Chart of Endtime

Many charts of the Endtime have been made, based on assumptions on Endtime periods that are indicated in Bible prophecy. The periods, indicated by bible prophecy are the following:

(1) The 70th and last week of Daniel's prophecy of 70 'weeks', which consists of 7 years (Daniel 9:27).

(2) The great tribulation, starting with the 'abomination of desolation', the worship of an idol in 'the holy place', calling for God's wrath (Mathew 24:15-21).

(3) The hour of temptation, that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth (Revelation 3:10).

 

Some add to these periods 'the day of the Lord' and 'the coming (Parousia = presence) of the Lord'. But these are terms that probably concern the total period during which the interactions of the Creator with his creation will be experienced by every creature, starting with the rapture of the church, ending with the dead, standing before the great white throne, at the end of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ. For the Lord 'a day is as thousand years'. Therefore we leave out this term.

The manner with which the end of (1), the 70th week of Daniel, is marked (Daniel 9:24), leaves room for no other explanation than that the 7-year period will end with the second coming of Jesus.

From Daniel 9:27, it is clear that period (2), the great tribulation, will start halfway the 70th week of Daniel. That would be 3.5 years before the second coming of Jesus. Therefore the great tribulation covers the last half of Daniel's 70th week, 3.5 years, ending with the return of Jesus. This is what Jesus Himself tells us in Mathew 24:29, 30. Daniel refers to these 3.5 years as 'time, times and half a time' (Daniel 7:25) and as 1,290 and 1,335 days (Daniel 12:11,12). The book of Revelation also mentions these 3.5 years, as 'time, times and half a time' (Revelation 12:14), as 1260 days (Revelation 11:3, 12:6) and as 42 months (Revelation 11:2, 13:5).

We assume that all of these time spans refer to one and the same period, 'the great tribulation'. However, there could be small differences because they concern 3 different events:

(1) The flight and refuge of the of 'the woman', the holy people. (Rev.12:6, 14)

(2) The absolute reign of the beast and his war against the saints (Rev. 11:2, 13:5,  Dan.7:25)

(3) The testimony of the two witnesses (Rev.11:3).

 

1. The Rapture

For Christians, the most important issue is the moment of the rapture of the church. In Revelation 3:10, the Lord promises his faithful church to keep her 'from' (= 'away from' or 'out of') the hour of temptation. The big question concerns this third period, this 'hour of temptation' number (3) above. Those taking the promise of the Lord in Revelation 3:10 serious, have different views on the period that is indicated by 'the hour of temptation'. However all explanations relate 'the hour of temptation' to either (1) the last week of Daniel or (2) the latter half of the last week of Daniel, 'the great tribulation'. Those believing in a pre-tribulation rapture believe the hour of temptation is the same as the 70th week of Daniel of 7 years. Those believing in a mid-tribulation rapture believe the hour of temptation is the same as 'the great tribulation of the last 3.5 years of Daniel's 7th week. Both call the 7th week of Daniel 'the tribulation', as distinct from 'the great tribulation' (the very heavy last half of it).

 

In assessing both of these views, we have to fast-forward to contents of the book of Revelation.

The mid-trip position has three problems:

(1) In our explanation of the opening of the seals, we will argue that the opening of the second seal will start 'the great tribulation', the last 3.5 years before the second coming. But directly after the rapture of the church, no seal will be opened yet. First, all faithful followers of Christ will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, not to be convicted, but to be rewarded for what their lives have meant for their Lord and Master. Secondly, there will be a time of worship of the Lamb by all heavenly creatures, including the 24 elders, representing the church. Thirdly the Lamb will take the scroll out of the hand of Him that sits on the throne before He will open any seals and this again will end in worship by the heavens, echoing through all of creation. All of this is described in chapters 4 and 5 of the book of Revelation. This implies that time will elapse between the rapture of the church and the setting in of the 'great tribulation' with the opening of the seals.

 

(2) Once the rapture of the church has taken place, God will start a work with his people of old, the people of Israel, as He promised in many texts in the old and new testament, which we discussed in 'visions on Endtime'. But God's holy people is entangled in a completely distorted view on God and his Messiah and is in sore need of repentance and gaining insight in the word of God. Repentance and acquiring understanding takes time before it can come to fruition in witnessing. In case of the Apostle Paul it took several days (Acts 9:9, 19, 20). So some time will have to elapse between the rapture of the church and the 'testimony of 1,260 days by the two witnesses' during the great tribulation. In our explanation on the seals, we will argue that the white horse under the first seal is the repentance and redemption of God's holy people. Shortly thereafter the great tribulation will start under the red horse of the second seal.

The pre-trib position also has its problems:

(1) It assumes that both the turning of the elect into witnesses and the worldwide reach of the last empire will last 3.5 years. Seeing the speed with which the events of Revelation follow upon one another, this is quite long a period.

(2) If the red horse under the second seal marks the start of the 3.5 year great tribulation - as we argue -, then the only significant event of the first 3.5 years of Daniel's 70th week is the white horse, the start of God's intervention for his holy people. It is not conceivable that 3.5 years will pass without any further significant events, knowing that once 'the Restrainer is gone' (which can only apply to the Holy Spirit - gone from earth once the Rapture of the church will take place), the son of perdition will be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:3-7).

(3) The Lord spoke of the 'shortening of those days' while speaking of the 'great tribulation'. with a word that also means 'to mutilate'. This 'mutilation' could come from the little time that will be given to the enemy to build his empire, i.e. the shortening of the first 3.5 years by leaving the church on earth. We see this also in the panic of the dragon in Revelation 12:12 - 'He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short'.

(4) The Lord promised 'to come with haste'. This coming will start with the rapture of the church and the opening of the seals. That also seems to indicate a shortening of that last period of 7 years by a rapture taking place somewhere after the start of it.

(5) There is no indication of the length of the first half of Daniel's last week. The length of the second half is clearly indicated, 7 times in total, 2 times in the book of Daniel and 5 times in the book of Revelation. Therefore, the first half of the last 7 years is not an established biblical period, as the second half is.

From these assessments of both visions, we draw the conclusion that the rapture of the church will take place somewhere during the first half of Daniel's 70th week. We have several reasons to estimate the rapture at about a year before the middle of the 7 years, so 4.5 years before Christ's return.

 

2. The seals

The Endtime starts with the rapture of the church. Some time thereafter the Lamb will take the scroll and open the 7 seals. The opening of the seals will set in motion the Endtime events of the last 3.5 years, 'the great tribulation'. The opening of seals of a scroll is not something that takes much time. We can expect events that are connected to the opening of these seals to succeed one another quite swiftly. Moreover the events of the seals are interconnected, each one calling forth the next. 

Seal 1              Seal 2              Seal 3              Seal 4             Seal 5          Seal 6

White horse   Red horse       Black horse    Pale horse    Martyrs       Earthquake

Start victory    War                  Famine           Death

The events under seal 1 indicate the start of the God given victory for God's earthly people (true Israel). This will ignite a world war (the opposition by the empire) under seal 2. The unprecedented war will result in famine (seal 3) and death (seal 4) and death of martyrs (seal 5). Finally God will react to the raging evil of the empire by a world wide earthquake (seal 6).

With the first six seals, earth events will speed up enormously as happens with a stream of water, approaching an avalanche. What previously took decennia to emerge, will then happen within a couple of years. Moreover, the world has been preparing for war, famine and massive death for a long time. A diversity of conflicts could ignite any moment into a world war: the Ukraine war, the war on Palestine, the Iran nuclear issue and the war on China. The position of farmers has been deteriorating all over the world, making humanity extremely vulnerable for food crises. Supply lines have been consolidating in very few hands, that can easily switch off supplies of energy, food and water. Governments have vigorously propped up their executive powers in order to control and to demonize those that dare to resist. We therefore estimate that the events of the seals 2 - 6 could easily all pass within one  year, that is 12 months.

We have good reasons to believe that the white horse of the first seal does not represent the antichrist (which is generally thought), but that it represents the intervention of God and his angels on behalf of the holy people that is on the verge of being destroyed, i.e. the Palestinian people, which consists of the true Israeli's. Like the rapture of the church , this will come as a total surprise to the world, which has sought to totally destroy it and needs time to accommodate to God's sudden rescue operation. Therefore it takes time before the empire will react. But when it will react, it will be in total opposition to the Most High. The 'emperor' wil set himself in the holy place as if he is God, as is indicated by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. 

Since long, the powers behind the scenes have wanted to build a temple in Jerusalem. The idea rose during the crusades from the Knights Templar which have gone underground in the 14th century. This is the reason why the seal-calamities are presented as 'horsemen'. We believe that no temple will be built because of resistance by the Muslim nations. Out of frustration 'the emperor' will set himself in one of the Mosque's on the 'Haram al Sharif'. The rage this will ignite in the whole of the Middle East is difficult to imagine. That is why this act is called 'the abomination of desolation'. The blasphemous act of the emperor will set the world ablaze. It is the red horse of the second seal. Of course, such an act can only come after a long diplomatic struggle. The time needed for the empire to vigorously oppose itself to God and to the Muslim world, could be 6 months.

The seventh seal does not mention a separate event on earth but heralds the start of the next sequence of disasters, the trumpets.

             

3. The trumpets

The calamities under the trumpet judgments are separated from the seal-events by some activities in heaven: (1) four angels holding the four winds receive the instruction to wait with calamities until the 144.000 elect from the 12 tribes of Israel will be sealed, (2) the opening of seal 7 by the Lamb, (3) half an hour of silence, (4) the giving of the 7 trumpets to 7 angels, (5) the prayers of the saints going up in the hand of an angel in front of the altar, (6) the throwing of fire from the altar on earth by the angel. We do not know how long these actions will take in earth's time. They are all acts of angels and they can operate with enormous speed. We therefore estimate that about 2 months will pass between the worldwide earthquake of seal 6 and the impact of the first trumpet.

The disastrous effects of the trumpets resemble the impacts of a comet on earth's conditions. The trumpets seem to follow each other in an even more rapid pace than the seals. They also seem interconnected.

Trumpet 1                 Trumpet 2                   Trumpet 3                    Trumpet 4

Hail with fire             A fiery mountain         Polluting rocks            Darkness

 

The trumpet events could all be triggered by the sudden impact of a comet, which in earth's atmosphere will split in four distinct 'parts' (1) the smaller fiery rocks, mainly impacting plant life, (2) the biggest rock falling in one of the oceans impacting the seas, (3) rocks in the tail that pollute many waters, (4) much of the comet's dust will obscure the sun, moon and stars.

New comets are very regularly spotted. The first four months of the year 2025 there were 18 discoveries. Normally they pass far from the earth . However, for once this could be very different. Comets mainly are first noticed by observers in a late stage of their approach, about 2 months before they cross earth's orbit. So havoc could be looming late in 2025 because of an earth bound comet without anyone knowing it at the moment we write these lines.

If the trumpets are all connected to one and the same comet, the first four trumpets could all be blown within one month time. This concerns their direct impact. Of course there will be long-lasting effects of the four trumpets on creation of years or even decades.

Trumpets 5 and 6 differ from the first four trumpets as was the case with the seals, but then in an opposite way. The first four seals will have to do with acts of humanity while seals 5 and 6 will concern acts of God. With the trumpets it is the opposite. The first four trumpets will be acts of God, while trumpets 5 and 6 will concern acts of man. Trumpets 5 and 6 are interrelated and both describe the frightening execution of power by the beast system, that is described in Revelation 12, 13 and 17. Trumpet 5 shows the political pressure and trumpet 6 the military pressure to accept the mark of the beast. We dive deeper into this very complicated matter with our explanation of Revelation 9.

There are 4 reasons to assume that quite some time will lapse between the first four trumpets and trumpets 5 and 6. 

(1) The last three trumpets are separated from the first four by the loud voice of an eagle in the midst of heaven, saying: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” (Revelation 8:13).

(2) The last thing we hear of earth's rulers since seal 6 was that they hid themselves in caves of the mountains in fear of the wrath of the Lamb. This earthquake is followed by four other calamities. It is to be expected that human society needs some time to reorganize and to resume the development into the beast system.

(3) The locusts of trumpet 5 receive the command 'not hurt the grass of the earth', which would be strange when all of the grass was just scorched by a comet. But after some months, much of the grass could again be on the fields.

(4) The description in Revelation 9 indicates that Trumpets 5 and 6 together will last for 18 months. We estimate the duration of seals 2 - 6 at 12 months (seal 2 starting the 3.5 year tribulation). We reckon the time-span of the angelic activities between the seals and the trumpets at 2 months. We suppose the first four trumpets to take 1 month. This totals 15 months. The vials of the 7th trumpet and the judgment of the beast will take about 3 months time, as we will argue. The totality of the beast's actions take 42 months, therefore 6 months have to elapse between trumpet 4 and trumpet 5. In our chart (number of months)

Seal 2-6    Intermezzo   Four trumpets   Intermezzo   Trumpets 5,6    Vials-End

  12                   2                        1                         6                      18                   3

This totals the 42 months of the reign of the beast.

The timeline of trumpets 5 and 6 is indicated in the text of Revelation: 5 months for trumpet 5 and 'an hour, a day, a month and a year' for trumpet 6. That sums up to 18 months or one and a half year. The completed beast system won't last for 3.5 years. Its days will be shortened by 2 years to one and a half year. Twelve months are necessary for making it operational (through enormous suffering by the human population) - for 9 months it will lay mutilated because of God's intervention by the earthquake of seal 6 and the first four trumpets. At the end it will be cut short by God's wrath in the judgments of the vials, leaving the beast scrambling for power instead of ruling. The remaining 18 months will display the most horrendous technocratic rule the world has ever experienced.

That the mandatory use of the mark of the beast for buying and selling would last for 3.5 years is nowhere in the Bible indicated. What comes closest to this notion is the description of the power of the beast out of the sea: 'The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months' (Revelation 13:5). Bur that also includes the taking of worldwide control to get the system operational, the revival of the system after being devastated by God's intermediary judgments and the protection of the system against the catastrophes of the vial judgments.

 

4. The vials

 The vials are God's judgment of the beast system, that has completely taken over 'Babylon the Great', which once was the Church system that had alienated itself from the Lord because of her 'love of this world' and deriving her power from world governments, a situation that lasted until the 18th century. Since then 'the beast', the USA and its vassals, has totally ruined apostate Christianity, leaving nothing but an outward appearance, with which it could dress itself. So the beast has become known as 'a christian nation' upholding 'human rights' while in the meantime igniting and fighting the most evil wars one can think of in order to establish and to consolidate its hegemony in the world. What else does such a system of countries and governments and institutions deserve than to receive the most destructive of God's judgments? These we see in the vials, affecting every person that will be attached to the system. The vials will be the final blow from the Lord to the world, from which it will never recover. This is made crystal clear in the 18th chapter of Revelation. The vials themselves are described in chapter 16. They are the following:

Vial 1   Vial 2          Vial 3              Vial 4                 Vial 5                Vial 6

Sores  Sea blood  Rivers blood  Scorching sun  Dark empire  Armageddon

The last vial will be the second worldwide earthquake, combined with hailstorms, which will leave nothing of (1) cities (2) mountains (3) islands. Some of these events seem unrelated: the sores (only those who have taken the mark of the beast), sea and rivers turning to blood and a scorching sun.

The havoc because of the first 4 vials could trigger internal disruptions. Muslim nations who had to accept the blasphemous beast system for one and a half years, could invade the nation of Israel, which will be the center of the beast system in the end time.

The darkening of the empire because of vial 5 being poured out on the throne of the beast, could very well be an attack on Israel (the center of the beast empire in the 3.5 years), thereby disturbing the worldwide control system, the image of the beast, that will be operating from Jerusalem. Everyone attached to it is suddenly 'in the dark', on his own, not able to receive or send any information anymore, not able to buy or sell.

With the operating system of the beast in turmoil, the beast will experience an existential threat. It will do everything possible to hold on to its world dominance, hence the gathering of most armies of the world towards Israel - Armageddon.

The 7th and last vial, inducing an earthquake and heavy hail, probably will accompany the return of Jesus, when 'the powers of the heavens shall be shaken' as Jesus said (Mt.24:29). His coming will be accompanied by a darkening of the sun, a turning of the moon into blood and the falling of the stars from heaven. This is a repetition of what happened under the sixth seal, when humanity thought that the wrath of the Lamb would come. Here is the moment that it truly comes but instead of hiding in caves of mountains, the kings and armies of the world start to wage war against 'the One that comes from the heavens on a white horse' (Revelation 17:14, 19:19). This enormous difference in mindset shows us that seal 6 and vial 7 are two completely different events and not, as some have suggested, one and the same.

Mindful of the Lord's word of his 'coming quickly' and the 'shortening of days' we estimate that the vial-judgments, including the total defeat of the beast and his armies, will take no more than 3 months.