When does the antichrist show up?
The antichrist becomes obvious at this point here (I point to the board) when the seven years start. Before that, he will probably be a minor political player who isn’t well known on the world stage (Da. 7:8). He will rise to popularity seemingly overnight. Daniel says that he will “make a strong covenant with many” that somehow involves the temple in Jerusalem (Da. 9:27, Re.11:1-2). It seems likely that this will be some sort of peace treaty between Israel and the Islamic nations that will appear to be a brilliant compromise that allows Israel to rebuild their temple and institute the traditional sacrifices. This moment is what kicks off the countdown.
The treaty, which is supposed to last for seven years, brings a significant level of world peace. The world has been in utter chaos because of the birth pains, and suddenly this guy shows up as the world leader they’ve been wishing for. He gains more and more prominence, and at this point he just seems like a brilliant, likable, trustworthy guy.
What does the world look like at this time?
For three and a half years, the world is in a period of peace and safety– but it’s a false peace and safety (1 Th. 5:2-3)! It’s a surface illusion that will soon be broken. Plenty of wickedness is still happening and increasing.
This is a period that scripture describes as the time of the Harlot Babylon. The Harlot Babylon is a global system and culture with impact in every area of life- political, economic, religious, entertainment, etc. The world is becoming united with common loyalty to this Harlot system; it’s a tangible political/economic system based in the literal revived city of Babylon, but it’s also a culture that pervades the way people behave everywhere (Re. 17-18).
The message during this period is “everything goes, do whatever you want, there are no limits or rules to hold you down!” If you know the Hunger Games series, you might imagine the lavish prosperity of the Capitol– but under the surface it’s rotten to the core.
So is this a time of peace even for the church? Or are we getting persecuted?
Many even in the church will be swayed by the Harlot’s empty promises (Mt. 24:12), but those who are faithful to Jesus are for sure getting persecuted (Mt. 24:9, Re. 17:6). We’re speaking up for righteousness in the midst of an increasingly dark society, we’re proclaiming that Jesus is the only way while the world is saying anything goes– and worst of all, we’re pointing at the world’s favorite good guy and calling him a bad guy. That’s not going to go over well. Scripture promises that there will be persecution and martyrdom during this time– but it’s only going to get worse.
So far this is still only the first three and a half years. The shift happens at the midway point, when the second three and a half years begin. At that point, the antichrist breaks the treaty which allowed the Jews to run their temple in the traditional way, and marches into the temple and basically says, “Just kidding! I’m not here for peace; I’m going to conquer the world– and also I’m God; worship me.” This is the moment scripture calls the abomination of desolation (Da. 9:27, 11:31, 12:11; Mt. 24:15-22; 2Th. 2:3-4).
This begins the second three and half years. when the judgments of Revelation really start and the seven seals begin to happen. The seals start with the antichrist beginning to violently conquer the world and as a result multiple types of crisis continue to stack up– economic collapse, mass death, martyrdom, etc (Re. 6).
So when does Jesus come back?
At the seventh trumpet (Mt. 24:31; 1Co. 15:52; 1Th. 4:16; Re. 10:7, 11:15).
Like labor pains, each set of judgments comes harder and faster than the last. After the seals, there are seven trumpets, much more intense than the seals, and in a more compressed timeframe. The seven trumpets (Re. 8:6-9:20) are strikingly more supernatural than the seals, as we see blood, fire, hail, and demon locusts come into play.
At long last, at the seventh and final trumpet, the Son of Man that Daniel saw appears breaking through the clouds, descending like He ascended, riding a white horse, with fire in His eyes and an army of resurrected saints following Him on white horses (Da. 7:13-14, Ac. 1:11, Re. 11:11-16).
Which leads me to the question of resurrection/rapture. When Jesus appears, two things happen in very short order: 1) saints who have died are resurrected into their new eternal bodies, and 2) saints left alive on earth are caught up to meet Him in the clouds and given their new eternal bodies (1Th. 4:13-17, also check out the Easter post I wrote about the resurrection of the saints). These two groups unite and join Jesus to fight against the antichrist and his armies. Thus begins the final climactic military campaign of the age.
What happens after the seventh trumpet?
After the seven seals and seven trumpets come the seven bowls of wrath (Re. 16). These are the worst of the worst judgments, and as the trumpets were faster and harder than the seals, the bowls are faster and harder still (probably a month based on comparing Da. 12:11 to other passages). They closely resemble the plagues of the Exodus, including sores, water turning to blood, fierce heat, and darkness. This time, however, Jesus is on earth while the bowls are released, and everyone who got saved pre-seventh trumpet (including you and me!) have indestructible resurrected bodies. The bowls can’t touch us even a little bit.
As the bowls are being released, Jesus is marching across the middle east with His army of saints, making His way toward Jerusalem to confront the antichrist and establish His rule. Along the way, He’s setting captives free and releasing Jews from the antichrist’s concentration camps (Isa. 61:1-3, Jer. 30:10, Ez. 34:12, Zeph. 3:19-20). I like to imagine this like Aslan’s procession through Narnia in Prince Caspian, bringing healing and freedom wherever He goes.
Imagine being a Jewish person during this time. Many Jews will get saved in the great revival, and many will give themselves over to the antichrist, but imagine being one who manages to hold out from both decisions. All throughout the antichrist’s regime you’ve known better than to worship him, and you’ve experienced his fury and genocidal antisemitism far worse than Hitler, but you also don’t trust what the Christians say about Jesus, because you’ve been taught that Jesus is the Gentiles’ false Messiah and Jews have nothing to do with Him.
And yet you know the prophecies of the Messiah coming to destroy Israel’s enemies and establish the Kingdom of God, and you know what Daniel says about the Son of Man appearing in the sky, and just when it seems that things are at their darkest– THERE HE IS, the Messiah at last, breaking through the clouds in all His majesty! The Day of the Lord is here, HE’S here, doing all of the things the Messiah was prophesied to do– except (your heart sinks in dread) He’s Yeshua of Nazareth after all. He’s the one we rejected and killed. The Christians were right.
This is the time that all remaining Jews alive on earth are saved all at once (Ro. 11:26). A terrible mourning seizes them as God pours out the grace for repentance (Zec. 12:10), and finally, FINALLY, as Jesus comes to Jerusalem once again, they recognize who He is and say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord (Mt. 23:39).”
What happens when Jesus gets to Jerusalem?
Okay. At the same time all this is going on, the antichrist is boiling mad and rallies his armies to meet Jesus at Jerusalem (Re. 16:13-14; 19:19). This battle of Jerusalem is the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 2, the kings of the nations rebelling against the leadership of God. I imagine that the antichrist describes Jesus as a usurper, come down from the sky to take the kingdom that’s rightfully theirs. “Sure, He’s the Son of God, but why should that give Him the right? We can take Him!”
And so, in the utter height of human arrogance, the antichrist and His armies literally prepare to go to war against Jesus in the flesh.
Let’s just say, it doesn’t go so well for them.
It’s a bloody battle but easily won, and Jesus fully and finally defeats the antichrist and throws him in the fiery pit. He also locks up Satan in some sort of holding chamber for a thousand years, and then begins the clean-up process of restoring the earth and instituting His thousand year reign (Re. 19:11-20:3). This is what we call the Millennium.
The Millennium itself and what happens after those thousand years is quite a story too, but we’ll leave it there for today (read ahead in Re. 20-21 if you want!).
Class dismissed.
