When the End Comes

How to Use This Study

Read the listed passages before each meeting. Begin by observing what the text says, then distinguish its explicit statements from the conclusions we reach by bringing passages together. Each week has a central teaching, questions for discussion, and a response to carry into the week. The sequence reflects a futurist, premillennial, pretribulation understanding of the end times. Christians who affirm Christ's return differ on several details of timing; our common hope rests in Jesus himself.

This study draws on the eight-week outline, the five Church in the Last Days messages, and the uploaded rapture notes and teaching aids. The supplied lessons concentrate on the rapture and Antichrist. The later weeks expand the outline with connecting study material built from the listed passages. Scripture references are supplied for reading in your own Bible, primarily the NKJV; long passages are not reproduced here. The downloadable PDF includes a participant notes page for each week at the back.

The Timeline at a Glance

In the framework of this study: the present church age gives way to the gathering of believers to Christ; Daniel's final week unfolds in two halves; deception, persecution, and judgment intensify; Christ returns visibly and defeats evil; his thousand-year reign is followed by a final rebellion and judgment; then God makes all things new. Daniel 9 supplies the proposed seven-year frame, Revelation 20 explicitly names the thousand years, and Revelation 21–22 describes the new creation. Scripture does not date these events or settle every connection between the books. Keep the timeline as a study map, not a clock.

Week 1 — Reading Prophecy with Humility

Read: Daniel 7:13–14; Matthew 24:1–14; Revelation 1:1–8; 20:1–6; 22:12–21.

Look closely: Begin with genre and audience. Revelation is a prophetic letter to seven actual churches as well as an apocalyptic vision filled with images that draw on Israel's Scriptures. Read Revelation 1:4–8 before choosing a system: who is addressed, what is said of Jesus, and what response is offered to the churches? Matthew 24 likewise begins with disciples asking about the temple, Christ's coming, and the end. Those questions relate to one another, but the passage does not automatically assign each line to the same date. Learning to mark the speaker, audience, symbols, and scriptural echoes is a better first habit than assigning headlines to images.

Revelation opens as the revelation of Jesus Christ. Before we make a chart, identify its center: the risen Lord speaks to his churches, judges evil, and brings his people into his presence. Apocalyptic writing uses symbols, visions, repeated images, and Old Testament echoes. We need to read closely, ask what an image communicates, and let the clearer passages constrain our conclusions.

Christians have read Revelation in several broad ways. Preterist approaches emphasize fulfillment in the first-century setting; historicist approaches trace a sequence through church history; idealist approaches emphasize the recurring conflict between God's kingdom and evil; futurist approaches expect many of the visions to culminate in future events. These labels are useful starting points, though many readers combine elements of more than one. Views of the Millennium also differ: amillennial readers see the thousand years in relation to Christ's present reign, postmillennial readers expect gospel blessing before his return, and premillennial readers expect Christ to return before the reign described in Revelation 20.

This guide teaches a futurist, premillennial framework. Within premillennialism, believers disagree whether the gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4 occurs before, during, or after the final period of tribulation. We will present the pretribulation case and give serious attention to passages others read differently. We can be convinced without pretending that every inference is an explicit verse.

Discuss: What does Revelation 1 say this book is meant to reveal? Which claims are stated directly in a passage, and which depend on connecting multiple passages? How can a group disagree about timing while remaining united in Christ's return?

Trace the passage: Write down what Revelation 1 says Jesus has done, is doing, and will do. Which of those claims is certain even if a timeline remains disputed?

Practice: Start a two-column notebook headed “Text says” and “I infer.” Use it throughout the study.

Week 2 — Daniel's Framework and the Present Age

Read: Daniel 2:31–45; 7:1–14; 9:24–27; Matthew 24:3–14; Ephesians 3:3–6.

Look closely: Set Daniel's visions beside their explanations. In chapter 2, the stone's kingdom outlasts the statue; in chapter 7, the court judges the beasts and the Son of Man receives dominion. Daniel 9 speaks directly to Daniel's people and Jerusalem. A futurist reading joins these texts to see both God's rule over past empires and a climactic future. Yet a reading of seventy “sevens” must explain its start, the anointed one's cutting off, the destroyed city, and the final “seven.” Each step demands textual reasoning. Ephesians 3 adds that Gentiles are fellow heirs in Christ; it does not give a conversion table between Daniel's symbols and a modern newspaper.

Daniel's visions place human kingdoms under the authority of the God who gives the kingdom to the Son of Man. In Daniel 9, seventy “sevens” are determined for Daniel's people and holy city. After the first sixty-nine, an anointed one is cut off and the city and sanctuary are destroyed. Verse 27 describes a covenant for one remaining “seven” and a decisive interruption in its middle. This study follows the view that the final seven is future and that the church age falls between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. The text itself does not label the interval “church age” or explicitly identify the covenant maker as Antichrist. Those are interpretive connections that must be explained, not merely assumed.

Jesus' discourse in Matthew 24 names deception, wars, famines, persecution, lawlessness, and the proclamation of the gospel. We should not treat every headline as proof that a countdown has begun. Jesus warns his disciples against deception and calls them to endurance. A sign can alert us to the seriousness of history without authorizing a date for the Lord's return.

Ephesians 3 speaks of Gentiles joined with Jews as fellow heirs in Christ. This does not make Israel irrelevant, and it does not turn present events into a simple prophetic key. The church lives now as a people called to witness, worship, and faithful service. God's purposes are larger than any empire or political crisis.

Discuss: What does Daniel 9 state about “your people” and “your holy city”? Where does our proposed gap between the weeks come from? What is the practical point of Jesus' warning about deception?

Trace the passage: Identify Daniel 9's stated purposes in verse 24. Which parts of a proposed calendar are in verses 25–27, and which are supplied by the interpreter?

Practice: Read Daniel 9:24–27 slowly and mark each time expression before consulting a timeline chart.

Week 3 — The Gathering of Believers and the Final Week

Read: John 14:1–3; 1 Corinthians 15:50–58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12; Matthew 24:29–31.

Look closely: In 1 Thessalonians 4, the immediate problem is the church's grief over believers who have died. Paul's answer is resurrection, reunion, and lasting presence with the Lord. Chapter 5 then speaks of the Day of the Lord and urges alertness and mutual encouragement. Read both chapters before asking how they fit with Daniel's final week. The pretribulation reading distinguishes rescue from wrath and assigns the catching up before that week; other readings place the meeting and Christ's public appearing closer together. The main text assures believers of Christ's faithfulness. An argument about timing should explain why each supporting passage refers to the same events, not only list verses that use similar words.

Paul writes to grieving Christians: the dead in Christ will rise, living believers will be caught up with them to meet the Lord, and all will be with him. In 1 Corinthians 15, he also teaches the transformation of believers at the last trumpet. The event and the hope are clear. Its precise placement in relation to Daniel's final week is debated. The word “rapture” is a customary name for the catching up in 1 Thessalonians 4, not a separate word printed in most English Bibles.

The pretribulation case brings several passages together. It understands the church's deliverance from coming wrath in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and 5:9, the promise in Revelation 3:10, the expectation of Christ's coming, and Daniel's focus on Israel and Jerusalem as reasons to place the gathering before the final week. It distinguishes the meeting in the air from Christ's visible arrival in judgment in passages such as Matthew 24 and Revelation 19. Others argue that the church's promised protection need not require removal before all end-time suffering and read the trumpet and gathering texts as parts of one public return. Read their questions honestly. Suffering for Christ now is a normal part of discipleship under any view.

Jesus' wedding imagery can help us picture expectation, covenant faithfulness, and joy. The detailed sequence of a supposed universal first-century Jewish wedding is not itself a biblical timetable for the rapture. Matthew 25 calls us to readiness; it does not identify the length of an interval between Daniel's weeks.

If Daniel's last week is a future seven-year period, verse 27 divides it at its midpoint. The covenant, cessation of sacrifice, and abomination call for careful reading beside Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2. The text does not specify the calendar date on which the week begins. We do not need that date to comfort one another with Paul's words.

Discuss: What is explicit in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18? Which passages lead to a pretribulation conclusion, and what alternative readings deserve an answer? How does Paul's command to “comfort one another” shape our tone?

Trace the passage: What concern opens 1 Thessalonians 4:13, and what command closes 4:18? How does that pastoral frame affect the timing debate?

Practice: Pray for someone who is grieving. Speak of the resurrection and the Lord's presence before debating the sequence.

Week 4 — The Beast, Deception, and Tribulation

Read: Daniel 7:7–27; 9:27; Matthew 24:15–22; 2 Thessalonians 2:3–12; Revelation 6–9; 11–13; 15–16.

Look closely: Compare the agents in the passages instead of treating “Antichrist” as a label that instantly solves them all. Daniel's horn speaks arrogantly, Paul's lawless one exalts himself, and Revelation's beasts demand worship under the dragon's influence. A futurist synthesis sees one final rebellion behind these portraits. Notice also their limits: each is judged by God, and Revelation repeatedly shows worship around the throne. Revelation's seals, trumpets, and bowls include terrifying images; the book also gives room to witness, prayer, and the salvation of people from the nations. An analysis that follows disasters but omits the saints and the Lamb does not capture the book's argument.

Daniel sees a blasphemous little horn; Paul describes a man of lawlessness; Revelation portrays a beast empowered by the dragon and another beast who promotes worship of the first. This study reads these descriptions together as a future final adversary and a false prophet. The texts emphasize arrogance, deception, coercion, false worship, and persecution. They do not name a present-day politician, church, country, device, or financial platform as the Beast. We must refuse the habit of assigning the title to people we dislike.

The midpoint of Daniel's final week is commonly connected with the abomination Jesus mentions in Matthew 24 and the lawless one's self-exaltation in 2 Thessalonians 2. Revelation 13 depicts worship of the beast and a mark bound to allegiance and buying or selling. The imagery warns us about coerced loyalty and idolatry. It does not license a claim that a current technology is already the mark.

Revelation presents seals, trumpets, and bowls of judgment. This study reads them as future and intensifying, but their exact overlap and order are debated. Revelation 7 also presents sealed servants and an innumerable multitude before God's throne; Revelation 11 features two witnesses. The book's emphasis is that God knows his people and that the call to witness remains urgent even amid judgment. Do not reduce these scenes to a list of disasters while overlooking their worship and testimony.

Discuss: How do the texts describe deception? What do we know, and what are we guessing, when identifying the beast? What do Revelation 7 and 11 add to a lesson on judgment?

Trace the passage: Which actions of the dragon, the beasts, and the Lamb are actually stated in Revelation 12–13? Where is the church called to endurance?

Practice: Test an alarming end-times claim by reading its cited passage in context before repeating it.

Week 5 — Israel, the Nations, and the Mercy of God

Read: Ezekiel 36:22–28; 37:1–28; 38–39; Romans 9:1–5; 11:11–32; Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 7 and 12.

Look closely: Ezekiel 36 explicitly says the Lord acts for the sake of his holy name, gathers, cleanses, and gives a new heart and Spirit. Chapter 37 begins with an image of bones brought to life and then the joined sticks under one shepherd. The historical audience has known exile; the vision promises that abandonment is not the end of God's story with them. Romans 11 adds Paul's grief, his warning against Gentile boasting, and his hope for Israel. Read these texts on their own terms before asking how any promise maps to the modern state. The names Gog and Magog reappear in Revelation 20, but their reuse alone does not prove the two battles share a single date.

The Lord speaks in Ezekiel of gathering his people, cleansing them, giving them a new heart and Spirit, and joining the divided sticks in one restored people under a Davidic shepherd. The vision of dry bones declares God's power to give life where hope has failed. These chapters have a historical audience in exile and a lasting theological claim: restoration comes from God's faithfulness to his own name.

Paul's anguish for his fellow Israelites in Romans 9–11 does not end in contempt. Gentile believers share in God's mercy and must not boast against the natural branches. Paul looks toward a future turning of Israel to the Lord and calls God's gifts and calling irrevocable. Our study affirms God's continuing purposes for Israel while insisting that Jews and Gentiles alike are reconciled through the mercy of Jesus Christ. It offers no warrant for antisemitism, ethnic pride, or indifference to suffering.

Ezekiel 38–39 depicts Gog's assault and God's vindication. Revelation 20:7–10 later uses the names Gog and Magog for a rebellion after the thousand years. The shared names do not settle whether the events are identical; in the sequence of Revelation 20, that rebellion comes after the Millennium. Readers differ on when Ezekiel's battle belongs. Therefore our timeline places Ezekiel 38–39 beside this week as an open question, not as a dated step before the final week or immediately before Armageddon.

Revelation 7's sealed servants and Revelation 12's woman and dragon invite further study. The identity and relationship of these images to Israel are interpretive questions. Read them alongside the promises and warnings of Romans 11, and resist letting a chart outrun the passages.

Discuss: What does Romans 11 tell Gentile believers not to do? What is promised in Ezekiel 36–37? Why should we avoid giving Ezekiel 38–39 an exact date?

Trace the passage: In Ezekiel 36:22–28, identify what God promises to do and why he says he will do it. What attitude toward Israel does Romans 11 forbid?

Practice: Pray for Jewish and Gentile neighbors with humility and love.

Week 6 — Babylon, the Nations, and Christ's Appearing

Read: Zechariah 12:1–10; 14:1–9; Revelation 16:12–21; 17–19; Matthew 24:29–31.

Look closely: Revelation 17–18 portrays Babylon as both alluring and destructive. Watch for the merchants, rulers, and seafarers who mourn her fall, and for those whose suffering she has caused. Her judgment exposes an economic and moral order that fed on idolatry and violence. Chapter 19 answers with worship, the marriage of the Lamb, and the rider called Faithful and True. The order of the visions matters, but the text also uses symbolic scenes whose connections to Zechariah 14 and Matthew 24 must be argued. The pastoral choice is immediate: a follower of the Lamb should not share Babylon's worship of wealth and power.

Revelation portrays Babylon as a seductive and violent power that deceives the nations and profits from their corruption. Chapters 17 and 18 describe her judgment and call God's people to refuse her ways. The symbols invite careful interpretation; the text does not authorize us to declare a contemporary nation, denomination, city, or financial system to be the final Babylon. The chapter's practical force is already clear: resist idolatry, exploitation, and loyalty bought with wealth.

Revelation 16 gathers rulers to battle; Revelation 19 depicts the rider called Faithful and True judging and making war, with the beast and false prophet defeated. Matthew 24 locates the visible coming of the Son of Man after tribulation, and Zechariah pictures the Lord's intervention around Jerusalem. These texts anchor our hope in Christ's victory rather than in our ability to predict troop movements. Interpretations vary on how the scenes in Zechariah and Revelation align, so we should state the connection as a reading, not as an unambiguous numbered itinerary.

Revelation 19 also announces the marriage of the Lamb. The wedding image celebrates the union of Christ and his people. It gives a fuller picture than any attempt to force each ancient wedding custom into a separate prophetic event. The great celebration belongs to the Lamb, whose faithfulness carries his people through to the end.

Discuss: What traits of Babylon does Revelation condemn? What does Revelation 19 emphasize about Jesus? Where are we tempted to confuse the moral warning with a speculative identification?

Trace the passage: What are the different reasons for mourning and rejoicing in Revelation 18–19? What does that contrast reveal about each group's loyalties?

Practice: Name one way to resist the priorities of Babylon and reflect Christ's justice and faithfulness this week.

Week 7 — Christ's Reign, the Final Rebellion, and Judgment

Read: Revelation 19:19–21; 20:1–15; Isaiah 11:1–10; 1 Corinthians 15:20–28; John 5:24–29.

Look closely: Pay attention to the repeated words “thousand years” in Revelation 20:1–7 and to what changes when that period ends. Satan is bound, the saints reign, he is released for a final rebellion, and God judges. The passage is a centerpiece for a future millennium in this study; other Christian traditions read its imagery differently. In verses 11–15, the opened books reveal judgment according to works, while the Book of Life raises the question of belonging to God. Read these details alongside John 5's promise of life in the Son and 1 Corinthians 15's account of Christ overcoming death. Judgment is serious because God is just, and hope is real because death's defeat is promised.

Revelation 20 moves from Satan's binding to a thousand-year reign, then to his release and a final rebellion. This study understands the thousand years as a future reign of Christ after his visible return. The saints' participation in the first resurrection and their reign with him are reasons for hope. Christians disagree over whether the thousand years are literal duration or symbolic portrayal and over how this passage relates to other resurrection texts. We should read the sequence rather than flatten it.

At the end of the thousand years, Satan deceives the nations called Gog and Magog. Their attack fails. Revelation then depicts the great white throne, the dead standing before the throne, books opened, and the Book of Life. Death itself is thrown into the lake of fire. God's judgment is just, and evil does not get the final word. The chapter raises questions about the relationship of the first resurrection, the judgment of the dead, and the final defeat of death. Teach those distinctions rather than saying that every person is raised and judged in one undifferentiated moment.

Other passages widen the conversation. Isaiah envisions righteous rule and peace; Paul says Christ reigns until all enemies, including death, are defeated. We must be careful about constructing details of daily life in the Millennium where Scripture does not supply them. The lesson's pastoral center is the certainty of Christ's justice and the seriousness of our response to him now.

Discuss: What events does Revelation 20 place before and after the thousand years? What does the Book of Life contribute to the judgment scene? How should the certainty of judgment change the way we treat people today?

Trace the passage: List the sequence narrated in Revelation 20 without adding events from another chapter. Which questions require comparison with other passages?

Practice: Let the hope of just judgment strengthen patient faithfulness rather than fear-driven speculation.

Week 8 — New Creation and Living Ready

Read: Revelation 21–22; 2 Peter 3:8–13; 1 Corinthians 15:54–58; Titus 2:11–14.

Look closely: John's final vision repeatedly describes things no longer present: the sea as formerly known, death, mourning, pain, curse, and night. It also shows what is present: the dwelling of God, the Lamb, life-giving water, healing, worship, and the servants seeing God's face. The paired movements matter. Christian hope does more than remove suffering; it restores relationship with the Lord. The invitations and warnings at the close of Revelation address people reading now. Peter's question about holy conduct and Paul's assurance that labor in the Lord is not in vain turn future hope toward present obedience. We can be ready without claiming knowledge of an hour Scripture withholds.

The Bible's final vision is not merely an escape from a damaged world. John sees a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem, and God dwelling with his people. Death, mourning, crying, and pain pass away. The river of life and the tree of life recall and transform the Bible's opening garden. The curse is gone, and the servants of God see his face. The story moves from creation through redemption to restored communion with the Lord.

Revelation 21–22 does not invite us to draw precise floor plans or calculate dates. Its images call us to worship and perseverance. The God who promises to make all things new is trustworthy. The Lamb who overcame will be with his people. That hope belongs to all who come to him, not to those who have solved every timing dispute.

The end-times passages repeatedly turn from prediction to response. Watch. Refuse deception. Keep your lamps ready. Practice holiness. Love your neighbor. Share the gospel. Encourage the grieving. Work for justice and mercy. The expectation that Christ can come at any time should make us attentive and faithful in the present, not detached from our responsibilities.

Discuss: Which details of Revelation 21–22 most deepen your hope? How does new creation differ from a picture of disembodied escape? Which one practice of faithfulness will you carry forward after this study?

Trace the passage: Identify three things removed and three things restored in Revelation 21–22. Which present practice follows from each promise?

Practice: Revisit the “Text says / I infer” notebook. End by reading Revelation 22:20–21 as prayer and promise.

Timeline Questions to Keep Open

The source outline is a strong framework, but several transitions need explicit teaching. The precise relationship of the rapture to the Day of the Lord and the gathering in Matthew 24 is disputed; the distinction in Week 3 is a pretribulation synthesis. Daniel 9:27 does not name the covenant maker or explicitly date a future seven-year clock from a modern treaty. The midpoint events should be taught from Daniel 9, Matthew 24, and 2 Thessalonians 2 together.

The fate and witness of those who come to faith during the final week need more attention in Revelation 7, 11, 12, 14, and 20. The ordering of seals, trumpets, bowls, Babylon's fall, and the marriage supper can be taught as the study's proposed sequence while acknowledging literary recapitulation as another reading. The placement of Ezekiel 38–39 remains open; do not merge it automatically with either Armageddon in Revelation 16 and 19 or the post-Millennium Gog and Magog scene in Revelation 20.

Between the gathering of believers and the return of Christ, a teacher may also want to examine the evaluation of believers in 2 Corinthians 5:10 and 1 Corinthians 3:12–15 and the marriage of the Lamb in Revelation 19. The passages do not specify every interval. At the return, compare the judgment of the nations in Matthew 25:31–46 with Revelation 19–20 before placing it on a chart. Daniel 12:11–12 gives additional numbered days whose relation to the final week is debated. For Week 7, discuss the first resurrection, final rebellion, judgment of the dead, and defeat of death; for Week 8, connect new creation to resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. These passages deserve further study; use the referenced texts to examine each proposal carefully.

Source Notes

Adapted from “When the End Comes” eight-week outline; “The Church in the Last Days,” Parts 1–5; “Questions About the Pre-Tribulation Rapture”; “Rapture Theology”; “The Rapture of the Church”; “Imminent”; two Jewish wedding and rapture handouts; and “The Four Foundations,” Week 1. The supplied resources include overlapping drafts, different dates and translation choices, and interpretations of debated texts. New explanatory sections have been written to bridge the gaps in the eight-week outline. Scripture references are for the reader's own Bible; interpretive judgments should be tested against the passages discussed.