Endtime Definition

But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end

Daniel 12:4

The term 'Endtime' comes from the prophecies of Daniel. As a young man, Daniel was taken captive by the Babylonian armies after the first siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC. He witnessed the end of Israel and the start of empires, the first of which was the Babylonian empire. Through dreams and visions, God showed him, first through a dream of Nebuchadnezzar and later through dreams of himself, what would follow the Babylonian empire. A sequence of empires would follow, some of which would be comprised of two or more separate empire parts (Persia, Greece).

According to Revelation 12, the empires are first and foremost under the influence of satan, seen as a great red dragon with seven heads, ten horns and with seven crowns on his heads. The dragon is seen as king of each of the seven empire-parts that influence the history of the people of Israel, the people that is central in prophetic scriptures. The power of satan over the empires is acknowledged by Jesus when He is being tempted by satan in the desert, at the beginning of his ministry. There, satan tempted Jesus by showing Him all kingdoms of the world (the word use in Greek is 'oikoumenē' -meaning 'the world empire'). Satan boasted: ' it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to'. Jesus didn't contradict this. But giving in to temptation was not the way to establish the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God would only come by following the road of intense humiliation and incomprehensible suffering. That road has been traveled by Jesus until the bitter end. He now waits in glory until the command of the father will allow Him to actually take the power that He already acquired.

That brings us to the most important part of Daniel's prophecies on the empires. God showed Daniel the end of the era of empires. This era would end with the coming of the Son of man with the clouds of heaven, a description which Jesus applied to Himself when he stood on trial before the Sanhedrin. Therefore, the return of Jesus, often called 'the second coming', is the moment the era of the empires will come to a complete close. From then on all power on earth will be on the shoulders of One Man: Jesus. And He will share it with those that were faithful to Him in a world that despised Him.

So the Endtime is not the end of time, the end of creation or the end of earth or of humanity. No, it is the end of an era of empires that were mainly guided by satan, God's enemy. It is the time that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of Christ, as announce at the blowing of the seventh trumpet (Rev.11:15). Therefore the Endtime is a time of unspeakable joy as well as a time of abhorrent crimes against humanity and of horrible catastrophes. This dark side of the Endtime is necessary because the enemy of God will not give up his power without a fight. One layer deeper: the Endtime is necessary for humanity to realize how bad its choices have been throughout all of history and how sinful its character and how desperate its situation is. Another layer deeper: the Endtime is necessary to show the world the tremendous power and love of God, shining through the Person of Jesus Christ, in his acts of total salvation of creation from all of God's and man's enemies. The Endtime is the end of a 2,600 year long era, characterized by struggles, wars, hardships for the masses and sufferings for all those that fought for the common good. It is also the short period that a new beginning is dawning: the kingdom of God and the power of his Christ. Therefore Jesus calls Himself 'the Morning Star', the first sign of a new day.

The prophetic word is very precise on the duration of the Endtime. Many prophecies refer to a period that will end the age of empires as a period of 3.5 years. Therefore, as we already indicated on the homepage, we define the Endtime as the last 3.5 years before the return of Jesus Christ, the second half of Daniel's 70th week of 7 years. The first 3.5 years of Daniel's last week are the final prelude to the Endtime and are no part of what Jesus calls 'the hour of temptation that will come upon the whole earth', which we see as synonym for 'the great tribulation', a period of enormous chaos, destruction and state-terror. Arguments for the last 3.5 years being the 'great tribulation' and 'the hour of temptation;:

(1) Apart from being the first half of Daniel's 70th week, the first 3.5 years have no name, while the last 3.5 years are called 'the great tribulation'. 

(2) The first 3.5 year time period is nowhere in the Bible indicated, while the last is indicated eight times. Three times in Daniel (7:25, 12:7, 11) and five times in Revelation (11:2, 11:3, 12:6, 12:14, 13:5).

(3) The first 3.5 years have no clear starting point. The phrase: 'And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week' is not the signing of an agreement but the 'confirming' or 'making strong' or 'showing powerful' of an already existing agreement. It is a 'doubling down' on existing policies. Such a starting point is difficult to pinpoint. On the contrary, the starting point of the second half of Daniel's 70th week is easy to be seen. It is 'the abomination of desolation', to which the Lord refers in Mathew 24 as the sign to flee Judea. This obviously must be a very clear sign, for all the world to see.

(4) In the tale of the Endtime in Revelation, the great destruction starts at the red horse of the second seal, peace token from the earth, people killing one another and a great sword given to its rider. From then on calamities and devastation continues until the second coming of Jesus. What else can the red horse be than 'the abomination of desolation', an utterly malign act toward a sacred place, resulting in complete chaos?

(5) The martyrs of the fifth seal, crying for revenge (Revelation 6:9-11) indicate that a very brutal worldwide tyranny is already in place, which suggests that the 42 months of the last half of the last 7 years have already started for some time. This period is described as follows in Revelation 13: 'And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months ... And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all peoples, and tongues, and nations' (Rev.13:5,7)

For more arguments on the last 3.5 years as definition of the Endtime, look in Chart of Endtime.

We see many signs that this Endtime is very near. But the mindset of the modern man has been turned into a mode from which he cannot comprehend the coming of the end of this era, let alone the fast approach of it. The last 100 years have seen an explosion of human inventiveness. This was accompanied by an enormous self confidence of man, to the extent that man came to believe not to be in need of God any longer, hence a complete secularization of the West. But instead of becoming wise, the turning away from God has given the manipulators of this world, that run the empire on behalf of satan, the opportunity to plant many false ideas in the minds of men. The warnings of Christ about the the total unexpected suddenness of the Endtime and its devastating consequences fall mostly on deaf ears.

What will these 3.5 years before Christ's return consist of? In short: war, famine, sicknesses and death, brought on humanity by the worldwide empire, called the United States of America in order to again gain control of the world, which we see slipping away from it since the start of the century. The empire will do anything not to loose its control and this time it will gain absolute control that is never allowed to escape or even to be tried. Nothing and nobody will be able to challenge the coming total tyranny of the empire - nobody but Jesus Christ. Looking at the book of Revelation, we see the Endtime start at the arrival on the scene of the red horse at the second seal of chapter 6. We see it arriving at the 'abomination of desolation', alluded to in the description of the sacred place in Jerusalem of chapter 11. We see it coming in the attack of the dragon on the witnesses of Jesus in chapter 12. We see it coming in the start of the 42 months of power given to the beast 'to act', in chapter 13. We see it approaching in the present acts of the empire by its president and by the behavior of the state of Israel in the Middle East.

For most people an awakening to their dependance on the Creator necessitates something like an Endtime. Only a giant escalation of worldwide havoc and an enormous exercise of God's power will do to have them change their attitude toward the Most High. In the Endtime, God will show Himself as the Only One to rely on and everything else as utter lies and deception. The Endtime will therefore not only be a time of calamities but also of opportunities for those that have still some honesty in them. If they turn to God in the Endtime, God will reward them with eternal life, as He does to every soul that trusts Him. It might however come at a very high cost: that of a of losing one's life for a short while in a world that is on the brink of extinction. With this website we hope to give visitors an impression of the last 3.5 years of the present day world, in order for them to choose God instead of this world that is fading away.