More than 2000 years ago, Christ Jesus came to heal and rescue the world from sin. He taught humanity about the Kingdom of God. In Revelation 20, we read of the coming of a Millennial Kingdom where Christ would rule and justice, righteousness, joy, and peace would reign for a thousand years.
Jesus is set to come again, and this time His coming will not be like the first. He will come as a resplendent king, such as the world has never seen. And this time He will judge the world and bring in a reign of justice, peace, and righteousness for a whole millennial. This is the enduring hope of Christians, and because it concerns our future as Christians, it is good that we know more about the events surrounding it.
The Book of Revelation details much of these events but it is seldom touched upon in most churches. Furthermore, though there are many dramatic events in the Last Days, many of us are not very cognizant with them. This article is mainly a distillation of past articles we have done for the Jesus Is Coming Campaign (JICC). It is nevertheless good that we remind ourselves of what we can expect in the coming End Days and also of how close we are to it.
Significant Events of the Last Days
Our God is relational. From the day He created Adam and walked with Adam in the Garden, He has always been deeply concerned about our relationship with Him. As our Creator, He’s close to us. He communicates with us in multiple ways and He’s intimate with His children. We see this in His provision and the encouragement we receive in His Word. This will have significant implications for future events.
Though the below does not cover everything that will take place in the Last Days (it does not discuss the letters to the seven churches, the rise of the AntiChrist, the Number of the Beast, or “the 144,000” for instance) it considers the most crucial two days that will occur during the time.
The Day of Judgement (also known as the Day of the Lord) and the Day of Christ
The Bible mentions the Day of the Lord more than 50 times. Among these are Isaiah 13: 9-10, Zephaniah 1:14-15, Amos 5:18-20, and Joel 1:15. It is also mentioned in the New Testament in 1 Thessalonians 5: 2-3, 2 Peter 3:10, Acts 2:20, and Matthew 24: 29-30.
The fact that Day of the Lord is mentioned so many times in the Bible indicates the seriousness of the warning. It’s an event that is going to come in the future. This event is of such magnitude that it will be unlike anything that has occurred in our whole history, more dreadful than any upheaval, so much so that even the elements would burn. It is an event that no one would like to see happen in their lifetime. For this reason, the Bible gives us ample warning throughout Scripture. What hope do we have in the face of such a day?
The hope comes because there is also another day that is mentioned throughout the Bible and this is what gives every born-again Christian the blessed hope Paul described in 1 Thessalonians 5:8-9: for God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation from our Lord Jesus Christ. This Day is known as the Day of Christ and it will take place before the Day of Judgement. On that day, Christ will come back for the faithful and take us to meet Him in the air, giving us new bodies like the one Adam and Eve had before the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Another name for this event is known as the Rapture.
The Rapture
In Genesis, we read about the Garden of Eden. It gives us a picture of God’s heart for us and of what we can expect when He brings His redemption work to completion. The Garden of Eden was created as a paradise for us and a place where we could have a perfect relationship with our Creator. Besides Paradise, we also see another thing; before the Fall, Adam had an incorruptible body that had never known weakness or disease.
This is the kind of renewed body that Christians can look forward to on the Day of the Resurrection. It will be a perfect and everlasting body, with no defects, illnesses, or pain, and there will be no more decay and death. Our fellowship with Christ and our loved ones will be good and eternal. Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. He is also our redeemer, and through Him, we have a new covenant of direct relationship with God as His children. During the Last Supper, Jesus said to drink and eat in remembrance of Him and this New Covenant that has been established between God and us until the day He comes again. Because Jesus Himself was the First Seed of the Resurrected Body and because when God begins a work in us, we can trust Him to bring that work to fulfillment.
Paul gives much encouragement to us Christians about keeping an eye on the Day of Christ. In Philippians 1:6 he writes about the confidence we have that the good work God is doing in us He will bring to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. We are to hold firmly to the word of life so that on the Day of Christ we will be able to boast that we did not run or labour in vain (Philippians 2:16). In 1 Corinthians 1:8, we receive the encouragement that the grace of God will help keep us firm to the end so that we will be blameless on the Day of Christ.
All Things New
The Day of Christ is particularly important to us and we often view the events in the Book of Revelation as the ending of all things. But while this is true in some aspects, it is in fact only accurate from one angle. While the old Earth will pass away, God is eternal, and those who have a relationship with Him will abide in an eternal fellowship with Him. Right at the end of our current history, after Jesus had taken us up to meet Him in the Rapture, there will be a whole series of events on Earth that will eventually culminate in the epic Battle of Armageddon. Christ will triumph in this battle and usher in the New Heaven and New Earth.
It will be a completely new place where there will be nothing from the past. In this new place, God will be dwelling with us and we will have glorified bodies. We will be near to God in our glorified bodies. The whole city will shine with the divine light and glory from God, and the glory will be such that the sun or moon will no longer be needed to shine on it. We will be in constant peace, joy, and awe at God’s majesty and overflowing mercy, glory, and grace. Most importantly, we know that Jesus is coming soon with His rewards, to give to every man according to his ‘works’ (Revelation 22:12).
How Close Are We to the Day of Christ?
We are living in an eventful time. As our history draws nearer to its conclusion, we look forward to the Rapture and Jesus Christ’s Millennial Reign. Yet, many things are expected to occur before the Day of Christ (and the Day of the Lord). Among these are the harbingers personified by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Traditionally, these Horsemen have been identified as Pestilence, War, Economic Upheaval, and Death, and there is a possibility that we may be already in the era of the Second Horseman.
The Four Horsemen were among the first things John recorded in the Book of Revelation. In his vision, he saw Pestilence as a figure with a crown on his head and a bow but without arrows, indicating that this figure conquers without using any military weapons. John also saw War riding on a fiery red horse, wielding a large sword, and having the power to take peace from the earth and make people kill each other.
While it may be circumstantial, there may be signs that the first two horsemen had already come. Recently, the world was taken by surprise by the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus. The Coronavirus (also known as the COVID-19 virus) is covered with a crown of club-shaped peplomers or spikes and got its name from its similarity to the corona crown that used to be worn by ancient emperors as symbols of sovereign power, likened to that of the power of the sun. The pandemic claimed around 7 million deaths as of May 2024.
Not long after, before the coronavirus pandemic had even subsided, a certain superpower country declared war on a neighbouring nation. The colour often related to the said superpower and which can be found on their flag is a fiery red. In addition to Russia, the fiery red colour is something that is common in the flags of many of the former Soviet Union republics. Many of the Communist countries that are in the region but that were not part of the Soviet Union, such as China, also share a commonality in this fiery red colour, and many of these nations, including North Korea, are in tension with the West. If you lay out all the flags of these nations, you will see a giant wash of red.
The Red Horseman has also been described as wielding a large sword and given the power to take peace from the world. Lately, we have read in the news about the Russian hypersonic and intercontinental Kinzhal missiles, a ‘large sword’ capable of immense destruction across the world in the blink of an eye.
There are many other surrounding factors that have made people ponder whether the White and Red Horsemen are already among us. No matter whether these recent events are harbingers, the shape of world events tells us that what is described in the Book of Revelation will come to pass and that the time of the rise of the Antichrist is near. All the prerequisites for the rise of the AntiChrist and the Second Coming of Christ are already coming into place.
But above all the destruction and the four horsemen and the Antichrist, we must remember that God and Jesus Christ are always sovereign. While many unnerving events have to take place before Christ’s Second Coming, Scripture – and the revelations given by God to his apostle John about these days – also tells us that Jesus is coming back.
At the end of the present history, Jesus will usher in a Millennium Reign of peace and prosperity. As God’s children, this gives us hope and we look to His coming again with great anticipation. It is our role and responsibility to share this hope with our loved ones so that they will not be left behind to undergo the terrible events in the days that will come after the Day of Christ.
This is a distillation of a few of our previous articles written for the Jesus Is Coming Campaign (JICC). You may access them for a fuller context of the content in this article here:
Resurrection of the Dead: A Jesus Is Coming Campaign (JICC) Article
The Day of the Lord and the Day of Christ
https://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/the-day-of-the-lord-and-the-day-of-christ/
All Things New: A Vision of the New Heaven and New Earth
https://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/all-things-new-a-vision-of-the-new-heaven-and-new-earth/
Are We in the Era of the Red Horseman of Revelation?: A JICC Article
This article was written from our understanding of eschatology as described in the Bible, and in relation to current day events, with the purpose to encourage discussion and the sharing of thoughts. It takes a neutral stance and is not meant to impinge or offend any belief, including differing beliefs and opinions on the doctrine of the Rapture. We believe that the four horsemen are spiritual forces rather than national ones but that certain events indicate their looming presence and that they are a crucial part of the convergence towards the Last Days.
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