7 Steps to Jesus’ Second Coming: A Comprehensive Prophetic Timeline
Excerpted from Countdown: Prophetic Timelines of the Rapture and Jesus' Second Coming.
When discussing the Second Coming of the Lord, many people think Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives and that’s it.
But in reality, there are several stages of the Second Coming.
Stage 1: During the latter part of the Tribulation, allies of the Antichrist assemble for the Battle of Armageddon. Jesus comes back to stop them!
Stage 2: Commercial Babylon is destroyed. There are four or five protocols right here before Jesus sets foot on the earth.
Stage 3: Jerusalem falls and is ravaged.
Stage 4: The Antichrist moves south to attack the remnant because during that time Israel goes down into Bosra to receive protection.
Stage 5: In glory, Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives where He was crucified.
Stage 6: Jesus obliterates Lucifer with the brightness of His coming.
Stage 7: Jesus instigates cleansing of the Temple.
Look with me at Zechariah 13 and 14 to read about these stages of the Second Coming in more detail. It’s not good news at all, but it’s good to know. Actually, Zechariah 14 is one of the most graphic depictions of the Second Coming in all the Bible, but Zechariah 13 sets the stage for it.
We read about stage three in Zechariah 13:7-8:
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
Zechariah is prophesying that right before the Second Coming, two thirds of all of Israel will get killed. In other words, there’s another holocaust coming. We don’t preach about that very much, but only a third of them will remain through the latter part of the Tribulation. This is sobering!
There are approximately six million Jews living in Israel now. If four million are killed, then two million would remain. Keep in mind that we are seeing the different phases of the Second Coming here and different events are happening in each stage. The Antichrist will be dealt with, Babylon will be dealt with, and Jerusalem will be ravaged. There are actually five or six depictions of that, and it literally says four million Jews will be killed.
In stage four, the Antichrist moves south to attack the remnant because during that time Israel goes down into Bosra to receive protection. When the Antichrist goes down there, stage five takes place, which is pretty radical. Jesus returns in glory to the Mount of Olives, the very mountain where He was crucified. How cool is that? The seventh and final phase that we know is the Battle of Armageddon.
We read in Matthew 24 about Jesus returning at the end of the Battle of Armageddon. The Antichrist thinks he can win, but all of a sudden, Jesus comes back as lightning from heaven. Lucifer is so stupid that he still thinks he can beat Jesus but quickly learns otherwise.
During these different stages of the Second Coming, Jesus rescues the remnant. I really like one of the depictions in Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series. It’s as cool as it gets. I know it’s fiction, but it brings to life Jesus slaying the enemy with the sword of His mouth (Rev. 19:15).
In the Left Behind movie, Jesus walks through the valley of Armageddon saying, “I am the root of Jesse. I am He who was and is and is to come.” Come on! Jesus begins quoting Himself: “I am Stephen’s signs and wonders. I am Peter’s shadow. In Genesis, I was the seed of a woman. In Exodus, I was the Passover Lamb. In Leviticus, I was the High Priest. In Numbers, I was the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.”
In the depiction, as Jesus is quoting Himself, armies start exploding, and the blood where the Battle of Armageddon takes place is up to the horse’s bridle. The Bible says Jesus goes down to Bosra and releases God’s wrath.
From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress (Revelation 19:15 NLT).
Jesus will walk right into the latter phase of the Second Coming. Before He gets to the Mount of Olives, Jesus will destroy the armies of the Antichrist with His Word. He slays them with the sword of His mouth. Glory! This is God finally bringing recompense to people who were haughty and attacking His kingdom.
Look now at Zechariah 14:1-7 (NLT):
Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city. Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. You will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal. Yes, you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him. On that day the sources of light will no longer shine, yet there will be continuous day! Only the Lord knows how this could happen. There will be no normal day and night, for at evening time it will still be light.
Zechariah is physically showing you what will happen when Jesus sets foot on that mountain, and he throws in a number of other details. Bottom line, the Second Coming changes everything. The changes are literally day and night different. In fact, there won’t be day or night. I don’t know what it will be like, but Jesus will be the only light and the only light needed. He is so bright that there will be no place where shadows can exist. Just imagine Jesus being so radiant that He encompasses everything. Even the sun revolves around Him so brightly that a shadow cannot happen. As in the beginning, life everlasting returns to a planet that has been ruled by a dark angel named Lucifer.
When the Light returns, the earth doesn’t even know how to handle it. The earth says, “We don’t know whether it’s day or night because Jesus’ light is so encompassing it lights everything up. What’s going on?” What’s going on is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is back. Whoa!
Continue reading as Zechariah’s description grows even more graphic.
And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. On that day they will be terrified, stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will fight their neighbors hand to hand. Judah, too, will be fighting at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the neighboring nations will be captured—great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing. This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the enemy camps (Zechariah 14:12-15 NLT).
These verses are pretty graphic. Imagine what it would be like to be Zechariah and see this all in a vision. We call Zechariah a minor prophet, but he was seeing some major stuff. What a depiction! Joel saw it and said, “Sound an alarm! Wake everybody up!” Joel interpreted it as the Holy Spirit being poured out on everybody, but really, he was talking about when God physically comes back to the planet.
