When I was a kid, I was taught the following basic theological outline of the End Times: At some unknown point in the future, there would be this event called the Rapture when all of the Christians instantaneously disappeared from the Earth, leaving all the unbelievers behind. Soon afterward, all world governments would be taken over by the Antichrist, a charismatic leader (presumably possessed by Satan) who would make everyone wear the Mark of the Beast and hunt down anyone who refused to follow him. This would begin a seven-year period called the Great Tribulation, in which life would pretty much just suck. But at the end, Jesus would come back, defeat the Antichrist, and rule for 1,000 years.
A couple of guys wrote a whole series of novels about it, and they were super popular.
Anyway, there’s a whole lot more details than that, but the above summary is what’s known as the Futurist view of Christian eschatology, and it didn’t really become popular until the 20th century, mostly among American evangelicals. We spent a lot of time talking about this stuff when I was growing up during the ’90s. Like… a weirdly large amount of time. But now I think it’s time to dig into all of it again. How much of what we think we know about the End Times can actually be supported?
The Rapture
It’s worth nothing that the entire concept of “the Rapture” as a distinct event doesn’t exist within the Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican, Orthodox, or Reformed traditions. It’s actually a fairly recent idea (having originated in the 1830s) and is almost exclusively relegated to American evangelical denominations such as Baptists, Pentecostals, and the Brethren movement. Pre-tribulation rapture theology was developed by a guy named John Nelson Darby, who rejected any criticism of his ideas, claiming they had been “revealed to him by God.” In short, until Darby came along, Christians did not consider the rapture and the Second Coming of Christ to be separate events; rather, the most common historical interpretation is that we would all just be “snatched up” to be with Christ when he returns at the end of the world.
On a tangentially related note, did you know that rapture and rape both come from the same Latin root word? Etymology is fun! The biblical origin of rapture comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which uses the Greek word harpazo (ἁρπάζω), meaning “to snatch away” or “to seize.” It was translated into Latin as rapere, which similarly means “to snatch, to grab, to carry off,” and in Roman law, this word referred to the carrying off of a woman by force, as in the Rape of the Sabine Women. Weird, huh?
Anyway, let’s look at the context of 1 Thessalonians, which is the sole scriptural basis of this doctrine. Paul is addressing a church of Greek Gentiles in Thessalonica, and he begins this chapter by telling them to live righteously and love one another. He goes on to offer them hope and comfort related to “the believers who have died,” as they apparently feared being eternally cut off from their departed loved ones. Paul then tells the church that the dead will rise and, along with the living, they will all be “caught up [rapiemur] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” although this will all happen unexpectedly.
It’s also worth noting that Paul’s only real source for these statements would have been the Olivet Discourse (which we’ll talk more about in a minute). Here’s a side-by-side comparison:
“And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world — from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.” – Jesus (Matthew 24)
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” – Paul (1 Thessalonians 4)
Sooooo… that’s pretty much it. Personally, I can’t find anything in that passage that would lead me to differentiate the Rapture from the Second Coming of Christ. It’s just not there.
Like I said, this form of dispensationalist eschatology was introduced by Darby in the 1830s, and then it was spread by men like Dwight L. Moody and Cyrus Scofield, but it wasn’t truly popularized until the 1970s via The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. This book was a massive hit, y’all. Lindsey attempted to interpret biblical prophecy and symbolism in terms of specific current events, which fascinated readers… although he also predicted the apocalypse would happen in the 1980s, so whatever.
The Great Tribulation
Okay, this one is a little bit tricky. The term (θλῖψις μεγάλη) is found in the Olivet Discourse, a prophetic speech given by Jesus to his disciples, which is included in all three Synoptic Gospels. He tells them that “many will come in my name” claiming to be the Messiah, that there will be wars and rumors of war, famine, earthquakes, and pestilence, and that his followers will face persecution for their faith. Jesus then says that the Sun, Moon, and stars will go dark — a quote from the Book of Isaiah specifically related to the destruction of Babylon — prior to the Second Coming of Christ.
The term “great tribulation” is used again in Revelation 7:14, in reference to the people who endured all these troubles now standing resurrected before the throne of God.
Of course, the big question is when this great tribulation is supposed to happen. Preterists believe that it has already occurred, having taken place during the Apostolic Age when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in AD 70, along with the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero. Such an interpretation would help make sense of Jesus’ promise that “this generation will not pass away before all these things take place.” It also aligns with the beginning of the the Olivet Discourse, when the disciples are admiring the beauty of the temple and Jesus tells them that it will be completely demolished. These views have typically been associated the Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox traditions. Historicists, however, would say that the great tribulation doesn’t refer to a specific event or time period, but rather to the centuries of persecution endured by the Church and the troubles faced by all Christians, with the papacy as the Antichrist. This was the view of most Protestant reformers, including Martin Luther and John Calvin.
The fact is that there is no specific sequence of End Times events in the Bible. Most of what we think we know about the supposed timeline was cryptically pieced together based on hyper-literal interpretations of several different prophecies by several different authors over several hundred years.
The Antichrist
During the mid-90s, I remember receiving a pamphlet in the mail alleging that Bill Clinton was secretly the Antichrist. It even had a picture of him brandishing a sword and riding on a horse, kinda like that famous portrait of Napoleon. Many other public or political figures have been accused of being the Antichrist, including several different popes, Oliver Cromwell, Adolf Hitler, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, and (obviously) Jerry Seinfeld.
So let’s take a look at what the Bible actually says. The word itself (αντίχριστος) occurs four times in the New Testament, solely in the First and Second Epistles of John:
“Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.” – 1 John 2:18
“And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.” – 1 John 2:22
“But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.” – 1 John 4:3
“I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.” – 2 John 1:7
Interestingly enough, these verses seem to speak about multiple antichrists, as if it’s more of a category than a specific title, denoting anyone who stands against Jesus and the Gospel. Jesus also mentions multiple “false messiahs and false prophets” in the Olivet Discourse. The idea of an individual Antichrist figure mostly comes from 2 Thessalonians 2, although the word αντίχριστος is never used. Instead, Paul refers to this person as “the man of lawlessness” who will “claim that he himself is God.”
Another phrase that Christians often associate with the Antichrist is “the abomination of desolation,” which is first mentioned in Daniel 9-12. Originally, the phrase was used in reference to 2nd century BC Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who persecuted the Jews, outlawed their religious rites and traditions, and set up pagan altar to Zeus in the Jewish temple. Jesus repeats this phrase in the Olivet Discourse, and many theologians believe he was making a parallel between Antiochus and the eventual destruction of the temple by the Roman general Titus in AD 70, or other similar future events.
Preterists tend to identify the Antichrist as either Nero or Domitian, with the “Mark of the Beast” interpreted as his charagma (χάραγμα), or the stamped image of the emperor’s head on every coin of the Roman Empire, without which no one could buy or sell. And as stated previously, Historicists (such as the Protestant reformers) typically associate the idea of the Antichrist with various popes, the papacy as a whole, or simply any religious organization that distorts the Gospel of Jesus.
Visions, Dreams, and Symbolism
The most vague and confusing prophecies related to the apocalypse are found in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. Daniel’s book was written during the Babylonian captivity, which saw the Jews being forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, with an overarching message that God would save Israel from their present state of oppression. The author describes visions of a metal statue, beasts from the sea, and astrological symbols that are meant to represent the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. And again, much of this points to historical figures/events such as Antiochus and his desecration of the temple, finally ending with the heavenly deliverance of God’s people.
Daniel’s writings are often read alongside the Book of Revelation, as they share many of the same symbols and images. Revelation was written by “John of Patmos,” usually identified as John the Apostle, during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (AD 81–96). The author begins by writing letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, and he then describes a series of prophetic visions, including figures such as the Woman Clothed with the Sun, the Great Red Dragon, and the Beast from the Sea, which culminate in the Second Coming of Christ. Most of the imagery used alludes to similar passages in Daniel, Ezekiel, Psalms, and Isaiah, and conventional understanding has been that the book was written to comfort beleaguered Christians as they underwent persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire.
Now, I’m not gonna sit here and parse every single piece of symbolism in Revelation. It would take forever. So instead we’ll just briefly look at the few I mentioned above:
- The Woman Clothed with the Sun: The imagery used comes right out of Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37, where the sun stood for Jacob, the moon for Rachel, and the stars for Joseph’s brothers. Therefore, the woman represents the nation of Israel, the descendants of Jacob. She is also pregnant, which is a reference to Micah’s prophecy that Israel would go into Babylonian captivity experiencing great pain and would “groan like a woman in labor.” Her child (the Messiah) will “rule all nations with an iron rod,” which is a reference to the messianic prophecy in Psalm 2.
- The Great Red Dragon: The writer clearly states that the dragon represents “Satan, the one deceiving the whole world,” opposing the Messiah and then being defeated and thrown down to the earth along with his fallen angels. This passage echoes the words of Jesus in John 12:30-33, when he talks about Satan being cast out at the time of final judgment.
- The Beast from the Sea: The imagery of this beast comes directly from Daniel 7, in which the author describes four great beasts coming up out of the sea. Daniel mentions a lion, a bear, and a leopard, the same three animals that make up the horrific beast of Revelation. It also has ten horns, just like Daniel’s fourth beast, which would seem to indicate that it also represents the Roman Empire (or possibly Domitian, who was the Roman emperor at that time). Plus, just as in Daniel 11, the beast will rule with great authority, make war, exalt himself, and blaspheme against God.
Rome is further cemented as the “villain” of Revelation with its depiction as Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots, the city where the beast bases his government. In John’s time, Babylon was often used as a code name for Rome, and for the early Christians especially, it was the pinnacle of wealth, paganism, and sexual immorality. Additionally, the angel tells John that the beast’s seven heads represent the seven hills on which the woman sits, and Rome was widely known to sit on seven hills. This is the interpretation utilized by both Preterists and Historicists (including reformers like Luther and Calvin), although the latter tend to identify Babylon the Great more specifically with the Roman Catholic Church.
Interestingly enough, the canonization of Revelation was met with skepticism by the Protestant reformers. In his 1522 preface to the book, Martin Luther called it “neither apostolic nor prophetic,” and lamented that “Christ is not taught or known in it.” However, in 1530 he wrote a new preface, this time conceding that even though “its interpretation is uncertain and its meaning hidden,” readers can find comfort knowing “that neither force nor lies, neither wisdom nor holiness, neither tribulation nor suffering shall suppress the Church, but it will gain the victory and overcome at last.”
For a deeper look at Revelation, check out THIS post by Pastor Marc Alan Schelske.
The Second Coming
The belief that Jesus Christ will return at the end of the world is pretty much the only element of End Times prophecy about which all Christians agree. It’s even part of the Nicene Creed, which states that “he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” It’s all over the New Testament, with various writers using the Greek term parousia (παρουσία), meaning “arrival” or “coming,” a total of 24 times, and 17 of those in reference to Christ. The Second Coming is mentioned in all four Gospels, most of Paul’s epistles, Hebrews, James. obviously Revelation… it’s unambiguous, y’all.
We could sit here for days (or even weeks) obsessing over different eschatological viewpoints, but I’ve come to believe that the dispensationalist doctrine that I was taught growing up — a minority view pushed by the Christian right through men like Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, and Jerry Falwell — is less about salvation and more about vindication. We want to be proven right. We want to claim absolute certainty about the future. We want all the “sinners” to learn the hard way that they should have repented and joined us when they had the chance. We want an excuse to hold certain political positions simply because they might somehow line up with a specific interpretation of End Times prophecy. We learn to welcome war, calamity, and disaster, because we’ve been taught to believe they precede our own spiritual rewards.
But if you ask me, it all comes down to the Second Coming. The rest is up for debate — all of the who, when, where, and how — but the ultimate message here is that good will triumph over evil. Christ will be victorious. In the end (see what I did there?), that’s all that really matters anyway.
The Eagle and Child 