Armageddon For Beginners by Dave Mckay (book recommendations for teens TXT) 📕

Revelation 17:16-17. The ten horns that you saw on the Beast will hate the Whore, and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom to the Beast.

Jeremiah 13:23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?

Daniel 7:6. After this, I beheld, and lo another [beast] like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast had also four heads, and dominion was given to it.

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24. The Timetable

We will now summarise some of the things that will happen during the last seven years (and a bit) before Jesus Christ returns to earth. The timetable on page 206 has illustrations to help you associate some of the important points listed below with where they appear on that timetable. Note: Quite a few of the things happen at the same time, even though they are listed here one after the other.

First we will list events which are likely to occur before the last seven years begin.

A. America will be destroyed in a sudden military attack by Russia, which will result in communist control of the United Nations. (Revelation 17:16-17) We do not have room in this book to give details of that attack. Readers who are interested may write to us, asking for the booklets Jeremiah's Lament and Fall of America.

B. A universal identification system will be enacted, which will probably take several years to become fully functional. (Revelation 13:15-18)

C. An English-speaking leader (the voice of the Lion), supported by Russia (the feet of the Bear), and representing the Third World (the body of the Panther) will gain control of the U.N. through its Security Council. (Revelation 13:2)

D. This world leader will receive a "deadly wound" from which he miraculously recovers. (Revelation 13:3) (This may not happen until the "middle of the week". That could be when the Devil enters the leader's otherwise dead body.

It is possible that the leader will actually be a sincere person to start with, and only become a zombie [or a "beast"] after the deadly wound occurs. This is a good argument against the tendency for people to think that identifying the leader and ridding the world of him would be justified. It is not the man, but the Devil behind him that is the real enemy; and we cannot destroy the Devil with natural weapons.)

Now for some things that will happen during the first half of the last seven years. There are time periods given in the book of Daniel which have helped us to compute how long it will be between some of these events. The references for those time periods are shown in parentheses. In particular, the length of the Wrath has been computed from Daniel 12:11-12. (See "H".)

E. An agreement will be made between the new world leader and the Jews, to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem. From this point, there will be "seven years" or 2,520 days left (approximately six years and eleven months by our modern calendars) before Christ returns. (Daniel 9:27)

F. About seven months (220 days) after the agreement has been signed, the first animal sacrifices will be offered on the new altar in the new Temple in Jerusalem. There will be 2,300 days left (about six years plus three and a half months) until Christ returns. (Daniel 8:13)

G. There will be worldwide peace, prosperity, and religious tolerance. (Daniel 8:25)

H. Thirty days before the start of the Great Tribulation, sacrifices will be suddenly and forcibly stopped in the Temple in Jerusalem. (1290 days till Christ returns, and 1335 days till the end of the Wrath. See Daniel 12:11-12) At some time over the next thirty days, the world leader will desecrate the Temple, and issue orders that all religious activity (apart from worship of himself) must cease.

I. The worldwide identification system, involving micro-chip implants under the skin on the back of the hand, will be used to monitor the activities of people throughout the world. No further purchases, sales, or other business transactions will be allowed for people without an implant. (Revelation 13:15-18) Exactly when this will start is not clear; it could be much sooner.

Now we come to events which will take place in the period known as the Great Tribulation, or the last three and a half years before Christ returns.

J. Earth will be hit by a meteor. A billion people will die. (Revelation 8:7-12)

K. The Antichrist (world leader) will kill millions of Christians. (Daniel 7:21; Matthew 24:21-22)

L. Two Christian prophets will preach to the whole world, warning them to repent. They will be hated by all non-believers. From the time they start preaching, 1260 days are left (or three years, five months, and two weeks) until Christ returns. (Revelation 11:3)

M. Christians will be forced to live by faith during this period. Those who have learned to hear God's voice and to follow him, will be led to places of refuge, and they will be provided for by him. (Luke 17:36-37; Revelation 12:6, 14)

N. Christ returns! His arrival will be witnessed by people around the world (possibly via live satellite TV). All Christians (including those who had died over the ages) will suddenly receive new bodies, so that they can levitate up into the sky to meet Christ as he is coming down. (Matthew 24:29-31; I Corinthians 15:51-52)

O. All of these transformed Christians will be taken to someplace in the skies for incredible celebrations while God's wrath is being poured out on a disobedient world down below. (Revelation 19:9, 17-21)

P. It is possible that the world will be aware of the celebrations that are going on (maybe because something like a starship will be visible above Jerusalem). At any rate, the armies of the world will gather in Israel in an attempt to battle the heavenly army (possibly convinced that we are dangerous aliens). The heavenly celebrations will conclude with Christ leading us in an attack on those down below. This is the famous Battle of Armageddon. (Revelation 16:12-16; 19:11-21)

Q. The Devil is locked away, and Christ starts a 1,000-year reign over the earth, with his followers being placed in charge of cities and countries. (Revelation 19:20; 20:1-4; Luke 19:17)

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25. The Return and The Wrath

In the chapters dealing specifically with The Tribulation, The Revelation almost appeared to miss the return of Christ altogether, as though it assumed readers already knew about it. When describing the seven trumpets, it concluded, "In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound [his trumpet], the mystery of God will be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets." (Revelation 10:7)

That's all. Just "the mystery of God… finished".

The Apostle Paul spoke of this "mystery" as a time when true believers will become immortal. He said, "Behold, I show you a mystery. We… will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible. We will be changed. This corruptible [body] must put on incorruption. And this mortal [body] must put on immortality." (I Corinthians 15:51-53)

In the Gospels, Jesus spoke of the mystery as a time when he would return to gather together his true followers. He said, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days… will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. Then will all the tribes of the earth… see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. He will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matthew 24:29-31)

When Jesus ascended up to heaven, forty days after he rose from the dead, two angels appeared and said to the disciples who witnessed this great event, "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)

In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul again described the return of Christ. He said, "We which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord will not prevent those who are asleep [i.e. dead]. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." (I Thessalonians 4:15-17)

But The Revelation doesn't mention this when referring to the seventh trumpet. Instead, it goes into descriptions of various aspects of the Tribulation, i.e. the Two Witnesses (chapter 11), the Church in the Wilderness (chapter 12), the Beast, False Prophet, and Mark (chapter 13), and the Prostitute (chapters 17 and 18). Chapter 14 was a transition chapter before the seven vials of the Wrath were described in chapters 15 and 16.

It is not until chapter 19 that we see the triumph of Christ's return. There John describes the picture he gets of the Wrath from a heavenly perspective. There is no mention of the suffering taking place back on earth. Instead, there is only rejoicing and celebration at the "marriage supper of the Lamb". Those Christians who have remained true to the Lamb throughout the Tribulation, whether victims or survivors, are honoured as his "Bride" at this great wedding feast. They all turn up for the party with immortal bodies, and dressed in "fine linen, clean and white". (Revelation 19:8-9)

All of this is happening at the same time that the vials are being poured out on the earth down below. Such suffering does not touch those who faithfully endured tribulation for Christ.

Then Jesus appears on a white horse (Revelation 19:11), and the armies of heaven follow him as he rides off to "tread out the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:14-15) Then follows a description of the Battle of Armageddon, and the capture of the Beast and False Prophet. (Revelation 19:17-21)

What happens during the Wrath, back on earth, is, in some ways, similar to what happened during the Tribulation. As each vial is poured out, a new judgment is revealed: (1) A "noisome and grievous sore" strikes everyone left on earth. (2) All life in the oceans is killed. (3) The rivers turn to "blood". (4) All our worst fears about the depletion of the ozone layer become reality, as the sun "scorches men with great heat". (5) Great darkness fills the "seat of the Beast" (Jerusalem?) And (6) the "kings of the east" join with the rest of "the kings of the earth… to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." The seventh vial is the battle itself. (Revelation 16:1-21)

The Bible says of that battle: "Great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." (Revelation 16:19) This is consistent with our theory that, even though the ten horns had earlier helped the Beast to destroy Babylon in the form of America, the role and title of Babylon would be passed on to the Beast, until the spirit of Babylon is finally and utterly destroyed at Armageddon.

The Bible goes on to tell of Christ ruling the earth for a thousand years after the Battle of Armageddon, assisted by his followers, who will have immortal bodies by this time. (Revelation 20:2-4)

What we have here is not the traditional picture of angels playing harps and floating on clouds for the rest of eternity. Instead, it is a real world populated by imperfect mortals who have survived the Battle of Armageddon. They will be ruled over