By carefully studying the whole Bible, we have learned that the Bible is not only a law book that sets forth all the laws by which God governs all mankind, but it is also a book that is given to mankind so that they can know God’s timeline of history. We read in Ecclesiastes 8:5-7:

Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

In these verses, the word “judgment” is a synonym for the word “law.” Thus, it is teaching that by studying the Bible, the true believer not only learns God’s laws, particularly as they relate to God’s judgment process, but also, he learns much about God’s timetable for the earth.

For that reason, the true believer can know much about the timetable of history, including many truths about the timing of the end of the world. For those who do not follow the Biblical method of Bible interpretation, however, Christ will come as a thief in the night. Instantly, their misery will be enormously compounded when they realize, too late, that the end of the world has come. No longer will there be mercy or grace or salvation for the unsaved. Thus, we read in I Thessalonians 5:2-6:

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on

In these verses, God is teaching us that those who read the Bible are divided in two kinds of people. There are those who are satisfied with their present understanding of their relationship with God. They know that someday the world will end, but their understanding is that the timetable of the last day is known only by God. Therefore, they think that mankind need not be concerned about it. For them, Christ indeed will come as a thief in the night. However, His coming for these individuals is for the purpose of destroying them. How awful!

On the other hand, there are those who have come to realize that God has given us much information in the Bible concerning the timetable of history. Therefore, they have learned, from the Bible, much about the timetable of the creation of the world and a great many other major events that are recorded in the Bible. They have also learned very much about the precise timetable of the end of the world. For them, the timing of the end of the world will not be unexpected.

The Unfolding of God’s Salvation Plan is the Timeline of History

The Bible teaches how God has given the Gospel message to the human race throughout the timeline of history. The Gospel includes the whole Bible. Therefore, by carefully studying the Bible, we learn that the unfolding of God’s salvation plan is the timeline of history.

For the first 9,500 years of the history of the world, God did not use any kind of earthly organization to represent the kingdom of God to this world. During that period of time, God always worked through individual believers who were representatives of His kingdom. Abel, Enoch, who was taken to heaven, Noah and his family, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are names that God recorded in the Bible as representatives of the kingdom of God.

As we carefully study the Bible, we discover that the world was created about 13,000 years ago.^* The Bible is very precise, so when we harmonize the Biblical calendar with our modern calendar, we know that the year of creation was 11,013 B.C.

In all likelihood, during the first 9,500 years of earth’s history, few individuals became saved. In Noah’s day, for example, in the entire world that existed in the year 4990 B.C., when God destroyed the world with the flood, there were only eight people who were saved.

However, in the year 1447 B.C., God made a great change in His method of having the kingdom of God represented on this earth. In that year, God began to utilize the nation of Israel to represent the kingdom of God. It was in the year 1447 B.C. that Israel, under the leadership of Moses, came out of their enslavement to Egypt. The nation of Israel consisted of the descendants of Abraham, who was born more than 700 years earlier. Abraham was born in the year 2167 B.C. as a citizen of Ur of the Chaldees or Babylon. In the year 2092 B.C., he and his wife, Sarah, in obedience to God’s command, went to the land of Canaan. They became the beginning of the nation of Israel, and the land of Canaan was used of God as an earthly representation of the kingdom of God.

The nation of Israel, together with the land of Canaan, became the centerpiece of the unfolding of God’s salvation plan during the 2,100-year period preceding the birth of Christ. The fact is that Jesus the Son of God received His human nature as a direct descendant of Abraham.

By the year 1447 B.C., the descendants of Abraham, who were called Israel, had grown to become a nation of possibly about two million people. It was in that year that they came out of enslavement to Egypt. And for the next 1,480 years, Israel was called God’s people. They were given more and more of God’s laws. They became the external representatives of the kingdom of God on earth.

God gave the nation of Israel a country, the land of Canaan, which is also called the land of Israel, as a place to live, and a temple, and synagogues in which to worship. He gave them laws, which theologically, we call ceremonial laws, which were to be observed because these laws pointed the Israelites to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. The ceremonial laws included things such as the observance of feast days, new moons, seventh-day sabbaths, burnt offerings, blood sacrifices, etc.

God used earthly entities such as Canaan, Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, Zion, the temple, Judea, etc., to externally represent the kingdom of God. Thus, these same words are very frequently used in the Bible to spiritually represent the kingdom of God. For example, during the church age, the churches were the external representation of the kingdom of God. Therefore, the Bible frequently uses words such as Israel, Judah, the temple, etc., in speaking about the churches of the church age.

An integral part of the nation of Israel was the body of laws that God gave concerning the appointment of priests, Levites, prophets, and kings to rule over the whole nation. It was a divine organism established by God Himself to externally represent the kingdom of God here on earth. Every Jew who was a descendant of Abraham was automatically a member of this great congregation. To emphasize this membership, every male was circumcised, which was another one of the ceremonial laws set forth by the law of God.  

The Bible gives us a lot of information about the years that immediately precede the beginning of the nation of Israel as well as its first thousand years of history. The Bible gives much detail about Israel, as a nation, when God delivered them from slavery and brought them out of Egypt, when they miraculously went through the Red Sea on dry ground, and wandered 40 years in the wilderness, and then went through the Jordan River on dry ground. The Bible then gives considerable information concerning the next 360 years of their history, as God ruled over them, utilizing individuals called judges, in the land of Canaan.

We are then given details about the next 116 years, when Israel came into its greatest earthly glory, as they were ruled over by King Saul, who was followed by King David, and then by King Solomon.

Considerable detail is also given in the Bible concerning the division of the one unified nation, which included the 12 tribes of Israel, into two nations. Upon the death of King Solomon, ten of the tribes became an independent kingdom called Israel, with its capital eventually located in Samaria, and the remaining two tribes became the nation of Judah, with its capital located in Jerusalem. The Bible gives much information concerning these kingdoms and the kings who ruled over them.

The Bible also gives considerable information about the end of these nations. The ten tribes of the nation of Israel were conquered by the Assyrians in the year 709 B.C. Then in the year 587 B.C., the nation of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, at which time the city of Jerusalem and the magnificent temple built by King Solomon were destroyed.

However, following the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., details of the experiences of the 12 tribes became much more limited. We learn that in 539 B.C., about 40,000 of the survivors of Judah, which was destroyed by the Babylonians, returned to Jerusalem. We learn a few facts about the rebuilding of the temple, an effort that was completed in 515 B.C. We learn about a few experiences of the Jews who returned to the land of Israel, mainly from the books in the Bible titled Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

But then for almost 400 years of history, from 391 B.C. to 8 B.C., the Bible is completely silent about the land of Israel, its inhabitants, and for that matter, any other nation in the world.

Sadly, during the entire period of Israel’s existence, very few people actually became saved. The Bible is filled with statements concerning the sin, the apostasy, and the rebellion of the nation of Israel against the laws of God. Even when Jesus Christ came as the Savior, who in His human nature was a descendant of Abraham, they rebelled, and they would not regard Him as their Messiah. In fact, they eventually killed Him (Acts 2:22-23).

The Bible assures us that it is Christ who is the wonderful fruit produced by the nation of Israel. It is through the nation of Israel that God took on a human nature, being born of the virgin Mary, who was of the tribe of Judah.  

In 8 B.C., again the Bible began to give us much detail about the Jewish nation. In that year, the birth of John the Baptist was announced, and it was John who was to declare to the world that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, had come to take away the sins of the world. Jesus Christ, of course, is the only means by which anyone in the world can have the penalty for their sins paid, and thus be eternally reconciled to God.

From the time of the birth of Jesus in 7 B.C. until about A.D. 65, the Bible gives much information about the nation of Israel. It is during this period of time that the most awesome event in the history of the world occurred. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, took on a human nature by being born of the virgin Mary. During this period of time, Jesus preached for about three and a half years. Jesus Christ was crucified in A.D. 33. He arose from the dead and ascended back into heaven. That year, A.D. 33, marked the end of the 1,480-year period during which the whole nation of Israel was the congregation that externally represented the kingdom of God.^*

The Beginning of the Church Age

A few days after Christ’s ascension into heaven, the great divine organization that was to represent the kingdom of God for the next 1,955 years had its beginning.

On Pentecost day in A.D. 33, about 3,000 people were saved (Acts 2). Those who were saved that day came from many different nations. This grand event marked the beginning of the church age. It was during this part of the beginning of the church age that much detail is given concerning missionaries being sent into countries that we now know as Turkey, Greece, and Italy. The church age was set forth by God as a divine plan by which God would send the Gospel into the entire world. Never again would the Jewish synagogues, the city of Jerusalem, the nation of Israel, or the temple in Jerusalem externally represent the kingdom of God. The local congregations that would be formed throughout the world would externally represent the kingdom of God. Therefore, spiritually, the Bible very frequently calls the local congregations “Jerusalem,” “the temple,” “Zion,” “Israel,” “Judah,” “Judea,” etc.

This divine organization, which eventually consisted of churches located all over the world, was carefully designed by God. And God placed strict rules in His law book, the Bible, that governed the selection of elders and deacons (I Timothy 3). Women were not to teach or have authority in the congregations. The Old Testament ceremonial laws, which were to be observed by the nation of Israel, were no longer to be observed. Instead, two new ceremonial laws were

The great task given to these God-ordained congregations was to send the Gospel throughout the whole world. So, already, as we have noted, before the Bible was even finished, missionaries were being sent forth into neighboring nations (Acts 13).

About A.D. 95, God completed the writing of the Bible, and no further information has come from God describing the actual progress of the church in the world as an historical account. However, long before the church age began, God prophesied how the church age would spiritually develop.

One would expect that with the auspicious beginning of the church age on Pentecost in A.D. 33, when about 3,000 were saved in one day (Acts 2), that the development of the church age would be a notable success story. However, the Bible prophesied that this was not God’s plan. We sadly learn from the Bible that even before God finished writing the Bible (about A.D. 95), already there was mounting evidence that the church age was not going to be a huge success story.

The Bible Anticipates a Defective Church

In Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, God tells us about the spiritual condition of seven typical churches. These conditions existed about 30 years after these churches had been formed. For example, the church at Ephesus had lost its first love (Revelation 2:4-5). Remember, to love God is to obey His commandments (John 14:21-23). Therefore, God threatened to remove their candlestick, which represents the light of the Gospel, because they were no longer obedient to God’s laws. This church would no longer be used by God to send the Gospel into the world.

In Galatians 1:2-9, the Bible reports that already, before the Bible was completed, the churches of Galatia had begun to follow a gospel that was not the Gospel of the Bible. In Revelation 2:13, the Bible reports that the church at Pergamos was already a church in which, to some extent, Satan was ruling. This verse makes reference to Satan’s “seat.” In the Bible, the word “seat,” in this kind of context, refers to ruling or reigning. And in Revelation 3:1-4, the Bible reports that the church at Sardis was already a dead church, even though it had a few true believers left within it.

In Matthew 13:24-30, the Bible records the parable of the wheat and the tares. The wheat represented true believers in the churches. The tares  

Already in Isaiah 9:1-4, God prophesied that the church age would not be a great success story. There we read:

Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

In these verses, God speaks of the light shining on the land beyond Jordan as “Galilee of the nations” (see also Matthew 4:15-16). That is, all the nations of the world were to be under the light of the Gospel. That light, of course, is the Lord Jesus, who is the light of the world (John 1:7-10).

Because the light of the Gospel was to shine throughout the world, a great change in God’s Gospel program would occur in that the spiritual darkness of the world would be penetrated by this light (Isaiah 9:2). It would be a light that would bring into existence, throughout the world, a great company of people who would externally appear to have become true believers in Christ, as Isaiah 9:3 declares, “Thou hast multiplied the nation.” In other words, the external size of the kingdom of God that would be developed all over the world would be great.

However, in the same verse, God prophesies that He has not increased the joy of harvest. The joy of harvest is the joy that comes when a person has been given eternal life so that he has become a true believer (Luke 15:10). If the joy of harvest is lacking, it can only mean that the harvest of true believers is very small. The fact is, as we are noting, this sad anticipation of the lack of a great harvest of people being saved and coming into the kingdom of God is prophesied in many places in the Bible.

In addition to all the Biblical references we have already noted, we read in Isaiah 5 that God portrays the church age as a vineyard that has been carefully  

It should be noted that in many chapters of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, etc., God indicates His intense anger against the nations of Israel and Judah because of their continuous wickedness. Indeed, finally, they were destroyed. Israel was destroyed in 709 B.C. by the Assyrians, and Judah in 587 B.C. by the Babylonians.

God used Israel and Judah, which in their day externally represented the kingdom of God, as examples of all the local churches that have externally represented the kingdom of God throughout the time of the church age. As we study these Old Testament books of the Bible, we are actually reading what God has anticipated for the church age, and more particularly, for the end of the church age.

Thus, God is teaching that churches were to be established all over the world throughout the church age, giving the appearance that the church age was enormously successful. But in reality, only a remnant, a small part of the whole in the churches, would actually become saved, that is, actually become true believers.

This same thought is set forth in Romans 9:27, where God quotes from Isaiah 10:22-23.

Romans 9:27: Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

Isaiah 10:22-23: For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

The Problem of Satan within the Churches

One very big reason for the lack of spiritual success in the church age was the problem of Satan. At the time of the cross, Satan was given a death blow. He was banished from heaven (Revelation 12:7-11), and he was bound so that he could not deceive the nations during the complete period of the church age, which was symbolically described as a period of 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1-3).  

The binding of Satan meant that he could not in any way frustrate God’s plan to save those whom God, at the very beginning of time, had elected to salvation. But the fact that Satan was bound did not preclude him from going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour (I Peter 5:8). That is, while the church age was altogether God’s plan by which the Gospel was to reach into all the world, it would be greatly hindered in its spiritual effectiveness by Satan. He would hinder the effectiveness of the churches by sowing tares or weeds within them (Matthew 13:24-30). That is, Satan, operating as an “angel of light” would bring his ministers as “ministers of righteousness” into each local congregation (II Corinthians 11:13-15).

In Revelation 6:4, he is pictured as a rider on a red horse carrying a great sword, which is the Sword of the Spirit, the Bible, by which he would take peace from the earth. In other words, he would use words from the Bible to try to give authority to his false teachings.

When we carefully harmonize all these Biblical references, we learn that, indeed, from an outward standpoint, the church age was very successful, as church after church reported that great numbers of people were saved. In reality, however, only a remnant of those who became confessing members in full communion in the church actually became true believers.

The greatest blessing to the world during the church age was probably the printing and distribution of hundreds of millions of Bibles throughout the world. The Bible, the light of the Gospel, was sent around the world, even though the number of those who became true believers during the church age was small.

Thus, the ominous prophecy of Matthew 7:21-23 will come into sharp reality in the day God brings His great wrath upon the unsaved of the world. And sadly, that includes all those who are still in any church anywhere in the world when the rapture occurs, that is, when the true believers are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. In these verses God declares:

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

From our superior vantage point of being able to look back on the whole church age, we can see the reality of God’s prophetic statement concerning the  

Moreover, when we examine church history, we never learn of a time of great faithfulness to the Bible. Church history is replete with accounts of Biblical unfaithfulness. The high watermark of Biblical unfaithfulness was probably the time of the Reformation, which occurred in Europe about four to five hundred years ago. At that time in history, the dominant church was the Roman Catholic church. It was so bad in its violation of Biblical laws that Roman Catholic men like Martin Luther and John Calvin left the church and became the fountainhead of the Protestant churches. Many of these Protestant churches earnestly tried to be as faithful as possible to the teachings of the Bible.

However, it was not long until a great many of the Protestant churches were teaching a man-made salvation plan whereby anyone can accept Christ as his Lord and Savior and that this action produced salvation. A look at the great revivals of the past discloses that the basis of most of them was that kind of gospel. Sadly, it was not the Gospel of the Bible. In spite of this, God did save some people during the church age.

Is the Entire Bible the Infallible Word of God?

The very fact that amongst the many Protestant denominations that were developed there is great disagreement concerning many aspects of Bible doctrine indicates that each denomination selected the verses from the Bible that they especially liked, and then they developed their creeds and confessions from these verses. Each denomination insisted that the verses they had selected were infallible and inerrant. Thus, it appeared that the theological conclusions that became their church creeds, and which were derived by harmonizing their understanding of the verses they had chosen, were altogether true and trustworthy. Their teachings appeared to be solidly grounded in the infallible Word of God, the Bible.

But that which appeared to be true and trustworthy was not always true and trustworthy.
Unfortunately, very frequently, the verses they had chosen as a basis for their confessions were wrongly understood because the whole Bible was not consulted by these church theologians. They did not carefully search the whole Bible, comparing Scripture with Scripture, to make certain their conclusions were  

The consequence of this faulty trust in the Bible was the sending forth of a gospel of salvation that was at times far from truth. That is why throughout the church age there have been many different understandings of Bible doctrines by various denominations. For example, the Baptists disagree with the Lutherans, the Lutherans with the Presbyterians, the Presbyterians with the Baptists, etc., concerning many Bible teachings.

We know the Bible is true and trustworthy in connection with each and every Biblical doctrine, and therefore, there can be only one true answer. Thus, if several views concerning a particular doctrine were held by different denominations, at most only one of these denominations was speaking the truth, and all the others were preaching a lie.

On the other hand, if these denominations believed that the entire Bible is God’s infallible Word, and their creeds must be under the authority of the Bible alone and in its entirety, then one could logically expect that eventually, all denominations would teach each doctrine in the same way that every other church taught that doctrine.

In addition, there have been large segments of the churches, like the Roman Catholics, the Mormons, the Seventh-Day Adventists, and the Charismatic churches of our day who openly declare that their church doctrines are a product of both the Bible and later revelations from God, messages that were given after the Bible was completed. Therefore, by their very declaration, they have an authority that structures and determines their understanding of the Bible that is different from God’s authority, which is the Bible alone and in its entirety (Revelation 22:18-19). We must absolutely understand that there could never have been any addition to the Bible once it was completed about 1,900 years ago.

As we indicated earlier, God anticipated and prophesied that for all of the above reasons, the prophecy would come to pass as God declared, “Thou hast… not… joy in harvest” (Isaiah 9:3). Although Israel, that is, all the local churches throughout the world, would be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant would be saved (Romans 9:27).

There Would Be an End of the Church Age

God prophesied that finally, there would be an end to the church age, and then God would complete the harvest of His elect, those who were chosen by God to become saved (Ephesians 1:3-6), by bringing the Gospel to individuals who were outside of any church authority.  

When we search the Bible, we find that the Bible teaches that there will be a final tribulation, which in Matthew 24:21 is called “great tribulation.” We read there:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Significantly, we live at a time in history when we can look back on almost 2,000 years of history that came after the Bible was completed. As we learned earlier in this study, the available historical information from non-Biblical sources concerning the history of the churches teaches us that the church age was as unsuccessful as the Bible predicted it would be.

But that brings us to a very big question. It has always been understood by Bible students that finally, there would be an end to this world, at which time the unsaved would receive the full penalty of God’s wrath, and the saved would be eternally secure with Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. Further, it has been commonly believed that the end of the world would come when Christ would come as a thief in the night. That is, it was understood that we cannot know with any precision the time of the end. This was so even though at various times in history, when severe persecution of Christians was particularly in evidence in some parts of the world, there were those who dared to speculate that they knew the year of Christ’s return. Of course, in every instance, they were proven wrong. This was so because they did not base their conclusion upon a careful analysis of everything the Bible has to say about the return of Christ.

In fact, throughout the church age it appears that the normal understanding of the churches was that the churches would continue to the very end of time, and suddenly, this world would come to its end as Christ came as a thief in the night.

A major variation of this concept became popular during the last century when the so-called premillennial doctrine was taught, especially in the Baptist churches. That doctrine declared that Christ would come as a thief in the night and rapture the church, that is, take all the people in the churches to heaven. At the same time or shortly before that, there would be a seven-year period of great tribulation. Immediately following this seven-year period, Christ would physically return to the present earth to reign 1,000 years from the present literal city of Jerusalem. After this 1,000-year period, the end of the world would come. This kind of teaching, which is altogether inaccurate, is possible because there are many chapters, especially in the Book of Revelation, that obviously speak of the end of the world but which are extremely difficult to understand. It is only in our day that we can begin to clearly understand these Biblical references to the end of time.