Timothy Paul Jones - Rose Guide to End-Times Prophecy

Gregory Guivarch

Tell us, the disciples asked after their master predicted a future calamity in the city of Jerusalem, when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? (Matthew 24:3). Even after the death and resurrection of Jesus, his followers found themselves with at least a few unanswered queries about the end of the world as they knew it. Gathered on the Mount of Olives, the disciples questioned Jesus about how and when he would consummate his kingdom: Lord, they wondered, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6).

These disciples werent the first or the last to ask such questions. In every generation since sin entered the cosmos, Gods people seem to have wondered, When and how will God make things right in the world?

The Prophecy of the Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by James Tissot (18861894)

Sometimes such wonderings degenerate into endless debates and unwarranted speculation about specific details. Other times, end times curiosity comes to a screeching halt as people throw up their hands at what theyve begun to feel is an impossible and fruitless enquiry.

These two possibilities represent two dangerous ditches in any study of the end times.

Theres a saying that once crackled between truckers on their C.B. radios in the days before cellular telephones: Keep your britches between the ditches. And, by Gods grace, thats precisely what we plan to do in this book. Our aim is to steer carefully between the ditches of wild-eyed speculation and dreary-eyed disillusionment. As you peruse this text and the many charts and tables, you will gain much knowledge about the end of time. Yet the purpose of this book is not simply to raise your eschatological I.Q. This text focuses first and foremost on Jesus the crucified Messiah and risen King, the One in whom God the Father has made all things new and through whom God is setting the world right.

Why this single-minded focus on Jesus in a book about the end times?

Simply this: Our goal is to understand what the Scriptures have to say about the end times, and Jesus is the central focus of all Scriptureeven of Scriptures that describe the end of time.

When some religious teachers questioned Jesus about his messianic credentials, Jesus retorted, You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me (John 5:39).

Did you catch that?

These are, Jesus said of the Scriptures, the very Scriptures that testify about me.

Jesus teaching in the Temple by James Tissot (188694)

The very Scriptures where the religious teachers looked for life by connecting themselves with particular patriarchs and laws were not primarily about those rules or family identities at all! The Old and the New Testaments wereand areabout Jesus. Thats why, when Jesus ran across a duo of downtrodden disciples on the road to Emmaus, he began with Moses and all the Prophets and showed them how he was the central subject of all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). Thats also why the apostle Paul pointed out to his pastoral protg that the purpose of the Holy Scriptures was to make Gods people wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15).

Jesus with the disciples at Emmaus, by Abraham Blowmaert (1622)

• Deeper understanding of Old Testament prophets and prophecies, especially the writings of Daniel.
• Insights into the New Testament prophecies, especially the apostle Johns Book of Revelation, and what they meant to the people of that day.
• Different Christian interpretations of the Book of Revelation, and the biblical perspective for each.
• Various Christian understandings about key prophetic words and concepts: rapture, tribulation, seals, trumpets, Babylon, the Beast, Satan, 666, the millennium, and more.
• And what about a richer perspective on how Old Testament prophecies pointed both to Jesus and to the end of time?
• How about a clearer view of what the Jewish people expected the Messiah to be and why this matters for our understanding of the end times?
• What about tools that will help you to develop your own biblically-based perspective on when and how time will end?
• Perhaps most important, how about a broader understanding of how Bible-believing Christians throughout church history have understood end-times prophecies in very different ways?

What we are seeking is a deeper recognition of the majesty and sovereignty of Jesus in all of lifeincluding the end of time.

What this means for this book is that we are not searching for one more detailed road map to tell us the precise conditions of the Messiahs return. What we are seeking is a deeper recognition of the majesty and sovereignty of Jesus in all of lifeincluding the end of time. Gods promises and prophecies are not launching pads for our own speculations. They are a lens through which we can see clearly the supremacy of Jesus in the unfolding story of the cosmos. And so, if your deepest desire is to nail down the exact identity of the Antichrist or to calculate the precise date when time will end, you could be a bit disappointed as you read this book. If your desire is to understand how to view the end times in light of Jesus, read on. This book provides precisely what youve been looking for.