How this world ends…
People have been speculating for thousands of years on how the world will end. They have claimed it will end because of aliens, supervolcanoes, a pandemic, an asteroid event, and so forth. Most recently, they are saying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and climate change pose a great danger to humanity as a whole. What most don’t look at is what the Word of God says. The earth was flooded during Genesis, and it will be burned by fire during the book of Revelation.
What if you don’t think the Word of God is inerrant or Christianity is true? Well, it is. The homepage of this website proves that God exists and Jesus Christ is God. This post proves the Bible is the inerrant Word of God: https://jesuschrististheking.com/is-the-bible-accurate/. Therefore, the Book of Revelation in the Bible must be true.
Depicted below is a timeline of what will happen during the end times of this current world all the way until the New Heaven and New Earth arrives (the eternal state). It is important to note that this is my interpretation of scripture, which could be wrong, and people have many different views on how it will all play out – but, there are some largely shared commonalities.
It is just an overview so if you want more information on these topics, plenty of information is available on the internet in addition to the most important and accurate book – the Bible.
Pre-tribulation premillennial dispensational view
1. Present Church Age – This time period is between somewhere 50 days after Easter (Pentecost) in the time period around 33 A.D. until the Rapture of the Church. This is where we currently are on the timeline.
2. The Rapture of the Church according to my interpretation is before the start of the Tribulation. Therefore, it is referred to as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church, or Pre-Trib viewpoint. In this event, millions (maybe even billions) of people will suddenly vanish. If you think this is hard to believe and sounds like science fiction, well, you are wrong. God created the universe out of nothing, and us out of dirt, so it’s easily believable that He, as an infinitely powerful God, could make people vanish. There are popular movies and books, such as the Left Behind series, that have even attracted non-believers.
3. The Tribulation is the next event on the timeline. The time between the Rapture of the Church and the start of the Tribulation is unknown. It could be days, weeks, months, or even years. However, one would assume it would be somewhat soon after the Rapture as chaos will ensue and the end times timeline as a whole will accelerate. The beginning of the Tribulation will be marked by Daniel 9:27. This is when the final Antichrist of the world will sign a peace treaty between himself and Israel. He makes a covenant for one week, or one seven, which is seven years. This false sense of peace will not last long. After the false peace is over in seal one, seal two unleashes a world wide war:
The seven year Tribulation is composed of seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls judgements in this chronological order, which I won’t discuss here but there is plenty of information available online.
4. The Mark of the Beast – Taking the Mark on your hand or forehead will mean that you are pledging your allegiance to the Antichrist (the first beast); the false prophet is the second beast and the spokesman for the first beast. You cannot accidentally take this Mark and if you do, you are doomed forever. You will end up in Hades and then eventually be thrown into the Lake of Fire for all of eternity. This page offers more info: https://jesuschrististheking.com/mark-of-the-beast/.
This is also midway through the Tribulation (3.5 years after the start) in which the Antichrist breaks the seven year covenant putting an end to Jewish sacrifices. It is called the “abomination of desolation.” He will put an image of himself to be worshipped in the temple and this is when no one can buy or sell without taking the Mark of the Beast. You will have to worship the Antichrist and this is when his real intentions are revealed.
5. End of Tribulation – The end of the Tribulation is when the seven-year Tribulation period is officially over. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ appears at this point in time. Though He is both Lion and Lamb, He will appear this time around not predominantly as a lamb that was sacrificed, but as a lion to avenge justice and win. He will come with His army of saints to defeat His enemies at the Battle of Armageddon. There is also a judgement of the sheep and goats to determine who will enter the Millennium. Only believers will enter the Millennium.
6. The Millennium will be a period of 1,000 years in which Christ and believers will reign with Him. It will be peaceful, holy, exhibit perfect justice, animals will be calm, etc. God will rule with a rod of iron. But, those who enter the period with their old bodies will have a sinful nature. They will have kids and their sinful nature will be passed down to them. Therefore, sin isn’t totally eradicated. Read more here: https://jesuschrististheking.com/sin-during-the-millennial-reign/.
7. The Great White Throne Judgement – This is when the unbelievers who were not found in the “Book of Life” will be judged for what they have done. As with the other events, there are many disagreements on who is actually judged during this event. Some think only believers will be judged during The Great White Throne Judgement. Some think both unbelievers and believers will be judged. For unbelievers, they didn’t put their faith in Christ so they won’t be forgiven of their sins and will ultimately be cast into the Lake of Fire for all of eternity.
As with Heaven, some people believe in different levels of torment. This is what I believe as it logically makes sense–God is just–and, more importantly, the Bible says these people will be judged according to what they had done. Unfortunately, the Bible indicates that most people will be going to the Lake of Fire. This verse is supporting evidence:
God is an infinitely loving God but He is also a God of justice and hates sin. If it wasn’t such a big deal to commit transgressions against God, why would He have had to send Jesus Christ to die for us? Why would He have had to send an infinite God in human flesh to die for the aggregation of our finite sins? He is a God of justice that doesn’t play games. He has plenty of mercy and grace along with a standard in which His creation needs to live by.
8. The New Heaven and New Earth – God will create a New Heaven and a New Earth. The old Heaven and Earth will pass away:
This is where believers will dwell with God forever. This place will be free from the curse of sin. There will be no more pain, death, tears, and so on. It will be absolutely incredible; words cannot describe how good it will be. The New Jerusalem will come down from Heaven; it will literally be Heaven on Earth. Here is a post about the New Heaven and New Earth:
What will the New Heaven and New Earth be like?
When people think of Heaven, they think of a cloud-filled place somewhere above and beyond this universe where there are angels, people singing and playing instruments such as harps, and complete tranquility exists. There are many misconceptions and circulated myths surrounding this topic. Humans have created their own versions of Heaven as with all of the other invented religions. They often don’t…
How close are we to the Tribulation?
With everything going on in the world right now and how all of this currently applies to our lives, there is the question: how close are we to the Tribulation?
One can make an educated guess–that could be wrong–based upon what is going on around the world.
Here is why the world as it is right now is leading up to the first four seals (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse)?
Note: this timeline doesn’t include all events such as the Battle of Gog and Magog.
All of these things are happening globally and converging at once:
1. There is an overall increase in problems (i.e., climate change, politics, economic, religious, moral decay, wars, pestilence, etc.). Someone needs to rise to power and save the world. How about the final Antichrist?
2. Rumors of wars and wars are intensifying (i.e., Israel vs. enemies, Iran vs. U.S., Russia vs. Ukraine, Russia vs. U.S., China vs. Taiwan, etc.).
3. The global debt is over 300 trillion and the U.S. dollar, the world’s reserve currency, is rapidly losing value. Revelation 6:6 indirectly discusses these types of global economic problems. Based on the third seal alone, we know we must not be too far away.
4. COVID-19 is still recent. Sure there have been pestilences all throughout history, but they are intensifying. Read Mark Hitchcock’s book, Corona Crisis: Plagues, Pandemics, and the Coming Apocalypse, if you want more information. Famine is also a problem with increasing global instability and a large global population. One-fourth of the Earth’s inhabitants will die during this fourth seal.
Thanks for reading this post!