chronology

Topics: (1) Length of 6th seal. (2) Rev. 6-8 are not chronological.

11 June 2025: Listen to the YouTube video to "solve" Daniel 8:13-14: Recommend you listen to my YouTube video on "solving" the two Holy Ones question and answer of Daniel 8:13-14. See my next tab to the right labeled "YOUTUBE," then click on the internet hyperlink, and search for the YouTube subject. This represents a huge historic advancement in understanding prophetic chronology, though largely overlooked by scholarly circles. This is based on my first book chapter 4.

25 June 2025 – Historic News: The video above, supported by Scripture, presents evidence that the duration of the sixth seal is 35 days or less. This revelation should be making headlines across the Christian world (second only to this new premillennial view).

3 July 2025 - GES Negative Review: In Spring 2022, the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society (Ref. 3) did publish a negative review of Beyond Prewrath End-Time Prophecy. The reviewer did not view the concept of three theophany raptures, later labeled as dispensational raptures, as a viable premillennial position. This new perspective incorporates elements of mid-, prewrath-, and post-tribulation views, which do have, in general, scholarly support. As an organization committed to the pretribulation position, their negative review was not surprising. I am appreciative of their review to start the discussion of this new view.

What is surprising, is no response from mid/prewrath/post tribulation scholars. It seems almost all premillennial scholars can only recognize one chronological rapture and not three, or at least two, chronological dispensational raptures. This is despite them being able to recognize two (of the three) distinct peoples of God: Israel and the Church. The second saved group, Israel, is decreed to live through the entire 70th week, though the majority of scholars ignore them, except for the prewrath scholar Robert Van Kampen in The Sign of Christs Coming and the End of the Age (Ref. 2). The third group are the "sheep" in Matthew 25:31-46.

18 June 2025 - Seven Reasons Revelation 6 to 8 Are Not Chronological

First – Normal Life with Elect Rapture:
The references to marriages, planting, and building in Luke 17:28 must be understood as occurring during a normal day—sunrise and sunset, with daylight, not during a time of extended 24-hour darkness. This undermines the idea of the elect rapture occurring at the sixth seal (Rev. 6:12–17), since people would not be engaging in everyday activities if they were hiding in rocks, expecting death. Notably, the sixth seal presents mental anguish but does not explicitly mention death, contrary to the prewrath view.

Second – Seven Days Before the Flood:
Jesus’s reference to Noah in Luke 17:26 seems to parallel Genesis 7:10, where there was a seven-day period before the righteous were physically separated. Revelation’s "silence in heaven for about half an hour" (Rev. 8:1), which is prior to v. 5 (theophany rapture) and v. 7 (fire and death) may symbolically represent “about” 7.5 days, derived using the prophet Daniel’s 480:1 ratio (seven years to one week). This suggests that the physical deliverance of the righteous occurs after Revelation 8:1 in its seventh seal. The other Noah and Lot parallel, accepted by all scholars, is on the same day when the righteous were separated from danger, the wicked were destroyed with the wrath of God.

Third – Scripture Is Not Always Chronological:
The books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel demonstrate that biblical narrative is not always presented in chronological order. Revelation should be approached with the same understanding.

Fourth – Jesus Returns at the Midpoint:
Matthew 24:27 refers to the coming of Jesus, which must be interpreted as occurring at the midpoint of the tribulation. Verse 29, which aligns with Revelation 6:12 sixth seal, describes 24-hour darkness, reinforcing the idea that Jesus's return—heaven to earth—takes place at the midpoint, not in the sixth or seventh seals. The sixth seal and beyond should be viewed as Jesus continued presence on earth.

Fifth – Theophanies Indicate the Presence of God:
There are four great eschatological theophanies in Revelation (4:5, 8:5, 11:19, 16:18), all marked by lightning and thunder. These manifestations represent the presence of God. The last three, which include an earthquake, seem to symbolize rapture events. Consider Elijah’s rapture in 2 Kings 2:11, which involved "chariots of fire and horses of fire"—similar symbolic imagery.

Sixth – No Seals Opened in Revelation 7:
Revelation 7 does not mention the opening of a seal, leaving its placement open to interpretation. Biblically, there is no precedent for a chronological duration of time “interim” between the opening of seals. It must be interpreted as either one seal is opened or the next. Therefore, Revelation 7 likely follows the earthly theophany of Revelation 8:5, which may correspond with the same day rapture event.

Seventh – Theophanies Align with Three Dispensation Raptures:
The three proposed dispensational rapture events—of the Church, the Jewish people, and the "sheep"—correspond well with the locations of the three great theophanies: at the end of the seventh seal (Rev. 8:5), the end of the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:19, end of the 70th week), and the end of the seventh bowl (Rev. 16:18).

Outcome View #2 – Seals and Trumpets Do Not Overlap:
Because the first trumpet (Rev. 8:7, wrath of God) comes after and on the same day as the seventh seal is opened (Rev. 8:1-5, with deduced elect rapture in v. 5), as with the Lot and Noah prophecy, the seals and trumpets must be chronological with no overlapping. This undermines interpretations that suggest simultaneous or interwoven events. There are 21 events in the book of Revelation: seven opened seals, seven blown trumpets, and seven poured bowls.

Outcome View #3 – Elect Rapture defined in 7th Seal vs Rev. 7 is Paramount:

Similar seven chronological reasons are discussed in chapter 6 (prewrath problems - Part 2) of my third book Jesus Returns the Way He Left Based on His Ascension. My first book, Beyond Prewrath End-Times Prophecy, on pages 46 to 47, discusses it though to a lighter degree. To some prewrath proponents this chronological examination may seem trivial (elect rapture in Rev. 7 "interim" (between sixth and seventh seals) vs proposed seventh seal rapture). That is the elect rapture is still after the great tribulation though before the first blown trumpet, so who cares.

We should care since it becomes paramount in chronological analysis with the Feasts of the Lord in my second book (Ref. 1). Secondly, during a time of persecution and longing for the Lord’s return, who wouldn't want to understand the sequence of prophetic events as precisely as possible?

(15 June 2025) Note 1: In my first book Beyond Prewrath End-Times Prophecy book, chapter 3, a second prophetic meaning to the Jesus's Noah analogy in Luke 17:27–30. This analogy uses Daniel's derived prophetic ratio of 360:1, where seven years equals a prophetic week. This gives exactly 7.5 days (360 * half an hour, then divide by 24 to convert to days), considering Rev. 8:1 "about half an hour," this should be considered a great second analogy to the Luke prophecy. The seven days before the flood (Gen. 7:10) and Revelation 8:1 "about half an hour in heaven" is made.

A chronological analogy to Revelation 8:1 is made to before the righteous (Noah) were physically separated from the flood, which helps add support that the later verse 5, with its theophany, is representative of another physical separation, though called a rapture event. There is more detailed reasoning in my book. Basically, time in heaven and on earth are at different rates, called time dilation. Time dilation has been scientifically proven (Ref. 6, see the quote on my page 42). Einstein is correct that time is only a stubborn illusion.

Reference (3): Kenneth W. Yates, Editor, Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Spring 2022, 83-84.