What is going to happen according to end times prophecy?

Summing up, then, the subjects we have been considering, we have revealed to us the following: (1) The rapture of the church to heaven. (2) A temporary calm in the world, and the rising of a great leader of remarkable and comparatively peaceful success, who is rewarded with a crown ("a crown was given to him"). (3) The sealing of a remnant of Israel as servants of God, and their going forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom. (4) A parallel movement in the hardened Jews. Under the wing of the protecting power of Isa. 18, they enter into possession of their land, the temple is rebuilt, and ritual established. (5) Persecution and martyrdom of the remnant for the name of Jesus. (6) Cessation of the world's delusive peace, and the outbreak of wars and rumours of wars; but the end not yet. (7) The nations (western) come into a state of tumult and revolution with awful threatenings; society is alarmed, men's hearts failing them for fear. (8) Reconstitution of the Roman Empire in ten kingdoms, with Rome at the head. (9) The new power (the beast) confirms a covenant with the Jews for seven years. (10) The ten horns and the beast destroy the harlot (corrupt Christianity), utterly abandoning and ending Christianity, thus consummating the apostasy in the west. (11) The beast breaks his covenant with the Jews, abrogating the Jewish ritual, causing the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. This in the east is really the full consummation of the apostasy. The destruction of Christianity in the west, and Judaism in the east (10 and 11) prepare the way for "the man of sin." (12) Revelation of the man of sin — the antichrist and second beast of Rev. 13:11-18. (13) The gospel of the kingdom being preached in the whole world, the time of the end comes on. The accomplishment of the preaching being a matter of degree, the criterion which determines and characterises that time is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. (14) The great tribulation. (15) Complete subversion of all government and the Son of man is seen coming in the clouds with power and great glory (Matt. 24:30).

Based on the situation described above, the following events, then, will take place in connection with the appearing of Christ. This list is not complete and in some cases the precise sequence of events cannot be ascertained. However, the following list contains some of the major events in the order in which they are likely to take place (any comments or additions will be greatly appreciated).

Matt. 24. In this chapter we find the plain teaching of Jesus to His little flock of Jewish disciples. It is the same subject as the seven parables, only in plain words, not in parables. In the first few verses Jesus foretells the destruction of the Jewish temple — which, we all know, came literally to pass. He was seated on the Mount of Olives — the very spot where His feet shall stand when He comes to reign. The disciples came and enquired privately, “Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (or age)?” Now read carefully from the fourth to the last verse, and mark, there is not one thought of the world’s conversion. He foretells there will be false Christs — deceivers — wars, and rumours of wars — famines, pestilences, earth quakes — persecutions, sorrows, death — iniquity abounding, and the love of many waxing cold. And instead of the world receiving the gospel, it is preached for a witness; and then the end comes. Much has been fulfilled; and much in this chapter has yet to be fulfilled. Bear in mind, that all these words of Jesus were spoken to His Jewish disciples, and have special reference to what shall befall that nation. In the fifteenth verse He says to them, “When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso reads, let him understand,) then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains,” &c. This evidently proves that the temple at Jerusalem has to be rebuilt; for the abomination of desolation is to stand in the holy place. And if you read Dan. 12:11-13, and compare it with 9:27, you see the fearful act of the head of the Roman power, who causes the sacrifice and oblation to cease in the midst of the week — then mark when the abomination stands in the holy place. Then the words of Jesus will be most valuable to the godly Jews, who believe His testimony in that day. The moment they see this take place, they take it as the signal to escape. They have not even time to go into the house to fetch their clothes. Then takes place “the great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time — no, nor ever shall be.” The remnant who have escaped may count the days that are shortened, 1290 to 1260, or half a week of years. The angel, speaking to Daniel of these days, says, “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time: and at that time thy people (that is, the Jews) shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (12:1-2.) Clearly, then, the setting up of the abomination of desolation, and the time of tribulation, are both future. And in proof of this, our blessed Lord says, what will take place immediately after, the tribulation: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Ver. 29, 30.) Most certainly, then, all tribes of the earth are not converted; or why do they mourn when Jesus comes? Jesus says, “Verily I say to you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” How remarkably this is so before our very eyes! Though scattered among all nations, the generation or race of the Jews still exists, and waits the fulfilment of all these things. The Lord then goes on to state, “As the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” Oh, what a solemn thought, that this world is to go on eating and drinking — rejecting Christ, just as the world despised the preaching of Noah, “and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be!” The most solemn warnings to watch and be ready are then given: “for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man comes.” Terrible will be the doom of that servant who shall say in his heart, My Lord delays his coming. Yes, he calls Him, “My Lord;” but his portion will be with the hypocrites, “where there in weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” Such are the solemn words of the Son of God. Oh! that my reader may be awakened to the solemn enquiry, Am I ready, and waiting for the Lord?

After the catching up of the Church, God will resume His dealings with Israel, and a selected sealed company will be entrusted with "the gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 24:14), to proclaim it to the millions who have not heard the gospel of the grace of God. Then will come the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), when the abomination of desolation will be set up in the holy place (Matt. 24:15; Dan. 12:11), when Antichrist will sit as God in the temple and will demand universal worship (2 Thess. 2:4; Dan. 11:30-39), the head of a world-wide religious-political-commercial syndicate (Rev. 13:18). The persecution to which the godly remnant of the Jews will be subjected will be so severe that God will intervene about seven years after the rapture of the Church (Dan. 9:27), and will shorten the tribulation for the elect's sake. Then the Lord will come as a thief in the night with myriads of His saints to the Mount of Olives, and Antichrist will be destroyed with the brightness of His coming, and the Devil will be chained. Then the Lord will set up His kingdom in display on earth by a judgment of the living nations, when He will separate the sheep from the goats according to the way they will have treated His Jewish messengers (Matt. 25:31-46). That judgment has no reference whatsoever to Christendom or the gospel of the present dispensation. After the earth has been purified the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, and will establish His millennial kingdom, and will reign in equity for a thousand years.

The Gentile nations, given up to delusion, at least those included within the precincts of the fourth great empire, that of Rome, having been long accustomed to the form of godliness without the power, now — the true church being gone to heaven — throw aside the very name of Christ, and receive in his stead that great enemy, that proud and self-willed defier of God, "the man of sin," "antichrist," "the son of perdition," who compels, or seeks to compel, all to worship him, and receive a mark in their foreheads and in their hands. Those who refuse, he slays; those who worship him, have to drink of the wine of the wrath of God without mixture. Certainly, amongst the Jews, and probably amongst the Gentiles, there will be some, but among the Jews many, whose hearts God will have so touched, that they will steadily refuse to worship the Beast or his image, and many of them will be by him destroyed. Others will, through attention to our Lord's warning in Matt. 24:15, etc., flee when they see the sign there spoken of, and will escape. It will be a time of tribulation, such as there never was from the beginning of the world, nor ever will be afterwards. Eventually, the Jews being trodden down and oppressed in Jerusalem and Judea, all nations being gathered against Jerusalem to battle, in the very utmost extremity of their distress, when there seems no hope, but that they will be completely swallowed up, suddenly "as lightning," the Son of Man will appear, attended by all his saints; the man of sin will be destroyed by the brightness of his appearing; the armies assembled around Jerusalem will be cut off, and the poor oppressed Jews will be delivered out of the hand of their enemies.

During the first three-and-a-half years of this tribulation period, God's providential judgements will fall upon the earth (famine, wars, etc., Rev. 6ff.). The last three-and-a-half years will be much worse – a time of unparalleled trouble: ‘For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be' (Matt. 24:21). This is the great tribulation. This second half-week is spoken of as three-and-a-half years (or ‘times'), as 42 months, and as 1,260 days in Revelation 11–13 etc. Oppression will come from the Jewish ‘antichrist' and from the government of the re-established Roman Empire (the first ‘beast' of Rev. 13). In addition to this, God's direct judgments fall upon the earth (see Rev. 6-19).

Then will dawn the day of the greatest glory for the world. Of course, I am not speaking of the cross; for there is no exaltation Christ will ever have given Him that can be compared with the real, deep glory of His death. It has as it were put it into the power of God to show mercy according to His own heart; and therefore there is not a single joy of the millennium but what will flow from the cross of Jesus. Nay, it has eternal consequences, and not for the millennium only. But the age to come, or millennium, while very important, and a time of wonderful blessing, will be imperfect. And for this reason: there will be men still in their natural bodies upon the earth, many of whom will be unconverted. Accordingly, this chapter shows us that, after the termination of the thousand years, "Satan will be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together unto the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea" (verses 7, 8). We do not read this in the Old Testament; for as it does not intimate the close of the reign, so neither does it show us the epoch when Satan will be let loose. The terms in which the judgment upon the evil one is spoken of there might be construed into a single stroke, which made an end of the matter,

The day of the Lord will end as it began, viz., in judgment. It seems strange to speak of judg ment after a blissful reign of a thousand years, during which the presence of the Lord in glory ought to have captivated every human heart. Yet so it is. It would be a great mistake to take for granted that the whole race of men will be converted during the millennium. Some out of all nations will be, no doubt, and the whole of the Jewish people, according as it is written, "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, or every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more." Or again, "As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain" (Jer. 31. ; Isa. 66). Yet the mass of the Gentiles will remain unregenerate, subdued in presence of the King's power and glory, but not born of God. Satan, who shall have been bound and cast into the bottomless pit, and all that time powerless to tempt them, will regain his hold upon them as soon as he is loosed from his prison. His power of seduction will be then greater than ever, if possible, and he will lead them to open rebellion just as he had done at the beginning of the day of the Lord. There will be this difference, however, that at the beginning he leads men against the Lord in person, and the Lord destroys them with the sharp sword that goeth out of His mouth, as we see in Rev. 19. ; whereas, at the end, He leads them against the camp of the saints round about, and the beloved city (Jerusalem), and then and there they are destroyed., not by the Lord in person, but by fire coming down from God out of heaven (Rev. 20). Thereby will all the ungodly be devoured, and their final destiny will be settled by the great white throne before which all the dead of all times are to appear, for the hearing of their condemnation. Here "the dead" are those who have departed this world without saving faith, "the dead in Christ" having all been previously raised, raised before the reign of a thousand years, to be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4. ; Rev. 20). The very heavens and earth, as we know them, will pass away and be melted by fire, by reason of their having been polluted by the presence of Satan and his angelic hosts above, and of Satan and his human hosts on earth.

Then the heavens and the earth will flee from the face of Him who sits on the great white throne; the second resurrection, that of the wicked dead, will take place; the books will be opened and the final phase of judgment will be carried through; the new heaven and the new earth will appear in all their new creation beauty at His word—the old order of things will have passed away for ever. He who will sit upon the earth will say, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Then all things in heaven and on earth will be literally and absolutely headed up in Christ—a blissful eternal state, a scene of new creation, in which there will be— “No thorns to wound, no toil to mar our rest.”

It will, therefore, be a scene of awful and impressive grandeur; for it will be the "appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13) — God's public display in His own glory of the One who was once rejected and crucified, but who now returns as the Son of man to take up the sovereignty of the whole world. And them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him (1 Thess. 4:14), associated in glory with their Lord, as they were once associated with Him in His rejection; for He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that have believed. (2 Thess. 1:10.)