The Endtimes.org Project

Anyone can put their thoughts and speculations on the Internet, and thankfully we are still free to do that. (for now) However, we understand that it is difficult for anyone new to Endtimes prophecy to determine the credibility of a site like this one. Two things to help clarify:

• We aren’t selling some new speculative theory here. The content here agrees with commonly held evangelical beliefs about the Endtimes, in our own words and easy to read style. While it will be new to some, that doesn’t mean we invented any of it. Many of the subjects and interpretations here go back to the early church. 
• We have trained theologians in the project to make sure we aren’t drawing conclusions outside of the realm of good scholarship. (That doesn’t mean everyone will agree) Of course the subject of prophecy invites some speculation since we are trying to piece together a complex puzzle of prophetic writings and related events described in the bible. As Eschatology (the study of last things) isn’t considered a test of Orthodox Christianity, there is room to disagree.

Why does the study of Endtimes matter?

Many Christians don’t believe Endtimes prophecy is important or understandable. This is unfortunate and unbiblical. The Bible spends way too much time describing details of the coming Tribulation judgment and the future Kingdom of God for it to be unimportant or irrelevant. The idea that this has become irrelevant for any reason should raise all kinds of red flags.

The focus of the Endtimes is Judgement and the Kingdom of God. Acts 1:7 – “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” – The Jews wanted to know.

Hope and Courage

Hope and courage are important components of the christian life, and those things come from peace with God, and the knowledge and instruction found in the Bible. (Rom 10) Jesus expresses the importance of Hope in John 14 while revealing a unique future prophetic event – that he will come again and take believers to heaven. (The Rapture – more on this later)

John 14 – “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

Truth

Needless to say, this passage is NOT the whole story. There is a lot more. The study of Endtimes prophecy is not just to satisfy our curiosity. It isn’t about selling books – we have no books. It isn’t about making headlines with wild speculation.  It is about comfort of mind and spirit, and the strengthening of our faith coming from a more precise knowledge of what God is doing now and will do in the future. The alternative is despair or blind faith, neither of which are supported in scripture.

Urgency

The Bible does suggest an urgency in the imminent return of Christ who is coming in judgment. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. …For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. (Matt 24)

This urgency should give us a hopeful perspective on life, death, and our status in Christ. (Col 3:1) While the study of Endtimes prophecy is sometimes neglected in the churches, (especially when things seem rosey) we believe it to be a deeply important subject, both for believers and for those looking for answers. We have the answers! We know the future! The return of Jesus Christ is called The Second Coming, but it is also sometimes called The Blessed Hope. 

It Matters!

Faith – God is in control of the future

The Apostle Peter describes the utter destruction of this universe after the Millennial reign of Jesus the Messiah. We will expand on this. (Revelation 20-21)

2 Peter 3:10-12 – But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God

Our Biblical Worldview

We live in the age of science, and many of us grew up to consider bible prophecy as myth, myself included. A good friend of mine loved reading Nostradamus, and he often quoted to me excerpts. That seemed more exciting than anything I heard growing up about bible prophecy. (The problem was that I didn’t hear much at all, for reasons we will discuss) It seems obvious that Science still can’t answer the most simple questions people have about life and death. God is NOT dead, and by contrast, the bible does answer the most difficult questions of life. This is not a negative view of science, but complementary. Endtimes.org is not anti-science. It’s time to give the Judeo-Christian Bible another look!

The Revelation of God and the Ages of Man

As we will see, not only does the Bible indeed make predictions, it does so often in great detail. (Book of Revelation) Think of it as a story that is unfolded, as written, over 1500 years. The Endtimes story refers to people, places, events and purpose. It is a beautifully complex story, and purposely scary. It is a story of rescue and judgment. Some will be rescued and others judged. (John 3:16) (Rev 19) Careful — the God of the bible is nothing like Nostradamus. He isn’t a fortune teller and he doesn’t guess about anything. The God of the Bible is unique: He is the creator of the Universe, and yet he is the personal God that deals with all people intimately, knowing our thoughts and hearts. (Matt 7:23) According to the Bible (Job 38) he sits outside of time and space and knows the beginning from the end. He is the author of the Endtimes story, and he reveals it to us if we are careful and diligent.

The bible gives us the details of this vast story, with elements past, present and future. Those details give us insight into his plans for the culmination of this age and the meaning of the ages to come. We are living in the Christian age (The Times of the Gentiles) as shown below. There are two more ages to come.

The coming 7-year Tribulation period (in purple) is like an age, but best to think of it as the final week (7-years) of the current Christian age. It is the bookend — from the creation of the heavens and earth (the Universe) to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ the King!

After that…

1. The promised 1000 year Millennial reign of Jesus Christ (Revelation 20, Acts 1:6, 2 Samuel 7)
2. The New Heaven and New Earth – the Eternal State where God recreates the Universe (Revelation 21, 2 Pet 3:10)

Overview of the Biblical Ages

Endtimes prophecy depends on some understanding of the ages of biblical history. This visual should help.

Considering then that we have related texts over so large a period of time, it’s clear that no single book of the Bible can tell us everything we need to know about the Endtimes, although some books do contain large portions of Endtimes-related prophecy. The Endtimes warnings are woven through the whole Bible. By being careful to keep things in context, considering that the 66 books of the Bible were written over a period of 1500 years by various authors led by the Spirit of God, a consistent storyline can be built. NOTE: It is surely a mistake to start studying prophecy with the book of Revelation, like starting any book by reading the last chapter first, thus skipping the context of the Old Testament foundational ideas and prophecies. I don’t blame people for giving up when doing it that way. To avoid that, follow the Endtimes.org pages from left to right. The Book of Revelation is a book of Endtimes details. It can’t be understood correctly without some understanding of the foundational truths.

On Interpreting Prophecy

So, you may rightly ask “If Endtimes.org has things so systematically and structurally defined, why doesn’t everyone come to the same conclusion about prophecy and Endtimes?”

Great question, and not one that we can afford to disregard. To start, many readers of the Bible may not understand the points made above, that the study of Eschatology requires a deep reading of, at least, the relevant books and chapters of the Old Testament (OT) to piece things together. Secondly there is the issue of Interpretation. The subject of interpretation and how to understand biblical text is discussed in the next section and in the optional reading article called Hermeneutics. Basically, not all agree on how to interpret the prophetic texts of the Bible. We will go into this and give a historical overview. We will also think about and demonstrate how our conclusions about God’s covenant promises and purposes for Israel are critical to our Endtimes framework. That sounds confusing but it will unfold naturally.

The next section Background will show the foundational assumptions that lead to our conclusions.