Just watched this video from Amir Tsarfati, an Israeli who likes to report on the latest political movements in and around Israel and connect them with the Biblical prophecies. In the video (see below) he is reporting that Israel has been hit by a rocket attack from Syria (after being hit by rockets from Gaza and Lebanon). As I’m watching this guy for a while, I believe he thinks this development will lead to the Ezekiel 38 confrontation.
As mentioned in the previous post, the end time beast is already active and working on destroying the economies, creating large scale wars and ultimately starting the WW3. The purpose of those is to create an environment where people will be tired of all the destruction and chaos and will welcome the one world government in order to have peace, security and comfort. And then, according to the prophecies, the Antichrist will rise up as the world dictator and will eventually demand everyone to worship him as their god (for more details please refer to other Bible prophecy articles on this site).
But in terms of the pre-tribulation wars that involve Israel there are actually two of them: Psalm 83 war and Ezekiel 38 war. Psalm 83 war is a scenario where Israel’s neighbours take a crafty counsel against Israel and her “hidden” ones (see Psalm 83:1-3) and want to wipe out Israel and “cut them off from being a nation” (see Psalm 83:4). So we see that this war is motivated by hatred towards Israel as a nation and her enemies are a confederacy of Edom, Ishmaelites, Moab, Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia, Tyre and Assyria (see Psalm 83:5-8), which represent the modern day regions of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Northern Iraq. In the aftermath of the Psalm 83 war Israel expands her borders by capturing territories from which she was attacked (see Jeremiah 48:2-4, Jeremiah 49:1-2, Jeremiah 49:7-11, Jeremiah 49:23-26).
The Ezekiel 38 war participants and their motivation are different. Their goal is to attack a nation that is dwelling safely in the land (see Ezekiel 38:10-11, 14) in order to take their goods (e.g. oil, natural gas, rare minerals) as spoil (see Ezekiel 38:12). The coalition that comes against Israel this time is Rosh, Meshech and Tubal (led by Gog their prince) together with Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, Togarmah and many people (see Ezekiel 38:1-6). These represent the modern day countries of Russia, Iran, Turkey, Ethiopia and Libya. The attack comes from the north (see Ezekiel 38:15, Joel 2:20) but God destroys them and gets all the glory (see Ezekiel 38:16,19- 23). This sparks the revival as Israelis remember that this was prophesied in the Bible and the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (see Ezekiel 38:17, Joel 2:20-29).
From the above, and specifically because Ezekiel 38 coalition comes against Israelis that dwell safely in the land, it looks reasonable that the Ezekiel 38 war will happen after the Psalm 83 war. It’s interesting to note that Psalm 83:3 mentions the “hidden” ones, so some Bible scholars have said that this refers to the raptured Church. Hence, if such interpretations are true, if what we are seeing now is the development of the Psalm 83 war, then the rapture may be just around the corner.
Nevertheless, I think the current developments are just devil’s attempts to speed up the unfolding of the Psalm 83 war. But, I think God will delay the unfolding, as the End Times Revival (which has started!) and the accompanying harvest is not yet in full swing.
So, get out of the corrupt, dead and lukewarm churches. Find a good Pentecostal church where the Word is preached and the Spirit is visibly present. Go out into streets and parks, use your Spirit-given gifts and preach the gospel so you can win souls for Jesus! I think we have but a short time…
I’ve heard a number of Christian leaders saying that the USA are already in the Third Great Awakening. Awakenings are usually connected with the increase of knowledge about God’s will, character, plans and purposes. The messy side of the same process (which is instigated by devil’s resistance) are turmoil and wars. The First Great Awakening provided the motivation for the American Revolution and the fight for the independence from the British Empire. The Second Great Awakening led to the American Civil War that ended the slavery.
So, what will the Third Great Awakening do? According to Andrew Wommack it will “turn the tide of socialism and the woke culture.” Assuming that devil will not so easily relinquish his tight grip on the various spheres of society and government, we can predict a difficult time ahead, a “time of Eagle’s trouble”.
But, what about the rest of the world? What about the awakening of the Body of Christ globally? If we look into the Book of Revelation we can see that the seven churches, laid out in the specific order that Jesus had addressed them, represent a prophetic outlook of the Church history. In other words, the order of the seven Revelation churches represent the development phases of the Christian religion, where only two types of churches got it right (the persecuted one and the faithful one). For a concise support of this view see Chuck Missler’s commentary here.
I personally believe that the Church history phases can be also aligned with the seven seals on the Revelation timeline (as shown on the Extended End Time Timeline below). If that is true than we can know the timeframes of the seals, which then supports the view that the trumpet judgements start in the 20th century and align with world wars as postulated by Irwin Baxter.
So, let’s examine the church history by looking into the Revelation churches:
This type of Church is laborious and patient but has forsaken the first love (see Revelation 2:2-4). She successfully fights the White horse rider, which is trying to corrupt the Word of God by spreading false doctrines and teachings. Canonisation of the Bible by the early Church leaders stopped devil’s attempts to produce falsified set of documents allegedly written by the apostles.
Persecution by Romans, starts 64 AD and ends 313 AD
Church of Smyrna (The Persecuted Church)
As the White horse rider was failing to stop Christianity, devil changed his tactics and sent the Red horse rider which took away the peace from the earth and caused people to kill each other (Revelation 6:4) . Satan used Jews to stir the Roman Empire against Christians (Revelation 2:9-10). The Church of Smyrna is a type of a poor and persecuted Church. They don’t think much of themselves, but in God’s eyes they are rich (Revelation 2:9). This is one of the only two churches that Jesus has nothing negative to say about.
State religion, starts 313 AD and ends with the advent of the Dark Ages
Church of Pergamos (The Compromising Church)
Persecution (the Red horse rider) could not stomp out the Church, so devil again changes the tactics and moves to marry the Church with the state. Automatically, she would divorce her only real lover – Jesus. The Black horse rider brings an easy life for the clergy under the protections of a state-sanctioned religion (i.e. they were exempt from certain taxes). However, this creates a lifestyle gap between the clergy and their flock. In other words, the Black horse rider brings famine and poverty for the lower classes (Revelation 6:6). The state-sanctioned Church starts compromising on the original Way and allows pagan practices and false doctrines to come in (Revelation 2:14-15).
Dark Ages and the rise of Islam (which was birthed in 610 AD)
The Black horse rider successfully disconnected Christianity from it’s Jewish roots and wrapped it into an observance of pagan festivals and deities. This removed the power of God’s Word from the Church and she became corrupt , idolatrous and blinded with traditions of men and doctrines of devils (Revelation 2:20,24). This fall from grace totally neutralised the spread of Christianity and enabled the raise of Islam (the Green horse rider). The purpose of Islam was to set the finite boundaries to a small Christian world and to keep it in check before eventually destroying it. Islam was able to conquer one quarter of the earth (Revelation 6:8). If it’s not yet clear, please note that the four horses in the Book of Revelation (aka “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”) are not the agents of the Almighty Creator God, but are sent by the devil, who is the god of this age (see 2 Corinthians 4:4).
Once we figure out that on the historical/prophetic timeline this type of Church represents the Catholic Church, it is easy to understand why Catholics are warned that Vatican is a great harlot named Babylon and is a dwelling place of demons and a prison for every unclean spirit (Revelation 18:2). Catholic Church has led kings away from God (Revelation 18:3) and so people should immediately come out of her in order not to share in her sins and suffer her punishment (Revelation 18:4). The key of connecting Babylon to Rome (Vatican, Catholic Church) is that Babylon is a powerful city that reigns over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18) and is built on top of seven hills (Revelation 17:9). Among all cities that claim to be built on top of seven hills, since the time of Jesus, there was none and there is still none as powerful as Rome/Vatican. Jesus says that this type of Church will go through the Great Tribulation (Revelation 2:22).
Starts with Reformation in 1517 AD and ends with the dawn of the 20th century. Includes the period of Renaissance
This type of Church has one problem, it thinks is alive but is dead. Her works are not godly and she could miss the Rapture (as Jesus will come upon her as a thief – see Revelation 3:1-3). The scripture tells us that Spirit gives life (John 6:63) so this Church is without Spirit, and so it is dead. It is easy to see why this type of Church thinks is alive though. It was birthed during the Reformation movement, when the truth of God’s Word was rediscovered and Christianity once again started spreading throughout the world. Many missionaries were martyred for their witnessing and their allegiance to God’s Word (Revelation 6:9-11).
However, this type of Church does not believe in spiritual gifts, such as speaking in tongues or divine healing (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-11). They teach that miracles have seized with the apostles. By declaring that speaking in tongues is from the devil, they are blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, which Jesus said will not be forgiven them (Matthew 12:22–32). Hence, it is understandable that those who persist in such blasphemies will be blotted out from the Book of Life (see Revelation 3:5).
This is the other type of Church (apart from the Persecuted Church) for which Jesus didn’t have any negative words. There is an open door set before her and no one can shut it (Revelation 3:8). She will successfully evangelise the Jews (as with the Spirit-empowered living she will provoke them to jealousy – see Romans 11:11) and will not go through the Great Tribulation (see Revelation 3:9-10). With the advent of Pentecostalism, the Church has discovered that God’s Word and His Power work together (i.e. Him confirming His Word with miracles, signs and wonders – Mark 16:20). This multiplied the speed at which Christianity is able to spread, and kicked it into the End Times speed.
As Jesus promised this type of Church (i.e. this type of a believer) not to go through the Great Tribulation (Revelation 3:10) the assumption shared by many is that the Rapture of the Church must be a Pre-trib event. For an interesting support of this view check this episode of Perry Stone’sManna-Fest.
Starts with the development of modern science and technology in the 20th century. Ends with the Great Tribulation and the Mark of the Beast.
Church of Laodicea (The Lukewarm Church)
Church of Laodicea is lukewarm, thinks it’s rich but in God’s eyes is wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Jesus is outside, knocking at her door (Revelation 3:16-20). This type of Church thinks she is rich, comfortable and don’t need anything (Revelation 3:17). She has tailored the Bible message to suit her audience and she likes to interpret the Bible in accordance to the latest social developments. For example, instead of celebrating the overturning of Roe vs Wade (as God fearfully and wonderfully weaves our bodies inside the womb – see Psalm 139:13-16) she lamented and declared that decision was an attack on women’s rights.
Clearly, this type of Church is full of “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:2-7, NKJV). Therefore, Jesus is offering this type of Church gold refined in fire (Revelation 3:18). Fire is what she needs to become hot. If she doesn’t figure it out before, her final exam is the Mark of the beast (Revelation 13:15–18). If she doesn’t receive the mark she will be killed (Revelation 13:15) but if she receives the mark, she is going to suffer in the hellfire (Revelation 14:9-11). So, she can’t stay lukewarm, she needs to become either hot or cold (Revelation 3:15).
From the above, we can see that the four types of Churches exist in the End Times: 1) Corrupt Church, 2) Dead Church, 3) Faithful Church and the 4) Lukewarm Church.
Only the participants of the Faithful Church are promised not to go through the Great Tribulation. So, if you think you are not in such a church please find one. Find a Spirit-filled, Bible-based Church that will equip you to listen to the Spirit and persevere in keeping the Word of God and not denying His Name in these troublesome times.
Of course, if you never conscientiously gave Jesus the right to rule and reign in your life, but would like to do so, say the following words and mean them with all sincerity of your heart:
Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. I believe that you died on the cross to take my punishment. I believe that you rose from the dead and will come again to rule the world. Come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Saviour.
How about this event that happened on July 20th? The Jerusalem Post article writes about a trilateral meeting between the presidents of Russia (Rosh, Gog being its prince), Turkey (Gomer) and Iran (Persia), where Syria has also sent her representative, which seems to have solidified the Ezekiel 38 coalition, bringing into alignment the main players of the Gog and Magog war.
In the past this coalition was unthinkable, simply because Turkey is a part of the NATO block of countries, which are diametrically opposed to both Russia and Iran. The article says,
An unintended consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that it has now set the world on a new course. Iranian media has begun to speak of a “new world order” in which US hegemony is weakened. Russia’s TASS media also highlights the weakening of the West and the “multipolar” world that it believes we are now entering. That means Iranian and Russian media have the same narrative take on the meetings. This level of message discipline among Moscow, Tehran and Ankara is unusual. They may have shared some interests in the past, but today their interests appear to be coinciding to an unprecedented degree.
Therefore, this event has basically signalled the start of the collapse of the NATO alliance and we can expect a further erosion of the member states’ ties as their leader (i.e. USA) is busy with suicidal attempts. So, some thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, the remaining cold war block is disintegrating as well.
This really signals the imminence of the Ezekiel 38 war, as things are speeding up (another indicator that we are in the end of the end times?). But, the first thing that “needs” to happen before this coalition is ready to go against Israel is the removal of the US presence in Syria. Let’s see how hard that would be.
Hence, this event startled me to release an updated and extended version of the End Times Timeline, which now includes all the seals and trumpets. I may work on adding bits and pieces but wanted to share this alpha version quickly.
The main idea of this expanded timeline is a suggestion that the Bible is never silent about history and never fails to give instructions to the mankind through prophecy. Even the “silent years” in between the Book of Malachi and Jesus’ birth and His earthly ministry are covered in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Daniel. God never fails to give instructions to His people regardless of the time they live in.
So, from that perspective, the view that the Book of Revelation mainly talks about the events within the Tribulation period is wrong. Otherwise, there would be another “silent period” in the Bible (about 2000 years long!), as the period between the early Church and Jesus’ second coming would not be “covered”.
Another change on this timeline is that it clearly shows all three Raptures, Pre-trib, Mid-trib (Pre-wrath) and Post-trib Raptures. All three views are valid but the people involved are different. Pre-trib Rapture involves a selected group of believers (symbolised by the five wise virgins, see Matthew 25:1-13). Mid-trib or Pre-wrath Rapture involves the rest of the believers. Post-trib Rapture involves a Jewish remnant that is left after (i.e. survives) the Battle of Armageddon.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:18-23, NKJV).
Christmas 2020 is upon us, so it’s time for a retrospective. But I would like to look upon things in the widest of possible perspectives. I feel that the world is really at the crossroads; it can either move to the left or to the right. The road on the right will lead to a few more years of relatively easy evangelism, where Christian congregations can still thrive, satellites can still preach the Gospel and Christian missionaries can still reach the unreached openly. If you are trying to guess, this is the road where Trump stays as the President of the USA.
The road to the left leads to immediate and ever intensifying persecution of everything Christian. USA will stop being a dominant force on the earth and that role will fall into the hands of the communist China. China would soon start stomping on the little nations around her in order to “make more room” for themselves, and nobody would be able to stop that. As in China, true Christians around the world soon thereafter would need to go underground. The road on the left leads to the tribulation-like conditions.
I’m praying that the world takes the road on the right and is given a little bit more time. But, what this year has clearly shown us is how really fragile is to be lulled into thinking that our Christian way of life and liberties will go on forever. Satan, the god of this age has blinded the minds of people (see 2 Corinthians 4:4) so they are busy building secular societies where self is exalted and where “one is not for all, and all are certainly each for themselves” (see 2 Timothy 3:1-5). The only thing standing in the way of this selfish and completely pagan society are evangelicals, trying to reach out to people and turn their hearts toward Jesus. The rest of the Body of Christ is turning lukewarm.
Lukewarmness is the state of the end times church, appearing right before the Rapture, which proceeds the Great Tribulation (see the End Times Timeline). Jesus is saying that this type of church thinks of itself to be rich and in need of nothing, but in reality it is poor, blind and naked (see Revelation 3:14-22). Does this describe the state of churchianity today, where people are happy to attend weekend services, feel good about hearing few words from the Bible, but then fade into the rest of the secular society until the next weekend?
It is certainly easier to live that way, because thus you would avoid all persecution, but at what cost? Didn’t Jesus say “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33, NKJV). On the other hand, Paul didn’t consider sufferings of the persecution he endured worthy of comparison with God’s glory that was revealed through him (Romans 8:18). He basically set the whole Roman empire on fire for Jesus and no stoning, beatings, stripes, shipwrecks or calamities could stop him. Nothing devil threw his way could persuade him to give up. He did ask Jesus to remove this “thorn in the flesh”, but Jesus basically told him to keep pressing on, because His grace will make sure that everything ends up well (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
The rest of the Romans 8 quote above is quite interesting. What Jesus did on the cross was not only for us personally, but for the whole creation — to be set free from the bondage to corruption that came in with man’s fall. This talks about the Judgement Day (Revelation 20:11-15, when everything evil will be thrown into the lake of fire, after which the old heavens and the old earth will pass away, see Revelation 21:1) and about the new heaven and new earth that will be created afterwards (where there will be no more tears, death, mourning, crying or pain- see Revelation 21:4). These events are marked with numbers 14 and 15 on the End Times Timeline below.
Paul groans labouring patiently for the Rapture, the redemption of our physical bodies (Romans 8:23), when our corruptible bodies will change into incorruptible ones (see 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-55). In another place he writes “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1, NKJV). So, likewise, we should push through whatever situation we will find ourselves in, patiently labouring to bring in the End Times Harvest. The whole creation is eagerly waiting for the conclusion of this drama (Romans 8:19); she is waiting on you to show up!
We should not be discouraged by the persecution, but on the contrary, we should be encouraged by it. If you don’t get any resistance from the world it means that devil doesn’t consider you a threat. And if the enemy of mankind (Genesis 3:15) is not concerned by you, what does that say about you? When you see Jesus, will He welcome you with “Well done my good and faithful servant!”?
I’ve seen people praying for the Revival but not doing anything practical. They think God will sovereignly override people’s minds and hearts to bring in the End Times Harvest. But, didn’t Jesus say “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37, NKJV). Why would God’s own Son talk about labourers if His Father is doing everything Himself alone? The truth is that Christians are the Body of Christ and this body needs to provide the light to the world and salt to the earth.
The End Times Revival won’t happen by God’s fiat—He needs boots on the ground and helping hands that reach out and touch the hearts of people. These would then willingly change and receive Christ by their own choice. Of course, once the fire of the Revival starts the Holy Spirit will fan it, so it will spread quickly, but the labourers are required to ignite it. Actually, they are required to physically reach out to people, but the truth is that God also provides the spark of ignition to start the Revival. In that sense God indeed is doing everything, but He wants us to participate.
He is the branch and we are to bear fruit; apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). But we are never without Christ (Matthew 28:20) so through Him we can do everything (Philippians 4:13)! Therefore, get out and start winning souls for Jesus! Use your gifts that Holy Spirit gave you. If you aren’t baptised with the Holy Spirit ask for that.
And don’t worry about the persecution. Jesus promised it to those that will be His disciples (John 15:18-20). But He also promised that such labourers will be spared of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 3:10). They will be “caught up” (i.e. raptured) and will meet Him in the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This event is marked with the number 2 on the End Times Timeline and you can see that a lot of evil will happen after it. The Rapture is a reward for the End Time Revival labourers. Are you one of them?
Here are some resources to equip you for the work of the ministry:
In Leviticus 23:2 God is instructing Moses, “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The appointed times (established feasts) of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these” (AMP, underlining mine). Father God is telling us that these are His feasts. These aren’t feasts that man has figured out and set up, but are the appointed times we have with God. They are ordained by Him and occur on the exact dates within a Jewish year.
If your boss would schedule a meeting with you for tomorrow afternoon, and you appear in the morning of the day after tomorrow and say, “Here I am Boss, you wanted to see me!?”, what would your boss say? Would he compare you to the five foolish virgins who were late for the wedding feast and were rejected (see Matthew 25:1-13) or would he compare you to the lazy and disinterested wedding guests who refused to come to the wedding having all sorts of “good excuses”(see Matthew 22:2-10).
People say that we cannot possibly know when the end times would come. They base this on Jesus’ words that “of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32, NKJV). But, right before He said this Jesus also said, “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” (Mark 13:28-30, NKJV, underlining mine).
Did you know that, throughout the Bible, the fig tree consistently symbolises Israel and her people? So, when we see that Israel is reborn as a country and nation, and becomes to bud and put forth leaves (which has started back in 1948, when she began again to exist as an independent country) we should know that the end is near. Moreover, the generation that coincides with this event (i.e. the “baby boomers“) will not pass away before the end times would come.
So, even though we cannot exactly know the year of Jesus’ second coming, when the end of the human government on earth would end and the 1000 years of God’s government would begin (see Revelation 20:1-4), we can conclude, with a certain dose of assurance, that this time is very near. We are practically living in the end times, very close to the end.
Even though we don’t know the exact year of Jesus’ second coming, could we nevertheless assume that this would happen in the days that God has set up as His appointed times? If we successfully establish a correlation between Jesus’ first coming (that happened 2000 years ago) and the Jewish feasts, could we have some confidence in conclusion that His second coming would also occur on these appointed days?
Like, if we don’t know the year of His coming, could we assume that the days of His appointments (when we are supposed to gather together and appear before Him) are milestones on His project plan? And we could therefore come to these holy convocations expectant, and if nothing happens this year then we would expect something to happen the next year and so on?
Let’s have a look at the Jewish feasts and what has happened on those days. There are altogether seven feasts: three in the spring, three in the autumn and one in the middle. The first one is the Passover (see Leviticus 23:5) which Jews celebrate in remembrance of the night when the Hebrews, while still in bondage in Egypt, took the blood of a lamb and marked the doorposts of their houses (see Exodus 12:7), so that death, which swallowed up the firstborns of the Egyptians, would pass over them (see Exodus 12:12-13). As a result, the Pharaoh let them go and they were free from the slavery. Similarly, Jesus came as the Lamb of God and at the cross He took the punishment for the sins of the world (John 1:29) and so set us free from the slavery to sin (Romans 6:18). Without shedding of the blood there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). His blood has covered us and is cleansing us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
Immediately after the Passover the next day starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts for seven days (see Leviticus 23:6). At the Last Supper meal, which Jesus had with His disciples a day before the Passover, Yeshua (Jesus’ Hebrew name) broke the bread and said, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19, NKJV). The broken bread symbolises Yeshua’s broken body, which was broken for the remission of our sins and was laid down in the grave for us. Yeshua is the bread of life and whosoever believes in Him will never hunger or thirst (John 6:35).
During the Feast of Unleavened Bread (i.e. within the 7 days of this feast) the third appointment is scheduled, which is the Feast of Firstfruits. This feast falls on the first Sunday that occurs within the 7 day period of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:10-11). The Feast of Firstfruits symbolises Yeshua’s resurrection, because He is the firstfruit of those who are raised from the dead (see 1 Corinthians 15:20). We were spiritually dead due to our transgressions and sin, but with Yeshua, God has also raised us (who believe) from spiritual death into an everlasting life. Because of His great love for us, God has made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:1-6).
So, we see how Yeshua fulfilled the first three of God’s appointments 2000 years ago; with His death, burial and resurrection. To really understand the precision with which these spring feasts (appointed times) were fulfilled, we need to know that a day in Hebrew calendar doesn’t start at midnight, like our does, but at 6 PM (18:00) on the previous day (which is a zero hour according to the Hebrew time measurement). Also, we need to understand that the Passover lamb (that was to be slaughtered for the Passover meal), was required to be separated from the rest of the sheep, examined to verify it doesn’t have any blemishes or defects and then was killed on the Passover day at 3 PM (9 PM Hebrew time), so that it could be prepared for the Passover meal in the evening.
Yeshua was brought before Pilate early in the morning on the Passover day (see John 18:28). At 6 AM in the morning (exactly at noon according to the Hebrew time) Pilat succumbed to the angry mob that wanted Yeshua killed so he delivered Him to the legionaries to be crucified (John 19:14-16). He was crucified at 9 AM, which is 3 PM Hebrew time (Mark 15:25), and He died on the cross at 3 PM (9 PM Hebrew time, see Mark 15:34-37). He died exactly at the time when Passover lambs were slaughtered in the Temple in the preparation for the evening Passover meal.
What is also amazing is that Yeshua, the Lamb of God, was presenting Himself in the Temple for the previous three days, so that people could examine Him and see that He doesn’t have any blemishes or defects (just like it was done with other Passover lambs). Therefore we see how Yeshua fulfilled all religious rituals and passed all requirements for the sacrificial lamb. The Lamb of God died on the cross at the same time as the Passover lambs were sacrificed in the Temple. He wasn’t a bit late or too early; He appeared right on time for God’s first appointment—the Passover.
Yeshua said, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40, NKJV). Traditionally, Christians celebrate Good Friday as the day when Yeshua was crucified, but if this is true then Yeshua’s statement that He would be “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” isn’t. There simply aren’t three days and three nights (i.e. 72 hours) from Good Friday to Easter (Sunday). Matthew 27 describes the account when chief priests and Pharisees came to Pilate to ask him to set the guard at Yeshua’s tomb because they’ve remembered His saying that He would raise after three days (see Matthew 27:62-63). So, they’ve also heard “three days”.
Did you know that according to the Jewish law a person must be dead for three days before their death is deemed official? For that very reason Lazarus’ resurrection, after he was in the grave for four days (John 11:14-17), was a great problem for Jewish priests, because a great multitude started to believe in Yeshua (see John 12:9-11). If Lazarus was not officially dead, chief priests could have dismissed his resurrection as fake and explain it to the people in a more natural way. But when his decomposing and stinky body (John 11:39) came to life everybody knew this was God’s doing. Similarly, if Yeshua didn’t spend three days in the grave, His death wouldn’t be official and consequently His resurrection wouldn’t be a miracle.
Did you also know that in Leviticus 23 God sets up two types of nonworking days (i.e. days of rest). Each Saturday (Sabbath, or Shabbat in Hebrew), which is the seventh day in a week, is a day of rest (Leviticus 23:3), but also are some of the feast days, which are also referred to as Sabbaths. According to Leviticus 23:7, such is the day after the Passover (i.e. the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). In Mark 15:42 we see this day was referred to as Sabbath, but it was actually a Thursday. We know this because the next day, after this Sabbath, three women bought spices to anoint Yeshua (see Mark 16:1). In Luke 23:56 we see the same women spending the whole day (Friday) preparing the spices and then they’ve rested during Sabbath (i.e. a regular nonworking Saturday). Matthew 28:1 says that on the first day of the week (Sunday) women came to the tomb.
Also bear in mind that Hebrew Sunday starts at 6 PM on Saturday and the daylight during the Passover season lasts until 7 PM. So, Yeshua was really “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,” as shown in the diagram below, and He rose up on Saturday evening (which was officially Sunday) during the Feast of Firstfruits, as the first (1 Corinthians 15:20) of those who were raised from the dead. After His resurrection, many saints were resurrected as well and appeared in Jerusalem on Sunday (see Matthew 27:52-53). So, can you see how Yeshua, apart from fulfilling the Passover to the exact specifications, also fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Firstfruits as per requirements written in Leviticus? Can you see that when God says these feast are His appointed times, He is doing something important on those days and is expecting us to come and participate?
The next appointment with God, as defined in Leviticus 23:15-16, is the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. On this day Holy Spirit came upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-4). Yeshua had commanded them to stay in Jerusalem until they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5), which happened exactly fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits, on the day of Pentecost. So we see that God is doing something on the scheduled feast days. He said those are His appointed times and we could view them as milestones in His plan of redemption. The progress of the redemption “project” is scheduled to be revealed on those feast days and we (as project participants) need to come to the project meeting to reconnect with the Project Manager, realign to the plan and check if a new phase is going to start. So, year after year, we are coming to the scheduled project meetings not actually knowing if this would be the year when a particular project milestone would be met and if a new phase would be started. Nevertheless, we come on the appointed dates expectant and ready (in the case it does).
Hence, the reasoning could be, now that we have established a good correlation between Yeshua’s first coming and the first four feasts, that we take a guess and assume that the last three feasts relate to Yeshua’s second coming. If this is true then we could expect that the most important events of the second coming would occur on the last three feast days. Those three fall feasts could represent the Rapture of the church (event #2 on the end times timeline), God’s wrath (starts after the event #7) and establishing of Yeshua’s Millennial Kingdom on earth (event #10). If this is true, even though those events will be separated by several years, we could be somewhat certain that Yeshua will fulfil them all with the same precision He did fulfil the first four feasts. Many scholars support this view, so let’s examine the three fall feasts, and their symbolism (so that we could see why is this so). Let’s start from the last (seventh) feast, working our way backwards to the fifth feast (the first of the fall feasts).
The last of the feasts is the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34), which represents the time period when Yeshua will establish His 1000 year reign on earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords, and will rule all nations with the rod of iron (see Revelation 19:15-16). If you could describe the Feast of Tabernacles with a single word it would be ‘joy’. Joy of being together with God that dwells on the earth, in a beautiful age filled with peace and love, and where evil is absent (as Satan is locked up inside the Abyss, the bottomless pit, see Revelation 20:1-2). Isaiah describes this time period with the following words: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11::6-9, NKJV).
But before Yeshua comes for the second time, the world will go through a period of distress and calamity. Yeshua mentioned that the Great Tribulation (see Matthew 24:15-21) will start with the event that was prophesied to occur in the middle of the last seven years (see Daniel 9:27), which is marked as the event #5 on the end times timeline. At that time the Antichrist will stop the sacrifices (in the Third Jewish Temple that will be built on the Temple Mount), will declare himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) and will set up an idol in the Temple (i.e. the “abomination of desolation” referred to by Yeshua in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14). Antichrist will declare his dictatorship around the world and will force people to take his mark (i.e. “mark of the beast”, see Revelation 13:16). Who will not have this mark will not be able to buy or sell (Revelation 13:17). But everyone who would worship the Antichrist, or his idol in the Temple or receive his mark will end up in hell (Revelation 14:9-11).
Immediately preceding Yeshua’s return God will cleanse the earth from all evil. Antichrist will be removed together with all those that served and worshipped him and who took his mark. This series of events is known as God’s Wrath (placed after the event #7 on the end times timeline). Revelation 16 describes seven angels with seven bowls of wrath that are poured on the earth, causing various diseases and calamities. After the sixth bowl of wrath is poured, Antichrist is mobilising the world’s army and gathering them at Armageddon is an attempt to defeat Yeshua that has come (see Revelation 16:14-16). Antichrist and his armies are defeated (Revelation 19:17-21) and the seventh bowl of wrath starts a great earthquake. This earthquake levels all the mountains, moves all islands and destroys all the cities. What follows after that earthquake is a great hail with hailstones that weigh tens of kilograms (see Revelation 16:18-21).
But before God’s Wrath is poured out on the earth, Yeshua will “harvest” the earth (Revelation 14:14-16) and take all the believers out of the world (event #7 on the end time timeline). They are removed before the wrath, but they did come through the Great Tribulation (see Revelation 7:9-14). Hence, this event corresponds to the “pre-wrath” rapture that some folks talk about. This harvest event is symbolised in the feast called the Day of Atonement, which is the second of the fall feasts and is described in Leviticus 23:27. It’s also worth mentioning here that there is also a “post-tribulation” view of the rapture, because Yeshua said He will gather His elect at the time of His “official” appearing to the whole world (see Matthew 24:29-31), when the sixth bowl of wrath (event #8 on the end times timeline) is poured out. I believe this talks about the Jewish remnant that will somehow “miss” His earlier harvest, but nevertheless the Day of Atonement for them (i.e. the Jewish remnant) symbolises this later gathering. Perhaps this is the reason (i.e. two distinct gathering of Yeshua’s disciples and people) that the word “kippur” (atonement) used in Leviticus 23:27 is actually a plural noun.
However, the actual rapture proper, the “pre-tribulation”rapture of the firstfruits (also referred to as the “rapture of the church”) which is marked on the end times timeline as the event #2, is symbolised with the first fall feast, which is the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets occurs on the first day of the seventh Hebrew month (Leviticus 23:24) which in our calendars occurs in September or October. The Hebrew New Year begins on the same day and also a ten-day period of repentance called the Days of Awe. The climax of this period (i.e. the tenth day) is the above-mentioned Day of Atonement. During this period one should introspect where they stand in their relationship with God and others. If one needs to ask for forgiveness from somebody, they should do it, because they want to be found worthy at the Day of Atonement (i.e. symbolically they need to be ready for Yeshua’s harvest mentioned above). The reason why this feast is taken to symbolise the rapture is because the Days of Awe represent the tribulation and Yeshua promised that some people will not go through it (see Revelation 3:10). Those are His selected firstfruits (i.e. not all the church) that will be taken (Revelation 14:3-4) before the last seven years would begin.
So, this concludes the article. Friend, we cannot predict exactly when things will happen but we can make a good guess they would follow the patten of the Jewish feast days. Therefore, get ready because we do live in the end of days. And the best way to get ready is to become a disciple of Yeshua. If you want to do so, say the following with the full conviction of your heart.
Lord Yeshua (Jesus), I repent of my sins. I believe that you died on the cross to take my punishment. I believe that you rose from the dead and will come again to rule the world. Come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Savior.
Friend, if you prayed this prayer you are born-again, which means that Yeshua (i.e. His Spirit) now lives within you. Find a good bible-based, Spirit-filled church that will teach you and equip you for the days ahead.
If you are a Bible prophecy fan like I am, you probably wondered what happened to all the talk about the blood moons, signs in the heavens, Shemitah years and the “scheduled” market crash, Rapture of the church in the Jubilee year and so on.
In the second half of 2015 there was a great number of programs (on Christian TV channels) about Bible prophecy, encouraging us to believe that Jesus is coming soon to take His bride (i.e. the church) home, which is marked as the event #2 on the end times timeline and is called the Rapture of the First Fruits (or the Rapture of the church).
I sincerely thought this is it, as Jesus said: “when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!” (Matthew 24:33, NKJV), but my wife was telling me “but of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36, NKJV). Clearly, she was right. “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband” (Proverbs 12:4, NKJV) and “Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, But a prudent wife is from the Lord” (Proverbs 19:14, NKJV).
So, if all this prophecy euphoria looks like a Y2K scenario to you; a lot of smoke but no fire, don’t discard it as yet. Us failing to pinpoint a place on God’s calendar just confirms that Bible is always right. We were trying to set a date: it’s the beginning of the Jubilee year, it’s the end of the blood moons, it’s the end of the Shemitah year and so on, but you cannot do that. Otherwise, God would be predictable and devil could use that to his own advantage.
If Jesus said “no one knows” then there will be a certain element of mystery to the events that will unfold, but if He also said “you can know” then we are expected to watch for the signs and be ready. So, this is one of those “Yes” answers, where both propositions are correct. Jesus is saying that we cannot know the exact date, but we can surely know the season. Hence, don’t set the dates, but be ready, or otherwise He will catch you off guard as a thief in the night (see Revelation 16:15).
Nevertheless, to the unbelievers the signs of Jesus’ second coming will not be so obvious.
“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:26-30).
We see that it will be a business as usual; people will go about their daily duties, will plan for the bright future (will marry and be given in marriage), will build their business empires (will buy and sell) and assume that nothing wrong will happen in their lives (will plant and build). This to me says that God’s signs will not be so obvious to the unbelievers and I think it is so because He doesn’t want to impose Himself.
If you want to believe, you have to do it by your own free will, even when it looks foolish to everybody else: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18, NKJV). We are not saved by works following a breadcrumb trail of scientific facts, but by grace through faith (see Ephesians 2:8). To have faith means that when God is not scientifically provable, you still believe in Him, regardless of the lack of the scientific evidence.
So, coming back to the topic of the end times and Jesus’ second coming, you might ask yourself “Are we there? Can I really know the season of His coming and prepare myself?” First, Jesus said we should always “be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44, NKJV). Hence, first century Christians took this very seriously and were busy readying themselves for His return. They thought Jesus was coming back during their lifetimes (see, James 5:8 and Revelation 1:3). Even though 2000 years have elapsed since that time, we cannot assume that another 2000 years will go on uneventful—we have to be ready for His near return.
Second, it’s not that you could sin until you see the season of His coming and then you would repent, because the season is already here. The war at the river Euphrates (Revelation 9:14) have already started (marked as the event #1 on the end times timeline). Bible says that after this 6th trumpet war God will issue a declaration that “there will be no more delay” (Revelation 10:6) and “the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets,” (Revelation 10:7, NKJV) when the seventh angel (i.e. the 7th trumpet) “is about to sound.”
Ok, so the “mystery of God” will be finished immediately before the blowing of the 7th trumpet (which is marked as the event #2 on the end times timeline) and there will be no more uncertainty about the end times—everybody, that has a little bit of the Bible prophecy knowledge, would know for sure that the end time countdown has started. The end time events would then unfold with the precision described in the Bible and people would be able to “calculate” when to expect Jesus’ second coming (the event #10 on the end times timeline), when He will establish His millennial kingdom on the earth.
So, what we are uncertain about is not the timing of Jesus’ second coming, but the timing of the 7th trumpet, which signifies the Rapture of the church according to the “pre-trib” view. For the comparison of the “pre-trib” view with other views refer to this article written by Dr. Chuck Missler (khouse.org). Btw, those other views could be associated with the events #7 (Jesus’ harvest) and #8 (Armageddon) on the end times timeline.
But, to be sure that Rapture is included in the above-quoted “mystery” of the Revelation 10:7, we need to find if Rapture is spoken of as a “mystery” in the Bible. And, we can find those verses in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (NKJV, underlining mine).
That doesn’t actually use the word “rapture”, but this same event is also described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (NKJV,underlining mine).
In verse 17, the English phrase “caught up” translates the Greek word harpazo, which means “to seize upon with force” or “to snatch up.” The Latin translators of the Bible used the word “rapturo,” the root of the English term “Rapture.” At the Rapture, living believers will be “caught up” in the air, translated into the clouds, in a moment in time to join the Lord in the air. (this paragraph is taken from Dr. Chuck Missler’s article ‘The Great Snatch?‘).
But rapture isn’t the only “mystery” we can find in the Bible. As explained in Colossians 1:26 a mystery is a truth that “has been hidden from ages and from generations [i.e. the Old Testament believers], but now has been revealed to His saints [i.e. the New Testament believers]” (NKJV, brackets mine).
Until Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection, the following intentions of God were hidden and devil could not have guessed them (if he could, he would had never wanted Jesus’s death):
You might be familiar with the above, as that is applicable to you and me now and has been provided by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, but did you know that there are two other mysteries (i.e. apart from the Rapture) revealed to Paul and he talks about them in his epistles?
The first mystery is the fact that “blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles” will come in (see Romans 11:25). This says that church has not replaced Israel as God’s chosen people and that Israel is still very important in God’s plan of redemption and is serving as His prophetic time clock. God’s warning to those who hate Israel, and His blessings to those who help her people still applies. For more details see this article from the web.
Israel’s rejection of Messiah Jesus is a blessing for the rest of us (Gentiles), but the 7th trumpet will mark a global awakening of the Jews to their (and our) Messiah. Hence, the end times timeline places Israel’s restoration to strength, as described in Joel 2:17-27, after the Rapture (event #2).
The second mystery, which was touched upon in ‘The Problem of Evil’ series (see part 3, ‘The End of All Evil’), is that Jesus’ sacrifice was to redeem the whole creation (Ephesians 1:9-10) and “gather together in one all things in Christ, bothwhich are in heaven and which are on earth,” but also that “manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (see Ephesians 3:8-12).
This means that God’s decision to destroy devil and his minions (which was made back in the Garden of Eden) will start to execute with the sounding of the 7th trumpet. That’s the reason why the end times timeline also places the Revelation 12:7-9 war in heaven (when devil and his angels are banished from heaven to the earth) at the 7th trumpet. With the 7th trumpet blowing, the gathering of the evidence against the devil and his angels will be finished and he will be expelled from God’s presence.
Thus, all God intentions will be revealed at the 7th trumpet and all of His mysteries would be made known (i.e. “would be finished”). The final stages of the redemptive plan for the whole creation will start to execute a whole series of the end time events. There will be no doubt about it—the whole creation will know that the end has come. And once the end time actions start to happen, the final 7 years before Jesus’ second coming will commence.
We started this article wondering about when would the end times begin, but it seems that we are already deep within the season of Lord’s return. What is unknown is the exact timing of the 7th trumpet, but it seems that the 6th trumpet has been blown already, so get ready.
In the follow up article we will concentrate more on the Jewish feast days to see if we could pick up some clues about the Rapture from there. After all, God said “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts” (Leviticus 23:2, NKJV, underlining mine), indicating that these are His appointed times, when we should come before Him expectant. Some people call them “dress rehearsals”, indicating these appointments are very important on God’s prophetic timeline.
But friend, if you are reading this and you don’t know Jesus or you don’t have a current relationship with Him (i.e. He doesn’t know you), you might be frightened by all this end time talk. Bible does warn us about the perilous times ahead: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, NKJV).
However, if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior you will find safety, as that is what His Hebrew name Yeshua (Y’shua) means (salvation, safety). So, if you would like to do so, just simply say the following words and mean them:
Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Savior.
In part 3 we discussed the first version of the end times timeline. In this post a revised version is given (see below). Printable PDF file could be downloaded here. Two changes were made: 1) 6th Trumpet War was extended until right before Antichrist will broker the 7-year peace agreement with Israel and 2) the duration of the 7 bowls is shortened.
To clarify, this timeline doesn’t contain dates, as only God knows when would something happen, but it contains major events, their sequence and duration (when it’s given in the Scripture).
So, here is the overview. Timeline focuses on the events immediately preceding as well as occurring during the last seven years of the human government on the earth. This is what is called “Daniel’s week” and is described in Daniel 9:27. In part 2, we discussed how Daniel’s week should coincide with the Shemitah cycle, which is becoming visible when we look into the cycle of stock market crashes in the following years: 1973, 1980, 1987, 1994 (bond market crash), 2001, 2008, 2015 (?).
In the middle of Daniel’s week the Antichrist, who will lead the world government, will sit in the 3rd Jewish Temple and declare himself to be God (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). Jesus said (see Matthew 24:21) that after this event (which in Daniel is called the “Abomination of desolation”; marked as the event No. 5 on the timeline), the Great Tribulation will start. So, we know that the Great Tribulation will last for 3.5 years, or to be more precise, 1290 days (see Daniel 12:11). But Daniel 12:12 also tells us that “blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1335 days”. This just means that 45 days after the tribulation, Jesus will start his millennial reign as the King of kings and the Lord or lords (marked as the event No. 10 on the timeline).
The Book of Revelation gives us some other durations. It says that the Antichrist will rule for 42 months (a Hebrew month has 30 days), which means he will rule as the absolute (world) dictator and self-proclaimed god for 1260 days (see Revelation 13:5). We know that Jesus will defeat him and throw him into the lake of fire (see Revelation 19:20) after the battle of Armageddon (which is the 6th bowl of wrath; the event No. 8 on the timeline), so that will mark the end of his rule. Therefore, this probably means that during the 30 days after the battle of Armageddon the great earthquake and great hail (7th bowl of wrath) will finalize God’s wrath and the Great Tribulation will end (i.e. tribulation lasts for 1290 days).
The scripture talks about other durations as well, one of which relates to the 126o days of ministry that two prophets of God will have in Jerusalem (see Revelation 11:3). People usually put the start of their ministry at the beginning of the 7-year period (i.e. Daniel’s week), but as they are mentioned after John is measuring the temple, this timeline assumes that their ministry starts when the 3rd Jewish Temple would open.
After Antichrist will kill these two prophets (witnesses) they will be raptured and the earthquake in Jerusalem will destroy their enemies. Everybody in the world will see it (i.e. through the news programs), and people will give glory to God and turn to the Father. In other words, there is some kind of an awakening happening. I’m not sure if the word ‘revival’ would be appropriate for the environment where Christianity is persecuted, but something along those lines will then happen throughout the world.
This ushers the time of the Jesus’ harvest (event No. 7), which happens some time after the rapture of the witnesses, but before the bowls of wrath are poured out. Jesus will take the harvest of the earth and gather his people (Revelation 14:14-16). They will come out of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:14) and they will overcome the beast, the Antichrist (Revelation 15:2). I believe that the rapture of the two witnesses is the last chance for people on the earth to accept God’s offer of salvation through faith in Jesus (Y’shua), because after the harvest the Sanctuary in heaven will be closed (i.e. no access to God) until the 7 bowls of wrath are executed (see Revelation 15:8).
One other thing that people can’t really agree upon is about the timing of the rapture of the church. As you can see, we already mentioned two other raptures: 1) of the two witnesses and 2) Jesus’ harvest, but this first rapture describes the event when Jesus would take his true disciples (i.e. the firstfruits) out of the world before the Great Tribulation would begin. Jesus promised this (see Revelation 3:10) to the church of Philadelphia (a type of the evangelical church), or better said, to those evangelical disciples that would hold fast to what they have until the end. These are the firstfruits (Revelation 14:-3-4) of the believers, the rest of which will be reaped later, during Jesus’ harvest (within the tribulation).
After the rapture of the firstfruits there will be no more mystery about when the end would come. This rapture will undoubtedly signal to all that the end days have arrived and there will be no more guessing about it. Revelation 10:7 says, “but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.” 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 also talks about rapture happening at the trumpet call. So, this timeline aligns the rapture of the firstfruits with the 7th trumpet event (see event No. 2 on the timeline).
The immediate event preceding the 7th trumpet is the 6th trumpet (event No. 1) and that’s where the timeline starts. The previous version of the timeline indicated that the 6th trumpet war finished long before the rapture of the firstfruits, but after hearing Bill Silas talking about prophecies of the destruction of Elam (area in Iran where their nuclear facilities are located), the Ezekiel 38 War and the Psalm 83 War in particular, I’ve changed my mind. What caught my eye was the Psalm 83:3 verse, which says: “They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.” It talks about Israel’s enemies coming against Israelis, and some of the Israelis are “hidden”! It looks like these “hidden ones” are 144.000 sealed Jewish believers that are part of the first rapture (i.e. rapture of the firstfruits).
So, this should conclude our “The Book of Revelation” series. A bit later I shall post about Jesus’ epistles (i.e. letters to the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and 3), but this is it for now.
Friend, in this series I’ve tried to give you an overview of what Bible says about the end times and how many signs are converging right now. We are living in the year that prophets spoke about. The world doesn’t have much more time. The time is near when Jesus will come back and you will have to face Him. Will it be on the good terms or bad terms? If you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior you can be sure it will be on good terms.
But before Jesus comes back, the imposter, the Antichrist will claim to be the Jesus Christians are waiting for. But don’t fall for that. There will be a false prophet also, who will give his support to the Antichrist and will be working out false miracles. And when we say ‘false’ it means these miracles are not from God, but they will look very, very real, so that even elect might be deceived (see Matthew 24:24).
Your only chance is to become a disciple of Jesus (i.e. make Him your Lord) and start educating yourself by reading the Bible. So, if you want to be sure of your salvation, and get the eternal life as a free gift, simply say the following words and mean them:
Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Savior.
Update 2017-02-11: Third revision of the End Times Timeline could be found here.
In this part of the Book of Revelation series we will discuss the End Times Timeline (shown below). The timeline doesn’t contain any dates as date setting is not for a man to do, but it revolves around several key events. It starts at the sixth trumpet and ends with the creation of the new sky and the new earth. My intention is to get the timeline reviewed and publish updates as I would get comments from other people. Printable version could be found here.
While making the timeline I made the following assumptions:
1) In the Bible, descriptions of the same event are consistent across different Bible books. We take the Bible as a single integrated message system, so the same applies to the symbols used in the Bible—they are consistently used across every Bible book. It cannot happen that the same symbol in different Bible books would have a different meaning.
2) So, based on the assumption above scriptures are aligned along the major events, when they could be found or recognised in them.
3) While aligning the scripture we also used logic. For example, the great earthquake that happens when the seventh bowl of wrath is poured “had not happened since mankind came upon the earth” (Revelation 16:18), and “every island fled and mountains were not found” (Revelation 16:20), so the 6th seal earthquake where “every mountain and island was moved out of its place”(Revelation 6:14) is the one and the same earthquake. Therefore, logic dictates that we should look at the seals as access points to particular title deeds and not necessarily as chronological events that have to happen before trumpets and bowls (vials). Title deed thus highlights a type of the events that would happen, while trumpets and bowls tell us when those events would happen.
The timeline is divided into three swim lanes. The top one contains the major events, the middle one deals with wars, cataclysms and judgement, while the bottom one deals with apostasy, evangelisation, faith and rapture.
The major point to take from this timeline is that Jesus is coming as the King after the tribulation and not before. There will be a rapture before the tribulation, but His major harvest (i.e. taking up the rest of the believers) is somewhere within the tribulation period. Following His harvest there will be a second, wrath harvest, which is pretty much God destroying the evil that is left on the earth and wiping the earth clean in order to make it ready for His Millennial reign.
Another important point to take away is that the one who will proclaim himself to be the Messiah before the tribulation is actually the Antichrist, so don’t even think to bow down to him or to take his mark (of the beast) no matter who tells you it’s OK. The Bible tells us that the false prophet (and many believe Pope Frances is this guy) will promote the Antichrist and will coax people to believe in him. Nevertheless, the Antichrist will be killed 3.5 years after claiming to be the Messiah. He will be killed by Jesus, the real Messiah. Antichrist and false prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire after the battle of Armageddon.
UPDATE 2017-02-11: The third revision of the End Times Timeline can be found here.
UPDATE 2020-12-29: Re assumption #3 above, we perhaps could still take seals to be chronological and not just “types of events”, because right after Jesus opened the 6th seal in Revelation 6:12-17, which talks about the events of destruction executed during the 5th, 6th and 7th bowl of God’s wrath, the text continues to read (in Revelation 7:1-8) how four angels that were supposed to execute these judgements were stopped until 144,000 Jewish servants of God are sealed and protected. Hence we see that God has put those final judgements on “pause”, while the rest of the text describes what happens in between; i.e. from that point in time until the 5th, 6th and 7th bowl of God’s wrath are finally poured out in chapter 16 of the Book of Revelation. Hence, one of the conclusions could be that sealing of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists is not happening all at once, but over a greater period of time.
UPDATE 2022-10-10: In part 7 of this series (which talks about the Extended End Times Timeline) I’ve expanded on the idea that seals are chronological events and suggested that they actually coincide with the Church development phases. In that sense, the view that was first postulated by Irwin Baxter seems to be right. He suggested that the way how all of the seven trumpets come out of the seventh seal and all of the seven bowls of wrath come out of the seventh trumpet we should assume that seals represent very long periods of time, trumpets represent somewhat shorter periods of time and bowls represent the shortest periods of time, but all of them are chronological and in the order specified (for more info read part 4 of this series). In other words, there are centuries in between the seal events (as time slowly progresses up to the 20th century), there are decades in between the trumpet events and because bowls of wrath happen within the last 3.5 years of the Antichrist’s rule, we know that there are only months in between those events.
The “apocalypse” is a Greek word and it simply means “revelation”, so what is the Book of Revelation revealing to us? As stated in its very first sentence this book is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John” (Revelation 1:1).
This simply means that as you will read the book you will learn about the events that will precede Jesus Christ’s return to the earth. The first time he came here was about 2000 years ago and he came in the role of the “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (see John 1:29). He was sent by God to die on the cross and to pay for your and mine salvation, healing and deliverance: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Okay, but why is then “apocalypse” deemed such a dreadful word, connected with death and destruction? Oxford dictionary defines it as “The complete final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation.” If Jesus Christ is coming again, and he is so wonderful, why are we talking about the “end of the world”?
The Book of Revelation is clear in stating that Jesus is coming to establish his kingdom on earth and his faithful will rule with him for a thousand years (see Revelation 20:4) . This is the basis for the belief in the New Age and the 1000 years of peace and prosperity on earth. The “only” problem is that newagers forget that the earth’s ruler in this super prosperous period is Jesus, and he clearly stated that only those who he knows will be allowed to stay with him (see Matthew 25:31-46).
So, it’s not about the end of the world, but about the end of the human government on earth. Human government will be replaced by God’s government where Jesus Christ and his saints will rule the world as God’s representatives. Bible states that nations of the earth will continue to live in the millennium, but their dominion will be taken away as God will set up His kingdom on earth (see Daniel 7:12, where ‘beast’ is used as a synonym for a kingdom and his ruler).
But the Book of Revelation does talk about upheavals, cataclysms, wars and rumors of wars and the Great Tribulation such as has never been seen in the history of the mankind. First world war, World War II, the Gulf War and the future World War III are all mentioned in the Book of Revelation. It’s no wonder the perception of the apocalypse (revelation) is so bad, because many will experience the final period of the Great Tribulation as being the end of their world.
How Does God Deal With Sin?
The Bible is also clear in stating that this final judgement is God’s wrath on unbelievers and represents His final attempt to persuade them to change for better. You might have seen my earlier post titled “Why God “Doesn’t” Punish Evil, … Until the Judgement Day“, which states that you cannot ask God to judge one person without Him judging you as well. Hence, God has reserved a day in the future (i.e. The Judgement Day) when He will judge everybody (living as well as the dead) fairly and squarely.
Here is how it works. God has only three options when dealing with sin:
1) Leave it to go unpunished indefinitely – in other words everybody does what they want and nobody is ever punished. In such a scenario there is no Bible as God is a neutral observer and is not interested in setting up the rules of the “game”. Another possibility is that there is a “bible” but it teaches the law of the jungle, where big fish eats a smaller one. Does this remind you of a materialistic view of the world? Soon enough all joyfulness is squeezed out of life and survival is the only thing that majority of the people think about. Man becomes wolf to his fellow man. I hope you will agree with me that leaving sin unpunished indefinitely is not a good option.
2) God could intervene constantly, as soon as bad things happen, in order to rectify and prevent any problems that may arise. In this scenario free choice does not exist and man is just a puppet in God’s hands. Man is not able to do anything which is contrary to God’s will as God will immediately change things. I’m not sure if it is even possible for a man to function as an independent being in such a world, as things might inexplicably change from one second to another. It might be sunny one second and then snow the next. Events in one’s life would make sense only to God as He would be the only one who has the complete picture and is able to see and interpret all of the “butterfly effects” which caused all of the changes. I hope you will agree that this is not a good option either.
3) God could withdraw Himself from the people that don’t want Him. This means that people who reject God (and are able to do so because of their free will) will end up in a place where God is not present. He will grant them the fulfilment of their “wish” to live without Him and will create an environment (i.e. hell) where such an existence is possible. So how does the place where God is not present look like? Living there means living in endless darkness (as God is light, see 1 John 1:5, and He is absent from that place) and it also means living in constant torment, fear and hate (because God is love, see 1 John 4:8, and He is not present there). Well, this is also not a good option, but it’s ultimately the fairest one – everybody gets what they want. But, there is a catch. Ultimately, death and hell will be destroyed in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14) and all those who are not found written in the Book of life will be also thrown in there (Revelation 20:15). This just means that because God is also Life (see John 1:4 and John 14:6) those who choose to be without God (i.e. Life) are basically choosing to die!
So, option three is what God is doing. But can you imagine Love and Light doing this without any warning? No, our Heavenly Father is not doing it without warning. The whole Bible talks about how He loves us and how He planned and executed our redemption and salvation by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross instead of us. This purchased everyone’s ticket to eternal life and whosoever wants it (i.e. to live eternally with God) just needs to grab his or hers ticket. But Bible also gives warnings to those that don’t want such a ticket.
God’s Love for Everyone, Even the Naughty Ones
God doesn’t want anyone to end up in the lake of fire where the existence stops. We think that God is slow to punish the evildoers, but the secret is that He loves everybody and wants them to change and choose to be with Him (and not end up in the lake of fire). “The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, AMP version).
Obviously, evildoers and ignorant folk have to repent and stop choosing death (i.e. living without God). Bible is therefore given to everybody to learn about who God is and what His plans are so they could choose wisely. The Book of Revelation is the ultimate warning about the final Judgement Day on which God will look into His books to see what people chose. Those without the ticket (purchased by Jesus’ blood on the cross) will be thrown into the lake of fire.
But because God gave us the outline of the plan in the Book of Revelation, where He detailed the sequence of the events that will happen in the “end time”, this is not just a warning but also a blessing for those who do not believe. Once they realize that the sequence of events in the world is tracking exactly according to God’s plan, they should figure out that God does exist and He is true to His Word. This should lead them to repentance and realization that Jesus died for them as well, so their ticket is also purchased and ready for pick up. There will be multitudes that will change their minds during the tribulation and will take this “exit clause” and join other saved believers in heaven (see Revelation 7:9-17).
As we track the events outlined in the Book of Revelation we will see how calamity and upheaval intensify as we approach the day of Jesus’ second coming. God’s wrath increases as people (who do not want Him) choose to stay defiant. They will blaspheme God and His name and will not repent of their deeds (see Revelation 16). They will even gather an army to battle against God (see Revelation 19:11-21) . How stupid is that!? Can anyone make war against Him who created the universe? This just shows you that there are some people in the positions of power and influence that do not think rationally. Once you figure out God is real and things are developing according to His plan, do not hesitate to choose Jesus and get your ticket.
Because evildoers and their ignorant followers will consistently choose to go up against God they will be ultimately granted to live without Him in hell and then ultimately to die if they aren’t found in the Book of life. But, as Peter said, God was delaying granting them that wish, because life without Him is not pleasant at all. The very purpose of pouring out torment on people is to give them a foretaste of where they are heading and what will they “enjoy” in the end.
It is actually God’s mercy to try to open their eyes to what they are actually choosing, as they can’t really figure it out themselves beforehand. Sadly, they assume, living their current lives in the freedom of choice, that things will be like that for the eternity. However, God in His goodness will elaborate, highlight and illustrate to them (through the upheavals and calamities scheduled for the end time) the utter ugliness of living without Love, Peace, Light, Presence and Protection (i.e. without Him).
The Coming World War III, Rapture and the Great Tribulation
The Bible is also clear that God’s church, comprised of individuals that love Him and are with Him, will be spared of this judgement as they do not require such an illustration and elaboration. They already chose God and His plan is to snatch them away before the tribulation begins. The word that describes this event is “rapture” and we’ll talk more about it later in one of the future posts.
It is also good to know that ultimately God’s plan is to destroy the devil and put an end to his messing up with people’s lives (see Revelation 20). Part of the plan is also to restore man to his original state of immortality and fellowship with God (see Revelation 21:3-4).
In the next post we will look into the structure of the Book of Revelation and events that are coming. World War III is on its way, for which the Bible says will kill one third of the mankind (more than 2 billion people!) and will start in the region of the river Euphrates (which flows through Turkey, Syria and Iraq).
As a way of warmup you could watch Irwin Baxter’s 14-part DVD series “Understanding The End Times“. At the time this post was originally published it was available on youtube, but since then it has been removed. The first video in the series describes the nations that will be present on earth at the time of Jesus’ second coming. The fourth video talks specifically about the the World War III. There is a little bit more information given about each of the DVDs here.
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