I like to categorize this study as systematic Biblical Eschatology.
(Inspired by the Holy Ghost and by the apostolic fathers Bishop G.T. Haywood and Bishop R.P. Paddock)
(1). The Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 4:1-2)
The doctrine of the rapture of the church, or the catching away of the saints, with its promises of the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the translation of the living church, was a prominent feature in the church of the first century. Most scholars agree that the early church believed in the imminent return of the Lord and considered it a possibility that the Lord could come at any time. Such hope permeated apostolic thinking. In I and II Thessalonians, for instance, it is mentioned in every chapter.
Most of the epistles make some mention of the coming of the Lord and anticipate the end of the age. In introducing this subject, the apostle Paul stated, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (I Thessalonians 4:13). The hope of the catching away of the saints and the Lord’s return was a large factor in the faith of the early church. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (I Thessalonians 4:15-16). A threefold event will take place in connection with the resurrection of the dead in Christ. First, the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. This involves the descent of the Lord from the third heaven, or the immediate abode of God, into the atmospheric heaven. At His arrival on the earthly scene, the Lord will give “a shout.” The particular Greek word used for “shout” has the meaning of a military command.
Accompanying the shout of command that the Lord Himself issues will be the voice of the archangel, who is called Michael five times in the Scriptures. The voice of the archangel may be best interpreted as a shout of triumph. The voice of the command of the Lord is accompanied by the archangel’s voice of triumph. The third element in I Thessalonians 4:16 is the sounding of the trumpet of God. This trumpet has to do with the resurrection of the dead and the translation of the church and should not be confused with other trumpets in Scripture. The expression here, “the trump of God,” is a parallel to “the last trump” of I Corinthians 15:52, but it should not be confused with the trumpets of angels in Revelation 8:2-9:21 and 11:15-18.
This is a trumpet of God, a trumpet of grace, a trumpet of triumph, and a trumpet pertaining to the righteous dead and living saints. The trumpets of angels in Revelation, by contrast, are related to judgments poured out upon a Christ-rejecting world and signal various catastrophes in the future time of tribulation. They announce an entirely different aspect of the divine program. At the threefold event of the shout of the Lord, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Immediately following the resurrection of the dead in Christ, the living saints will be caught up together to meet the Lord with the resurrected. “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:17). The expression “caught up together” is the biblical source of the word rapture. Though often the word rapturemeans to be carried away with joy, here it refers to a bodily snatching up, that is, the bodily removal of the living church from the earth and meeting the Lord in the air.
(2). The Tribulation (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24; Revelation ch.6-19)
The literal interpretation of prophecy leads to the conclusion that there is a future time of trouble, called the Tribulation, that will be a major feature of the end time. Daniel’s prophecy of a period of seven years culminating Israel’s history provides the major structure of a period between the Rapture and the second coming of Christ to earth (Daniel 9:27). The Tribulation will consist of terrible trouble and destruction upon the earth, caused first by human sinfulness and then culminating in the judgments of God.
Both testaments speak of a powerful and evil ruler during this time of tribulation, a mysterious and terrible personage who shall be revealed in the last days. This person, whom the Bible calls the man of sin and the beast, will be the embodiment of human evil and wickedness. He is usually called the Antichrist in religious terminology today. At this time in history the world will be desperate for a leader, someone who will be great enough to gain the allegiance of all nations including Israel.
He will become the political, economical, and ecclesiastical autocrat of the world. He will talk peace and prosperity, appearing to be the savior of the world. His vast empire will be built on the ruins of shattered states and kingdoms. He will be Satan’s masterpiece, the beast who will rule the world, the superman for whom the world is waiting. By deception he will succeed in satisfying the world politically, economically, socially, and religiously.
Satan will exercise his final strategy by appealing to the human instincts for piety, prosperity, and power. The Antichrist will exist in the world and lay his plans before the translation of the church, but he will not be revealed until the church is translated (raptured) first. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. . . . even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish” (II Thessalonians 2:3, 9-10).
The reign of the Antichrist will begin the seventieth week of Daniel and continue until the end of this period: a duration of seven years. In the beginning of the seventieth week the Antichrist will confirm the Mosaic covenant with the Jews for seven years, allowing them to participate in their Temple worship and the Levitical sacrifices and oblations (Daniel 9:27). In the middle of the seventieth week, the Antichrist will break his covenant with the Jews and cause their Temple worship to cease (Isaiah 28:18; Daniel 9:27). Under the influence of Satan, he will exercise all of his diabolical activities against Israel and subject them to a time of great tribulation.
At the end of the seven-year period, this man of sin shall be “broken without hand,” that is, by divine judgment apart from human effort. Both the Antichrist and his false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire. “And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand” (Daniel 8:25). “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (II Thessalonians 2:8).
“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20). The Antichrist will have a mark of identification. “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). There is a definite command to count or to look for this number, and those who do so are wise. Numbers have occupied a prominent part in the Bible from the beginning. In some ancient languages the letters of the alphabet were numerals as well as letters. Numbers were denoted by letters.
The number of the Antichrist seems to be a symbol of his threefold power: political, ecclesiastical, and economical. He will have full temporal power over the entire earth. The number six is one short of the number seven, which is the number of perfection and absoluteness in Scripture. The Antichrist will rule politically over an earthly kingdom, which falls short of the divine. The Antichrist’s power will also be ecclesiastical.
By decree he will unite all religions throughout the world into one common belief or creed. He will be the supreme head and issue a decree demanding that the entire world worship him as a god. Again, his ecclesiastical power is earthly and falls short of the divine seven. Finally, the Antichrist’s power will be economical. Again, his power is material and earthly. He will be in full control of human affairs over the earth. The combination of these three qualities brings about completeness as far as the power of the earthly is concerned. Distant trusts and combinations of capital will merge into a federation of trusts, headed by the Antichrist.
This federation of trusts will extend to the whole world, and the buyer and the seller (the consumer and the merchant) will be powerless in the tenacles of this huge octopus. No one will be able to buy or sell who does not have the mark of the beast (666). This mark will be placed on the forehead or the right hand. Public officials will monitor business places to see that no one buys or sells unless he has the mark. The penalty of torture followed by death will be imposed on those who refuse. “He shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver” (Daniel 11:43). The world will come face to face with a person whose powers stagger the imagination.
"And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16).
Armageddon will be an unsurpassed holocaust that will break upon the world to give it the greatest bloodbath it has ever seen. Ever since the nation of Israel came into being, Satan’s purpose has been to exterminate the nation so there would be no earthly kingdom for the Messiah. To accomplish this, Satan will move nations against Israel and will bring organized military powers against the people of Israel.
Thus John, in his vision, saw the kings of the earth summoned and gathered to a place called Armageddon. What is going to happen will not merely be a battle in the sense of one isolated meeting of two armies. John described a military campaign that will consummate at Armageddon. Armageddon means the hill of Megiddo located east of Mount Carmel in the northern part of Canaan. From this hill a great extended plain stretches from the Mediterranean Sea eastward across the northern part of Canaan, encompassing Jezreel and Esdraelon. Napoleon called this plain the world’s most natural battlefield.
He said there was enough room for the armies of the world to maneuver. Joel 3:2, 13 describes this campaign: “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. . . . Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.” The Valley of Jehoshaphat is the portion of Canaan that stretches from Jerusalem over to the east of Jordan and then northward. It was the trade route from Jerusalem up to ancient Assyria in the north.
The campaign will reach from Armageddon on the north to the Valley of Jehoshaphat on the east. The meaning of Armageddon is revealing: “God has sown and God has scattered.” Who will be in this great campaign and what is the reason for this carnage? The purpose of Armageddon is fourfold.
1. To humble the nation of Israel.
2. To set in motion events that will fulfill the Abrahamic covenant for the nation of Israel.
3. To remove the scales of blindness from the eyes of the Jews so that they will accept Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.
Immediately following the campaign of Armageddon, the personal return of Jesus to earth as the Messiah will take place. His second coming will be sudden and instantaneous. “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:27).
The second coming of the Lord will be in bodily form and will be visible to all the world. “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” (Matthew 24:30). “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7).
The second coming of the Lord will result in judgment and destruction for those who resist Him (Isaiah 34:2; Zechariah 14:2-4; Jeremiah 25:33). At the second coming of the Lord, He will set up His kingdom on earth. The Scriptures teach that the return of Christ to this earth will occur in the same manner as He went. “And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10-11).
He went up bodily and visibly, and He shall come back in like manner. He went up in a cloud, and He will return in a cloud. His first advent was in the form of a servant, offering Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity; He will return in His second advent as a king to sit upon the throne of His glory at Jerusalem to rule and reign for a thousand years.
(4). The Millennial Reign of Christ (Isaiah 9:6-7; Zechariah 14:1; Revelation 20:1-3)
The word millenniumis a Latin compound meaning “thousand years,” and it is often used to denote the thousand-year reign of Christ upon the earth. The belief in the Millennium is also called chiliasm, from the Greek equivalent of the Latin word millennium. Revelation 20:1-7 reveals that our Lord will reign in the future with His saints over the earth for a thousand years.
Nearly all the Old Testament prophets foresaw such a golden age for the world, including the physical earth. Frequently this period is called “his days,” which the rabbinical expositors paraphrased as “the days of the Messiah.” The Book of Revelation uses the definite article “the” in the phrase “the thousand years,” indicating that this period was familiar to Christians as well as Jews, as the time of the Messiah’s glorious reign, called by our Lord and His apostles “the world to come” or the coming age.
The character of this coming age is clearly revealed in both testaments. It will consist of universal righteousness, peace, and blessedness. Peace in the animal world will be as evident as peace among humans. War will be abolished. Idolatry will end. Every false religion will be gone. According to Scripture, the Millennium will not begin until after the glorious return of Christ to this earth. In His Olivet discourse (Matthew 24), our Lord first showed what will precede His second coming in great power and glory: a world filled with evil and culminating in a great tribulation.
Then He showed what will follow His visible and glorious coming: He will sit upon the throne of His glory and judge the nations. Before the Millennium the following events will take place.
1. The rapture of the church (I Corinthians 15:51-54; I Thessalonians 4:16-18)
2. The great apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin, the son of perdition (II Thessalonians 2:3-10)
3. The Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21)
4. The glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ coming with His saints (Revelation 19:11-15)
5. The restoration and conversion of Israel (Isaiah 59:20; Romans 11:26; Matthew 23:39; Joel 3:11-21)
6. The judgment of the living nations (Matthew 25:31-46)
7. The destruction of the Antichrist and the false prophet (lI Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:20)
8. The binding of Satan (Revelation 20:1-3) The view we have described is called premillennialism. That is, the Second Coming will occur before the Millennium.
Some theologians teach that the Second Coming will occur after the Millennium (postmillennialism). Others teach that there will be no Millennium in the sense of a literal, personal reign of Christ upon earth; instead the “thousand years” is a figurative description of the church (amillennialism). These two views allegorize the prophecies of Scripture and attempt to evade the plain meaning of Revelation 20.
(5). The Binding and Loosing of Satan (Revelation 20:1-3)
At the close of the Millennium, the devil will be loosed for a short time to test the allegiance of the inhabitants of the earth. He will incite a great rebellion against God, which God will crush. Following his defeat will come the second resurrection and the last judgment.
(6). The Great White Throne of Judgement (Revelation 20:11-15)
The account of this final judgment is given in Revelation 20:11-13. It will take place at the close of the Millennium before the Great White Throne. The wicked or the ungodly will not be judged to see whether they are entitled to eternal life but to ascertain the degree of their punishment. The books will be opened, in which has been kept a record of every person’s life and works. People will be judged according to their works. Their punishment is the second death, which means the lake of fire forever. The fallen angels who are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness” will be judged at this time, which Jude calls “the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). When this judgment is over, the devil, his angels, and all the wicked will have been consigned to the lake of fire and the universe purged of all evil. Righteousness will reign supreme. The saints judge with Jesus the world and fallen angels at this time.
"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" (1 Corinthians 6:2, 3)
"But the Lord shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment." (Psalms 9:7)
"Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord." (Psalms 149:5-9)
(7). The New Heavens and New Earth (Isa.65:17; 2Pet.3:7, 10-14; Revelation 21:1-7)
At the end of the Millennium rain, the earth will have completed a time cycle of forty-two thousand years. This will be the end of the sixth day of creation. There are seven creative days in God's creative week. The Seventh Day is called, "God's day of Rest".
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." (Genesis 2:1-3)
God will bring in the seventh day by making all things new.
"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." (Isaiah 65:17-19)
"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." (Revelation 21:5)
He will make a New Earth and New Heavens that will be filled with righteousness
"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13)
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 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. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." (Revelation 21:1-5)
This is God's day of rest for him and his people (Gen.2:2; Heb.4:9)
David shall be king over the New Earth this will be his reward. Because David is apart of the Church our reward will be the same as his. The Church will be in the heavens ruling and reigning as kings just as David will on the New Earth. We will be kings but JESUS is the King of kings.
"And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people."(Ezekiel 37:24, 27)
"And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd." (Ezekiel 34:23)
"But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them." (Jeremiah 30:9)
"I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven." (Psalms 89:20, 29)
"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:" (Amos 9:11)
When the New Heavens and the New Earth appear we will have entered into God's heavenly kingdom in its fullness.
"And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." (Revelation 21:24)
Those of God's Heavenly Kingdom, the church shall reign not only on the earth (during the millennium) but when the Earth and Heavens are made New we shall reign on the other planets that will be planted with seed from the New Earth in that day. The Bible uses "world and "heavens" for planets.
"And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people." (Isaiah 51:16)
Enoch was the seventh from Adam. (Jude14) He was the type of the seventh day of creation. At 365 years of age He was translated. So those on the New Earth when they reach 365 years of age will be translated and planted on the other planets that God will then have made habitable by His fire of purification. They will live forever there and multiply and fill those planets and we of the heavenly kingdom (Church) will rule over them even as David will rule on the New Earth. This will complete God's family
"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:" (Ephesians 1:10)
"That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:7)
