The Last Days
Author
The end of the world. It’s been a question in the heart of man for millennia. We all want to know how much longer we have – and what will happen at the end of days.
The threat of nuclear war menaced the world during the second half of the 20th century as the United States and the U.S.S.R. aimed warheads at each other. That threat hasn’t entirely disappeared: Iran works to develop its nuclear program with a stated desire to destroy Israel. “The whole world is festering with unhappy souls,” as the Kingston Trio sang to us in 1959, ending their song “The Merry Minuet” with “They’re rioting in Africa; There’s strife in Iran; What nature doesn’t do to us; Will be done by our fellow man.”1 Things certainly haven’t changed that much in the past six decades.
Despite the terror of human warfare, though, God Himself will be the One to end this world. Both the Old and New Testaments tell us that the LORD2 will roll it all up like a scroll. That will be a sight to watch, because it won’t just mean the end of our planet, but the end of the entire universe:
And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
Isaiah 34:4
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Revelation 6:14
After this, the LORD will present us with the eternal and incorruptible new Heavens and Earth, where those whose sins have been forgiven will dwell with Him forever.
Revelation 7:17 tells us that we will no longer hunger and thirst, because the Lamb of God will lead us to water and feed us. The Lord will make sure we have all we need.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Revelation 7:16-17
…And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4
That’s the grand ending to the vast story of our world – and yet we know that it’s simply the beginning of another story, a story with no end.
Between now and then, though, what will happen? The climax of all history centered around a hill in Judea nearly 2000 years ago, when the Son of God gave His life and died on a Roman cross. He then rose again from the dead to defeat death for us all. That astounding series of events changed all of history and split time in half. We’re now approaching another dramatic period in the history of Earth, one that Jesus warned us would be the worst of all times the world has ever known. In fact, He said that if that time were not cut short, nobody would survive.
Eschatology
If you decide to watch my six part series, End Times Scenario,3 we will undertake a study of eschatology, the area of theology concerned with the scholarship of last things, the events that take place as we approach the end of the world. We cannot know the answer to these questions by just looking around us. They are described to us in advance by divine revelation. We will be pursuing the Word of God as the authority in these matters, and we always want to take on these studies under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We need to solicit His guidance – for each one of us – as we set out on this journey. Wherever we are, let’s take a moment to bow our hearts before the King of Eternity:
Father, thank You for who You are and for providing this opportunity to explore Your Word. We ask that the Holy Spirit guide us in this study and give us discernment that we might be effective for You, that we each might grow in grace and the knowledge of our Savior, that we might be more pleasing in Your sight as we commit ourselves and this study into Your hands, in the name of Yeshua, our coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Eschatology is simply the study of last things, and in order to develop a solid model of what is going to happen, we need to have a grasp of what the entire Bible says.
I don’t like to play favorites: I’ll usually find something to offend everyone. We’ll be sailing unabashedly into turbulent waters, and this study requires that we all be students who can think critically for ourselves. Thinking critically, however, requires knowledge. The secret is to rely on the entire counsel of God – the entire Bible. We can’t just pick and choose the verses that we like best and ignore the rest. We need to have a grasp of the entire picture, and that takes dedication.
Throughout my years, I have discovered that the 66 books of the Bible, written by at least 40 authors over the course of thousands of years, are an integrated message from God Himself. They’re not 66 books with chaotic views of God, different ideas by scattered philosophical men. Together they make up one book, one complete message, and we can understand confusing passages in one part of the Bible by reading another part. There are descriptions in the New Testament that are fulfillments of truths in the Old Testament, and there are stories in the Old Testament that finally make sense in the light of events in the New Testament. It’s one story from beginning to end.
We find an example of this in John 3. When Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, He refers to the brazen serpent that Moses held up in the desert in Numbers 21. The Israelites were dying from snake bites, but the LORD said that they would be healed if they looked up at the brazen serpent that Moses made. At first look, it makes little sense that God would have Moses form a serpent out of brass4 to bring healing to the Israelites, because the serpent was a cursed object that represented sin and Satan. Yet, we learn in the New Testament that Jesus was made to be sin for us,5 and when He was crucified and held up on that cross, He took our sin on Himself. The brazen serpent represented Jesus all along, and Jesus makes that connection for us in John 3:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:14-15
I get weary of people who say we can’t prove the Bible. Yes we can! The Bible is filled to the rim – and overflowing – with prophecies that come true! I’m convinced that every word, every place name, every number written in the original manuscripts was placed there by God’s careful design. We read the books of the Bible and notice that each writer had his own style, his own focus, and yet the work of the Holy Spirit becomes clear as we study the scriptures in depth. Old Testament passages contain many hundreds of specific details that were fulfilled during Christ’s ministry.6 Psalm 22, written by King David centuries before Christ, reads like a description given by Jesus as He hung on the cross. Isaiah 53 explains 700 years in advance why Jesus had to die. As Jesus said:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Matthew 5:17
The Old Testament tells us in advance that the Messiah would be of David’s family and born of a virgin.7 He’d be born in Bethlehem, but would live in Galilee of the Gentiles.8 In fact, His mission would include the Gentiles.9 His ministry would be one of healing.10 He would teach through parables.11 He’d be disbelieved and rejected by his own people.12 He’d die like a pure sacrificial lamb to pay for our sins,13 but He’d rise from the dead to be glorified.14 His death and resurrection would be followed by the destruction of Jerusalem.15 These things are all found in the Old Testament.
This leads to a second discovery: the origin of the Bible’s message had to initiate from outside the dimensionality of time. The Bible describes history before it happens. Since God has the technology to create us in the first place, He certainly has the technology to get a message to us through His prophets.
How did God authenticate His message? How can we know that the set of books we call the Word of God really originated from Him? He did this by demonstrating in the Bible an attribute that He alone possesses. He exists outside of time, and He alone sees the end from the beginning. That’s how He established the integrity of the Bible’s design, by giving us information in advance:
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Isaiah 46:9-10
People tend to think that the Bible gives general prophecies, but I find they are exceptionally precise. One of my favorite exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees takes place in Matthew 22. Let’s look at it briefly:
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Matthew 22:41-46
The Pharisees knew the Old Testament. They knew that the Messiah would be the descendant of David. In Matthew 22, however, Jesus challenges them by quoting Psalm 110:1, because they didn’t understand the full nature of the Messiah. He says, “If David calls him ‘Lord,’ then how can He be his son?” Jesus isn’t denying that the Messiah descends from David – because the Old Testament makes that clear – but He’s taking the opportunity to challenge the self-important ‘lawyers.’ He’s prying up the weak boards of their understanding: they hadn’t ever caught onto the fact that the Messiah would be greater than David, because He was also the Son of God. The question leaves them befuddled, and I love the next verse: nobody dared ask Jesus any questions after that.
This verse in Psalm 110 doesn’t outright say, “The Messiah will be the Son of God.” It doesn’t blurt that out, but David understood by the Holy Spirit that the Messiah would be greater than he was – greater than His own ancestor. David called the Messiah his Lord, and it’s these small but precise details that fill the Old Testament like hidden treasures.
Feel free to challenge me and seek these things out for yourself. One of the trademarks of my studies has been the verse Acts 17:11. This is the verse that warns us not to accept something simply because some teacher says it. We are all responsible to be like the Bereans, who were considered noble because they were ready to believe the teachings of Paul, but they also searched the scriptures diligently to make sure the things that Paul said were correct. Don’t agree with me just because I say something. Hunt it down for yourselves and make your own decisions.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Acts 17:11
I always thought that the point of this verse was the search – the importance of reading the scriptures daily. In recent years, I’ve realized that the bigger challenge is to approach the Word of God with an openness of mind, ready to understand it according to the original intent of the Holy Spirit. We all fall victim to our presuppositions, and we need to be careful. I’m not here to sell any one viewpoint. My goal here is to map out the terrain, to provide a background and to equip you to be what I’d call a “self-feeder.” I will provide you with my reasons for coming to certain positions on difficult issues, but I want you to be able to come to your own conclusions.
You and I live in a blessed generation. The Word of God is more available to us than it’s ever been in the history of mankind. We can look up the Hebrew or the Greek of a passage without knowing Hebrew or Greek. We have software applications (many free of charge) that allow us to click on any word in a verse and find it in the original language, complete with its part of speech and alternate definitions. We can carry five or six bibles in our phone in various versions, both text and audio. We can search and find desired verses within moments, accomplishing in 20 minutes today what once took long hours of study. We have what people throughout history (and many other countries today) would die for – the Word of God in our hands, more readily accessible than ever before. Woe to us if we take this incredible gift for granted and fail to take advantage!
We start the End Times Scenario, the study of end times prophecy, by examining a foundational piece of material called “Daniel’s 70 Weeks.” It will be a review for most who have been involved in my Bible studies for any amount time, but it’s important in understanding the roadmap we’re using as we start this journey. Jesus gives His insider disciples – Peter, James, John, and Andrew – a confidential briefing in which He points to Daniel 9, and we’ll talk about its scope and the role of the chapter’s last four verses. That’s my springboard.
From there on, we discuss the Rapture of the Church and its implications. We’ll examine the situation of the saints who go through the Tribulation, the nature of the Antichrist, and the Second Coming of Christ. Finally, we look at the Millennial Reign of Christ and the end of Earth as God prepares to roll out the New Heavens and the New Earth.
As we take on the study of these things, we should regularly bring our questions before the Throne of the universe. God alone knows the final answers to every question, and we need to seek the Lord’s guidance. In John, Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things, and John extends that to us – if we are truly led by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.16 The answers we seek might not appear to us immediately in the next 10 seconds. Sometimes, the Lord allows us to wrestle and research and hunt, but when we prayerfully search the scriptures with a heart to find the truth, God has a way of opening our understanding and bringing clarity to questions that were once painfully confusing.
I recommend that you keep a journal of questions, and as you find answers to those questions, write them down along with the clarifying verses. That private journal will allow you to keep track of your footprints as the Holy Spirit has led you through rocky terrain. Every time you find an apparent contradiction, every time you find a verse that makes no sense, put Jesus right in the middle of it and see what happens.
The important truths of the Bible are simple, and they are repeated over and over in case we weren’t paying attention. There’s nothing complicated about the Gospel. We are sinners condemned to die for our sins, and Jesus Christ the Son of God died in our place to take our punishment. He took our sins and gave us His righteousness, so that we could be received into the presence of God as sons and daughters. That’s an easy concept to understand, even though it’s difficult to grasp how a great God could love us so much. Any uneducated person on the street can understand, “Jesus took our punishment so God could forgive us,” and God doesn’t make it complicated. Paul spells out the Gospel in very straightforward terms in 1 Corinthians 15:
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
There you have it. Salvation is readily available to anybody who sincerely seeks God’s forgiveness.
However, the Bible has something for everybody, with intellectual treasures deep enough to satisfy even the greatest scholars on Earth. There are deep puzzles in the Bible that take time and patience to unravel. What are the spinning wheels in Ezekiel 1 and 10 all about? What spiritual gifts has God given each of us? What does the mark of the Beast mean? It takes wisdom to understand it, according to Revelation:
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 13:18
What does that mean? I haven’t found a single person who has the undeniable answer on that one. Finding out the truth isn’t always trivial.
I do recommend that you have your Bible handy as you begin this series. This is meant to be a tool to help you walk through the major subjects involved in the end times, but there will be moments when you just have to stop and read the pertinent chapters of the Bible themselves. It’s always best to go to the source.
There’s another aspect to it too. We can be Bible verse junkies, but it’s important to lift our heads, look around us and see where we are in the world. We have the job of putting shoe leather to our faith. After we’ve learned what the Bible says, we need to learn how apply it to our lives and the world around us.
With that, go to KHouse TV on your PC (or app on your smart device/TV), and stream the freely available six hour series, End Times Scenario, or purchase to own on DVD, or digital download, from our online store.
Notes:
1 The Kingston Trio, An Evening With The Kingston Trio, “The Merry Minuet,” Folk Era Records, 1988. [They note, in this concert recording, that the lyrics were written in 1949 and have not needed to be changed.]
2 In this article, as in the King James Old Testament, the name “LORD” in all capitals is meant to represent the unpronounceable name of God, YHWH. On the other hand, the term “lord” means “ruler” or “master” – the one with the authority and power. Thus, the LORD is indeed the Lord.
3 End Times Scenario is available for purchase from our store, or free on-demand on KHouse TV.
4 Some translations say ”bronze”.
5 2 Corinthians 5:21.
6 Koinonia House offers a variety of easy-to-digest books that examine the prophecies fulfilled by Jesus Christ. For example, see our studies Footprints of the Messiah, The Feasts of Israel, and Beyond Coincidence.
7 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:30-33.
8 Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:4-6; Isaiah 9:1-7.
9 Isaiah 11:10, 42:1-6, 49:6; Malachi 1:11
10 Isaiah 61:1-3; Hosea 6:1; Malachi 4:2.
11 Psalm 78:1-2.
12 Psalm 118:22,23; Matthew 21:42; Isaiah 53:3; John 1:10-11.
13 Hebrews 10 explains in detail that the Old Testament sacrificial system always pointed to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. The Passover, Yom Kippur, the sacrifices of Exodus and Leviticus all prepared the Israelites to understand the sacrifice that Jesus made. King David and Isaiah recognized this: Psalm 40:6-7, Isaiah 53.
14 Isaiah 53:12.
15 Daniel 9:26.
16 John 14:26; 1 John 2:27.