Chapter Four — End Times Made Easy (ETME)

Preface
Chapter 1 — 3 Realms of Existence
Chapter 2 — DNA (The Depraved Nature of Adam)
Chapter 3 — BPM (The Broken Planet Model)
Chapter 4 — End Times Made Easy (ETME)
Chapter 5 — Sheep To Nations (STN)
Chapter 6 — The Second Death

One day — perhaps within your lifetime, perhaps on the news feed from your phone in your pocket — Israel will be at peace. Actually at peace, for once. And then, with no warning, she will be invaded from every side at once.

Not by just anyone. By a specific coalition, named in the Bible some 2,600 years ago: forces from what is now Iran; from the region of Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya; from Turkey; from the area of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan — with their leader coming down from the North. They will take the land. They will murder, rape, and loot. And somewhere in the middle of it, two leaders will sit down at a conference table, each one lying to the other.

The moment that meeting happens, a clock starts. And from that moment forward, nearly every major event of the End Times lands on a day-count you can write on one page.

That is what I mean by End Times Made Easy. Not easy because it’s simple — easy because once you know what to look for, the Bible hands you a watchman’s checklist with numbers on it. Most of us have never seen this checklist. By the end of this chapter, you’ll have it.

But first you deserve to know why you’ve never seen it, and why you should trust the man showing it to you.

Why the End Times Became Hard

This part of theology, called eschatology, is perhaps the most convoluted section of all within Christendom. (“Eschatology” just means the study of the end.) Why so much confusion? Three reasons.

First, seminaries — where pastors and priests are trained — are largely an extension of the colleges, and the colleges have been hostile to God for a very long time (see BPM). You saw in the last chapter what they did to cosmology, the study of the beginning; they have done the same to the study of the end. True science does not contradict God’s Word, and neither does true scholarship — but both have been made to seem like they do.

Second, interpretation. When people do not allow the Bible to speak to them plainly — when they interject their own thoughts and feelings into the message — they ruin the purity of it.

Third, shallow study. Some people learn just enough to make their handling of it dangerous. It took me over 30 years of devoted study to reach the point where I actually understand this material and can communicate it. And I had to quit listening to the systems of doctrine put out by the seminaries and just read the Word of God, allowing His Holy Spirit to teach me.

And teach me He does. He has gifted me with what is called Words of Knowledge (see 1 Corinthians 12:8) — a spiritual gift that allows me to receive from Him understanding of whatever He wants to give. I do not control what He tells me; He does. It is a gift, not an ability. It says nothing of my intellect, faith, or depravity. If you do not believe in spiritual gifts, then you have a bigger problem of not believing the Bible, for it was Paul who gave us the teaching on gifts, and there is nothing in God’s Word that indicates a ceasing of the Spirit’s power. That is an idea men came up with when they didn’t see God moving in power in their own lives. If you do not believe in God’s power, He will not show it to you. I do believe, and I do see Him moving.

One more thing you should know: I hold no membership card in any of it. No creed, sect, movement, or denomination — not Charismatic, not Pentecostal, not Evangelical, not Protestant (which comes out of Catholicism), and certainly not Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, or any branch of Orthodoxy. I’m not a pastor, a priest, or a “trained” clergyman. I am just a lifelong believer and student (disciple) of the Word and God. I follow Jesus and His Holy Spirit in all things.

Enough about me.

Method

My method of Bible interpretation is called “Plain Meaning”: I add nothing to and take nothing away from the scriptures. It allows for context — social, biblical, linguistic, any kind — to be evaluated. It says the Bible is a clear teaching and can be understood. When the Word is given as a parable, it’s a parable. When it is poetic, it’s poetic. When it’s narrative, that’s the way it’s taken. I do not spiritualize what is not spiritual. I do not complicate what is simple or simplify what is complex. And I never interject my own feelings, fears, desires, or misconceptions into the text.

Here are three big words for you to ingest:

• Hermeneutics — the method of interpretation.
• Exegesis — a hermeneutic that takes the word as-is.
• Eisegesis — a hermeneutic that adds or takes away.

So my hermeneutic is called Plain Meaning, which is exegetic, not eisegetic. I take it as it comes, no matter how difficult to swallow. I don’t soften it when it’s hard or harden it when it’s soft.

Clearing the Ground

Before the timeline, two disputes have to be settled, because getting either one wrong makes the checklist unreadable.

The Millennium

As believers in Jesus, we should all believe that He will return — if one does not believe this, they should not associate themselves with Him at all. The real conflict is over the timing of His return relative to the Millennium: the thousand-year reign of Jesus on this earth told of in Revelation 20. Three main ideas float around the churches of the world:

• Premillennialism says Jesus returns before the thousand-year reign. This one makes sense.
• Postmillennialism says He returns after it. This one makes no sense at all.
• Amillennialism spiritualizes it and says the millennium is something else entirely. Senseless.

I discuss these in greater detail in my other two End Times books, End Times Made Easy and Sheep To Nations (same names as this chapter and the next — all free on my website, GaryTheGospelGuy.com). Having a correct understanding here matters to The Hope That Is In Me: if my hope is in a false teaching, it is no hope at all. Same for yours.

The Rapture

Even within premillennialism there is a stark divide over the timing of the rapture. First, definitions. The resurrection is the raising of the dead in Christ at His return — one of Paul’s pet teachings, argued hard in his letters because not all his contemporaries believed it. The rapture is the catching up of the living in Christ at His return. Resurrection for the dead; rapture for the living. 

Today the friction isn’t over whether these happen, but when. Five positions exist, mapped mostly against the 7-year tribulation (which we’ll get to):

• Pretrib — rapture before the tribulation (false)
• Midtrib — halfway through it (false)
• Prewrath — before God’s wrath begins (false)
• Posttrib — after the tribulation (true)
• No rapture at all (also false)

The dominant teaching in American churches is Pretrib, riding on the system the seminaries have taught for years, called Dispensationalism. The late John MacArthur taught a great deal of End Times material from within that system, and nearly all of it was wrong — not because he lacked sincerity, but because the system says what people’s “itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3): that believers will not be in the horrific time called the Tribulation. It sounds great on the surface, right up until the Word of God is consulted. If you follow this teaching, you are in for a shock. It is eisegetic, not exegetic—imposing man’s will.

You Will Be Here For It

A person might argue that there is nothing hopeful about the tribulation. I’d agree — except for the timing of it. If we do not have this terrible time of warfare and torture and persecution, we do not have the return of Jesus. And if you refuse the Posttrib view simply because you don’t want to go through such a time, consider this: persecution is part of being a follower of Christ. Paul and Jesus promised it to us. If you are not persecuted, you are not a follower of Christ. Don’t want to believe this?

“…everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12, NLT)

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.” (John 15:18-20, NLT)

Want more? There’re plenty: John 16:33; Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:9; Acts 14:22; 1 Peter 4:12-14; Philippians 1:29; 1 Thessalonians 3:3-4.

So don’t be a coward. God does not like cowards. Don’t believe me?

“But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars — their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8, NLT)

Did Jesus shy away from His persecution in a torturous death on a cruel cross? Are you more precious than Him? Wake up and smell the blood. If you turn from persecution, He will turn from you.

So yes: believers will absolutely go through the Great Tribulation. Now let’s get you ready to recognize it. Here comes the checklist. I’m going to give it to you as it comes, without arguing every point as we go — the full arguments are in my books, free on the website. Fair enough?

The Timeline

Ezekiel’s War — the First Thing to Watch For

Remember the invasion that opened this chapter? Now you get some more details, because the details are how you’ll know it when you see it.

It’s called Ezekiel’s War because it is primarily given in the book of Ezekiel (chapters 38–39). It begins with a surprise invasion while Israel is enjoying peace — for once. The antichrist, called Gog, leads a coalition of Muslim nations attacking from all sides at once while he comes down from the North. And here is your checklist, because any other attack will not be it. Only these nations, plus his, will be involved:

• Persia — now Iran
• Put — the area of Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya
• Turkey — called Beth Togarmah, and Gomer
• Cush — the area of Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan

Gog himself will come from the area called Magog — now the Caucasus, the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, spanning parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. We do not know which of those countries he will be from, but he is NOT from anywhere else on earth — only those five candidates. He will be a relatively unknown political figure at first.

This coalition will invade Israel and successfully take the land. They will murder, rape, and loot. Then they will leave. But before leaving, there will be a conference-table meeting between the two leaders.

That meeting is when the clock starts. 

Day Zero: The Conference Table

“Seeking nothing but each other’s harm, these kings will plot against each other at the conference table, attempting to deceive each other. But it will make no difference, for the end will come at the appointed time.” (Daniel 11:27, NLT)

Now, full disclosure, because I owe you my usual honesty about what is revealed and what is reasoned: this meeting being the starting point is surmised, not expressly given. It is a guess — the best guess I know of, and the one that makes the most sense. If there is another time for the clock to start, I’d like to know what it is, because there is no clear teaching on it in the scriptures. So pick your best guess. This is mine. And all we have are guesses.

But before we count a single day, I have to clear away a very annoying teaching that gets thrown at anyone who counts anything. Here is what Jesus said about the timing of His return:

“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son Himself. Only the Father knows.” (Matthew 24:36, NLT — not all manuscripts include “the Son Himself”)

Notice what He actually said. No one knows the day or hour — and no one knows, present tense, at the moment He said it. Unfortunately, this has been twisted into “no one will ever know anything about the timing of the whole thing.” Some people get really upset about it, too (another clue that it isn’t from God). Day or hour is precise language. It is literal. A good hermeneutic keeps it that way; a poor hermeneutic makes it something else. Nothing in the checklist below names a day or an hour of His return — you’ll see that for yourself when we get there. And we DON’T KNOW the day or hour of the attack—it’s a surprise attack! Let God’s Word be true and every man a liar. I hope you’re getting this.

Now. Let’s count some days.

The Days of Daniel

Here is the whole countdown on one page. Some of these numbers sit right on the surface of the text. Three of them you will rarely — or never — hear taught: day 295, day 2,595, and the 150-day length of the wrath itself. And where those last two meet is something I have never heard taught at all. The digging is below the list.

• Day 0 — The conference table. The clock starts.
• Day 295 — The temple in Jerusalem is completed. (A number you will rarely hear taught; derived below.)
• Day 1,260 — The halfway point of the seven years. The sacrifices in the temple are stopped. The Great Tribulation begins.
• Day 2,520 — The seven years (2,520 days) end. The Tribulation is over. Jesus appears in the sky “immediately after the tribulation” (Matthew 24:29-31), and God’s wrath begins — 150 days of it.
• Day 2,595 — Day 75 of God’s wrath: the resurrection of the dead in Christ, immediately followed by the rapture of the living. The glorification of the saints. (Also derived below — this one is not quickly seen either.)
• Day 2,670 — The wrath — which includes the battle of Armageddon within it — ends. Then Jesus takes His throne on Mount Zion.

From Daniel we know the Tribulation period is one “seven” — seven years. Now, before you reach for a calculator: Daniel consistently uses a 360-day year, not our 365.25-day calendar year. That’s how seven years converts to exactly 2,520 days, with each half being a clean 1,260 days. Every day-count in this chapter runs on that 360-day year — keep that in your pocket, or none of the arithmetic will check out. Daniel says that at the halfway point the sacrifices in the temple are stopped (Daniel 9:27). Which means there must first be a temple. So when is it built?

That was a tricky one, and it took me a bit of study — but I found it. And the same calculation that produces day 295 produces day 2,595 along the way; the two numbers come out of one piece of digging. Three verses, one calculation:

1. Daniel 8:14 says the temple will be made right after 2,300 days. Made right how? I say it is when the saints are glorified — because the saints are the temple of God now, and the Jews performing sacrifices in that rebuilt building are not saints and don’t even acknowledge them.
2. Daniel 12:12 says, “blessed are those who wait and remain until the end of 1,335 days.” That count begins at the halfway reset — day 1,260. And those who wait and remain being blessed is the rapture: the living, caught up. So the glorification lands on day 1,260 + 1,335 = day 2,595 from the conference table.
3. Now work backward. If the temple is made right (the saints glorified) 2,300 days after the temple is completed, then the temple is completed on day 2,595 − 2,300 = day 295.

That is how we know it takes 295 days from the conference-table meeting for the temple to be completed. Like I said, not straightforward — but once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

So there are your buried numbers from that one dig: day 295 for the temple, and an actual day-count for the resurrection and rapture — day 2,595. That is beyond the 2,520 days of the tribulation — which is fine; it is what it is. It lands 75 days into God’s wrath.

Now the third thing you will rarely hear taught: the length of the wrath itself. The wrath has exactly one timestamp associated with it in all of scripture: the 5 months (150 days) of the locust attack in Revelation 9. No other wrath event carries a time signature, so I use it for the whole. Argue if you like, but you will have a hard time convincing me this is not correct. (The Flood had a 150-day meter too — how long it took for land to begin peeking out from under the waves. God seems to favor that number for judgment.)

Now set the two findings side by side — because what they show, as far as I know, is taught nowhere at all. Daniel’s counts put the glorification of the saints on day 2,595. The wrath begins when the tribulation ends, on day 2,520 (Matthew 24:29), and runs 150 days. So Daniel’s day lands 75 days into the wrath. And 75 is exactly half of 150.

Now let me be careful about what is scripture and what is me, because the difference matters. Neither Daniel nor John says one word about a “midpoint of God’s wrath.” No verse asserts that the saints are glorified at the wrath’s halfway mark. The counts are scripture’s; the midpoint is my observation of where the counts fall. I use that observation for two things and two things only. First, it locks down the timing of everything that follows: resurrection and rapture on day 75, wrath complete on day 150, and then — with Armageddon concluded — the throne, and the Millennium. Second, it is where my rapture doctrine gets its name: mid-wrath. Of all the positions on the rapture, mine is the one named for where the numbers actually land.

So: the resurrection and rapture occur on day 75 of God’s wrath, executed by Jesus while in the air over a rebellious world. First the resurrection, then the rapture.

And notice: none of this violates Jesus’ words. As a stickler for details, I say His actual return is when His foot touches ground at Bethany (or what’s left of it), and that exact day or hour cannot be known at this time. Even His appearing in the sky is not precisely fixed — all we’re told is “immediately after the tribulation.” The day-counts run from a human event nobody can schedule in advance. The Father’s calendar remains His own.

If you are one of those who insists on willful ignorance about the timing of these things, that is your right. I don’t go that way. I like to know things. And God shows me much through His gift of knowledge.

Armageddon

Ask any ten people what Armageddon is and you’ll likely get ten different answers — most amounting to “the end of the world.” Here’s my two cents.

Armageddon is a battle, not a war. The war is Ezekiel’s War, which began with the invasion that opened this chapter. Armageddon is the end of it. It takes place in the Valley of Megiddo in central Israel, after the Great Tribulation and not part of it — during the 150 days of God’s wrath. As many as 200 million soldiers are wiped out at that time and place.

Armageddon is the last event before Jesus takes His throne on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

God’s Wrath

Honestly, I don’t want to take the time to get deep into God’s wrath in this book — I’ve covered it extensively in End Times Made Easy (it’s the longest chapter). I’ll just characterize it quickly. God’s wrath is shown in the book of Revelation through seven Trumpets and seven Bowls. Basically, the Trumps herald the Bowls, while the Bowls complete the Trumps (though not consistently). Jesus is the One Who metes it out at His return, just after the Tribulation. As already shown, it runs 150 days and, along with Armageddon, is the last thing before He takes His throne.

The Millennium

The Millennium is the one-thousand-year period when Jesus is here with us on this planet, ruling from Mount Zion in Jerusalem. By then His new millennial temple will be built, and His saints will have been glorified and be ruling with Him.

This timing matters enormously for the next chapter, where I discuss the two judgments in the Millennium — and neither of those judgments is for the saints. Understand this: by the time the Millennium begins, the number of the saints has already been filled, never to be added to.

And notice something in Revelation 20:7-9: at the end of the thousand years, Satan is released from confinement and fools people into rebellion. Who? Not the saints — saints aren’t ruling themselves, and glorified people don’t rebel. This means there are two kinds of people in the Millennium: glorified, immortal saints, and regular, mortal nations. More on this — much more — in the next chapter.

The Millennium will be heaven on earth, literally. There will be death for the mortals, but their bodies will be kept young by the Water of Life and fruit from the Tree of Life; some who are judged at the beginning and allowed to stay will still be alive at the end of it. It will be just what this earth has always wanted: long life; a God Who is seen and heard; just rule; happy times. What could be better?

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Group Discussion and/or Personal Reflection

Questions

1. When does the Tribulation begin?
2. When does God’s Wrath begin?
3. When does the Millennium begin?
4. When is the resurrection and rapture?
5. Who reigns with Christ over the nations?

Answers

1. When Israel is invaded by antichrist. A surprise invasion on a day or hour not known. 
2. Immediately following the Tribulation.
3. Immediately after God’s wrath and Armageddon.
4. Halfway through God’s wrath, on day 75.
5. The glorified saints.

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