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The ‘end times' are those times described in God's Word that prophesy the end of the world as we know it. Primarily, the end times includes the rapture of all believers in Jesus, second coming of Jesus, the tribulation [refer to "Tribulation"], the wedding feast of Jesus and His bride, the millennium [refer to "Millennium"], the final judgment, and finally the new earth and new heaven [refer to "Heaven"].
God's Word is very clear that only God the Father knows when the ‘end times' will occur. This is found in:
The word rapture comes from the Latin ‘raeptius' which means to ‘seize, snatch or seize away'. It is taken from 1 Thessalonians 4:17 "... After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." Some scholars also put this together with the ‘second coming of Jesus'. Other scholars believe that this is a two part procedure. The first part is the rapture where all believers in Jesus are taken up to be with Him found in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. While the second part is where Jesus comes down to earth in all of His glory (i.e. ‘second coming') and judges the unbelievers found in Matthew 24:21-31 and Matthew 25:31-33. However it may happen, it will be a glorious time for all believers in Jesus.
There are 3 differing views regarding when this rapture will take place:
This is a 7 year period of time where the Anti-Christ comes to power and reigns. The first 3 ½ years are filled with prosperity and happiness, followed by the second 3 ½ years of war, terror, death and suffering sometimes referred to as ‘Armageddon'. At the end of this 7 years Satan and his followers [refer to "Satan"] are defeated and thrown into the Lake of Fire [refer to "Hell"]. Then the wedding feast of Jesus and His bride (all believers) begins. The wedding feast includes the thousand years called the millennium [refer to "Millennium"].
At the end of the tribulation, Satan and his followers are defeated and thrown into the Lake of Fire for a thousand years. This thousand years is the wedding feast of Jesus and His bride (believers in Jesus). This is also referred to as the millennium where Jesus, with the help of His bride, will rule over the earth [refer to "Millennium"].
At the end of the millennium, Satan and his followers are released from the Lake of Fire for a short time. This ‘short time' will be where many on earth, even though it is Jesus ruling over them, will follow after Satan. At the end of this ‘short time', Satan and all of his followers (includes the new followers) will be cast into the Lake of Fire. In fact, anyone whose name is not found in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire (some verses refer to it as the Lake of Sulfur)
After all of the above is completed, the earth will be destroyed and replaced with a new one and Jesus will present to His bride (all believers in Jesus) the new heaven that He has created for all of us believers [refer to "Heaven"]. Revelation 21:1-2 describes this in detail "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (2)I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.".
In Revelation 20:5-6 "(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. (6)Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years." John tells us that the first resurrection are those that believed in Jesus. Which means that the second resurrection are all of the others.
The media and entertainment industries like to hypothesize on aspects of the end times. You'll note that, for the most part, they like to take Bible instances and create their own interpretation. Which is usually designed to shock us. The scary part is that the bad parts will, in reality, be far worse than what they are trying to shock us with and the good parts will be far better than what they can ever imagine.
Remember that the above information is a very rough interpretation. God's Word will give you far more details, yet will still only be a rough picture. One must always remember that even God's Angels are puzzled and curious with regards to what is in God's Word. In essence there will be a rapture of all believers, followed by 7 years of tribulation, followed by a thousand year marriage feast (millennium) and finally Jesus will provide His bride an eternal home (heaven).
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