Eschatology / End Things
I hold to Premillennialism and Pre-wrath rapture. I believe Jesus is currently reigning in heaven but will soon come down to earth and set up a physical reign for a thousand years, then will come the final battle of Armageddon and all prophecy will be fulfilled. I do not believe the first five seals are God's wrath but rather the wrath of mankind. The church will be raptured sometime very closely after the sixth seal which will be sometime after the mid-point of the tribulation. The early church fathers also expected to endure the wrath of the antichrist before being rescued from him, indicating that they did not believe in Pre-Trib. If Pre-Trib were true, then we might expect 2 Thessalonians 2 to say that the day of the Lord (God's wrath) has not come yet because if that were so, we would all be raptured. However, that is not the argument presented there. The apostasy must come first and the man of lawlessness (the antichrist) must be revealed first, which will happen at the abbomination which causes desolation. That is mid-tribulation. The argument that Paul gives to the Thessalonians is that because these things have not taken place yet, they can take comfort and not worry because that means the day of the Lord has not yet come.
The seals in Revelation 6 correspond to the events in Matthew 24:4-14 while Matthew 24:23-31 indicates that the return of Christ will not be an invisible-secretive return but will be clearly visible for everyone (Rev 6:15-17; Mt 24:39; Acts 1:11). The premonition of God's wrath comes at the sixth seal (Rev 6:17). I hold to the Nicean Creed which says that Jesus will come back one day to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5).
Book recommendations:
Antichrist Before The Day Of The Lord by Alan Kurschner
The Sign by Van Kampen
The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church by Marvin Rosenthal
On 11/14/18 this is what I wrote: I wasn't looking for some deeper hidden meaning but regardless, I believe the Holy Spirit put this upon my mind and uncovered this mystery.
Matthew 1:17 “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.” From Abraham to Jesus, about 2,000 years had passed. This 2,000 years = 3 fourteen generations. I don’t know how significant the fourteen is, but I think the three is significant. The number three stands for completeness in the Bible. The world has been around for about 6,000 years. This is 2,000 x 3. Therefore, 2,000 + 2,000 + 2,000 = 3, 3, 3. Three threes is like complete completeness. Anyway, what I take away from this is that we are now living in the last 2,000 years. I believe that the end times are in these last 2,000 years. That is, sometime in the year 2,000 that we presently live in. Sooner or later, the book of Revelation will start fulfilling itself and Jesus will be coming back. I believe this might be the significance of the genealogy of Jesus that was written in the book of Matthew.
8/28/25. Here is what I recently came across from one of the early church fathers, having never read it before when I wrote the previous text. This quote is from Barnabas (70-135 AD):
“And God made the works of his hands in six days, and finished on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.” Observe, children, what “he finished in six days” means. It means this: that in six thousand years the Lord will bring everything to an end, for with him a day signifies a thousand years. And he himself bears me witness when he says, “Behold, the day of the Lord will be as a thousand years.” Therefore, children, in six days—that is, in six thousand years—everything will be brought to an end. “And he rested on the seventh day.” This means: when his son comes, he will destroy the time of the lawless one and will judge the ungodly and will change the sun and the moon and the stars, and then he will truly rest on the seventh day. […] After I have set everything at rest, I will create the beginning of an eighth day, which is the beginning of another world… (The Apostolic Fathers, Third Ed: Michael W. Holmes, 15:3-9)
Keep in mind, this quote was also written after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem at 70 AD. Barnabas was not a Preterist or Amillennial. We don't know for sure when the 6,000 year mark is. Some might calculate 2,000 years from Christ's death and resurrection to come up with the full 6,000 years. Scholars believe Jesus died between 32-33 AD. Adding 2,000 years to that, we come up with 2032 as either the beginning or end of the tribulation. This is one of the reasons why this year 2025 is a high watch year for the start of the tribulation because seven years later, it will be 2032. Those who have indicated the signs of the times from the alignment of the planets and stars are very confident that this will be the year on the Feast of Trumpets. I myself am convinced that we do not have much time left but I do anticipate revival to happen before any rapture because the bride has not yet prepared herself and made herself ready.
Here is a random video I found on YouTube that shows that the Essenes correctly predicted the first coming of the Messiah and what they had to say about the second coming.