The Book of Revelation: Timetable for the End Time

Does the book of Revelation give us additional details about events leading up to Christ’s return?

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:1-3).

The book of Revelation—a revealing of the future—is history written in advance. It describes in detail, with much symbolic imagery, the events leading up to Christ’s return and what will happen beyond that time. Be sure to look up and read these scriptures and surrounding passages in your Bible.

Does the book of Revelation confirm the sequence of events of Jesus Christ’s earlier prophecy?

Carefully read and study Revelation 6:2-8. Here the same conditions  Jesus Christ described in the Olivet Prophecy are presented in symbols—the four horsemen of the Apocalypse (this word simply being the book’s Greek name meaning “Revelation”).

The white horse and its rider represent a powerful, conquering religious deception. (Some assume that the rider of this horse is Jesus Christ, as He is later portrayed returning on a white horse, but a comparison with the description of the returning Christ in Revelation 19:11-16, and the sequence of events Christ gave in the Olivet Prophecy and the book of Revelation, shows they are not the same).

The red horse (the color of fire and blood) and its rider clearly represent warfare. The black horse and rider depict famine (with a voice referring tothe outrageously high cost of food). The sickly colored pale horse, with its rider death and the grave, represents the sickness and disease that inevitably follow warfare and food shortages—along with the natural disasters Jesus mentioned in the same context, all of these together being viewed as “plagues,” or smitings, from God. Mark 13:8 refers to these more generally as troubles.  

How do the conditions represented by the four horsemen described here impact humanity?

“. . . And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8).

According to this prophecy, war, violence, starvation, disease and other disasters would eventually take hundreds of millions of lives. These disasters would also affect animals, which are shown to take a large toll of human life through predation and spread of disease. Consider diseases spread by rats and mosquitos and by consuming infected animals. And microbial pathogens may even be included among the “beasts” here.

How does Revelation depict the sequence of events that will precede Christ’s return?

“And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll  written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1).

The book of Revelation depicts the events described in the Olivet Proph-ecy through the opening of a series of seven “seals.” In the time of the apostle John, who wrote this book under the inspiration of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:1-2), official correspondence was customarily fastened with a wax seal. To read what was inside, the seal had to be broken and the scroll unrolled. This is what John saw in vision. (Be sure to study the charts on pages 21-22  to better understand the flow of events presented in the book of Revelation.)

What do these seven seals symbolize?

Revelation 6 describes the opening of the first six seals, which depict major events and trends. You should read this entire chapter carefully. The first six seals are:

• First seal (verse 2): religious deception (compare Matthew 24:4-5).
• Second seal (verses 3-4): war (compare Matthew 24:6-7).
• Third seal (verses 5-6): famine (compare Matthew 24:7).
• Fourth seal (verses 7-8): disease epidemics and various kinds of disasters (compare Matthew 24:7).
• Fifth seal (verses 9-11): tribulation and persecution of true Christians (compare Matthew 24:9-13; Luke 21:12-19).
• Sixth seal (verses 12-14): a great earthquake along with heavenly signs (compare Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11).

What is unique about the seventh seal?

“When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets” (Revelation 8:1-2).

The opening of the seventh seal unveils a series of seven “trumpets,” which herald further events leading up to Jesus Christ’s return. These events, which are not described specifically in the Olivet Prophecy, are sometimes referred to as “the seven trumpet plagues.” The seventh seal comprises these seven events. Be sure to read all of Revelation 8 and 9, which describe the events to occur at the first six of the seven trumpets.

The first six trumpets plagues are:

• First trumpet (Revelation 8:7): a catastrophic barrage of fiery hail with the devastation of a vast portion of the earth’s vegetation.
• Second trumpet (verses 8-9): something like a burning mountain with the devastation of a great portion of the oceans and seas.
• Third trumpet (verses 10-11): an apparent falling star with the devastation of another large portion of the rivers and fresh water.
• Fourth trumpet (verse 12): the sun, moon and stars partially darkened.
• Fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:1-11): torturous human afflictions.
• Sixth trumpet (verses 13-19): enormous military destruction.

What happens as a result of events represented by the sixth trumpet?

“By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone” (Revelation 9:18).

Here we read that a third of the earth’s inhabitants will die from destruction dealt by a massive 200-million-man army (verse 16). This is in addition to those who will have lost their lives earlier. These frightening prophecies help us understand how all life on earth will be threatened with extinction!