Below is version 5 of my Revelation timeline which was created over many months and is part of “The Rapture Survival Guide”.
You can download The Rapture Survival Guide (TRSG) here
Reading the Diagram
To start reading this rather complicated diagram take a look at the white ‘Time’ bar near the top. This shows approximate timings for the events below such as the tribulation and the millennium. A little further down in the light blue section are the events that take place in heaven. Vertical lines spanning heaven and earth just show you these events occur in both places. Any coloured text adjacent to coloured lines shows a relationship. Coloured text is used to link common themes throughout the document, such as satanic influences and events appearing red, events involving raptured believers in baby blue and the events involving Israel being purple.
The events on earth are found under the heaven section and have a light brown and light red background. This is the section you will likely be focusing on the most if you’ve missed the rapture as it contains the seals, trumpets and bowls. I recommend drawing a vertical line on the diagram every so often to keep track of where you are in God’s grand scheme. The gradient lines on the diagram are themed to particular events, people or groups of people and generally cover most of the timeline. The weaker the gradient – the less it applies. The events after the tribulation such as the millennium and eternity are more for your general information due to not needing this diagram after the second coming of Jesus. That’s about it, if you still have questions on it try giving the referenced scriptures a read.
Diagram Events
The diagram starts before the rapture of the church where lawlessness, natural disasters and the persecution of the church will grow ever stronger in an attempt to wake people up from their spiritual slumber and to turn them back to God. Then the rapture happens (the blue line with an upwards arrow on the left) and the restrainer steps aside allowing all hell to break loose on earth. People will loot, steal, murder, riot and cry out in agony as the entire world breaks down. The deception sent by God will fool many into believing ‘the lie’ and people will be fixed to their TV’s in disbelief at what’s happening.
Out of the shadows the one who will be called the ‘antichrist’ will rise to power having solutions to the worlds problems. (the orange gradient at the bottom) He will then establish a covenant with Israel allowing the third temple to be built (maroon line at the bottom), kicking off the tribulation period (the entire light red area in the middle). The tribulation is a time of God’s wrath on the world – but particularly Israel, and consists of 21 scroll related events in the form of seals, trumpets and bowls including a few others mentioned throughout the bible. The seals are the orange gradients near the top and the trumpets are the red/orange gradients in the middle of the diagram)
3.5 years into the covenant with Israel (the red dotted line in exactly the middle), the antichrist will sit on the throne in the third temple and desecrate it with abominations to God. This is known as the Abomination of Desolation which starts the horrific second half of the tribulation known as the “Great Tribulation” where the Jews and Christians are hunted down for their faith. (The green gradient near the bottom) It is this point where the antichrist will mandate a ‘mark’ that everyone must take to be able to buy and trade with, and whoever doesn’t take this mark will be beheaded. The bowls of God’s wrath will be poured out on the world somewhere throughout this second half. (The maroon gradients with number in the middle-right) Near the end of the 7 years the Euphrates river will dry up (Bowl 5) allowing the nations of the world to gather in Armageddon, Israel to fight God. (Bowl 6) Jesus will then come gloriously from heaven with those who were raptured and kill all those who took the mark of the beast and those who do not believe in Him. (The white vertical bar before the millennium)
Satan will be bound and those Christians who survived the tribulation and those who returned from heaven will live harmoniously in the millennium with Jesus reigning. (The green section to the right) After the 1,000 years have finished, satan will be released once more to deceive the nations for a time and then Jesus will destroy the uprising. (The white section to the right after the millennium) The great white throne judgement then occurs, where all the old testament saints and unbelievers throughout history are raised to life and judged for what they did in life. (The black bar) Once the judgement has passed and everyone has been grouped to either His left hand or right hand, he will send them to either everlasting life in heaven or everlasting judgement in hell. Finally, a new heaven and a new earth will be created for us to live in eternally. (The yellow and light blue bars)