Peace Treaty
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 | Daniel 9:27 | 1 Thessalonians 5:3
The first event on the timeline will be the
revelation of the antichrist.
A peace treaty will be signed between Israel and her neighbours (the Arabs/Palestinians) and this will serve to reveal the identity of the antichrist to the church. In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul tells us that Jesus won’t return until the man of sin (aka the antichrist) is revealed, and Daniel 9 tells us that the antichrist will confirm a covenant for a ‘week’ (Hebrew for 7 years). The antichrist will, therefore, be revealed by the confirmation of this prophesied covenant. The reason why we call this covenant a peace treaty is because the Bible tells us
that “while people are saying,
"Peace and safety,”
destruction will come on them suddenly,
as labour pains
on a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape
The peace treaty
will be intended to establish a seven-year period of ‘peace’.
This will be a time of ceasefire; a time of peace and prosperity for the world. What we must remember is that when we speak of conflict in the middle-east between Israel and the Palestinians, it is not just between these two nations, but a conflict between world-wide allied forces. Israel is backed by the USA and its allies, while countries like Russia and China are backing the other side. So if there is a war between Israel and the Arabs, it actually implies a world war. Consequently, once the peace treaty is signed, the threat of war will be gone; everyone will rejoice because the middle east will finally be at peace.
The church must be vigilant of the man that signs this peace treaty, as he will be the one that the Bible calls ‘the man of sin’.
2) The Rebuilding of the Temple2 Thessalonians 2:4
2 Thessalonians 2:4, New International Version (NIV)
He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything
that is called God or is worshiped,
so that he sets himself up in
God’s temple,
proclaiming himself to be God.
The second event that will take place
after the
peace treaty is signed,
is the
rebuilding of the temple.
The scripture above tells us that the antichrist will enter the temple of God, and this cannot happen unless a temple is built. So the antichrist’s next agenda after signing the peace treaty will be to build the temple.
3) The Antichrist Breaks the CovenantDaniel 9:27 | 2 Thessalonians 2:4
Daniel 9:27 tells us that the antichrist will break the covenant (peace treaty) in the middle of the ‘week’. The Hebrew word for week here refers to 7 years. The antichrist will, therefore, break the covenant midway by proclaiming himself God (2 Thes 2:4). But why or how would this break the peace treaty? The antichrist will be most welcome in the temple of Israel, as he will have been an integral participant in the peace treaty. But the moment he goes into the temple and declares himself god,
the nation of Israel will deny him and the
covenant of peace that he signed
with them will be broken.
4) The Antichrist Consolidates One-World ReligionRevelations 17 | John 1:13 | 2 John 1:1
Once he has said he is god, the ‘man of sin’ will naturally want to be
worshipped and he will instigate this
through one-world religion.
Revelation 17:1-5 tells us about a
woman named Babylon.
If we align
scriptures we understand that
throughout the New Testament
the Bible
refers to the church
as a lady; a woman; a bride
Throughout scripture, whenever
the nation of Israel worshipped other gods,
God called them adulterous.
And this is how we know that Revelation 17 is talking about one-world religion.
Creating a one-world religion whose
focus of worship is not the One True God (Al Shaddai),
but rather the antichrist, is
adultery before God.
This is why this woman is referred to as the adulterous woman.
Revelation 17 teaches us about the one-world religion or the one-world false church
(the false bride).
This false church will be built on the power of the antichrist as
she is depicted as “sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered
with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns”
(Rev 17:3, NIV).
The entire purpose of this one-world religion will be to
praise and worship the antichrist.
During this time there will be a forced unity of religion where they will tell you that there are many ways and everyone’s ways are equally acceptable. And that when we come together to worship, the antichrist will try to deceive us into associating with one-world religion.
The bride of the true Christ must be vigilant:
when we see this, we must know that the end is near.
5) The Wrath of the Beast: the Great TribulationRevelations 13 | Revelations 17Once the antichrist has broken the covenant and consolidated one-world religion, then we will enter into three-and-a-half years of Great Tribulation: the wrath of the beast.
When we study Revelation 13 and 17,
we see that the Great Tribulation is against the church because
the true church of Christ
will refuse to mix with Babylon and worship the antichrist.
The church will, then,
be present during the Great Tribulation
and not raptured before it,
and that’s why the scriptures tell us to ‘come away from her,
My people’,
meaning not to associate with the false, one-world religion.
The Bible tells us that authority will be given to the beast
over the earth for three-and-a-half years.
For the first half of the 7 years, the antichrist will not have authority over the world, but he will lead the world by deception.
During this time, he will present himself
as a good leader,
people will fall for this, and the world will
give him their trust.
This is why he will be able to build the temple and establish
a false sense of peace in the world.
At the three-and-a-half year mark he will reveal his true nature,
proclaim himself god,
and from that point, the wrath of the beast will begin.
The wrath of the beast is aimed at the church because the antichrist sees the church as an enemy; an imminent threat. Antichrist means against Christ! And who is Christ today on the earth other than His Bride, the true Church. So the antichrist will come in power against the church for three-and-a-half years during the Great Tribulation.
Peter talks about the purification of faith which suggests that the purpose of the Great Tribulation will be to purify the faith of the believers. The Bible talks about ‘the great falling away’ in which time many people will fall away. If what is said here is conformed to scripture, and comes to pass this way, many people that held onto inaccurate beliefs about the end times will be part of those who fall away. Those who believe God will rapture them before the antichrist, for example, will lose their faith because they will think that God has completely forsaken them, and will start to question what kind of God would leave His children in such intense trauma. But if we are prepared, and we know that we have to face the tribulation, and we know that it’s a means to purify our faith, then we will be ready for action. Then, it won’t matter what happens, we will stand firm in our faith to the end.
When this time of Great Tribulation comes,
it will be mixed with the seals.
The seals are not necessarily tribulation for
the bride of Christ;
the seals are a series of natural and human events.
Famine and war are not necessarily tribulation, because they are not directed specifically at the church but everybody. The third-world war, for example, is not directed at the true church, it is people killing each other (discussed in more detail later when we study the different seals).
1 Peter 1:6-8,
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a
little while
you may have had to
suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and
even though you do not see him now, you believe in
Him and are filled with
an inexpressible and glorious joy…
6) The Rapture of the ChurchRevelations 6:12-14 | Matthew 24:29 | Revelation 7:9-17Anytime towards the end of that time of Great Tribulation (wrath of the beast), the church will be raptured, and these are the events described in the Bible that will lead up to the rapture of the church.
Revelation 6:12-14, New International Version (NIV)
I watched as he opened the
sixth seal.
There was a great earthquake.
The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair,
the whole moon turned blood red,
and the stars in the sky fell to earth,
as figs drop from a fig tree when
shaken by a strong wind.
The heavens receded like a
scroll being rolled up,
and every mountain and island
was removed from its place.
Matthew 24:29,
“Immediately after the distress of those days
"the sun will be darkened, and the
moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky, and the
heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
The church needs to be raptured
so that the
wrath of the Lamb can begin.
God will not judge the world with His people still in the world:
He will take His people out first.
And this is what we call the rapture.
The people who have not bowed to the beast and who have not worshipped his image, will be taken. To prove to us that the church is indeed raptured and not on earth anymore, the Bible shows us the church in Heaven.
Revelation 7:9, 14b,
AFTER this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…
They were wearing
white robes
and were holding palm branches
in their hands.
These are they who have
come out of
The great tribulation;
they have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.
7) Sealing the 144 000
Something else that must happen before the
wrath of the Lamb begins is the sealing
of the remnant of Israel.
When the church is raptured, the nation of Israel will not be raptured:
they will be on earth. But God declares that before He pours out His wrath,
He will seal a remnant among the people of Israel:
144 000.
Revelation 7:2-4, New International Version
Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea:
Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees
until we
put a seal on the foreheads of the
servants of our God.”
4Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
8) The Silence in HeavenRevelations 8:1 | Revelation 11 Revelation 8:1,
When He opened the seventh seal, there was
silence in heaven for about half an hour.
A moment of silence is often viewed as a gesture of respect and honour. In the time between the rapture and the wrath of the Lamb, heaven goes completely quiet[3] for about half an hour. This silence signifies the gravity of the situation: it is a solemn and holy moment in heaven! The whole of heaven comes to a standstill, waiting in anticipation for the Lamb to act, knowing that Jesus is about to stand up and enter judgement with His enemies.
9) The Wrath of the Lamb: Judging BabylonRevelation 6:16-17 | Revelation 8:5 | 1 Thess 4:16a | Revelation 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 18 The Two WrathsThe wrath of Lamb is not part of the 7 years referring to the beast’s reign and wrath. There is a difference between the wrath of the Lamb and the wrath of the beast (antichrist), and this has been a source of major confusion for many. There are two wraths:
- The wrath of the antichrist against the church (during the Great Tribulation) takes place first, followed by
- the wrath of the Lamb where the judgement of the Lamb is inflicted against the antichrist and those (in the world) who bowed down to the beast (i.e. took his mark).
The Trumpet CallRevelation 6:16-17
They called to the mountains and the rocks,
“Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him
who sits on the throne and from
the wrath of the Lamb!
For the great day of their wrath has come, and
who can withstand it?”
Revelation 8:5-6, New International Version (NIV)
Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
Then the seven angels who had the
seven trumpets prepared to sound them.
Revelation 6:16-17 announces the wrath of the Lamb which begins in Revelation 8:5.
Then the full wrath of the Lamb is clearly described in Revelation 8, 9, and 16.
Up to this point, when a seal was broken, a horse and rider had come out. But when we get to the wrath of the Lamb, it is no longer riders, but angels blowing trumpets.
And trumpets deal with the action of God. Remember when Jesus returns, as described in the book of 1 Thessalonians 4:16a, “…the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and
with the trumpet call of God”.
Jesus will come back with the blowing of a trumpet!
The 7 trumpets (representing the action of God) are not 7 separate elements.
The trumpets started with the breaking of the 7 seals.
After the seventh seal was broken, 7 angels were given 7 trumpets to blow,
and that signifies the wrath of God.
The Judgement of Babylon, the False Prophet, and the Antichrist
This is the time when God will judge the false church,
the false prophet, and the antichrist.
Revelation 14:8-11, New International Version (NIV)
8A second angel followed and said, “
"Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’
which made all the nations drink the maddening
wine of her adulteries.”
A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice:
"If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand,
they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has
been poured
full strength into the cup of his wrath.
They will be tormented with burning sulfur in
the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever.
There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
These are all great events that God is going to call into being on earth to show His might and His power. The wrath of the Lamb against the false church is described in detail in Revelation 14, 15, 16 and 18.
10) The Battle of ArmageddonRevelations 16:12-16 | Revelations 17:13-14
|Revelation 19:17-21At the
finality of the wrath of the Lamb,
the antichrist will rally his troops to fight against Israel,
and Jesus will return with the church, and
the sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus will
defeat the antichrist.
Revelation 16:12-16 New International Version (NIV)
The sixth angel poured out his bowl
on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.
Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
They are demonic spirits that perform signs,
and they go out to the kings of the whole world,
to gather them
for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
"Look, I come like a
thief!
Blessed is the one
who stays awake and remains clothed,
so as not
to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in
Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Why assemble at Armageddon? To fight against the one who sits on the true white horse: Jesus Christ.
Revelation 17:13-17 New International Version (NIV)
13They have one purpose and will give their
power and authority to the beast. 14They will
wage war against the Lamb,
but the
Lamb will triumph
over them because
He is Lord of lords and King of kings--
and with Him will be His called,
chosen and faithful followers.”
15Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. 16The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute.
They will bring her to ruin and
leave her naked;
they will eat her flesh and
burn her with fire.
For God has put it into their hearts to
accomplish his purpose
by agreeing to hand over to the beast
their royal authority,
until
God’s words are fulfilled.
When the false prophet and the antichrist are finished
with the false church, they themselves will destroy her,
and then Jesus will
destroy the false prophet and the antichrist in the
battle of Armageddon.
Revelation 19:17-21 New International Version (NIV)
17And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.” 19Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the Rider on the horse and His army. 20But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the Rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
11) Satan is Bound for 1000 Years and Jesus Reigns on Earth for 1000 YearsRevelations 20 | Isaiah 60Revelation 20:1-3, New International Version (NIV)
1And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
Satan will be bound and locked away for a thousand years after the battle of Armageddon where Jesus defeats the false prophet and the antichrist. Jesus, having returned with the saints, will establish His kingdom and reign here on earth for a thousand years. His capital will be Jerusalem, and people will go and worship Him there.
When Jesus reigns in Jerusalem, this song in
Isaiah will come to pass:
Isaiah 60:9-12,
9Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your children from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honour of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.
10“Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favour I will show you compassion.
11Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations—their kings led in triumphal procession.
12For the nation or kingdom that will not serve You will perish;
it will be utterly ruined.
The nations that will not serve Christ during this thousand year period will be destroyed. And the Bible goes as far as to say that if they refuse to worship the Lord, God will not cause rain to fall on those nations. It’s a mystery that there will still be people and nations on earth during those thousand years that have refused to serve Christ and be born again. We, the church that was raptured and returned with Him, will reign with Christ on earth in our glorious bodies.
The difference between us and the nations will be that we will be in glorious bodies, and they will not. And so, life will continue for a thousand years here on earth.
12) Satan is Released and Deceives the NationsRevelation 20:1-3 | Revelation 20:7-10After a thousand years, Satan will be released again and he will deceive the nations. Satan will again rally the nations of the earth and will ask them to rebel
against Christ and His kingdom in one final battle.
Revelation 20:7-9
7When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city He loves…
13) The Final Battle is Won: Satan is OverthrownRevelations 20:7-10No matter what lengths Satan goes to,
Jesus has the victory.
Satan will be defeated in the final battle, and he will be throw
into the ‘lake of burning sulfur [fire]’ where he will be tormented forever and ever and ever.
Revelation 20:9b-10
9bBut fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.
They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
14) The Great White ThroneRevelations 20:11-15Revelation 20:11-15,
Then I saw a great white throne and Him
who was seated on it.
The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and
there was no place for them.
and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne,
and books were opened.
Another book was
opened,
which is the book of life.
The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
The lake of fire is the second death.
Anyone whose name was not found written in
the book of life
was thrown into the lake of fire.
The second last event is the judgement at the
great white throne.
The first resurrection was at the rapture;
the second resurrection is at the great white throne.
Those who are dead without Christ will
now rise to be judged at the white throne.
Having being judged,
if their name is not found in the book of life,
they will be thrown into the lake of fire.
So hell is not the final destination for those
who do not know Christ.
The final destination is called the lake of fire.
Hell itself will be thrown into this lake of fire along
with Satan, the false prophet, the beast,
and all those whose names are not
written in the book of life.
15) A New Heaven and a New Earth
Revelation 21Finally,
anew heaven and a new earth
will be created
and all the believers will live forever and ever and ever with the Lord God
Almighty, and Satan will be no more.
[1] The Jews will deny him when he proclaims himself God because the
Israelites follow the Torah, and they know that according to the Torah,
the anti-christ cannot be the Messiah.
[2] Scripture references showing that God refers to the church as a lady: e.g. in
2 John 1:13 he refers to the church as a sister and in 2 John 1:1 the church is referred to as the elect lady and her children.
[3] The mystery behind this silence can be found in Revelation 11.