Marc Speed's Easy-To-Understand
Revelation Time Line
INTRODUCTION

An excerpt from the book End Times Explained by Marc Speed

Most people who try to read the book of Revelation come away feeling somewhere between confused and completely baffled. This is because God has purposefully built a layer of complexity into Revelation prophecy which serves as a barrier that keeps the casual reader from understanding it.

This layer of complexity is not peeled away by learning complicated things, but rather by learning several simple things which most of mainstream Christianity does not teach. Like I always say, the key to discovering truth lies not in the ability to understand complexity, but rather in the ability to humble yourself and ask God to teach you many simple things you do not yet know.

God is allowing this knowledge barrier to exist in the world so that most people will be fooled by the antichrist in the future. If the antichrist didn’t succeed, God’s main goal for this age (to let humanity try everything apart from Him and fail miserably) would not be met. (See my articles in the Hell Mistranslation section of this website.)

God is allowing this knowledge barrier to exist even among people who call themselves Christians, in order to separate the truth-seekers from those who are satisfied with religion (what their pastor or their church tells them).

Many Christians do not think much about end time prophecy because their pastors tell them they’re going to be raptured away before anything bad happens anyway. Big mistake. The few who want to truly know God’s heart and mind – in other words, to know why He does what He does – must eventually look outside mainstream religion to find the answers.

This is why I do what I do, and this is why I created an Easy-To-Understand Revelation Timeline in story form. It’s for the truth seekers who are looking for answers beyond what they may or may not hear in church.

My Personal Journey Into the Book of Revelation

I believe it is possible to understand the book of Revelation. A few years ago I did not understand it at all, and I knew it. However, by God’s grace I had learned the very important lesson I spoke about earlier in this introduction:

When you have a question about something, don’t just try to figure it out; first, ask God to lead you to the answer as quickly and easily as possible, and then try to figure it out.

With this lesson in mind, I asked God to help me understand Revelation and end-times prophecy. When I started, I honestly had no idea if it was even possible to know when the rapture would occur (pre-trib? post-trib? something else?), much less if it was possible to understand Revelation. The books I’d read on end-times prophecy by well-known “experts” often did not make logical sense – it seemed like the authors simply made many claims (“this means this”) while rarely providing much logic. Or, some of what they said made logical sense but some of it didn't.

Still, I knew if there were real, logical answers to my questions about Revelation and end times prophecy, God could lead me to them, so I asked God to help me understand it, and then I set out to study it.

As I began to study, I researched what many people had to say on the internet as well as in books, and I had to sift through a lot of non-logical claims. Despite this, I learned several important things quickly and had a few logical knowledge-breakthroughs which greatly encouraged me. Yet much of Revelation still seemed so mysterious. At this point in my journey into end times prophecy, I felt God encouraging me in my heart to press through until I logically understood the whole book!

This was a leap of faith for me, since just a year earlier the book had been almost a complete mystery to me.

Long story short, I kept pressing. I kept studying. I kept asking God, “What does this mean? What is the deal with these locust-looking creatures? etc. etc.” And today I honestly feel I have a logical, reasonable explanation for every verse in the book of Revelation.

I don’t expect you to just believe me of course, I expect you to test everything I say and evaluate it for yourself in obedience to 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

Today, although I’m certain there is more I can learn about it, nothing in the book stumps me anymore (as far as I know). Today I can read through the whole book and say the whole time, “Yep, that makes sense. Yes, the most logical, reasonable explanation for this, is this” instead of “What the heck is this talking about!?!” or “What in the world does this mean?!?”.

And the best part is, I feel that I have strong logical reasons for every interpretation, and I don’t have to just pull interpretations out of thin air (that might sound good but have little logical or Scriptural basis) like many end time “experts” do. (See the #1 Little-Known Key To Understanding the Book of Revelation in the book for details on why this is so important.)

One more important lesson I learned in this process is that it’s not enough to study end-time prophecy, you also have to study modern events and history if you want to understand certain things about Revelation.

Let me give you a couple examples. Understanding the modern economy (who holds the greatest power in the world – the power to bring money into existence – how they do it, how they came to power, who their connections are, and how their mutually-beneficial relationships work) is essential to understanding the mark of the beast. Understanding the history and bloodlines of powerful families helps reveal the meaning of the beast from the sea. And studying the alien/UFO phenomenon helps us understand the locust-creatures.

And just as importantly, understanding God’s long-term plan for humanity answers the over-arching question that plagues the mind when reading end-times prophecy: “WHY will God allow all this craziness?”

So the fact that I was a truth-seeker in every area was extremely helpful in understanding Revelation.

So, it is possible to understand the book of Revelation. If it wasn’t, why would God write it? After all, He said plainly in the book’s first verse that its purpose was so His people can know the future.

The content of my book End Times Explained is the meat and my Easy-To-Understand Timeline is the bones. The proof and the logic for the timeline is in the 7 Little-Known Keys to Understanding the Book of Revelation found in the book, and you will really need to read that content in order for the timeline to make any sense to you.

I've designed my Easy-To_Understand end times timeline to put the big picture together for you after you’ve understood the basics of how to interpret Bible prophecy and some of the little-known keys to understanding it.

Think of this time line as a clear summary of the book of Revelation prophecies – including a few other events outlined elsewhere in Bible prophecy – with major events outlined in chronological order. Although there is great demand amongst truth-seekers for this kind of easy-to-understand Revelation timeline, most timelines I’ve seen don’t fit the bill. Often they are simply not accurate – they are missing major events, they claim literal events like Wormwood are symbolic, or they have major events (typically the rapture) in the wrong place.

You Must Have the Major Events In the Right Order Before Moving On To Smaller Details

A huge problem with many Revelation timelines is that they are too detailed to be useful to the truth-seeker who is trying to get a mental picture or an overview of the basic sweep of future world events. The truth-seeker first needs to know the major events to expect (and prepare for), before trying to understand the fine details.

The typical Revelation timeline exhausts much of the reader’s mental effort by going into the nitty-gritty of things like the 1260 days and 1290 days, etc., which is nice to know, but useless if you don’t understand the basic order of the big events. Many Christians – even those few who actually study end-times prophecy – may end up missing the forest for the trees because they get caught up in all the little details and never properly understand the major events of the end times (what to look for, and when to look for it in relation to the other big events).

My Revelation time line is simply designed to give you a mental picture of the big events that will occur in the future. Amazingly, many of these big events are either already being planned or (in the case of those events which are natural disasters caused by the incoming heavenly body the Bible calls Wormwood) are already known about by the top levels of the elite class. However, the average earth-dweller will be caught completely by surprise when these events occur.

However, as always, there is a remnant to whom God is faithful to reveal the future and His ordained escape plan (you can discover what this escape plan is in the chapter entitled "The Way of Escape" in my book End Times Explained).

As the prophet Daniel said, only the wise will understand what is going on in the last days – none of the wicked will understand (Dan. 12:10). You can be one of the wise who know what is going to happen even before it happens – and who knows what to do to escape the tremendous tribulation that is coming. God states in the first verse of Revelation that He gave us this book so His people could know the future.

I am not going to give dates on my timeline. It will be possible to narrow down dates once certain events occur. In some of my articles I touch on the subject of narrowing down dates, but here I will not go into it in detail. It is very useful information to have. However, my timeline is primarily meant to be a high-level overview of end time events and the general order in which they will occur. Once you understand that, the finer details of the timing possibilities will make more sense when you study them.

And again, always keep in mind, it is only possible to narrow down dates as certain events occur anyway – so it is only productive to try to narrow down dates after you have a broad-level picture of end-time events in your mind’s eye. My timeline, along with my other articles on the end times, are designed to be that broad-level overview.

Rather than give you a chart, I’m going to tell you in simple narrative form what will happen in the future: “First this will happen, then that, and here’s why” (at which point I’ll point you to a resource, usually one of my articles, which explains the logic).

Where it’s possible to know how much time elapses between events, I’ll tell you that too. Again, God has given us a glimpse into the future in a manner where we have to watch and keep watching, rather than a simple date-based calendar. My timeline will in a sense give you several events to "write down in order", but you will not exactly know "where to put them on the calendar" yet. As the events unfold, you will be able to fill in more and more actual dates on the calendar.

The book of Revelation is the chronological hook upon which all other Biblical end times prophecy hangs. Old Testament end-time prophecies are virtually never in chronological order. But God gave us Revelation in a clear “First the 7 Seals occur, then the 7th Seal triggers the 7 Trumpets, and then the 7th Trumpet triggers the 7 Bowls” format, with just a few “asides” or “tangents” thrown in at strategic points. (For example, there is an "aside" at the 7th Trumpet, because the 7th Trumpet will be an extremely important turning point in history – see my book End Times Explained).

The other extremely helpful chronological hook we have to superimpose on top of (or underneath) the Seals-Trumpets-Bowls of Revelation (so to speak) is the prophetic Feasts of the Lord, whose fall feasts must be fulfilled with real events on the very day of the Hebrew calendar on which they’re celebrated (see the #2 Little-Known Key To Understanding The Book of Revelation). Because we know exactly what end time events will fulfill these fall feasts, we can determine the exact timing between these particular events. I will point out these events and the timing between them.

So as I narrate the major events in order, I will also give brief logical explanations of the asides/interludes/pauses that interrupt the chronological flow of the Seals-Trumpets-Bowls. These interludes occur at strategic points in the timeline and give us much valuable information, but they confuse the casual reader because they jump around chronologically and can only be placed chronologically by using other clues in Revelation and Bible prophecy.

So in essence, my Revelation timeline also serves as a concise, logical explanation of almost the entire book, an easy-to-understand guide – something that is sorely needed by truth-seekers. And again, to keep it from being too long, I will often refer you to my other articles for the proof and logic behind what I say.

I start my Revelation time line at the Seven Seals. So much has been written by others about the Seven Churches in Revelation that I am not going to cover them. In short, they are outlined in the first 3 chapters of Revelation and are primarily in the past (though the Laodicean church, depending on how you interpret it, may be present in the earth today); in any case, I don’t feel I have much to add to the popular interpretations or the discussion about the 7 Churches, so I won’t bore you with a rehash of what you’ve already heard from others.

Now, without further ado, here's the link to the first part of my Easy-To-Understand Revelation Timeline

And to read the full Easy-To-Understand Revelation Timeline, click on the book below.

Introduction to Marc Speed's Easy-To-Understand Revelation Time Line Copyright 2010 Marc Speed

(Please note, I purposefully spell "Revelation Time Line" this way in this article, but differently, "Revelation Timeline" in the actual Timeline article, in order to get two different sets of online traffic for two different search terms.)

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