Eschatology is one of my favorite topics. Defined by the Oxford dictionary, it is the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind. I have been studying eschatology for over 20 years, and it never ceases to amaze me how God determined the end from the beginning. And He didn't just keep it as a secret to Himself. He gave us plenty of clues, including typologies, parables, and signs to watch for. 

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BLUF -  OK, so what's the BLUF?  As a prior Intel Analyst, I used this term a lot!  It means Bottom Line Up Front.  The BLUF is that God determined the end from the beginning and gave us the timeline in His scripture.  Basically, He gave humanity 7,000 years.  This is foreshadowed in the book of Genesis when God created everything in 6 days (Genesis 1:1-31), and then rested on the 7th day. (Genesis 2:1-3)

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One Day=1,000 Years - Scripture tells us that a day to us is like a thousand years to God. Some examples are Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8. The 6,000 year timeline began with the fall of man, or the time when the first humans (Adam & Eve) sinned, by ignoring God's command to refrain from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. The timeline can be split into three sections of 2,000 years each. The first is from the fall of man until Abraham (2,000 years). The second period of 2,000 years is from Abraham to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (1968 BC - 33 AD). The third period is from the Crucifixion to the 2nd Coming (33 AD - 2033 AD). After the 2nd Coming is the Millennial Reign of Christ, or the last 1,000 years. This correlates to the 7th day of rest during the creation cycle.  This is explained in the book of Hebrews 4:1-11.

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Daniel's 70 Weeks - This period of time is a prophecy given by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel. This is explained in detail in the book of Daniel chapter 9.  To sum it up, the prophecy speaks of 490 years, a period of 70 weeks, with each week being seven years. (70 x 7 years = 490 years). History reveals that 69 weeks (483 years) have already been accounted for. This culminated in the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ, around 33 AD.  I say 'around', as the vast majority of scholars believe it was between 30 - 33 AD. It seems that 33 AD is the favorite among these, however 32 AD is also very popular.    

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Israel  - After the 69th week, when the Jews denied that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah, and called for His crucifixion, God turned His face away from Israel, and towards the Gentiles (the church). Romans 11:25 says, "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in".  What does the fullness of the Gentiles mean?  In looking at the original Greek language, many Bible scholars compare this to a ship that's waiting for it's full crew. Once all of the crew arrive, the ship will set sail.  In other words, when enough believers accept Christ (justified), God will rapture the church (all those in Christ, dead and alive).  Then God will turn His face back to Israel, allowing the 70th week of seven years to begin. Matthew 24:21 describes this future period of seven years as the worst time of suffering since the beginning of the world. Jeremiah 30:5-7 describes this period as "Jacob's Trouble" from which Israel will be saved. Zechariah 12:10 says, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." The Jews will finally realize that Jesus Christ WAS and IS the promised Messiah. During these seven years, many judgements will be unleashed on the unbelieving world, in the form of seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowl's of wrath. The book of Revelation describes this all in great detail. 

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Rapture  - the most important thing to realize, is that the church (everyone who has accepted Christ as their Lord & Savior) will be suddenly taken up to meet Jesus in the air, prior to Daniel's 70th week. This is confirmed in several scriptures throughout the Bible, including Rev 3:10 and 1 Thess 5:9. 

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Visualizing the Timeline - for those of you that like graphs and charts (I'm visual myself), I created the one (below) a few years ago. It attempts to visually explain God's timeline, and references the supported scriptures.  As stated on the chart, I'm not dogmatic about this, and it's not a "thus saith the Lord" prediction. It's simply my assessment of many years of studying prophecy, that this is the 'most likely' scenario. People have asked me, "So what if you're wrong....will you lose faith?" My response is, "Absolutely not, on the contrary, I will continue to study the scriptures in order to get an even better understanding." God is very clear that He wants us to be awake and watching constantly, for the rapture. He is very clear that believers will know the season, and NOT be caught unexpectedly by this event. (1 Thess 5:4-8)  This is our blessed hope. (Titus 2:13)​

What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'” (Mark 13:37 NIV)

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Below is a very detailed timeline I created a few years ago. I know it can be daunting at first glance. My goal was to get all of the most applicable scriptures, and represent them visually on a 7,000 year timeline.  Click the graphic (below) to download a large PDF version of it.

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