Another Failed Prediction: Six Points on Why We Aren’t in the End Times

I’ve been getting over a major cold for the past few days, so I’ve had more time to think things over, and I watched the latest Rapture prediction come and go.

Interestingly, instead of admitting they were mistaken, many of these people have doubled down on changing the date.

So, which is it?

Did Jesus really appear to you and give you the wrong date?

Or did you get deceived by a demonic force?

Or was it a ploy of intentional deceit?

The Rapture might not be for 100 years, or 2,000 more years. We must stop setting these dates, when Jesus Himself said, “No one knows the day or hour, not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

If Jesus doesn’t know the date, how could He appear to you and give you the date? Makes no sense with a plain reading of the text, in this simple follower’s opinion.

Speaking of the latest prediction, why does the Feast of Trumpets matter to you if you think the Torah isn’t valid for today’s believers? Why would God use a calendar mainstream Christianity deems useless due to Christ allegedly nullifying the Torah?

While I don’t think it is possible to be Torah-observant today, I find those commandments to be universally important in matters of correct morality, no matter what side of the cross we are on.

So, we are supposed to love God’s Torah, even if we can’t keep it the way it was meant to be kept in our generation.

But we can’t selectively state God uses that calendar if we claim it’s done away with.

That is hypocrisy.

Here are six reasons we aren’t in the End Times, and these Rapture predictions are fruitless.

1)     There is no standing temple in Jerusalem.

If there is no temple in Jerusalem, the Abomination of Desolation (Dan. 11:31, Matt. 24:15) cannot happen. The Abomination of Desolation is the one sign Jesus said to look out for in knowing we are near His return for sure. As of today’s writing, the West Bank area (biblical Judea and Samaria) is not completely under Israeli control. Building the Temple here might be decades away, even with the ashes of the red heifer.

2)     The kingdom of the Antichrist rises after massive changes to the world stage.

The Antichrist only comes to power after many generations of kings known as the Kings of the North and South (relative to Israel). The Antichrist is the final King of the North of a nation that doesn’t even exist yet. That’s right. The Antichrist’s nation doesn’t exist yet. Even still, he becomes the king of a ten-king alliance after subduing three other kings (Daniel 7, Revelation 17). These kingdoms will take many decades to centuries to rise, fall, grow, and change in major ways.

3)     In the End Times, monarchs are important.

In the days of the last events of history, monarchies are important and come into play. Most nations these days use presidents and elected officials. Perhaps there will be a high-tech monarchical resurgence with futuristic kingly thrones. We can’t say this matches our time at all.

4)     Babylon the Great doesn’t exist yet.

I have my own theory of what city Babylon the Great will be, which the Bible gives the exact location of in multiple places (the Red Sea coast in Edom, in Saudi Arabia). But no matter what theory you subscribe to, one great city does not rule over the world economies to the point of massive devastation at its fall. If you believe it’s Jerusalem, then we definitely aren’t in the End Times. If you think it is Rome, same thing. No matter what your city pick is, it can’t be our time today. I will say that NEOM, Saudi Arabia, is the best candidate. It is in the exact location the Bible gives us and will be 33x the size of New York (What city is like the great city?) and is Middle Eastern (the mourners of Babylon’s fall cast dust on their heads, which is a Middle Eastern custom). This city won’t be built in full until 2080 or nearer to 2100. We’ve got a while to go. If Babylon the Great isn’t great, then we aren’t in the End Times.

5)     Daniel 8 and 11 are End-Times prophecies.

The events of Daniel 8 and 11 are stated by the angel Gabriel to be about the End Times. Daniel 8:17-19, Daniel 10:14, Daniel 11:40, etc. show this to be the case. Jesus even quotes Daniel 11:31 in His Olivet Discourse, meaning we aren’t close to there yet. That event, He quotes, happens after these Kings of the North and South fight and succeed each other for generations. But Alexander the Great?! The Bible states it’s about the End Times, not Alexander the Great. The king that fights Jesus Christ comes out of one of these kingdom divisions that still exist when he rises, meaning this can’t be about the Diadochi, even if it seems to fit. Why did Satan send an evil angel to stop this prophecy from being given if it’s just about the past? Gabriel had to contend with a demonic being before Daniel was given this prophecy. It is massively important if that’s the case. If the generation that sees these events believes it was all about the Diadochi, then they will miss the signs of the decades or centuries before the rise of the Antichrist (Daniel 11:21). Scholars can have their opinions, but I will follow the text. I’d trust a heavenly angel before trusting in mere men.

6)     The Seals of Revelation aren’t open yet.

Revelation 6 is a parallel account of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Did you notice John’s gospel is the only one without the Olivet Discourse? That’s because his version is found in the Book of Revelation. The events here match the order Jesus describes the events of the last days. Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are not at all about 70 A.D. events. They are strictly about the eschaton. If you follow the pattern of Revelation 6 and these gospels, you’ll see the events are parallel. Therefore, saying COVID-19 was the first seal is irresponsible. I admit, it’s compelling to think the ammunition of the first rider is the crown he is given, since he has no arrows. Meaning the crown is what he is shooting. How would you explain germs to a generation that did not know what they were? But if we follow Jesus’s words, we notice the first seal represents false messiahs and prophets. The first rider rides a white horse with one crown. Jesus returns on a white horse (symbolically, at least) with many crowns. This is a juxtaposition that can’t be ignored. One represents the Antichrist and false Christs—the other represents the King of Kings.

If these events are the birth pangs, we aren’t even in those yet. The red rider is war (wars and rumors of wars), the black rider is famine (there will be famines) etc. See how it aligns with Matthew 24 perfectly?

While we’re likely to enter another world war soon, with all the provocations happening across the globe over the past few weeks, this does not mean it is the last war before the return of our Messiah.

There is much history to go before the eschaton.

For these reasons, events like a massive world war shouldn’t scare us, and even if it was the events of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus said, “Don’t be alarmed about these things that must happen.”

Occupy until He returns.

Stop listening to these Rapture predictions. Anyone telling you the gathering of the saints happens before the Great Tribulation is lying or misinformed. Jesus Himself says it happens AFTER the Great Tribulation. I trust Jesus on this one.

May you be blessed on your walk. Shalom!