Key Points, Preconceptions, and Why We Still Aren’t There

When one studies most of the Bible in eschatology, without preconceived notions, understanding is able to be had that is not tainted by popular opinion.

Popular opinion is not always wrong, though there seems to be an idea that we must fit the events we see in eschatology to current events.

The Bible gives us what will be at the time these events take place, not what we see necessarily in our current era.

Jesus commanded all of us to watch for signs of His return, but He also wants us to occupy until He returns, meaning live our daily lives as though He isn’t returning soon.

Soon is relative to God’s timetable, which isn’t always congruent with man’s understanding.

The ancient universe is proof of this, meaning the universe had to be around a long time before the Earth came into the picture.

We are told there are six creation days, but we aren’t told those days are 24-hour periods. An eternal being does not need to be congruent with mortal beings.

Revelation says these events must soon take place.

But to a being that has always existed, what is soon?

Is it a three-thousand-year time span?

Is it twenty-five hundred years?

Is it ten thousand years?

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet….” (Revelation 1:10 [ESV]).

Right from the outset, we are told John is in the spirit on the Lord’s Day, the Day of the LORD, the time of last punishment and rewards.

Meaning everything he speaks of after this is during that time, besides a few parenthetical statements and verses.

This understanding of the text enlightens us to the fact that the Seven Churches of Revelation are not historical churches of ages past, church ages, a metaphor for all believers, or some mystical thing. It means these churches will exist in the area of Asia Minor during the time of the End Times.

Most of what Jesus tells these churches makes no sense to all ages. He mentions throwing people into the Great Tribulation for accepting Jezebel. He mentions a martyr that we have no evidence of existing. Antipas is likely a future martyr that hasn’t been born yet.

Jesus mentions the devil testing those of one of these churches for ten days, and He offers the crown of life to them.

These can’t be all across history or metaphors. They must exist during the time of the Great Tribulation.

Another example is Mystery Babylon. The reason you can’t identify this city today (perhaps not until recently) is because we aren’t living at that age just yet.

The prophets tell us Babylon the Great will exist on the coast of the Red Sea, in the area of Edom.

There is nothing there today.

Of course, with NEOM (what city is like the great city?!) that is soon to change. It fits all the boxes for a great city unlike any other. It is also being built upon the real Mt. Sinai.

The prophets show Jesus judging these areas during the time of His return, and they will be full of people and structures.

That is not the case today. Time must pass before these events begin.

We are in trying times, and possibly on the cusp of another world war. Remember, the wars were named after the fact, not during. But that does not mean it is the End Times.

The End Times involve the Kings of the North and South, the Antichrist (the final King of the North), Egypt being wealthy, ten kings of a super-kingdom before Antichrist ever rises, worldwide acceptance of Satan-worship, the Mark of the Beast (which only comes when the False Prophet does), and a Temple in Jerusalem. This is a brief list.

The Bible gives us the forecast, but we are not to shove events to fit. They must match exactly, or, once they happen, we can retroactively understand the events.

If Damascus, Syria is destroyed in the next decades, then you can say Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. But it doesn’t show us how that happens, or if the Messiah does it after the Second Coming.

We aren’t told specifics in that way.

All this to say, we aren’t in the End Times just yet. It may be three hundred more years down the road, or a thousand. Maybe forty. We aren’t told when, but we are told what to pick up on as the events arrive.

The world is certainly changing, but that doesn’t mean it’s the last days of this age before the dawn of our redemption.

I'm always on the lookout, and a watchman myself.

But there are too many prerequisite events that don’t even look close to happening yet.

Perhaps Babylon the Great, the End Times megacity, is being built now, since the location matches. You could make that case strongly.

The Red Heifers that started the October 7th, 2023 massacre can be pointed at to understand the Temple and priesthood of the End Times is not far off.

But we aren’t told how long these are up and going before the events. It could be two hundred years before any of that occurs.

And of course, I could be dead wrong about this and it could happen in the next twenty years, seeing as the Pharisees missed the First Coming of Christ by not properly understanding the prophecies.

But logically following the biblical roadmap shows us we have a while to go.

Which is actually great news in the sense that more people have time to repent of their wickedness and follow our King.

As should we.