This was the topic in the Sunday School class I taught today, and since I haven’t addressed this issue on my blog in quite some time (about 2 years) I thought I’d go ahead and write something about it. The Bible actually says quite a bit about how human history is expected to play out. Before launching into a description of what it says, let me list some of the most pertinent Biblical passages that relate to this topic. I suggest that you read them for yourself rather than just listen to what someone (e.g. me) says about them.

Old Testament

Daniel, chapters 7-12. This is one of the most extensive and comprehensive prophetic passages in the Old Testament, revealing details about upcoming kingdoms and events that have already transpired, and some details about upcoming events that have not yet happened. I wrote several blogs about these chapters in my Daniel series of blogs.

Ezekiel, chapters 37-48. Ezekiel, in my opinion, is one of the more difficult prophetic books to comprehend because it uses such highly symbolic or figurative language. Nevertheless, it sheds interesting light on the idea of resurrection, the great battles to be fought at the end of time, and glimpses of a future Earth, both in its present form and in its future, new form.

While Isaiah has a lot of prophecy related to Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection, it also reveals details about the end of times judgment that God promises. (Chapter 24-27 and 56-66).

Joel 2 references the Day of the Lord and the outpouring of God’s Spirit in the last days.

Zechariah 9-14 references the restoration of Israel, the Messiah, the Day of the Lord, and the coming of God’s kingdom on Earth.

New Testament

Jesus himself described the last days in his discourse on the Mount of Olives just before his crucifixion. This is recorded in Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, and Luke 21.

Paul discusses the resurrection and transformation of God’s people in 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul talks about this as well in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5.

In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul discusses the days leading up to the great Tribulation and the revealing of the Antichrist (although those terms are not explicitly used here).

Paul warns Timothy of the general apostasy (rejection of God) that will occur in the coming final days in 2 Timothy 3.

The final verses of Hebrews 9 assures the reader that Jesus is coming back to bring to completion the salvation of God’s people. You can read my whole study of Hebrews here.

And then, of course, is the book of Revelation. It paints a tapestry-type picture of all the events in human history that lead up to the last days and God’s final outpouring of judgment on the Earth.

Summary of End Times events

Jesus himself said (Matthew 24:44) that his coming would happen unexpectedly and that we should live in expectation that it could be at any time. But he also said, in the same passage, that there would be clear signs for those paying attention (Matthew 24:33). The Baptist Faith and Message (the doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention) says, regarding Last Days, “God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.” This is the important part: Jesus is coming again and all people will undergo judgment. All the other details about the end times are secondary to this.

With that being said, here is my summary of what I believe that the Bible teaches about the end times. There are, of course, many varied interpretations of the details, but this is how I see it laid out.

Beginning with Daniel’s vision and prophecy, given when Israel was in exile in Babylon, there would be a decree (fulfilled by Cyrus the Great) to allow the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. Daniel’s vision (Chapter 9) said there would be 70 periods of 7 (generally understood as groups of 7 years, or 490 years total) represented in this prophecy. They were to “finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.” Christians believe that the first three items were completed with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. The final three still have to happen. The time intervening between these two groups of three is what is often referred to as the “Church Age”, when the Holy Spirit continues the ministry of Jesus through the church body of believers.

The prophecy specifies 7 periods of 7 (49 years) to rebuild Jerusalem. This happened right on schedule and is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Then it says that after another 62 periods of 7 (434 years) Jerusalem and the temple would be built up again and the anointed one would come and be “cut off.” This represents the correct period of time when Jesus arrived and was crucified (“cut off”). But that still only accounts for 69 of the 70 prophesied periods of 7. The vision says, though, that the final 7 would occur at some future point when a future leader would make a covenant with Israel and then break it after 3.5 years.

This final seven years is referenced several times in the book of Revelation as having certain specific events (the appearance of the Antichrist, Israel fleeing to the desert for protection, the testimony of two prophets during the time of tribulation, etc.) It is important to understand that the person commonly called the Antichrist is directly tied to the 7 years of tribulation and the events attached to the people of Israel during that time.

Paul told us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (and in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52) that Jesus would come at the sound of a trumpet and those Christians who have already died will come with him and they would be reunited with re-made and new physical earthly bodies. Then we who are alive at that time will also be instantly changed from our current physical bodies to new, remade eternal physical bodies. This event is often called the Rapture, although that term does not actually appear in the Bible. The term “rapture” is a Latinized version of the Greek word that Paul used in his description.

I believe that this “rapture” will result in the removal from the earth of the body of believers in Jesus (the church). In 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-8, Paul indicates that when we are gathered to Christ, and the Holy Spirit is removed from the Earth (because the church has left), this will usher in and reveal the Antichrist and the beginning of the seven-year period of trouble that we often call the Great Tribulation.

Revelation describes all the trouble that will occur during this final period of tribulation. I believe it is during this time that there will be a great awakening of the modern-day Jews who will recognize that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah and there will be many of them who will believe and follow him. John describes that fact that there are many believers who will be martyred during the tribulation. The church (in my view) is gone, so these martyrs will be recent converts and I believe many of them will be Jews (although I also believe there will be others as well). In Revelation 20:4-5 we read, “I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.”

This “first resurrection”, I believe, is not the resurrection of all dead believers during the rapture. That’s over and done. This “first” resurrection is the first one associated with the Tribulation and Jesus’ earthly reign. When Jesus comes and “raptures” the church, I do not believe that is the actual “second” coming of Jesus, because we meet him in the air (as Paul describes it) and he takes us to heaven with him to wait out the events of the 7-year tribulation.

However, at the end of that tribulation, Jesus will come back physically to the Earth as described in Revelation 19 and Zechariah 14. There will be a great battle (sometimes called the Battle of Armageddon) between the people on Earth and the heavenly army that accompanies Jesus. God’s army wins and Satan is bound for a thousand years (Revelation 20) during which time Jesus and the church will control the earth without resistance from Satan. The people that live during that time will still have free will to choose to obey or to resist, but Satan will not have the power that he currently enjoys.

However, at the end of that thousand years, Satan will be released once again and he will raise up the armies of the world one more time to attack the kingdom of God. It is at that time that he will be cast into Hell and all the dead who have rejected God over that ages will be resurrected (the second resurrection). They will be judged righteously and if there name is not in the book of life (defined as the list of names of those who follow Jesus) they will be cast into Hell for all eternity (along with death, and sin, and all evil). All of this is described in Revelation 20.

The final event described in scripture is the new heaven and new earth. This is described in a couple of places, but most clearly in Revelation 21. God’s people will live with Him on a newly fashioned or remade Earth – literally heaven on earth. We will dwell there for all eternity, working, playing, and enjoying God’s presence and fellowship with him – without the taint and tarnish of sin because it has been defeated, destroyed, and removed from His (and our) presence forever!

Here is an illustrated simple timeline that I created to help visualize all this.