3. Starting Place & Framework | Outfitters for Adventure

Having a starting place and framework for our study helps build understanding of Bible prophecy as it relates to events in the New Testament and history leading up to current events. What Jesus taught about End Times in Matthew 24 is the starting place. From there we will explore what Jesus was referring to in Daniel 9, and then look at the Battle of Armageddon in Revelation 19 and 20.

Starting place

Where we start our search will determine the conclusion. The search should start in Matthew 24 because it is the most comprehensive account given by Jesus, who is called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. In the Gospel of John chapter 1 Jesus is described as the Word of God who was with God at the beginning and was the word spoken at the creation of the world, and he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in Revelation at the end of time on earth.

In Matthew 24 we are given a few details that there will be some calamitous events before the end. As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, his disciples called his attention to its buildings.

Matthew 24:2-32

²“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

³As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹²Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

²²“If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵See, I have told you ahead of time.

²⁶“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹“Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

³⁰“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth^[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.^[d] ³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³²“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Notice in verse 15 the story refocuses on Israel. Israel is the critical epicenter in the End Times plans of God.

Romans- not a personal opinion of Paul but the heart cry of God.

In Romans 9 Paul writes of the people of Israel stumbling over Jesus, because he brought a salvation not based on works, but on faith in his perfect life and sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all mankind. In Romans 11 the Gentiles are compared to wild olive branches that have been grafted into the vine, drawing nourishment from the root which is Jesus. The natural branches which are the people of Israel were broken off, Paul writes, in order for the wild branches, the Gentiles, to be grafted in. How much more will the natural branches be grafted back in if they do not continue to persist in their unbelief in Jesus.

Time Line in Daniel’s Vision

The next foundational scripture is Daniel 9 because it is quoted in Matthew 24:15 where Jesus mentions the “abomination that causes desolation”. After studying Daniel 9 the End Times puzzle pieces begin to fall into place in a study of the rest of unfulfilled prophecies, mainly found in the final chapters of the prophets.

Although many will turn to Revelation as their source of End Times study, there are more details in the Old Testament on how the world ends, than in the New Testament!

Daniel 9:20-27

²⁰While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill— ²¹while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. ²²He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. ²³As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:

²⁴“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

²⁵“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. ²⁶After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. ²⁷He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

Key Concepts for Understanding Daniel’s Prophecy:

“Your people” are the Jews
“Holy City” is Jerusalem
A “seven” is a seven year period
seventy sevens would be 490 years
seven sevens would be 49 years
62 sevens would be 434 years
“seven sevens and 62 sevens” would be 483 years
the “Annointed one” is Jesus

Since we know the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, about 35 years after Jesus rose to heaven and the church in Acts was initiated, the ruler who will come will be out of the Roman world which could be Europe or USA, both of which base their educational systems on Greek and Roman philosophers, or Western thinking. The rest of the world is considered non-western.

So now let’s study the time frame in Daniel’s prophetic vision:

490 years are decreed for the Jews and Jerusalem:

to finish transgression,
to put an end to sin,
to atone for wickedness,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy and
to anoint the Most Holy Place.

Look again at Daniel 9:25-27:

²⁵“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Jesus comes, there will be 483 years. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. ²⁶After that time Jesus will be put to death and will have nothing. The ruler who will come will be Roman. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. ²⁷This ruler will confirm a covenant with many for 7 years. In the middle of the seven years he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

When Jesus died, he said, “It is finished.” Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplished these things

483 years of the 490 in Daniel’s prophecy had already transpired
Transgression finished – Jesus lived a sinless life on earth,
Jesus to put an end to sin’s power over mankind,
Jesus’ death atoned for wickedness,
Jesus’ death and resurrection brought in everlasting righteousness,
Jesus death sealed up vision and prophecy concerning the coming Messiah
Jesus anointed the Most Holy Place when his blood was poured out in heaven for our sins
God ripped the massive thick felt curtain in the temple from top to bottom that had blocked people from going into the Holy of Holies the moment Jesus died, restoring direct access to the Father for all who put their trust in Jesus

This was all accomplished through Jesus. What is still missing is the final 7 years. Jews could not perceive that there would be a 2000 year gap between the two!

Armageddon

Revelation 16:12-16 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. ¹³Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

¹⁵“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

¹⁶Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The Rider on the White Horse

Revelation 19:11-21 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹²His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^[e] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS

¹⁷And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, ¹⁸so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. ²⁰But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

The Thousand Years

Revelation 20:1-6 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ²He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

⁴I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They^[^f^] had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. ⁶Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

The Judgment of Satan

Revelation 20:7-10 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. ⁹They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. ¹⁰And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

All Bible references are from:

New International Version (NIV)