Appendix  A &B
Definition of Common Terms Found In Eschatology

Appendices
Appendix A
Chart of the End Times

A modified version of this chart in color is available online at
http://ldolphin.org/kingdom/echart.gif

Appendix B
Definition of Common Terms Found In Eschatology

“Last Days”: refers to the entire period between the first and second advents of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Since Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, 40 days after his
resurrection, we have been living in the “last days.”

Eschatology: is the body of knowledge concerning the “last things,” or the end of the age and the
future.

Millennium:. means one thousand years. (Latin, mille = thousand; Greek: chilloi = thousand,
hence Chiliasm.) The is the belief, based on Revelation 20, that Christ will literally, physically
reign on earth following the present age, for one thousand actual calendar years.

Amillennial:. (Prefix a = “no”). This is the belief that there will be no literal 1000 year reign of
Christ. Thus Revelation 20 is taken symbolically, not literally, by adherents of this view.
Amillennialists generally believe that Israel has been permanently set aside for all time and that
God’s current plan of salvation involves only the Church.

Premillennial:. This is the belief that Christ returns visibly and bodily at the beginning of the
thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth. He will rule the nations from Jerusalem. God will
resume salvation work for Israel as a nation immediately after the departure or “rapture” of the
true church.

Postmillennial:. This is the belief that Christ will return at the end of the present age to take over
the earth. Meantime, he is assumed to reign on earth through the Church now. Postmillennialists
do not necessarily believe in a literal millennial age. Satan was defeated at the cross and is now
bound; hence the final triumph of the Church in history is assured.

Rapture:. (In the Latin Bible rapere meaning “to catch up,” is the translation of the Greek
harpazo, 1 Thessalonians. 4:17). It refers to the coming of Jesus to take his church out of the
world, “like a thief in the night”, i.e., suddenly, unexpectedly. Dates for this event can not be
predicted from the Bible.

Tribulation Period:. This refers to the end-time period of judgment of the earth with great outpouring
of wrath on mankind from God.

The 70th Week of Daniel:. From Daniel we know this period to be just 7 years in length. The
last half of this “week” (3-1/2 years) is “the Great Tribulation,” or “the time of Jacob’s trouble”
when most of the terrible judgments in the book of Revelation occur. The first half of the
Tribulation period is marked by apparent world peace, especially in the Middle East as Israel’s
false prophet and the political/military leader of the Western confederation of nations contrive a
“successful” peace plan. (Isaiah calls this treaty Israel’s “covenant with death.”) The onset of the
Great Tribulation is marked by failure of this peace treaty and the desecration of the Third
Temple in Jerusalem by the “man of sin.” During the Tribulation period Israel is once again the
focus for events in the Bible. Jerusalem will again be the center of reference for what God is
doing in the world.