The Framework Jesus Builds to Help Us Understand the End Times (Part 1)

The End Times Made Simple

Photo by Corbin Mathias on Unsplash

How does Jesus want us to understand the End Times?

When Jesus speaks of these matters to His disciples, He uses a specific phrase — one that can pass by the reader as seemingly insignificant, yet it carries a wealth of meaning. Here it is:

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:20-24 ESV).

This phrase — the times of the Gentiles — refers to Daniel, and a series of prophecies Daniel interprets. Many of the prophecies in Daniel refer to the End Times. Two of them, those in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, describe the times of the Gentiles.

These are not good times for Israel.

Before the times of the Gentiles came the Theocracy, the time when God ruled Israel. The Israelite Theocracy wasn’t simply a nation united by a common religion. Rather, it was the literal, physical, visible rule by King Yahweh over His people Israel.

This began in 1446 B.C. at Mount Sinai. God appeared to Israel in the smoke surrounding the mountain, in the fire and lightning, terrifying Israel so much that they made Moses speak to God on their behalf. At God’s direction, Israel built the Tabernacle, which functioned as the Throne Room of God on earth. Once this was completed, King Yahweh, God Almighty, took up residence (Exodus 40:33-35).

Through the following centuries, Israel obeyed God at times, but also disobeyed. God never abandoned His covenant with His people, remaining faithful to them through extended periods of disobedience and vile wickedness. But eventually, in faithfulness to the warnings included in the covenant God made with Israel, God had to let Israel be taken out of the land in punishment for its disobedience. Before this happened, God’s presence left the Temple in 592 B.C. (Ezekiel 11:22-23). By 586 B.C., Babylon completed the defeat, destruction, and deportation of Israel.

At this point, the Theocracy was over.

King Yahweh no longer sat on the Throne of Israel.

Instead, Gentile nations would rule over Israel, from now until the end of times.

These are the times of the Gentiles.

When Jesus appeared on the scene, Israel had been living in the times of the Gentiles for half a millennia. While Israelites lived in the land of Israel, they were not in control. A successive series of Gentile nations ruled over them, one after the other, none of them allowing Israel its sovereignty.

But before this occurred, God sent word of what would happen.

More than that, God sent a framework to understand the times of the Gentiles. This succession of empires does more than reveal the future. It provides a clear framework through which we can understand the passage of time, the movement of nations and empires, and grasp how close we are to the end of the age.

Let’s pause to read how God built this framework. This passage might be familiar to you, or it might be brand new. Either way, read it with fresh eyes, looking for the framework God is building, and how He deliberately causes these events in order to give His people the means to understand what will be coming:

In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.” Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.” They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.” The king answered and said, “I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm— if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.” The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Arioch, the king’s captain, “Why is the decree of the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said:

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,

to whom belong wisdom and might.

He changes times and seasons;

he removes kings and sets up kings;

he gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to those who have understanding;

he reveals deep and hidden things;

he knows what is in the darkness,

and the light dwells with him.

To you, O God of my fathers,

I give thanks and praise,

for you have given me wisdom and might,

and have now made known to me what we asked of you,

for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”

Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.”

Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: “I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.” The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, and he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.

“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

“This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.

“You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” (Daniel 2:1-45 ESV).

These five kingdoms create a framework that contains everything else about the End Times.

We’ll explore their identities in Part 2 — including an incredibly common deception about the fourth kingdom that leads many astray.