STUPENDOUS IMPENDING EVENTS This booklet is meant to present a brief and concise outline, in chronological order, of the great things that are to happen in this world as foretold in the Holy Scriptures -- our precious Bible. The first tremendous event will be the coming of Christ to take all true believers in Jesus Home to Heaven. We speak of it as the-- RAPTURE -- This word does not mean "ecstasy" though it will be one of the most thrilling sensations ever to be known. The word comes from a Latin root "rapere", which means to catch up or snatch away. It is the word we read in 1 Thess. 4:17 where we are said to be "caught up" to meet the Lord in the air. To those who know, the "Rapture" means the coming of Christ to take us home to Glory, to which we look forward with joyous anticipation. It is the very next thing of world-wide consequence which is to take place. We all know that the coming of Christ is found often in the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testaments. But this special coming, known as the "Rapture" is only found in the New Testament. The first time it is said by the Lord Jesus Himself, when we hear Him say in John 14:2-3: "In My Father's house are many mansions...I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." There are no details given here. He says, "I go," but does not say how and when and where. Since He was speaking to the disciples, they might naturally think that He would come for them alone. We learn later that He will come for all believers, both dead and living; and since He has not come as yet, we know that all the believers of these many centuries will be included in this joyous event. In John 11:25-26 our Lord gave a hint that this rapture would include those who had died, for He says: "though he were dead, yet shall he live" and also that many would never die at all, when He said in John 11:26, "whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." So far then we have learned that the Lord will come, that believers who have died shall live and believers who are living at that time shall never die. But it does NOT say who those believers are. We turn now to 1 Thess. 4:14-17 and there that missing link is recorded. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Here we get the additional information that at the rapture all who are saved will share in this tremendous event: those who had died would be raised from the dead; those alive at the time will together with the revived ones rise to meet the Lord in the air. Here we learn that our blessed Lord will come from Heaven (not all the way to earth) but that we shall rise to meet Him in the air. There is one very prominent detail omitted here. What about our bodies? This so important detail is added for instance in I Cor.15:51-53: "Behold, I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." Here we learn that our bodies shall be changed to suit the Glory to which we are going. The same truth is given in Phil. 3:20,21 as follows: "for our conversation (the word literally is our 'citizenship') is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our 'vile' body (literally the body of our 'humiliation'), that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." The verses quoted above tell the story that our Lord will come to take all believers to Glory. It is the very first great event we look forward to. What a thought! Just think of millions upon millions of true believers from Adam down to the very moment Jesus comes shall all be on earth for a few moments; then to ascend to Heaven above. The Bible knows of nothing that has to happen before that climactic hour. It may happen today. The Bible has a lot to say about the very things we see right now in the way of wickedness, wars, earthquakes, and specially the fearful departure from the vital truths of God's Word. All these and more impress the intelligent believer that the coming of our blessed Lord must be near. Anyway, we are urged to live as those who wait for their Lord to come. "Yet a little while, and the Lord shall come." In view of it, may we be in earnest in living for Christ and seeking to reach souls with the great news of salvation through faith in Him Who died that sinners might live. THE NATION OF ISRAEL -- What will happen after we Christians leave this world and ascend with Christ to Glory? THE ANSWER IS: God will take up again as His special interest, Israel. As it says in Rom. 11:2 God has not cast away His people which He foreknew; at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace (v.5). Israel fell, but through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:11). "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel (for the last nineteen centuries because of Israel's rejection of their Messiah), until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." The fulness of the Gentiles refers to this present day of grace when the Gospel is preached world-wide largely to the Gentiles. When that period ends at the "rapture" then God will again take up Israel as it goes on to say: "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes." This future conversion of Israel is romantically foretold in Ezek. 37:1-10. Read this striking passage. It describes the future physical and spiritual revival of the nation of Israel. "Four winds" (Ezek. 37:9) blow, suggesting that the Spirit of God will bring the people from the four quarters of the earth. The same "four winds" are seen in Matt. 24:31, referring to the same ingathering of Israel. The same thought of the four winds is seen in Rev. 7:1, in connection with Israel's future. The nation of Israel, restored to their land and once again the subject of God's special interest, is seen divided into three main parts. In Zech. 13:8-9 we read that two parts of the people shall be cut off and shall die; while the third part will be brought through the fire. That is, a third part of the nation will pass alive through the fearful fire (spoken of as the "great tribulation") and will become the focal nation of the earth with Jerusalem as their capital city. These three parts are clearly set forth in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 7 the 144,000 are those saved Jews from the great tribulation judgments who will be the nucleus of Israel to live on the earth forever. One section of Israel will be killed for their faithfulness to Christ. In Rev. 11:11-12 we read of those faithful Jews who will witness for Christ and who will suffer as martyrs. They will be raised from the dead and are caught up to Heaven to share in the perfect bliss of those caught up to Glory at the rapture. And the third group are those who worship the beast and his image (the apostates) who will be destroyed at Christ's coming in power and glory. The two parts of Israel that will die are the martyrs and the apostates; the ones who pass alive through the fires of the great tribulation will form the nucleus of Israel as God's people on earth. After we have been taken home to Heaven at the "Rapture" God will immediately take up the nation of Israel, because He promised so to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel's blindness will be lifted for many of them who will turn to God in repentance and own Christ as their Saviour. At that time all on earth will be sinners, on the way to Hell. All believers will be taken to Heaven. But, in taking up Israel and opening the eyes of many to see their guilt and repent and turn to Christ, there will be another testimony on earth confessing Christ. They will become God's witnesses, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the nations who had not heard the Gospel and as a result many shall be saved. But Satan does not want this, and those messengers will be bitterly persecuted. Our Lord Himself foretold that many would be killed (Matt. 24:9). The nation passing alive through the tribulation and inheriting the kingdom is seen in Revelation 12. Summing up the foregoing, Israel will be restored as a nation; many among them will be awakened to their guilt and will be saved. Those will go forth and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom (that Christ is coming to reign). Many of those will be slain, but many shall remain alive and will inherit the earth under their Messiah's reign. All this in relation to Israel. When the Church goes to Glory, besides Israel there will be two other groups on earth--the false church, prominently seen in the Romish system and recorded in Revelation 17 and 18, and, of course the nations as such; many of them Communistic, full of blasphemy against God. Since the false church at least claims to believe in Christ and mentions Him, it becomes the butt of bitter persecution by the political powers. Revelation chapter 17 shows how the ten-nations coalition of Western European nations (which I believe includes the U. S. since it is part of "NATO" already) will annihilate this wicked religious fraud (called the "Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth"). It is the destruction of Roman Catholicism and all those who share its fearful guilt. The Leader of the Western European powers is called the "Beast." Europe will unite under this sinister Monster, said to be full of blasphemy. This tells us that after we, believers in Jesus, leave this world the political powers will become wholly wicked and communistic. They will wipe the false church off the map and will bitterly persecute Israel under the leadership of the Antichrist--himself a Jew. THE APPEARING OF JESUS CHRIST -- We are told a number of times in the book of Revelation that this final time of fearful horror known as the "great tribulation" lasts three and one-half years. It will be climaxed by the public, majestic coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (See Matt. 24:21-31.) Matthew 13:40-42 -- "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this age. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Revelation 19:11-21 describes in dramatic fashion the coming of Christ from Heaven to destroy the mighty armies gathered against Him. Every soul is slain and the great Political Leader of the European armies is cast alive into the lake of fire, as is his co-criminal the "false prophet" who is the Antichrist. When Jesus comes He is accompanied with mighty armies clothed in fine linen, white and clean (v.14) which is the Church. And just ere our Lord thus comes, we read in the opening verses of this chapter of the marriage of Christ to His Church. All those gathered against our Lord in war, as recorded in these verses in Revelation 19 are totally destroyed. But everybody is not in the army, so when we turn to Matt. 25:31-46 we see our Lord dealing with the wicked nations at home; and every one of the goats (the sinners) is cast into the lake of fire. All the wicked are taken off the earth; only those who are God's people remain to enter the reign of Christ the Lord. Those who do so are saved Jews and those from among the nations who heeded the message of Christ the King. THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS -- This will take place at Christ's coming in power and glory as He comes in the clouds of heaven. Just a look at the setup when those nations are blasted at the coming of Christ as told forth in the Scriptures as follows: Ezekiel 38 describes the invasion of the "land" (of Israel) by Gog and Magog (which is Russia and many other powers associated with her). They shall invade the land of Israel and overflow it (see vv. 8-16). God in His fury will destroy them (vv. 18-23). The same facts are set forth in Daniel 11:40-45. The King of the North in that chapter (see v. 40) shall invade the glorious land (the land of Israel). He and the Gog of Ezekiel 38 are one and the same person--the Russian power with her satellites invading Israel and driving down through the land into other countries and including Egypt (Dan. 11:41-42). Now turning to the book of Zechariah we learn an additional fact. I can assure you that the same Northern power (Russia, etc.) is in view here. We read here in Zech.14:2 the additional truth that Jerusalem will be taken. The Lord will go forth to fight against those nations and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. Turning back now to Daniel 11, we learn that when Russia and her cohorts are south of the land of Israel tidings out of the East and out of the North trouble them. A careful study of Scripture shows why this is so. Turning to Revelation 9:16 we read of a mighty army of 200,000,000 coming from the East. It is believed that the tidings from the East that trouble the Russian power in Daniel 11 is just the news that the vast armies from the East, China, Japan, maybe India too are on their way to challenge Russia. There were also tidings out of the North, referring most likely to the fact that the Western European armies had landed at Armageddon (Rev. 16:16). Those armies we have already seen in Revelation 19:19-21. When Russia hears this (Dan.11:41-42), she goes back north, camps at Jerusalem on Mount Zion and meets her doom there. Summing all this up, we see the mighty armies from the North, the East and the West all converging on the land of Israel; and will all fall and be totally destroyed by our glorious Lord, when He comes in mighty power. Zechariah 14:1-4 describes the destruction of the Russians; Revelation 19:11-21 the destruction of the Western European powers. Several verses state that all the wicked will be blasted from the earth, such as Matt. 13:41-42. All sinners will be cast into Hell to await the great day of final judgment. Then shall, says Matt. 13:43, the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. We omit many, many details related in many of the Old Testament Scriptures and so many in the book of Revelation. We do not want to confuse the issue but are anxious to present briefly the main truths in connection with the events that lie ahead. We continue now with the next feature--the Reign of Christ which follows the judgment of the world. We read that at first our Lord will reign a "thousand years" generally called the-- MILLENNIUM -- (Rev. 20:1-7) Verse 4 of this chapter tells us that saints will reign with Christ a thousand years. Those saints include us who were caught up to Glory at the rapture; also those saints who were martyred during the tribulation and who were caught up to Heaven after their martyrdom as we saw before as said in Rev.11:12. Verse 2 tells the startling fact that the devil is locked up in the bottomless pit during those thousand years. The devil is absent while our blessed Lord will reign in perfect righteousness. The result, of course, is a time of peace and righteousness in this now so troubled world. What a day that must be. We have said already AND PROVEN that only saved souls enter this marvelous age of blessing. All sinners will have been consigned to eternal doom before then. Isaiah 11:5-9 describes a little of those ideal days. We read that "righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." The same wonderful things are said in Isa. 35, closing like this: "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." A wonderful 1000 years indeed. Yet, as we turn to Rev. 20:7-9 we learn with amazement that when Satan is loosed after the 1000 years are expired that he finds vast hordes to follow him in rebellion against God and that such are devoured by fire from Heaven. Where do such sinners come from, since only saints entered that glorious day a thousand years past? The answer is very simple and very sad, too. Since only believers entered and there are vast numbers of rebels at the end, it means that such were born during those years. Inspite of a thousand years of bliss, millions are ready to rebel against God. And they can't blame the devil, for he was not there; they can't blame poverty or hard times, for the millennium was a time of surpassing prosperity. Nay, man can only blame himself. That's why our God saw fit to test man. It has been noticed by many that three, and only three kings reigned over the whole 12 tribes of Israel-- Saul, David and Solomon; and each reigned exactly 40 years. Saul was the wicked, selfish king; his reign pictures man living in sin and having his own way. David reigned in kindness; his reign pictures this present day of grace under the rule of our blessed Lord. Solomon reigned in power and glory when the greatest prosperity possible existed in Israel; Solomon's reign of glory pictures the millennial reign of Christ. It pictures God's kindness to man, blessing him so richly and still he goes astray. It is seen in this millennial period. It proves that man is just a wicked sinner. And so the judgment of God will fall as our text in Rev. 20 shows. During this millennium things went on as usual. Man was tested under the most propitious circumstances. Yet he failed. Flaming fire falls down from Heaven and devours every sinner (Rev. 20:9) and the devil is forever doomed in the lake of fire (v. 10). We saw already that just before this millennial reign of Christ every sinner then living on earth was destroyed at Christ's public coming in power and glory. Now we see the same thing at its close. This is the final doom of sinful men then living on the earth. And now, as we go on in Rev. 20 we read another tremendous fact, namely that all the dead will stand before God--before the Lord Jesus Christ, for we read in John 5:22 that the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son. All sinners (all the dead, for by this time every sinner will have passed off the earth by death) are raised from the dead to stand before-- THE GREAT WHITE THRONE -- Read Rev. 20:11-15. Every one is cast into the lake of fire. All sinners go to the same place of eternal perdition, but they do not all suffer alike, for we read in our text that they are judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works. God has kept a record of the life of every individual soul and their punishment is gauged by that record. Oh, how fearful is the thought of eternal woe--weeping and wailing--when every soul who will but turn to Christ in faith shall know instead, eternal joy and bliss. This final judgment of all sinners who died unsaved closes what we speak of as "time." The very next verse in the book of Revelation (chapter 21:1) introduces us to a "new heaven and a new earth." All sin and all sinners are gone forever, and we enter what we speak of as-- THE ETERNAL STATE -- For many centuries "sin" reigned on the earth; all during this age--from the Cross till now--sin still reigns as far as man is concerned, but "grace" reigns as we read in Rom. 5:21, through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. While grace is so richly offered by God to sinful man, yet we know that sin and wickedness of every description holds sway. It won't be that way in the millennium as we have seen. There we are told that righteousness reigns-- for Christ reigns till all His enemies are put under His feet (1 Cor. 15:25). But in the eternal state righteousness is not merely said to reign, but to dwell (II Pet. 3:13). Revelation 21:4 describes that ideal state: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." It has been well said that we read here the sad things that won't be there. It does not describe the matchless glories and joys that will be ours eternally--at present we would not be able to grasp those infinite wonders. Let us briefly sum up these seven great future events. THE RAPTURE--THE COMING OF OUR LORD TO TAKE US HOME TO GLORY. THE RESTORATION AND CONVERSION OF THE NATION OF ISRAEL. THE JUDGMENT OF THE LIVING NATIONS AT-- THE LORD'S COMING IN THE CLOUDS WHERE EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM (Rev.1:7). THE MILLENNIAL REIGN OF CHRIST. THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT. THE ETERNAL STATE. --August Van Ryn