Views of the End Times

I have always preached that context is important. As I have been going through the book Of revelation so far this has been on my mind. And then we go through the judgment of God on the earth I realize some context is important. I want to go through a bit of a timeline of events of the end times. Some important details to know as we move forward, and some different views on how people think this is all going to play out.

Over the years there have been considerable discussion over the timing of the events of the end times. Between when Jesus is going to come back and other things as well. People sometimes get so worked up over all of these things. I find it kind of funny sometimes when Christians are willing to die on a hill that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things and sometimes they do not know why, just that it is the way that they where always taught.

There is all this talk of beasts and seals and scrolls and it gets confusing sometimes but if you dig in with me we can learn a lot to apply to our lives through this. We are going to learn some big words today, overview a lot of information but in the end hopefully get a better understanding of the end times and how it could come to pass. But as a mentor once said to me we must remember to keep the main point the main point. We must remember that discussing timelines and getting into minutia is fun and we can learn a lot, we must also remember to find what the main point is, what the essentials are and not worry so much about the rest.

so what is the main point of the message today? When it comes to the timing of the end times we must remember these things. There is coming a time of great tribulation, one last chance for people to decide to follow Jesus or not. Satan will be allowed to wage war against the people of God and set himself up as a false messiah. Jesus is going to return for his children and raise them from the dead and bring with him those who lived through the trib. and reign for a time after which He will judge the living and the dead and set up His eternal Kingdom. Are you prepared to meet Him?

Consider this sermon like a mini bible college class. I feel this necessary before we go much further, because it should help clear things up a little bit.

Jesus and His Return

we go back for a bit to the 7 seal judgement that we went through last week. There is a theory out there that the 3 sets of seven judgments (seals, trumpets, bowls) all represent the same set of seven judgement.The end of each representing the coming of the kingdom of God. In the 7 seal judgement are the 7 trumpet and 7 bowl judgement. This does seem to make sense the way it is laid out.

As the scroll unrolls, it reveals more of the wrath of God that is being unveiled on earth. There is war escalating on every front till there is need for a peace maker. The events that will initiate the 7 years of judgement, the days of the wrath of the lamb. This is where we get into the timeline a little bit.

We go back to the book of Matthew and one of the things that Jesus said about the end times.

Matthew 24:3–4 CSB

While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus replied to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you.

So as we can see this is referring to the end times, the disciples where curious as top how it was all going to play out.

Matthew 24:5 CSB

For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many.

There will be many coming claiming to be the messiah, this will indicate the time of the end of the age is coming so. We have many people even now claiming to be modern do apostles who alone can interpret the will of God. Many will be and are deceived by these people.

Matthew 24:6–8 CSB

You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these events are the beginning of labor pains.

again more things to indicate the beginning of the end times.

Matthew 24:15 CSB

“So when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand),

This is something that we went through in the book of Daniel. Someone called the abomination of desolation. Satan will appear as a peace maker in a time when the world is seeking for peace and will deceive many, He will; claim to be the messiah and many will follow Him. This will be a time of great distress and great tribulation.

This is where we get the idea of the tribulation from. What most people believe to be a literal 7 year period of time that the world will go through the wrath and judgement of God while the false messiah will deceive the world and God’;s wrath will be sent down to force people to choose Him or choose death.

Daniel and other pl;aces speak of this great tribulation being a period of seven years. Whether this exactly 7 years of hell on earth or not People are divided. I believe it will be 7 years. but either way we start with the same thought.

The day of the Lord is coming, turn to Him today and follow Him for time is running out.

Pretribulational premillennialism

I made this little timeline for you guys.There is the church age, what we are in now. The great tribulation - yet to come. The Millennial Kingdom - 1000 year reign of Jesus on earth. The final Judgement of the whole earth. Eternity. These events are not really disputed, just the timing is.

Pretribulational Premillennialism. also called dispensational premill. Two big words here. This is a view that started to gain popularity in the 19th century.

They believe that Jesus will return silently for the church before the great tribulation in what has been called the rapture. Also He will return after the trib for his 1000 year reign. They believe that the rapture and the second coming of Jesus are two separate events. So Jesus will remove the Christians before the outpouring of His wrath on the earth as seen started in the 3 groups of seven judgement.

During this time many Jews will return to Jesus and will receive the land promised to them. This view holds to the idea that there are distinct promises for the nation of Israel as God’s chosen people.

This is a view that is commonly held by the BGC as well, or at least used to be held by most of it’s pastors and churches.

Historical premillennialism

Historical Premillenialism is similiar to the previous view but with a few differences in the timing of it all. Instead of Jesus coming before the tribulation for the saints and after the tribulation, they hold that Jesus is coming only after. There is this idea of the rapture that is a biblical thing that we get from the book of 1 Thes 4:16-17

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 CSB

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

The word rapture is not in the bible, but Rapture is a state or experience of being carried away. The English word comes from a Latin word, rapio, which means to seize or snatch in relation to an ecstasy of spirit or the actual removal from one place to another. In other words, it means to be carried away in spirit or in body. The Rapture of the church means the carrying away of the church from earth to heaven.

The word it is used to describe carries with it the same meaning though. We are promised that with a shout, a great command, with some great fanfare, Jesus and the angels will make a great announcement (likened to the announcement to the shepherds at Jesus arrival) and the dead in Christ will rise, then the Christians on earth will rise to meet Jesus in the air.

It is the timing of all of this that we cant seem to agree on. so we go back to our little timeline diagram. This historical view is not as much fun to think about. They hold that the Christians will remain on the earth during the great tribulation.

No where in the bible does it state that the followers of Jesus will escape tribulation.

They also tend to believe that the promises that are mentioned about Israel relate to the church as a whole. Other then that they are fairly similar. The tribulation being the wrath of God, one last chance for people, the millennial Kingdom and so on.

Amillennialism

If you believe in one of the previous two views, good. We can argue about when we go to see Jesus, but the end result is the same, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. There are two other views worth mentioning that I do not believe are biblical.

Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Bible Doctrine 1. Amillennialism

Those who are said to be reigning with Christ for the thousand years are Christians who have died and are already reigning with Christ in heaven. Christ’s reign in the millennium, according to this view, is not a bodily reign here on earth but rather the heavenly reign he spoke of when he said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”

So basically this present age that we are in now will continue to Jesus return when everyone will be raised. The believers to eternity, the non believers to face judgement.

But since the bible clearly states that there is going to be a future millennium then this vies is not valid. There are arguments for and against most of these but now is not the time for that.

postmillinnianism

According to this view the growth of the church will gradually increase as the gospel spreads and tribulation will slowly cease as more and more people come to Jesus.

Eventually most if not all of the world will have submitted to the gospel and a reign of peace will happen. There will eventually be a golden age (millennium) when the HS will reign in us and the world will be peaceful. Jesus will not be physically present. Eventually Jesus will return and the resurrection of the dead will happen.

Belief in this view tends to increase when revival happens and there is an absence of war and conflict. But this view seems mainly to be based on observation of the world around us and not on anything biblical.

So What?

Where do I stand? The two main views I believe are biblical are the historical and pretribulational view. I believe that there will be a literal 7 year time where the wrath of God will be poured out on the earth, I believe in a literal 1000 year reign of Christ on earth and a literal judgement of the living and the dead and the establishment of the eternal kingdom.

When it comes to timing of events, i am believing more and more that we will go through the tribulation. A post trib resurrection of the living and the dead in Christ seems to be what the Bible teaches. The last trumpet the bible talks about in Matt 24:31, 1 Thess 4:16 and 1 cor 15:51-52 (all passages that talk about the rapture) all seem to be the signal of the time of the millennium that we will go through at another date.

No silent rapture of the followers of Jesus, but a very public, and loud event that is going to happen. Does it matter if we as followers of Jesus dissapear before or after the tribulation? in the grand scheme of things not much, except a lot of hard times ahead either way.

I wanted to go through all of this stuff to help make sense of some of the things to come that we are going to go through. Lots of the following chapters of the book of Revelation are going to follow this timeline as far as we know. So to be less confusing, this is the timeline I will be basing the rest of revelation on. a Historical Premillennialist view.

But there are a few things we can learn from all of this information that I have thrown your way this morning. The basics that should change our lives.

The Tribulation

The tribulation is coming, it will be a terrible time and there are signs when it is coming near. You might believe that as a follower of Jesus you will not be here, that is okay I still love you. But there are those that will be here, there are those that will die without knowing Jesus.

What we can all agree on is this time of tribulation is God’s warning that His judgement is imminent and we must turn to Him. Our job stays the same. Get serious about your faith, get serious about telling others of your faith.

The Deceiver

During this time Satan personified, the abomination of desolation, the antichrist will arise and be set loos to wage war against the children of God. It is going to be a terrible time to be a follower of Jesus. Though we will escape the wrath of God we will not escape suffering. Find joy in Jesus that we are counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the gospel. Do not be deceived by anyone that comes to promise peace and sets themselves up to be a messiah.

There is only one messiah, only one savior God’s grace will not last forever, one day it will come to an end. For the follower of Jesus death is not the end, it is but the beginning, for the un believer, death is the end, it is to late then. do not be deceived.

The Glorious Kingdom

The promise of the new heaven and the new earth and reigning with Jesus for eternity is what we await, it is our eternal hope. It is why we can do what we do, why we rely on the strength of God. Because in the end as His followers we will be with Him for all eternity. Remember what it says in Rev 3:10 from the savior who himself has suffered more then any of us ever will.

Revelation 2:10 CSB

Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will experience affliction for ten days. Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.