Bible prophecy and end times

A straight forward eBook on bible prophecy and end times that covers the major themes of biblical prophecy with a special focus on end times. Written from a clear bible believing perspective, this book seeks to make prophecy more approachable and also injects some fresh thinking into the subject along the way.

Read / print Prophecy And End Times eBook (PDF)

Version 1.1 – Originally released September 2009, minor updates made in August 2010

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From introduction:

One of the remarkable things about our time is the growing social consciousness of our nearness to End Times. And although this consciousness is expressed via some incredibly diverse perspectives, it still seems poignant that the sum total of many voices is that some kind of End Times is near.

In this mix are those who refer to the Myan prophetic calendar, Nostradamus followers, Christians, Muslims, New Age teachers and even total atheists who worry about horrific world scenarios. Speaking from just about every shade in the spectrum of beliefs, it seems that the voices of multitudes are ringing out to warn mankind that he stands on the brink. Plenty of world issues could be highlighted to this effect, but there’s something more. It appears that somewhere in the collective total of the facts and information swirling around us, many have simply developed a gut feeling that we really are on the verge of a time of testing.

But are we paying attention? Even as all of this chatter abounds, in a great number of churches the subject is going silent...

Copy of the table of contents

Introduction
Empires in prophecy
The king of fierce countenance
God's timetable
Wars of the end
The end of the age
Tribulation overview
Rise of the beast
The restoration of Israel
Timing of the rapture
The marriage of the lamb
Gog and Magog
The new Earth
The beast now
APPENDIX 1 - Premillennialism vs Amillennialism
APPENDIX 2 - Biblical perspective on conspiracy theories

About the author

Contact email for John (if you would like to provide feedback)

Sample chapter - Ch4: Wars of the End

Chapter notes not included here

Daniel eleven prophesies the rise of the Grecian empire, it's breakup into four smaller kingdoms (after Alexander the Great's death), and the wars that followed between the two most powerful of those resulting kingdoms. They were, the Seleucid kingdom centered in Syria, and the kingdom of the Ptolemaic kings in Egypt. Daniel's prophecies concerning the conflicts between these two kingdoms were fulfilled immaculately between about 320BC – 168BC. In his prophecies the Syrian kings are described as ‘the kings of the North' and the Egyptian kings as ‘the kings of the South'. It is clear from this that the reference point is his home country Israel, which sits between the two. Israel is sometimes said to sit between the Anvil and the Hammer, in other words between the Blacksmiths anvil of Egypt and the Hammer of Syria. The picture here is of a nation pounded between these two great forces, and indeed during the period spoken of Israel was in the unfortunate position of being on the warpath between them. So it was that Judea came under the control first of Syria, then Egypt, then towards the end of that time back under Syria again.

For us though the greatest significance of this history lies in how the theme is picked up on in relation to events that are still in our future. Towards the end the passage it brings into focus a Syrian king whose actions towards Israel in the time of these warring factions of the Grecian empire are similar to actions predicted in the New Testament which are yet to be fulfilled by the coming Antichrist in regards to his dealings with Israel.

This is an excerpt from Schofield's bible commentary regarding the Syrian king:

In 198BC Judea was conquered by Antiochus the Great, and annexed to Syria…About 180BC the land became the dowry of Cleopatra, a Syrian princess who married Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, but on the death of Cleopatra was reclaimed by Antiochus Epiphanes after a bloody battle. In 170BC Antiochus, after repeated interferences with the temple and the priesthood, plundered Jerusalem, profaned the temple and enslaved a great number of the inhabitants. On December the 25th, 168BC, Antiochus offered a sow on the great altar in the temple and erected an altar to Jupiter…The temple worship was forbidden and the people were required to eat swine's flesh (pork).

In II Thessalonians 2:4 it says that the Antichrist shall sit in the temple of God showing himself that he is God and in Matthew 24:15 it describes him as “the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet who stands in the holy place” (in other words the temple). So it is quite clear that the coming Antichrist will in many ways repeat Antiochus the Great's interference with the temple, though going one step further by proclaiming himself as God. Thus there may be overlapping meaning in the verses from about Daniel 11:31-39 concerning the king who defiles the sanctuary, worships a god of forces and exalts himself above even the God of gods. The nature of the spiritual warfare behind the events of this world is such that re-occurring patterns often emerge in prophecy and therefore this prophecy may have more than one fulfillment. It’s also worth noting here that if indeed this section of Daniels prophecy still has a literal future fulfillment (along with the verses in II Thessalonians that make this seem likely), then Jerusalem must once again have a temple. So just as the re-establishing of the nation itself was a sign of nearing end times, the commencement of this project will also be of great significance, being the last thing that needs to be in place for a literal fulfillment of these prophecies.

So having traced the line of kings down to Antiochus, Daniel eleven then makes a definite break from that history at verse 40. This is obvious in two ways. First because the verse starts with the phrase ‘At the time of the end', and second because what follows is quite different to what followed historically at the time. What the prophecy appears to do is follow on with the theme of conflict involving countries to the north and south of Israel, and with the theme of a gentile king who takes control of the holy land, yet all picked up in a future context. Let’s compare what happened historically with the prophecy from verse 40 to the end of the chapter. Historically Antiochus's actions in the temple triggered the revolt of the Maccabees where a band of determined Jews rose up against the authority of Antiochus and in a three year guerilla war managed to free Jerusalem from his control and restore proper temple worship.

From verse 40 however we see a very different series of events in the passage. It picks up on a person of political power who will be attacked by BOTH the kings of the North and the kings of the South. So both Syria (or that general region) and Egypt will it seems fight against whoever this power is; but according to the passage they will both be defeated and the power they attacked will go on to overthrow many countries in the area and will also enter into the holy land (perhaps peaceably?). It is likely that this presence of the gentile armies in the holy land, and the Antichrist's activities with relation to Israel, will be what connects the theme of this coming ruler with the preceding verses. Interestingly enough, it says that Moab and Edom shall not be conquered by him. On today's map this would equate to the country of Jordan. Also verse 43 tells us that Libya and Ethiopia will, it seems voluntarily, be subject to this great power, but in verse 44 “he” is troubled by news from the east and the north. Following the pattern of the chapter the reference point for direction is Israel, so east could be anywhere in the Middle East or possibly further afield towards China. In a similar way the North could refer to the region of Syria or further afield up towards Turkey or even Russia. However far these extend it seems that the same power involved in a large middle-east war will then go to war against these areas with great fury and destruction; and it would appear with success. In Revelation the world ultimately asks the rhetorical question “who can make war against the beast?” Yet in the last verse of Daniel eleven we see that “he shall come to his end and no one shall help him.” In all likelihood this ties into Revelation 17:14 which records that the armies of the beast shall make war with the lamb, but that the lamb shall defeat them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.

There are two ways we could look at this passage. On the one hand it may shed significant light on the geographical aspects of the wars that bring the beast (the last days world empire) into a position of power over the whole Earth. On the other hand they may relate to the Antichrist rise to the fullness of his power. This may sound like the same thing; however there are two reasons to believe that Antichrist’s full ascension to power occurs at a later stage in end times than the coming into being of the world empire (or world government). The first reason is that in Revelation 13 two phases of the beast are given; the first with ten rulers and the latter with two. (One of these latter is definitely the Antichrist, the other may be the false prophet). The second reason is that in Daniel 7:24 it says that the little horn (Antichrist) displaces three of the ten kings of the beast:

The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. (Dan 7:24)

Note that the fact that he subdues three of the kings is good reason to believe that all ten are concurrent, not a succession. A likely scenario here may be some kind of world council of regional presidents (similar to the existing EU president, the EU being perhaps a forerunner of other world regions that may then collectively form a world government).

Now, getting back to our two ideas about where this great war (perhaps WWIII) will play out. If we run with the first idea of it starting prior to world government being in place, then it would appear that the wars that bring this final kingdom to power will start in the middle east, result in the subjection of most of that region, (with Jordan remaining free and North Africa giving allegiance), and spread North and East towards Russia and Asia respectively. In this scenario we also have a potential clue as to the power that is in conflict with all these regions. If we subtract the Middle Eastern nations, Russia, Asia and northern Africa from the power blocks of today's world, the most significant remaining power block is what one might call the 'Anglo-American led western empire’. This is of significant interest when you consider that many of what we loosely call the ‘western’ nations are those that arose out of the western arm of the Roman Empire, either directly in the case of the European nations, or via colonization from Europe in the case of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Thus we should consider the possibility that the nucleus of the beast (the final world order) may be some kind of ‘western alliance’ that might ultimately succeed in subduing the world through a period of terrible war. If this is the case we might expect a similar pattern to the post WWII approach of the western allies. The western empire does not typically try to occupy nations long term, but just aims to bring them into “the system”; being their system of commerce, government and general values. Daniel actually predicted a final world empire that would be militarily strong but politically weak and only loosely bonded together. So what we might expect in a post WWIII scenario, from both prophecy and political observation is that the world would probably form into ten regions, each with its own democratically elected “president” or similar, who together like a board of directors would run the world. Because these ten kings each receive power only “one hour with the beast”, then this state of things would not be expected to continue for long before the false “christ” emerged and either took control of the empire or even quite possibly was simply given supremacy over it.

However, as earlier stated, there is a second possible scenario, which is that these prophesied wars occur after world government has formed, at the time when the Antichrist displaces three of the ten kings and comes into the fullness of his power. If this second scenario is correct it would imply slightly different events. It would imply that the final world empire could perhaps come about without a major WWIII type scenario, though nevertheless almost certainly through a series of traumatic problems in the world, since people are otherwise typically resistant to this kind of change. Also the “him” and “he” in the passage would then refer specifically to the Antichrist and not at any point a pre-cursor of him. In this situation two aspects of the passage would fit really well. First, just like in the Grecian empire that the prophecy follows on from, it would be a situation where the empire was divided into parts, with the Antichrist figure initially being just the king of one part. Second, it would fit with the prophecy concerning the Antichrist displacing three other kings (say those of the middle-east, Russia and a region in Asia). This scenario would mean an Antichrist who is a man of war, rather than someone heralded (falsely) as a bringer of peace.

From where we stand today we could call these two views the “short view” and the “long view”. The reason for this is that the first scenario could pretty much kick into action at any time, whereas in the second we could expect a period of time during which a one world government was progressively established before this prophecy came to pass.

Either way, bible prophecy tells us that ultimately a Caesar-like figure will arise on the earth who will be worshipped by the world and will bring about a great persecution against the saints. From the last verse in Daniel 11 it seems that the Antichrist will base himself somewhere in or around Israel:

“And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain… (Dan 11:45)

There are two additional reasons why this seems likely. First, he will be masquerading as Christ, and thus may attempt to be seen to fulfill prophecies concerning the millennial kingdom where Christ is to reign over the entire world from Jerusalem. The second reason this seems likely is that, as mentioned earlier, II Thessalonians says that:

...he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (II Thes 2:4)

Of course this could be a one off event, but it seems more likely that his taking of the temple for himself would have longer term implications.

It’s worth noting that this passage almost certainly connects with Matthew 24:7 and Revelation 6:2-4, both of which are about wars preceding, or at the start of, the tribulation period. Exactly how and when these events come about will be better understood once key events begin to unfold. For instance, either the start of world government or of a war of this type may give the clues needed to choose which direction to run with the interpretation.

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PRINTING TIP: If you're printing this book using an inkjet printer, to save time and expensive colour ink you could just print from page 2 onwards (skipping cover page)