When Jesus Returns

Last updated 10/2024

There are 4 possible views about how the prophecies in Revelation 4-19 will happen:

  1. Historicist – the prophecies are a record from the time of the Apostles, through now, until Jesus returns.
    • The view is that some prophecies have transpired, and others haven’t, and we’re actively seeing them unfolding.
  2. Preterist – the prophecies were forecasted to the author (around 70 AD), but have already been fulfilled.
    • The view is typically that all the prophecies have been fulfilled already, mostly with the fall of the Roman Empire.
    • Partial preterism believes some future prophecies still correspond to the future.
  3. Futurist – from our perspective, the prophecies are all future-tense.
    • The view typically implies the events are a hybrid of symbolic and literal, similar to Daniel’s prophecies.
  4. Spiritual – the prophecies are symbolic of spiritual events, and therefore have a general application.

However, none of the views can capture a complete perspective of Revelation.

  • Pure historicists have to explain how the prophecies apply, and many of the prophecies are symbolic enough that it’s difficult to discern exactly how they implement (especially if we’re in the middle of some of them).
  • Pure preterists must contend with the fact that Jesus has clearly not returned, and therefore God has given zero guidance or expectation after the Revelation of John.
  • Pure futurists would need to explain the strikingly similar comparisons posited by preterists.
  • Pure spiritualists would need to explain how the prophecies are uniquely specific in such a way that there’s not much practical use for most readers.
  • In practice, it’s a bit of all of them: God has a way of making rippled patterns reproduce themselves, first in the Roman Empire, then across history, and will culminate in the end with a grandiose finale.

The end of the world is coming soon, but needs some preparations first.

  • The focus in many Christian circles also often emphasizes the events in the middle of Revelation, but fails to capture the fullness of the end of it.

A few prophecies aren’t fulfilled yet

We need odd geopolitical circumstances:
  • We’re there, but not completely (Matthew 24:5-8).
  • Wars will intensify and risks of war will increase.
  • Famines and earthquakes are sporadic right now, but we’re waiting for more dramatic disasters, and more frequently.
  • People will feel very safe, even with the natural disasters happening, which will likely be from ubiquitous disaster-alleviating technology implemented everywhere (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

We would need to transition into a single world government:
  • It doesn’t need to be only one central leader, but there needs to be unity (Revelation 13:1-7, Daniel 7:16-24).
  • There’s plenty of in-fighting among nations right now.
  • To get to a shared government, all the world’s leaders would have to honor either some form of leftism or a tyrannical takeover.

Israel must be at peace with its neighbors:
  • That peace will prepare Israel for a strike they won’t see coming (Ezekiel 38-39).
  • Modern-day Iran will be part of a 10-nation alliance that will attack Israel (Psalm 83:1-8, Ezekiel 38:1-6).
  • Russia will be part of that alliance (Gog), but they’d need more military power to do it than they have right now.

A third Jewish temple hasn’t been made yet, but may be soon:
  • For the Antichrist to defile the Temple’s sacrifices, they would need to re-establish sacrifices in the Temple first (Ezekiel 37:26-28, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
  • The Temple Institute has recently birthed a red heifer necessary for temple rituals.
  • Right now, the Dome of the Rock is sitting right on top of where the Jewish Temple once was. Thus, it’s unclear how that would fulfill prophecy without making all of Islam unite against Israel.

We have seen plenty of false Christs in the past, but we don’t see an unusual number of them right now (Matthew 24:24).

The Jewish people haven’t seen their Messiah:
  • There’s a partial hardening of their hearts for the completion of the Gentiles’ salvation (Romans 11:25-26).
  • As of right now, there’s an evangelistic effort toward the Jews through groups like One For Israel.
  • Many Jews have come to believe they may have missed when their Messiah may have come, so they’re scouring all the old prophecies for Him.

At the same time, many prophecies have happened

As of 1948, Israel has been brought back as a nation:

The world is slowly trending toward leftism:

Many people will adopt a unified “mark” on the hand or forehead required for all financial transactions:

There are still decent people spread throughout society, so it’s not likely that we’re quite at the end yet:
  • The entire world will be a culturally homogenous group of awful people in the end times.
  • People will love themselves.
  • People will love money.
  • Conceited, self-absorbed people will constantly brag about themselves.
  • People will be abusive, unloving, and brutal.
  • People will be disobedient to their parents.
  • People will be ungrateful and hold grudges.
  • People will live unholy lives and hate good things.
  • People will betray others and lie to harm others’ reputations.
  • Unrestrained and reckless people will love pleasure more than God.
  • People will have a form of godliness, but deny any of its power.
  • Whenever possible, avoid those awful people and don’t even associate with or eat with them if they call themselves Christians.

Stay vigilant, since Jesus will come rapidly (Matthew 24:27).

When the end comes, we’ll all know

Prophecy is intentionally mysterious to anyone reading it before it happens, so don’t try to guess it.

However, we should use future prophecy as comfort that God already knew about it and has a plan already in motion.

It’s patently obvious that some predictions, like worldwide earthquakes, haven’t happened yet (Revelation 6:12).

Someone is coming who will work the Satan’s will:
  • They will have a tremendous capacity to influence (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).
  • This person or group will make peace with all the world leaders, who will trust him or it implicitly (Daniel 7:20, Revelation 6:1).
  • The Antichrist will make a significant peace treaty for seven years (Daniel 9:27).
  • During the tribulation, the Satan will demand worship from everyone and command fire from heaven (Revelation 13:13-14).
  • There will be an “abomination of desolation” in the holy place, likely the Temple (Matthew 24:15).
    • It might be robots performing the sacrifices, sacrificing a pig on the altar, or ceasing the rituals entirely.
  • Among all this, the Satan will establish Babylon again, with the institution of slavery established worldwide (Revelation 17).

At the same time, there can be local disasters:
  • There can be minor experiences that are awful, but there’s a high likelihood that those events are not a mark of the end.

Don’t push for the end times to happen faster:
  • The early Christians prayed for God to withhold His wrath.
  • If we’re being honest, we wouldn’t exist if Jesus had come in the year 500.
  • However, if we truly loved people like Christ does, we would wish as many people to be saved as possible (2 Peter 3:8-13).
  • Given

First, He’ll announce His coming

He’ll start by sending a series of 21 worldwide disasters:
  • The world will have never seen them before (Matthew 24:21, Daniel 9:24-27, Revelation 6-18).
  • Some people say these prophecies will fulfill over thousands of years, but it’ll more likely occur over seven years or decades.

From Revelation 6 to 18, the prophecies work down a simple sequence, which is likely chronological.

7 Seal Judgments, similar to how messengers sent notices:
  1. The world’s most powerful dictator (Horseman #1, crowned and with a bow, but no arrow)
  2. The world’s worst war (Horseman #2, with a large sword)
  3. The world’s worst economic disaster (Horseman #3, with a scale)
  4. The world’s worst death blow (Horseman #4, killing with sword/famine/death/animals)
  5. The world’s worst persecution (jumps to heaven, with the persecuted calling for justice)
  6. The world’s worst earthquake (where everyone asks the rocks to fall on them)
  7. The world’s worst moment of silence (a type of calm before the storm)

7 Trumpet Judgments, similar to the public announcements of a king coming:
  1. Hail and fire mixed with blood fall to the earth (likely meteors, which scorch 1/3 of the land)
  2. 1/3 of the oceans turn to blood (likely from a comet, destroying 1/3 of everything alive with it)
  3. 1/3 of the rivers turn to blood and many people die from it (likely from another comet, named Wormwood)
  4. 1/3 of the sun, moon, and stars are made dark, as well as a warning of the last 3 Trumpet Judgments (easily attainable by God via a permanent cloud cover)
  5. A large swarm of strange locusts that come from the ground (they’ll torment all non-Christians at this point for 5 months, lots of mystery to this prophecy)
  6. A large 200,000,000-strong army led by 4 angels (many predictors assume it’s a government, but that’s not likely, it’s worth noting everyone left is completely unrepentant)
  7. While many events seem to happen in heaven, the final Trumpet appears to be a tremendous storm with an announcement that Jesus is coming.

7 Bowl Judgments, similar to the imagery of God “pouring out His wrath” in many other passages:
  1. An epidemic on everyone who had the Satan’s mark
  2. The oceans turn completely to blood, and everything in it dies
  3. The bodies of fresh water turn completely to blood
  4. The sun burns people with severe heat
  5. The Satan’s kingdom becomes completely dark (they gnawed their tongues from the pain, so it could be a plague or pestilence as well)
  6. The Euphrates dries up, and 3 unclean spirits summon everyone on earth for a final battle
  7. A colossal earthquake levels most of the planet, with hailstones the size of boulders

Finally, Jesus will come back

Jesus will come back and defeat Babylon, the world, and Satan (Revelation 18-19).

God will throw Satan into hell (Revelation 20:1-3).

Many Christians believe Jesus will take up (rapture) all the Christians before the final times:
  • Historically, the Rapture is a relatively new theological concept, established in the 1830s.
  • Some people falsely attribute some passages to the rapture.
  • At the same time, the Bible explicitly clarifies believers won’t be present in the tribulation (Revelation 7:9-14).
  • At the very least, there’s evidence that the entire world as of the Great Earthquake knows of God’s wrath, but doesn’t repent (Revelation 6:15-17).
  • There’s not much evidence in the Bible for or against the Rapture.
    • Revelation doesn’t specify the world noticing Christians spirited out of the apocalypse, though they might be preoccupied with other end-times hardship.
  • Another possibility is that all professed Christians might be dead from persecution with the Fifth Seal.
    • If technology keeps developing and persecution intensifies before the Antichrist arrives, the world may successfully eradicate Christianity from the earth.

He will establish a New Kingdom:
  • Jesus will set up a New Israel based in Jerusalem that will last 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6).
  • Some people believe Israel has now become the Body of Christ (dispensationalism), but Scripture doesn’t support it and the theology hasn’t been updated to the geographical reality of Israel being re-established in 1948 (Romans 11:17-18).
  • Further, Israel is not completely irrelevant in the New Kingdom (Romans 11:23-24).

The Millennium isn’t the end

Finally, after the Millennium, several things will happen:

  1. Jesus will have a profoundly large battle with the Satan and everyone who was cast into hell (Revelation 20:7-10).
  2. There will be the largest court hearing in all creation, which will judge everyone not written in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:11-15).
  3. God will establish a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1-4).
  4. Lastly, the Bride of Christ will be fully revealed (Revelation 21:9-22:5, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Romans 14:10-12).