The End Times in the Prophets and the Apostles

Revelation borrows from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Joel nearly as often as from Daniel, and the apostles wrote their own end-times passages that are not in either apocalypse. A reader who has only Daniel and Revelation has the frame without the picture. This page is the companion to Daniel and Revelation, Read Together: the other prophets and the apostles, passage by passage, with the Study Bible one click away. The rule for reading them is the one the apostles used. When the New Testament tells us a prophecy was fulfilled, that settles it, however "literal" a different reading would have been. When it does not, the site says what it holds and how tightly.

Isaiah

Chapter 2, the mountain of the Lord. Read Isaiah 2. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." (Isaiah 2:2). "In the last days" is Isaiah's phrase, and Peter took it up on the day of Pentecost to say the last days had begun. The nations flowing to the mountain of the Lord's house is the gospel going to the Gentiles; Hebrews 12:22BH tells the church "ye are come unto mount Sion." The swords beaten into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4) is the peace the kingdom makes wherever it is received, and the site does not read it as a promise that nations will stop making war before the return; Jesus said the opposite.

Chapter 11, the root of Jesse. Read Isaiah 11. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:" (Isaiah 11:1) is Christ; the Spirit that "shall rest upon him" is the Spirit that remained on Him at the Jordan (see Take Not Thy Holy Spirit From Me). Verse 10, "a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek," Paul quotes in Romans 15:12BH as fulfilled in his own Gentile mission. The wolf dwelling with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6) is where the site holds loosely: Irenaeus took it as the earthly reign of the just, Augustine and most of the church as the peace of the kingdom now and the new creation at the end. Both readings agree on verse 9: "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

Chapters 24 to 27, the little apocalypse. Read Isaiah 25 and Isaiah 26. The earth judged, the city of confusion broken, and then the feast on the mountain: "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 25:8). Paul quotes that line as the last word of his resurrection chapter: "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Corinthians 15:54). And "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." (Isaiah 26:19) is the plainest resurrection promise in the prophets before Daniel 12. These chapters are why the site will not let the bodily resurrection be spiritualized away: Paul put Isaiah's "swallowed up" at the moment the mortal puts on immortality, and that has not happened yet.

Chapters 65 and 66, the new heavens and the new earth. Read Isaiah 65. "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." (Isaiah 65:17). Peter quotes it (2 Peter 3:13) and John sees it (Revelation 21:1). Isaiah's picture has infants and old men and houses built in it, which is why Irenaeus placed it in the kingdom to come and Augustine in eternity; the site says the picture is of a renewed creation, not a disembodied heaven (see Heaven: Not Clouds, but the New Creation), and lets the two Fathers keep their difference.

Ezekiel

Chapter 37, the dry bones and the two sticks. Read Ezekiel 37. "Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel." (Ezekiel 37:12). The vision is first a promise of national restoration from exile, which happened, and it is spoken in resurrection language, which the New Testament fills. Then the two sticks, Judah and Ephraim, made one in God's hand: "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:" (Ezekiel 37:22). One nation, one king, "my servant David." That is the source of "one fold, and one shepherd" in John 10:16BH (see No Man Plucks Them), and the site reads it as fulfilled in the one people of God under Christ, not as a promise of a separate political future for one of the sticks.

Chapters 38 and 39, Gog and Magog. Read Ezekiel 38. "Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him," (Ezekiel 38:2). Every generation for a century has put a modern name on Gog, and every name has expired. John tells us how to read it. He puts Gog and Magog at the end of the thousand years, as the last gathering of the nations against the camp of the saints: "And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." (Revelation 20:8). Gog is the final enemy of the people of God, whatever flag it flies, and it is destroyed by fire from heaven, not by anyone's army. The site holds that firmly and holds every identification of Gog with a present nation not at all.

Chapters 40 to 48, the temple and the river. Read Ezekiel 47. Nine chapters of a temple no one ever built, with sacrifices offered in it. The dispensational reading builds it in the future with the sacrifices restored as "memorials"; the site does not, because Hebrews says the one sacrifice ended the many, and because John tells us what the vision became. Ezekiel's river flows from the temple and heals everything it touches: "And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh." (Ezekiel 47:9). John's river flows from the throne of God and the Lamb, with the tree of life on either side, "and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:2), in a city that has no temple at all. The temple Ezekiel measured is the presence of God among His people, which is Christ and His church, and the river is the Spirit (see The Temple).

Zechariah

Chapters 12 to 14. Read Zechariah 12 and Zechariah 14. "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10). John quotes it twice: at the cross, "they shall look on him whom they pierced" (John 19:37BH), and at the return, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." (Revelation 1:7). The same verse, first fulfilled at Golgotha and finally at the coming, which is the pattern for the whole section. Chapter 13 opens the fountain for sin "in that day" and strikes the shepherd so the sheep scatter, which Jesus applied to Gethsemane. Chapter 14 has the Lord's feet on the mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), the city taken, the living waters going out from Jerusalem, and "And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one." (Zechariah 14:9). The site reads the siege and the trodden city as AD 70 in its first horizon, the living waters as the Spirit from Pentecost, and the feet on the mount and the Lord king over all the earth as the visible return, and it notes that the mount of Olives is where He left (Acts 1:12) and where the angels said He would come again as He went.

Joel

Chapters 2 and 3. Read Joel 2. "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:" (Joel 2:28). This one the New Testament settles outright. Peter stood up at Pentecost and said, "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:" (Acts 2:16-17). Not "this is like that." This is that. The last days began at Pentecost and the Spirit on all flesh is the church. The sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood in the same passage are the prophets' standard language for the fall of a nation, used of Babylon and Egypt before, and fit the fall of Jerusalem that Peter's hearers would live to see. "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." (Joel 3:14) is the judgment of the nations that every reader still faces.

Malachi

Chapter 4. Read Malachi 4. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:" (Malachi 4:5). Jesus said Elijah had come, and meant John the Baptist, who came "And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:17). The "great and dreadful day" that followed was the coming of the Lord and, within a generation, the fall of the city. Some of the Fathers, Tertullian among them, expected Elijah in person before the end as well, on the strength of this verse and the two witnesses; the site records that and does not build on it. "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." (Malachi 4:2) is Christ, and the church has sung it at Christmas for centuries.

The Psalms

Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. Read Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (Psalm 2:8). "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Psalm 110:1). These two psalms are the New Testament's favorite texts, quoted or echoed more than twenty times, and they are the backbone of everything the site says about the kingdom being already here. Peter preached Psalm 110 at Pentecost as the ascension: "For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool." (Acts 2:34-35). Paul put it at the center of his resurrection chapter: "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet." (1 Corinthians 15:25). Christ is reigning now, at the right hand, until the last enemy is put under His feet, and the last enemy is death. That is not a kingdom postponed to a millennium. It is a kingdom in progress, with an end still to come (see The Kingdom Is Already Here).

The apostles

Matthew 24 and 25, Luke 21, the Olivet Discourse. Read Matthew 24 and Luke 21. The disciples asked two questions, when the temple would fall and what would be the sign of His coming, and Jesus answered both in one discourse. Two verses hold the two horizons: "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." and "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." (Matthew 24:34, 36). The first is the fall of Jerusalem, dated within a generation; Luke makes it unmistakable, "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." (Luke 21:20). The second is the day no one knows. Calvin read it this way, and so does the site (see Is the Rapture in the Bible?). Matthew 25 then gives three parables for the long wait: the virgins and the oil, the talents, the sheep and the goats, all of them about what the servants do while the master is away, which is why they belong on the Warnings page too.

2 Thessalonians 2, the man of sin. Read 2 Thessalonians 2. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). And "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way." (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Here the Fathers were honestly divided and the site is too. Irenaeus and Hippolytus read a personal Antichrist still to come, with the Roman empire as the restrainer; Chrysostom agreed about Rome; Augustine confessed he did not know what Paul meant by the restrainer and said so. The site holds that the mystery of iniquity was already working in Paul's day, that the temple of God in Paul's letters is the church, and that whether a final man of sin is still ahead is a question the text leaves open (see The Antichrist).

1 Corinthians 15, the order of the resurrection. Read 1 Corinthians 15. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming." (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ's at His coming, then the end. One harvest, one crop, the firstfruits and the rest of it the same kind. This is the chapter that rules out any reading in which the resurrection of believers already happened in AD 70 or happens invisibly one soul at a time, because the firstfruits came out of a tomb and left it empty (see the three tenses).

1 Thessalonians 4, the meeting in the air. Read 1 Thessalonians 4. "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." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). A shout, the archangel, the trumpet, the dead raised, the living caught up to meet Him. The word for "meet" is the word for a city going out to escort an arriving dignitary in, and that is the picture: the church goes out to meet the returning King and comes back with Him. It is the loudest event in the Bible, and the site does not read a secret departure into it (see Is the Rapture in the Bible?).

2 Peter 3, the day of the Lord. Read 2 Peter 3. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (2 Peter 3:10). The scoffers ask where the promise of His coming is; Peter answers that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, that the delay is mercy, and that the day will come as a thief. Then Isaiah's promise: "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13). The fire is the fire of judgment and renewal, the same fire that ends Ezekiel's Gog and John's last battle, and what comes out of it is not nothing but a new earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness."

What the site holds, and how tightly

Firmly. The last days began at Pentecost (Joel 2, Acts 2). Christ reigns now at the right hand until the last enemy is destroyed (Psalm 110, 1 Corinthians 15). The bodily resurrection is one harvest, still ahead (Isaiah 25-26, 1 Corinthians 15). The Olivet Discourse has two horizons, AD 70 and the day no one knows. The temple Ezekiel saw is God among His people, and the river is the Spirit. Gog is the last enemy at the end, not a nation on today's map. The return is visible, loud, and one event.

Loosely. Whether Isaiah's wolf and lamb and long-lived men describe a reign before the last judgment (Irenaeus) or the new creation after it (Augustine). Whether a final personal man of sin is still to come, and what restrained him. Whether Elijah comes again in person. On each of these the early church was divided and the site declines to draw the line it did not draw.

Not at all. A rebuilt temple with sacrifices restored. Gog identified with any modern state. A rapture seven years before the return. A Jewish future separate from the one people of God. Each of these has to override a New Testament interpretation of the very passage it rests on.

Study the passages

Isaiah 2, 11, 24, 25, 26, 65, 66. Ezekiel 37, 38, 39, 47. Zechariah 12, 13, 14. Joel 2, 3. Malachi 4. Psalms 2, 110. Matthew 24, 25; Luke 21; Acts 2; 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4; 2 Thessalonians 2; 2 Peter 3.

Related: Daniel and Revelation, Read Together, One Story, Not Two, Eschatology at a Glance, The Kingdom Is Already Here, Is the Rapture in the Bible?, The Antichrist, Heaven, and The Church, One Story. Scripture from the King James Version, linked to BibleHub; the words of Christ are marked in purple and the words of God in gold. Chapter links open the site's Study Bible.