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er the series of articles I did on this topic, I am going to go ahead and do a summary outline on the main events and the possible order in which they will occur.
I will not be stating any Scripture verses. This will all just be put into an outline form so you can have, at a quick glance, all of the major events that will be occurring leading up to Jesus’ second coming to our earth.
The best way to break up all of these events is to list all of the events that will be occurring before the 7 year Tribulation starts, all of the events that will be occurring during the Tribulation, and then all of the events that will occur after the Tribulation. Once the Tribulation starts, we know we have exactly 7 years before Jesus comes back.
Main Events That Will Occur
Before the Tribulation
1. Restoration of the State of Israel
The Jewish people return to the land of Israel and re-establish it as a state. This sign has already come to pass and it occurred on 5/14/48. The city of Jerusalem was then regained by the Jewish people on 6/7/67.
2. Miscellaneous Signs
Jesus Himself tells us that the following signs will occur as we approach the end times.
a) Perilous times will come.
b) False Christs and false prophets will arise.
c) Wars and rumors of wars.
d) Nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom.
e) Famines, pestilences and earthquakes.
f) Lawlessness and immorality will abound.
g) Love of many will grow cold.
h) Christians will depart from the faith giving heed to doctrines of demons.
i) Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, unholy, proud, boasters, blasphemers, unloving, disobedient to parents, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, traitors, headstrong, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and unthankful.
3. Rise of the Antichrist, False Prophet and a 10 Nation Confederacy From Which They Will Rule This Earth From.
4. Rise of the City of Babylon
5. Russia and Her Allies Will Invade Israel. God Will Then Supernaturally Destroy This Invading Army.
Main Events That Will Occur
During the 7 Year Tribulation
1. The Antichrist Establishes a Peace Treaty and a Covenant with Israel
2. The Jewish Temple is Rebuilt
3. God’s Counterbalances:
- The 2 Witnesses
- 144,000 Jewish Witnesses
- Major Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
- Angel of the Everlasting Gospel allowed to preach the gospel
4. The Antichrist Will Destroy the City of Babylon
5. A War in Heaven Breaks Out
St. Michael the Archangel and his angels cast Satan out of the second heaven and onto the earth. The Devil becomes furious when this event occurs because he knows that his time is short.
6. The Abomination of Desolation
Three and half years into the Tribulation, the Antichrist will break his peace treaty with Israel, seat himself up in their rebuilt temple and proclaim himself to be God.
7. The 7 Seal Judgments
These 7 judgments will probably occur during the first half of the Tribulation. They are as follows:
a) The Antichrist will be released and allowed to set out to conquer the earth.
b) The Antichrist will be allowed to take peace from the earth and cause many people to kill one another.
c) The Antichrist will cause slave labor conditions to exist where people will be working for minimum pay just to be able to buy enough food for a day.
d) The martyrs will cry out to God in heaven to avenge their deaths. God says to wait just a little while longer.
e) God causes a great earthquake to hit the earth, causing every mountain and every island to move out of its place. He also causes the sun to turn black and the moon to look like blood.
f) There is silence in heaven for a half an hour. An angel offers the prayers of God’s people to Him to avenge them.
8. The 7 Trumpet Judgments
These 7 judgments will occur during the middle to latter part of the Tribulation. They are as follows:
a) God rains down hail and fire upon the earth – burning up one third of the trees and all of the green grass.
b) God releases a meteor into the sea turning one third of the sea into blood, killing one-third of all living creatures in the sea and destroying one third of the ships that are on the sea.
c) God releases another meteor, hitting one third of the rivers and springs, causing contamination of the water and many men to die.
d) God strikes a third of the sun, a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that they give no light. This causes a third of the day not to shine.
e) The bottomless pit is allowed to open up releasing a huge swarm of locusts to attack all the people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. They are not allowed to kill these people, but to just torment them with their bite. These people will be seeking death and will not be able to find it.
f) 4 demonic angels are released from the Euphrates river to kill a third of mankind. These 4 demonic angels will lead an army of 200 million demonic spirits to carry out this mass slaughter of humans.
g) Heaven is now beginning to rejoice because God is releasing His wrath upon the wicked on the earth and extracting His vengeance. God then releases more lightnings, another earthquake and more great hail upon the earth.
9. The 7 Bowl Judgments
These 7 judgments will occur during the latter part of the Tribulation. They are as follows:
a) God causes loathsome sores to fall upon those who have the mark of the Beast.
b) God causes the entire sea waters to become blood – killing every living creature in the seas.
c) God causes all the rivers and springs to turn into blood.
d) God causes the heat from the sun to scorch men with great heat and fire.
e) God causes total darkness to fall upon the kingdom of the Antichrist.
f) The Euphrates river is allowed to dry up so as to prepare the way for the kings of the east to come to the battle of Armageddon. Then 3 demonic spirits are released from the mouths of the Antichrist and False Prophet and they go out to all the kings of the earth to bring all of them to the battle of Armageddon.
g) God causes the greatest and most severe earthquake to hit the earth. The city of Babylon is completely finished off and swallowed up whole. This earthquake causes all of the islands to flee away and all of the mountains to be no longer found. God then rains down great hailstones weighing 135 pounds each. God then says: “It is done.”
10. The Battle of Armageddon
All the nations of the world come against Jerusalem. Half of the city will go into captivity, houses will be rifled and the women ravished. Then deliverance comes!
Main Events That Will Occur
After the Tribulation
1. The Second Coming of Jesus
Immediately following the Tribulation and right in the middle of the battle of Armageddon, Jesus literally descends from heaven where every eye will be able to see Him. Jesus will land on the Mount of Olives and He will then destroy all of the invading armies who have come against Jerusalem. Their flesh will dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes will dissolve in their sockets and their tongues will dissolve in their mouths.
Jesus then throws the Antichrist and False Prophet into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone. Jesus then throws Satan into the bottomless pit where he is kept chained up for a 1000 years. The rest of unsaved humanity is kept in Hades (Hell) until the 1000 Millennium Kingdom is over.
2. The Millennium Kingdom
Jesus will literally rule our earth from the city of Jerusalem for 1000 years with all of the saints ruling the nations of the earth with Him. There will be no more wars ever again. Wild animals and beasts will be tame. People will live long lives – possibly up to a 1000 years. There will be no more weeping or crying.
3. Satan is Let Loose One More Time
After the 1000 years have passed in the Millennium Kingdom, Satan is let loose from the bottomless pit for a little while in order to go out and attempt to deceive the nations of the world for one last time. God allows Satan to tempt and weed out the restless bad apples that were born into the Millennium Kingdom. They will all converge on the city of Jerusalem to go into battle.
Before any battle is fought, God will destroy this invading army with fire. Satan is then cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where he will now join the Antichrist and False Prophet. All three of them will now remain in this place forever and ever and we will never hear from the devil again.
4. The Great White Throne Judgment
All of unsaved humanity is now pulled up out of Hades (Hell) where they will now all stand before God for their final judgment. All of those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life are thrown into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where they will all remain forever with Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet.
5. The New Heaven and New Earth
Our earth and our atmospheric heaven are now done away with, and in its place we will get a new heaven and a new earth. There will no longer be any seas. There will no longer be any night. There will no longer be any sun or moon because the glory of God will be illuminating the earth.
There will no longer be any more death in any way, shape or form. The curse of Adam and Eve will have finally been broken and done away with for good. There will be no more sorrow, pain, crying or weeping. All things will be made new.
God the Father Himself will now come down from heaven and dwell with man forever and ever in this new heaven and new earth. We will also get a new city of Jerusalem which will come down from heaven itself.
This new city will be like a square and possibly 1500 miles wide. The foundations of the walls will be adorned with all kinds of precious stones. There will be 12 gates with an angel at each gate. The gates will be made of solid pearl and the streets will be solid gold.
There shall no longer be any temple as God and Jesus will be the temple Themselves. All the nations of the earth shall walk in Their light and the gates into this city will never be closed.
Now with Satan, all of his demons, and all of the bad and unsaved people taken out of this new heavenly environment, we will now all live happily ever after with God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, all of God’s good angels and all of our saved loved ones in the most perfect God-environment imaginable – with no more pain, sorrow or death ever again!
This is our final end. This is our ultimate destination. Keep your eyes on this final glorious end as we start to approach and enter into these end time events. It will help get you through the fire.
Remember, God will win in the end and so will you if you keep your faith in Jesus Christ through what may be some very difficult times ahead. Jesus Himself has already told us that those who are the overcomers in this life will be the ones to rule the nations of the world with Him in these coming eras.
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God’s 4 Avenues to Reach the Lost During the Tribulation
f the Church is raptured
off the face of the earth before the 7 year Tribulation starts, then
how does God go about getting anyone saved during the 7 year Tribulation
if there is no Church or main body of believers left to preach the
gospel? The Bible says that a great multitude of people will end up
getting saved during the Tribulation.
God is going to reach the lost during this horrific time through 4 basic avenues. They are as follows:
- The 2 Witnesses
- 144,000 Jewish Witnesses
- An Angel of the Everlasting Gospel
- A Major Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
As you will see in the Scripture verses listed below, God will still make every attempt to get as many people saved as He possibly can before His Son returns back to us for His second coming. All of the above avenues will be extreme measures being taken by God to reach as many people as He possibly can with His Church having already been taken out of the big picture by way of the Rapture. Here are the Scripture verses to back all of this up.
1. The 2 Witnesses
The Book of Revelation tells us that sometime during the Tribulation, two witnesses walking with the full power of God, will come forth prophesying on His behalf to the whole world. The Bible says that they will walk with God’s power to prophesy to the world for 1260 days, which is almost three and half years. However the Bible does not tell us if they come onto the scene during the first three and half years of the Tribulation or in the second half of the Tribulation.
In either event, we know they will definitely show up sometime during the 7 year Tribulation. The Bible says that no one will be able to harm them or kill them during the 1260 days that they are walking with God’s power.
If anyone tries to kill them, the Bible says that fire will literally come out of their mouths to kill those who would try to harm or kill them. They will literally have the full power of God to shut down heaven to keep it from raining if they should so desire. They will also have the power to turn our waters into blood and to cause plagues to come onto the earth to torment all of the nonbelievers.
However, when their time is up, the Bible says that the Antichrist will then be able to overcome them and kill them. After he kills them, he then allows their bodies to remain in the streets of Jerusalem for three and half days.
The nonbelievers will then be rejoicing because these two witnesses had been tormenting all of them during the three and half years that they had been walking with God’s power. I also feel the Antichrist is doing this to show the world that he has just defeated and killed God’s best. I also believe this will be shown on world TV so that the whole world will see what the Antichrist has just accomplished.
However, after three and half days with their dead bodies lying and rotting in the middle of Jerusalem, God all of a sudden turns the tables on the Antichrist for all the whole world to see. God will literally resurrect the bodies of the two witnesses right in front of the whole world. When their bodies are resurrected and these two come back to life, the Bible says that great fear will fall on those who actually witness this event. At this point, God will literally cause these two witnesses to ascend into heaven just like Jesus did.
Right after these two witnesses ascend into heaven, God will then cause a great earthquake to strike the city of Jerusalem causing one tenth of it to fall and killing 7000 people. Here is the verse that specifically tells us all of this:
“And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days (1260), clothed in sackcloth … And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have the power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the day of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.
Now when they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three and half days, and not allow their bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because the these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
Now after the three and half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand men were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Revelation 11:3-13)
For those who miss the Rapture but get saved afterwards, the exploits of these two witnesses will be a great faith booster to all Christians who are living at this time. They will see the full power of God operating through these two witnesses and not even the Antichrist himself will be able to touch them until their 1260 days are up.
And even after the Antichrist initially kills them, God still wins in the end as He will go about fully resurrecting these two and literally ascend them into heaven. For those Christians who know they are probably going to get martyred for their faith during this time, to see these two witnesses fully resurrect and literally ascend into heaven after they are killed, will give them great faith and let them know that they too will go straight to heaven once they are martyred for their faith in Jesus.
2. The 144,000 Jewish Witnesses
Sometime during the first part of the Tribulation or possibly right at the beginning of it, God is going to choose and mark 144,000 Jewish people out of the 12 main tribes of Israel. These 144,000 Jews will receive some kind of mark on their forehead from God. As a result of this mark and seal, the judgments that will fall upon the earth during the 7 year Tribulation will not touch or harm them.
God also calls these 144,000 the “firstfruits to God and the Lamb.” The Lamb is Jesus. God is making a statement that these 144,000 will be the first set of Jews to get saved and accept Jesus as their true Messiah.
Though Scripture does not specifically state that these 144,000 Jews will actually be witnessing to others, the conclusion among many students of Bible Prophecy is that they definitely will be witnessing and preaching the gospel to others just due to the fact that they have now been saved and will physically be protected from all the judgments that will be hitting the earth during this time.
It is only logical to conclude that God will use these 144,000 Jewish witnesses to preach the gospel as they will now have the full power of the Holy Spirit operating in them to be able to preach. I seriously doubt if God will just have them lying and sitting around and doing nothing – especially with the Church having been possibly raptured before they are sealed and come forth.
God is going to need as many people as possible to be preaching, witnessing and getting people saved, especially if the main body of believers are no longer on the earth to preach and witness to others.
1. Here are the two main verses from Scripture that will tell you about these 144,000 Jewish witnesses.
“After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.
And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.” (Revelation 7:1-4)
The rest of this verse then goes on to state the 12 main tribes of Israel and the 12,000 that will be taken out of each of them to total up to the 144,000.
2. This next verse tells us that they will be the first fruits of the Jewish people to accept Jesus as their true Messiah.
“Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand having His Father’s name written on their foreheads … These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Revelation 14:1-4)
Now what comes next is a real interesting twist. God is going to allow, for the first time ever, an angel to preach the gospel to whoever is left on the earth during the Tribulation.
3. The Angel of the Everlasting Gospel
God has things set up down here on this earth for humans to preach the gospel. This is not the job of His angels. However, God will apparently be making an exception to this during the time of the 7 year Tribulation. He is going to allow one angel to preach to all those who are still living on this earth during the Tribulation.
I believe the reason that God will be making such an exception during this time is because the church will have been raptured, and things will be getting so bad during this time, that God will have to supernaturally try to reach as many people as He possibly can before the end comes.
This next verse tells us that this angel will be preaching to every nation, tribe, tongue and people that are dwelling on the earth at this time. This angel will be preaching at least in the last half of the Tribulation and probably before. I feel he could actually start preaching at the beginning of the 7 year Tribulation, just shortly after the Church has possibly been raptured. Here is the verse:
“Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” (Revelation 14:6-7)
You will notice that this angel is starting to preach at the “hour of His judgment.” The next article I will be doing will be on the judgments that will come upon the earth at this time. There will be 3 sets of them and the first set will probably start right at the beginning of the 7 year Tribulation or just right before it. This tells me that this angel will probably start preaching right at the beginning of the 7 year Tribulation and will continue to preach during most, if not all of the 7 year Tribulation.
The last avenue God will use during this time to try and get as many people saved as He possibly can will be a major outpouring of the Holy Spirit Himself.
4. A Major Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
The Bible says in the latter days that God will be pouring out His Holy Spirit upon all flesh. When this event happens, people will be getting visions, dreams and prophecies from God the Father. People will be getting major supernatural activity from God during this time!
Again, I believe the reason for this is because people are going to need to hear from God in a supernatural way during this horrible time of trouble. This will be God’s extreme counterbalance to help offset all of the bad things that His people will be seeing and going through during this time.
When reading this verse, notice that right after God makes this statement about pouring out the Holy Spirit, that the verse goes immediately into the physical description of end times – the sun will be turning into darkness, the moon turning into blood and He then uses the phrase the “great and terrible day of the Lord.”
This phrase is talking about the last 7 years on earth which is the 7 year Tribulation. This is how you know that this outpouring of the Holy Spirit is going to come during these times. Here is the verse:
“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.” (Joel 2:28-32)
I personally believe that God will actually start this outpouring of the Holy Spirit even before the 7 year Tribulation begins. I believe that the Holy Spirit will start to release and come onto a lot more people even before the Rapture takes place.
I believe that God will start this outpouring of the Holy Spirit in an effort to get as many people saved and pulled in for the Rapture as He possibly can. Then after the Rapture has occurred, I believe God will then intensify this outpouring in an effort to try and reach some of the real hardheads who did not get it the first time around and missed being taken out on the Rapture.
Many people believe that this outpouring has already started to begin and I agree with that assessment. However, I believe this outpouring of the Holy Spirit will intensify to a much greater degree in the coming years.
Conclusion
The next verse from Scripture will show you that a great multitude that cannot even be numbered from all the nations of the world will end up getting saved during the 7 year Tribulation as a result of the above 4 avenues God will be using. However, as you have seen in the other verses, many of these people who get saved during the 7 year Tribulation will end up getting martyred for their faith.
However, the final part of this verse shows that God will allow these tribulation saints to rule with Him in the 1000 year Millennium Kingdom that will be coming to our earth. Jesus will literally be sitting and ruling from the Jewish Temple in Israel and these tribulation saints will be before Him serving Him in Jerusalem.
This verse then ends stating that they will never hunger or thirst again, and that Jesus will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The bad times will be forever over and they, along with the rest of us, will live happily ever after in the coming Millennium Kingdom, and then eventually in the New Heaven and New Earth that God the Father will be forming out. Here is the verse:
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” … Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17)
As sad as it will be to see so many Christians put to death for their faith in God and Jesus during these end times, the ending will more than make up for it. I will be ending these series of articles with what it is going to be like in the 1000 year Millennium Kingdom where Jesus will literally rule the entire earth from the city of Jerusalem – and then the New Heaven and New Earth we will all end up with after the 1000 year Millennium ends.
The bad times will be forever over, and we will all truly live happily ever after in this new environment with God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, all of God’s angels and all of the rest of saved humanity.
I will leave you with one consoling verse for the ones who will be martyred for their faith in Jesus during the Tribulation.
I believe God will always hold a special place in His heart for all of the Christians who have been martyred throughout history for their belief and faith in Him. I do not believe there is any greater act of courage, bravery and faith than to be willing to die for our Lord and Savior.“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (Psalm 116:15)
