Eschatology – from Now to Eternity

Grace The rapture ends this dispensation 2 Th 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. 1 Co 15:51,52 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorrupt-ible, and we shall be changed.

Tribulation The beginning of the Lord’s Day Mat 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. Dan 9:27a And he will strengthen a covenant with the many for one heptad; and at the midpoint of the heptad he will stop sacrifice and grain offering. Dan 12:11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, one thousand two hundred and ninety days.

Great & Awesome Day of the Lord After the tribulation Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. Mat 24:29,30 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Judgment Sheep and goat nations judged. Mat 25:31,32 When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

1,000 year reign Tribulation martyrs reign with Christ Rev 20:4,6 Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Satan Loosed After 1,000 years Gog and Magog Rev 20:7-9 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

Great White Throne The rest of the dead are judged. Rev 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it . . . 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 . . . And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

New Heaven and Earth Israel’s kingdom is established Rev 21:1,3,27; 22:5 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. . . . 3 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. . . . 27 only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 22:5 And they shall reign forever and ever. Robert T. Hill

The rapture is the 1^st resurrection. 1 Th 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. So it is the next thing that will happen. 2 The 2:1-4 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ is now present. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.

Then the tribulation comes. Jer 30:3-7 For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 4 Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. 5 For thus says the Lord: “We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale? 7 Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Dan 9:24,27; 10:14; 11:31; 12:1; Zec 13:9; Mat 24:15-21.

At the end of the tribulation, those who were martyred for Christ will be raised. This is the first resurrection for those not in the body of Christ. Rev 20:4-6 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Then the judgment of the nations. Then the millennial reign of Christ. Then Satan is loosed from the pit and deceives the nations.

Then the 2^nd resurrection for all those not in the body of Christ takes place. Then the great white throne judgment takes place. Those not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire as well as Satan, Rev 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Then the new heavens and earth are established.