I created a last days timeline based on the 500+ page book, The Sign (3rd revised edition, 2000), by the late Robert Van Kampen. Take a quick look at it here, then tap on Home to return to this page.
The grid is divided into five columns, the left column indicating time ranges and titles of a few significant events to give context to the passages. It starts at the top with the past and moves forward in time going down. Rows are numbered so we can refer to them by number if necessary.
Commentary is strewn throughout to help you get the main point when you read the passages. Click on the Bible references to read the popup scriptures. Numbers in parentheses near the verses are page numbers from The Sign. If you have the book (out of print) you can read for greater depth. I’ve added many more verses.
The Bible is approximately 25% prophecy. This timeline focuses on those prophecies which relate to the end times—its genesis, progress, and culmination. This timeline will never be truly finished; as I read through the Bible, I’ll add more verses.
With this timeline, you have the actual words of the prophecies that everyone else has. You can now compare their words to the words here to see if they (and your own ideas) are on target or wide of the mark. Read the event name at left; then as you read the passages in the row (and click through to the chapter to get context), ask yourself if they match up with what you believe about the event. If you are new to prophecy, you’ll find many passages to be incomprehensible. Read the links further down this article to learn more about understanding how to read prophecy.
The cell row height by itself does not indicate how much time has passed. So events in one row to the next row down may be moving ahead years, months, days or moments. The verse may indicate the length time, however. For instance, clicking through the Revelation link for the fifth trumpet tells us it lasts 5 months (Rev. 9:5). So that cell’s height is for a five-month period.
I recommend reading the scriptures across a row to get a fuller exposition of the event.
Features:
- Left column indicates time ranges in bold lettering, and specific events in regular lettering. Major time ranges are broken up in alternating blue and gray. Rows are numbered.
- Five columns are dedicated to Headings, Daniel’s prophecies, Other OT and NT books, Gospels, and Revelation.
- At right, a few blue cells indicate strong parallels between Matt. 24 and Rev. 6-7 in sequence.
- Comments near the verses help you get an idea of the topic.
- Page references in parentheses are from The Sign, the book which forms the backbone of the timeline.
- Verse popups: click on the blue verse references to read the Bible passages in popups; click again on the verses to close them. It’s easy to scan across a row to see the scripture amplification of the events.
- I recommend you click on the READ CHAPTER link in the verse popup to get the full context of the popup verses and not formulate any theories about individual verses.
- The question-mark icons pop up simple explanations about the cells in that area to give a little more context, to help those unfamiliar with Bible prophecy.
- RecV = Recovery Version, a NT bible with extensive notes, from Living Stream Ministry.
This chart is in HTML. Let me know in the comments if you want this chart made into a Word .doc file. Then you could open it up in your computer and have fun changing it to your liking. This HTML timeline is a work in progress. I will not be continually updating the Word doc with the web page, sorry. It won’t work to copy/paste the table as a whole into Word or Excel and retain the table formatting. You have to create the table in Word first and copy/paste each cell individually. (Or copy/paste into each Excel cell.) You can’t copy/paste the contents of the question-mark popups, sorry.
I know this chart will not appeal to everyone; Christians will always disagree. Leave your thoughts in the comments. I’ll trash the pointless and nasty ones. I will not present a bickering Church to the world. Show the world that you can discuss rationally and thoughtfully, in love edifying one another in kindness and patience. All others will be deleted. God don’t make junk; should you? Let your comments reflect a loving Savior.
I don’t know if I need permission to create a timeline from a copyrighted work, especially a chart made up of verses. Writing to the author’s email in the book was fruitless. Enjoy the chart while you can. If the estate demands I take it down, then I must comply.
If you don’t know much about Bible prophecy, take a look at this short introduction to the topic by Mark Hitchcock.
In addition, here is an article on how David Jeremiah explains Bible prophecy: https://davidjeremiah.blog/understanding-old-and-new-testament-prophecy/
Here is an article about how to study Bible prophecy, how to understand the verses that speak of events to come in the future: https://biblical-christianity.com/guidelines-in-interpreting-bible-prophecy
Do you want to interpret Bible prophecy on your own? Don’t jump into it. Read these articles to be better equipped to honor God’s Word faithfully, whether for prophecies, promises, or any other verse. https://answersingenesis.org/hermeneutics/how-we-interpret-the-bible-principles-for-understanding/ This article probably goes into WAY more depth than you care for: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_hermeneutics Even after all this, it’ll be years of poring over the verses and understanding the Bible as a whole before the end-time events become familiar.
