End Time Judgement
The Day of the Lord
The Bible tells us that the Antichrist rules in the last days (1 John 2:18; 5:19). The Antichrist is an evil force hostile to God, and is the embodiment of Satan the devil (2 Thess. 2:3-4, 9-10). Jesus called him the “abomination of desolation" (Matt 24:15). The emergence of the Antichrist has led to the corruption of society and immorality (Gal. 5:19-21), and the world has become extremely dark and corrupt (Isa. 5:20; Rom. 1:26-32). The world follows the Antichrist and the false prophet, worships idols, and persecutes Christians and Israel (Dan. 7:25-27; Rev. 12:9, 17; 13:6-10; 16-18).
God hates that when people “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.” (Rom. 1:23). God has repeatedly warned the world, through His prophets, apostles, and the Lord Jesus Himself, that they must repent and turn to the Lord and away from sin, otherwise they will all perish (Luke 13:3). As in the history of God's plagues to destroy the idols of Egypt and deliver the children of Israel from the slavery of Pharaoh (Ezek. 30:13; Exod. 11:1), in the last days, God will carry out righteous judgments on the whole earth with unprecedented catastrophes (Psa. 96:13; John 12:48). God will punish the great whore who has ruined the world with her whoredom, purify the sinful world, and eliminate all idols, false prophets, and idolaters from the face of the earth (Zech. 13:2; Mic. 5:13; Isa. 2:18-20; Ezek. 13:9).
Over 2,500 years ago, God revealed to the prophet Daniel the mystery of the "seventy-seven" concerning the kingdom and people of God (Dan. 9:24-27). Looking back at history, the first 69 sevens have already been accurately fulfilled, leaving only the “last seven" related to the return of the Lord in the last days to be revealed. Jesus said,
“when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt. 24:15-21)
During the “last seven years” of the Great Darkness, the Antichrist rises to power and controls the world economy. He asks people to receive the “mark of the beast 666” on their hands or foreheads (Rev 13:16-17). The Antichrist will persecute God's people for 3.5 years (Rev 13:5), after which he will be completely cut off completely (2 Thess. 2:8; Rev 19:19-20). God warns us that whoever worships the beast and receives the mark of the beast will drink the wine of God's wrath and suffer in the fire and brimstone at God's righteous judgement (Rev 14:9-10; 16:2).
The ultimate purpose of God's judgement is to separate man from sin! Buddhism talks about cause and effect, believing that people become sinners because they sin, but they have no idea why people commit sins. Since the fall of the first man, Adam and Eve, sin has reigned in human's life (Rom. 7:18-20), making humans become fleshly beings in the fallen world. Sin is only a symptom of the disease, but the inner "sinful nature" is the cause. God's righteous judgement aims to remove the root cause of man's sickness, that is to completely destroy and eliminate sin (Rom. 5:21) and restore man's divinity. Please read more on this in Jesus' Footsteps - The Return of Jesus.
End Time Warning
Signs Before Jesus' Return
In Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus told His disciples the signs that would precede His return:
1
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matt 24:7-8).
2
“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matt 24:11-12).
3
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14).
4
“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, … then there will be great disasters, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt 24:15-21).
Undoubtedly, the current world situation has made it clear that humanity is at the critical moment of the first three points. For over 2,000 years, like a relay race, the baton of globe Gospel outreach, led by the Holy Spirit, has circled the globe westward from Jerusalem, through Europe and America, to Africa, Oceania, and back to Asia. It is now returning to Jerusalem through China’s “One Belt and One Road” initiative, fulfilling the Great Commission commanded by Jesus (Matt. 28:19-20). China, the Land of Sinim, is destined to rise up for the end time to lead this last baton, as prophesied in Isaiah 49.
“I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated. Surely these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”(Isa. 49:11-12)
More than 500 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, the prophet Daniel interpreted the image in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (Dan. 2:31-35). See Daniel 2 for details. The dream, with its golden head, silver arms, bronze belly, iron legs, and half-iron, half-mud feet, in turn prophesied the rise and fall of world empires from Nebuchadnezzar until the return of the Lord Jesus. Human history has witnessed the rise and fall of the golden-headed Babylon, the silver-armed Persia, the bronze-bellied ancient Greece, the iron-legged Roman Empire (Dan. 2:37-40), and the rise of the European Union on the ruins of the ancient Roman Empire - the feet and toes of half-iron and half-clay (Dan. 2:41-43). We are now witnessing the rapid rise of the European Army (ten toes) out of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the eternal Kingdom of God on earth with the Lord Jesus as its head. The kingdom of the world controlled by the Antichrist, represented by the image, will eventually be crushed and replaced by the Lord Jesus, the stone cut out of mountain without human hands, as prophesied (Dan. 2:44-45).
The Seven Seals
The Lord Jesus has told us about the harbingers of the tribulation of the end time (Matt. 24:7-14,20-24) and His return after the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:27-31). He has warned us that there will be a great tribulation when we see the Antichrist standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15-19). The Lord asks us to be vigilant and prepared, because the day of His return will be like ‘Noah's day’. On that day, people were eating, drinking and marrying as usual, but on the day God let Noah's family into the ark, the great flood suddenly came and took them all away (Luke 17:24-32; Matt. 24:27-39). The Lord Jesus is our ‘ark’ and those who trust in Him will be saved.
In John's vision in Revelation, he saw a scroll sealed with seven seals in God's hand. Only Jesus, the slain Lamb of God, is worthy to open it (Rev. 5:6-10).
1st Seal: White Horse
2nd Seal: Red Horse
3rd Seal: Black Horse
4th Seal: Grey Horse
5th Seal: Martyrs
6th Seal: Cosmic disturbances
7th Seal: Prelude to the 7 trumpets
“When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.”(Rev. 8:1-2)
Seven Trumpets and Seven Bowls
1st Trumpet:
2nd Trumpet:
3rd Trumpet:
4th Trumpet:
5th Trumpet:
6th Trumpet:
7th Trumpet:
The 7 Trumpets are God's final call for sinners to repent. The 7 trumpets will only destroy 1/3 of the people and the earth. Each trumpet brings a more devastating plague than the last to give people time to repent. At that time, "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:13). Many will be saved in the Great Tribulation (Rev. 7:9, 13-14), but there will be some unrepentant ones (Rev. 9:20-21), who will perish in the 7 bowls of God’s wrath.
1st Bowl:
2nd Bowl:
3rd Bowl:
4th Bowl:
5th Bowl:
6th Bowl:
7th Bowl:
Jesus said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matt 24:29-30)
The apocalyptic trumpets are catastrophes for the world, but for the children of God they signal the Jubilee of the Lord’s marriage to His Bride of Christ. At the moment when the 7th trumpet sounds, all the faithful will be caught up to the air to meet the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 15:52-53; 1 Thess. 4:16-17). We will then be with Him forever (John 14:2-3).
The Day of the LORD
The Lord has repeatedly warned us through His prophets that the great and dreadful Day of the Lord is drawing near (Joel 1:15; Isa. 13:6; Ezek. 30:3; Rom. 1:15). This is the day of the return of the Lord Jesus, the day of judgement upon the nations and all the sinners of the earth (Matt. 11:24; 1Pet. 1:15; 2 Thess. 1:7-10). It is the day of the battle between God and the evil forces of the devil. It is also the day when the Kingdom of God is firmly established throughout the earth, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb with His Bride of Christ will be celebrated.
On that day, demonic spirits will gather the nations to Armageddon (Rev. 16:16) to fight against Jerusalem, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." (Rev. 16:13-14) The Lord Jesus and His armies will fight for His people. Satan the devil (dragon) and his minions, along with the Antichrist (beast) and the false prophet will be completely destroyed and thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 19:11-16, 19-20; 20:10). This day will be great and dreadful for the enemies of the Lord, when God will punish the great harlot and her followers throughout the whole world (Rev 17:18; 19:2). However, it will be a great day of blessing and salvation for God's people and the elect (Mal. 4:1-3; Heb. 9:27-28; Luke 21:26-28; Rev. 7:2-3).
At that time, God will protect His people, for “the Lord will be zealous for His land and pity His people” (Joel 2:18), and He will also unite the rod of the house of Judah with the rod of the lost ten tribes of Israel (Ezek. 37:15-19), so that "all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26). "As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be". (Matt. 24:37; 1 Thess. 5:3) God warns us to be vigilant and be prepared.
The Judgment
The Great White Throne
At the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, all people will stand to be judged by God. The final Judgment is based on righteousness (Rev. 20:12). The Bible tells us that "it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). But “he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. ”(John 5:24)
God is love (1 John 4:8-10). God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God is so patient that people think He is slow to fulfill His promises (2 Pet. 3:8-9), “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up... Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pet. 3:10-13) At the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, the dead will be raised, the righteous will be rewarded, the wicked will be condemned, and heaven and earth will be renewed.
At that time, all the living and the dead will stand before the judgment seat of the Lord and be judged according to their deeds (2 Cor. 5:10; Dan. 7:9-12; Rev. 20:11-15; 22:12). "For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil." (Ecc. 12:14). “For every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. ”(Matt. 12:36-37). Jesus warned the world that whoever is ashamed of the word of the Lord will be ashamed of that person at His second coming (Mark 8:38; Matt. 10:33; John 12:48; Jer. 25:31).
Just as a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep, so the wicked will be separated from the righteous and cast into the lake of fire. The wicked go to eternal punishment, while the righteous go to eternal life (Matt. 13:49-50; 25:31-46; Rev. 21:7-8). The servants of the Lord and the saints will receive the crown of glory and reward before the throne of the Lord Jesus (Phil. 3:14; Col. 3:24; Luke 6:23; 1 Cor. 9:25; Jas. 1:12; Rev. 11:18). They will inherit God's eternal kingdom, and enter the new heaven and the new earth (2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 21:1) to reign with the Lord Jesus (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 5:10; 20:4).
