First, a big thank you to my husband Robert for his willing writing of articles for the back of this book. The purpose of these is to provide some more detailed background information for you without spoiling the flow of what I am presenting. Thank you family members and friends for checking, editing, commenting upon, correcting my text. A special note of appreciation to my son Samuel for proofreading and my son Jonathan for designing the cover. Teamwork made this book possible!
When I wrote Exploring the End Times and Interceding for Israel, I was careful to barely mention the controversial subject of the Rapture. Subsequently, in writing The Rapture: Wise Up and Rise Up, wisdom dictated that I avoid the matter of timing. Now, I feel that I have the freedom to consider when the main events of the Last Days may take place. We will be looking at the Biblical, Jewish and Essene calendars and considering the likely calendar of the Antichrist.
I am writing from a pre-tribulation Rapture stance.[1] Terms like this and the Second Coming and how they relate to the millennial reign of Christ are explained in the section A Framework of Events. However, my presentation can easily be appreciated and adapted by those who have different views about the position of the Rapture, namely mid-tribulation,[2] pre-wrath[3] or post-tribulation.[4] It is simply a matter of adjusting the timeline discussed to make room for the Rapture for when you believe that the event will occur. Whatever our understanding, we must all approach the subject of the return of the Lord humbly in the spirit of Proverbs 2: “Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom.”[5]
As I write this in mid-2025, I hear many of the Lord’s expectant pre-tribulation followers saying that perhaps the Rapture will take place today or tomorrow and, in particular, there is growing excitement and anticipation about the date being between 22 and 24 September 2025, the Feast of Trumpets. On the other side of the pre-millennial eschatological camp, I hear on the YouTube channel of a well-known and respected pre-wrath teaching ministry that, in their opinion, we entered the final seven years of our age on the eve of 2 October 2024.[6] According to their understanding of the prophetic calendars, they would then place the desecration of the temple by the Antichrist three and a half years later on 14 April 2028 during Passover, and the pre-wrath Rapture at the Feast of Trumpets 2030, and the Second Coming on the Day of Atonement 2031. Clearly, we differ in where we place the events surrounding the Second Coming...
[1] The belief that Jesus will come to collect His bride before the Tribulation, a full seven years before the Second Coming
[2] The theological view that the Rapture will happen halfway through the final seven years
[3] The view that Jesus will collect His bride before the wrath of God, about one year or so before the end of the final seven years
[4] The position that asserts that Jesus will collect and Rapture His bride at the end of the 7-year Tribulation
[5] Proverbs 2: 3-4,6
[6] Nelson Walters, 7 Signs Will Prove When We're in the Tribulation (Before It’s Too Late)!! YouTube
[7] Ecclesiastes 1:9
[8] Ezekiel 12:27
To return to the page on Examining the End Times Calendar & Waiting for the Lord, click here
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.