In 1719, hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote the words to this famous carol, which portray the glorious event of Jesus Christ reigning over the nations and the restoration of all things at the end of this age. The carol stirs our hearts to long for the final appearing of the King of kings, which the apostle Paul tells us will be rewarded with a crown of righteousness on that day (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

Let’s take a deeper look and see how the prophetic lyrics of “Joy to the World” align with Scripture.

“Joy to the World”

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing

By just taking in the first stanza, you might think this carol could represent the first or second comings of Jesus the Messiah. However, much to the disappointment of the Jews in the first century AD, Jesus did not come to reign as an earthly king in His first coming. The Jewish people expected Him to save them from their bondage to the Roman Empire, but Jesus had a much larger plan of redemption in store. Jesus Christ became the way to eternal salvation through His atoning death on the cross for the sins of all humanity as the sacrificial Lamb of God (see Isaiah 53:4-6, John 1:29, and John 14:6).

We see a prophetic foreshadow to the second coming in the familiar Christmas passage of Isaiah 9:6-7, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy

All of God’s children and all of creation is eagerly awaiting the second coming and the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:7 and Romans 8:19). This stanza describes the songs of joy that will follow when the Savior of the world reigns on earth!

“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all it contains; let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.” Psalm 96:11-13

No more let sins and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found

When Jesus returns to reign, the old things, like sins and sorrows, will pass away and the new will come. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'” (Revelation 21:1-5, also see 22:3)

As we await His return, we must remember the encouragement of the apostle Paul, who said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders, of His love

As we just read in Psalm 96:13, we are promised that “He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.” Also, just two chapters later in Psalm 98, we read, “The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” (Psalm 98:1-3)

While Jesus Christ did not set up His reign on earth in His first coming, He most definitely is coming again to judge the nations and rule the world with righteousness, faithfulness, and lovingkindness. Oh, joy to the world, the Lord is coming again! Let us all shout for joy this Christmas season, remembering the reason for the season, but also yearning for the consummation of the age with the return of our King!

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100

All Scripture taken from New American Standard Bible, 1995 version. Emphasis added by the author.
“Joy to the World” text by Isaac Watts (1719), arrangement by Lowell Mason (1848).

“For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 19:10

At the midpoint of the final seven years (Daniel’s 70th week), the Anti-Messiah will desecrate the temple in Jerusalem. This is the Abomination of Desolation, beginning the final 3.5 years called the Great Tribulation.  At the end of the Great Tribulation, we reach the day of which nearly every biblical prophet spoke, the Day of the Lord. One of the main causes of confusion in the book of Revelation is that it builds up to the Day of the Lord several times, and just before it tells you the good part, it interrupts the story with an aside or it jumps back in time to show another perspective on the events leading up to that day. In this article, we will work through several of these narrative jumps to highlight the clear chronological sequence of events, especially at the end of the Great Tribulation.

The Feast Days in the Great Tribulation

The Day of the Lord and return of Messiah is strongly correlated with the fall feast days: Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Six months before these holy days, we have the spring feasts of Pesach (Passover) and Unleavened Bread. The Abomination of Desolation is likely to happen on Pesach, one of the holiest days of the year, 3.5 years before the return of the Lord. For more background on this idea, check out our video Prophetic Fulfillment of the Biblical Feasts.

From the time of the Abomination of Desolation, Jerusalem and the court of the Temple will be “given to the Gentiles, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months” (Rev. 11:2). The two prophets are witnessing in Jerusalem during this time. At the end of the Great Tribulation, they are killed, and after 3.5 days, they are resurrected and called up to Heaven. The flow of chronology from chapter 11 to chapter 14 suggests that this is not a special, stand-alone event, but rather the beginning of the global rapture/resurrection at the return of Messiah.

The End of the Great Tribulation

Chapter 11 ends with the 7th trumpet (11:15-19), which initiates a scene in Heaven. The angels and saints declare that the time has come for final judgement and the beginning of Messiah’s rule, which connects us back to these previous passages:

Sixth Seal:
“Then I watched as he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, the sun turned black as sackcloth worn in mourning, and the moon became blood-red. The stars fell from heaven to earth just as a fig tree drops its figs when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. Then the earth’s kings, the rulers, the generals, the rich and the mighty — indeed, everyone, slave and free — hid himself in caves and among the rocks in the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the fury of the Lamb! For the Great Day of their fury has come, and who can stand?’” Rev. 6:12-17

Seventh Trumpet:
“There will be no more delay; on the contrary, in the days of the sound from the seventh angel when he sounds his shofar, the hidden plan of God will be brought to completion, the Good News as he proclaimed it to his servants the prophets.” Rev. 10:6b-7

“The seventh angel sounded his shofar; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
‘The kingdom of the world
has become the Kingdom
of our Lord and his Messiah,
and he will rule forever and ever!’” Rev. 11:15

Chapter 11 ends with the Temple in Heaven opening to reveal the Ark of the Covenant (v.19). Chapters 12 and 13 are an aside to explain the origin of the beast (Anti-Messiah), and then chapter 14 resumes the scene in Heaven where we left it in chapter 11. When 14:1 says, “there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion; and with him were 144,000”, I see this as the heavenly Jerusalem (compare to Hebrews 12:22) from which Jesus and his saints are about to return. The 144,000 are the Messianic Jews mentioned in Revelation 7 and the “full number” of the martyrs mentioned in Revelation 6:11.

The Rapture/Resurrection

Chapter 14 proceeds with angels proclaiming three messages over the earth: the Gospel, the announcement of Mystery Babylon’s fall, and a warning not to worship the Anti-Messiah. These are the final chance for anyone to respond to God’s mercy, because Messiah is on His way to judge the earth and set up His kingdom.

Then the rapture/resurrection takes place:

“Then I looked, and there before me was a white cloud. Sitting on the cloud was someone like a Son of Man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Another angel came out of the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, ‘Start using your sickle to reap, because the time to reap has come — the earth’s harvest is ripe!’ The one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.” Rev. 14:14-16

The end of chapter 14 (v.17-20) summarizes the bowl judgments as the treading of the winepress of God’s wrath, which chapters 15 and 16 describe in detail.

Setting aside chapters 12 and 13, Revelation 11:11 through 14:16 is all describing a continuous series of events on the same day. The end of chapter 14 (summarizing the bowl judgments) appears to happen over the course of several days, possibly between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur.

Armageddon and the Bowl Judgments

The events of the bowl judgments in chapters 15 and 16 coincide with the return of Jesus, the final battle (aka Armageddon), and His march to Jerusalem. Put another way, the bowl judgments are the means by which Jesus fights the final battle. Chapters 17 and 18 are another aside about Mystery Babylon, and then chapter 19 is a vision of Jesus that compliments chapters 14-16. He goes forth from the Temple in Heaven on a white horse accompanied by the armies of Heaven and He treads the winepress of God’s wrath (bowl judgments, final battle).

There is a great deal of curiosity about “the battle of Armageddon”, so we made an entire video about it.

Revelation moves through this time period swiftly and focuses on the cataclysmic plagues that accompany the Day of the Lord. Many other parts of the Bible provide details about what happens in the days immediately following the bowl judgments and the return of Messiah:

• The marriage supper of the Lamb
• Jesus judges the nations (think tribunal as opposed to the plagues of judgement)
• The resurrected saints join Jesus in ruling the earth (Rev. 20:4)
• There is a years-long process of cleanup and reconstruction (Ez. 39)
• All nations submit to Messiah’s authority and celebrate Sukkot in Jerusalem annually (Zech. 14:16)
• The Earth is restored to an Eden-like state

In Revelation 20, Satan is bound and Jesus begins His millennial reign. After 1,000 years, Satan is allowed one final rebellion, and then cast into the lake of fire forever. At this point, Jesus holds the Great White Throne Judgement, where all the living and the dead are judged — except those whose names are written in the Book of Life (Rev. 20:15).

The Book of Life

How do you get your name written in the Book of Life and escape the Great White Throne Judgement? This is perhaps the least mysterious part of Revelation: “Blessed and holy is anyone who has a part in the first resurrection; over him the second death has no power” (Rev. 20:6a). If you believe in Jesus now, before His return, you will be part of the first resurrection and you never have to fear judgement again. The Book of Life will also contain the names of those who survive the Great Tribulation and then turn to the Lord, and those who are born during the Millennium and serve Messiah faithfully, but they still must pass through that final judgment. We who live in the present age have the greatest and simplest opportunity for eternal security, because now is the time we can receive Him by faith. In the Day of the Lord, every eye will see Him and faith, at least in the manner and to the degree that we now depend on it, will no longer be possible. Don’t let that opportunity pass you by!

All Scripture taken from Complete Jewish Bible (CJB). Photo credit: Mission Media, Lightstock.com.

In our video The Prophetic Fulfillment of the Biblical Feasts, we describe the seven appointed times that God gave His people: four in the spring that correspond perfectly with the first coming of Jesus, and three in the fall that foreshadow His second coming.

The biblical year is a pattern for the whole of human history. You have the period leading up to the springtime arrival of Jesus, then a summer of “working in the fields” to spread the Gospel, which is the time we’re in now, followed by His return in the fall to conclude the harvest and begin the Feast of Tabernacles — God dwelling with us.

Today, we’re going to look at an even earlier and more fundamental pattern of human history, which God established at the very beginning.

Creation Week

In God’s plan, all of history centers around the Messiah. From the book of Ephesians, we read:

“In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, in keeping with His good pleasure that He planned in Messiah. The plan of the fullness of times is to bring all things together in the Messiah—both things in heaven and things on earth, all in Him.” Ephesians 1:8-10 (TLV)

The timeline of history is made up of increments of time — days, weeks, months, years, millennia — and God has built some really interesting patterns in time that all point to the Messiah. Take creation week for example: we know that God created all things in six days and then rested on the 7th day.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Genesis 2:1-3 (NASB)

Paul tells us in Colossians 2:16-17 that the sabbath day is a mere shadow of what is to come, and “the substance belongs to Christ.”

So what is the “substance” that the weekly sabbath is a shadow of?

Maybe you’ve heard of the millennial reign of Messiah that is to come. It will be a 1,000-year period following His second coming, during which He will rule on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.

It’s easy to see how Messiah’s millennial reign will be a sabbath age that fulfills the foreshadowing of the weekly day of rest. And if that 1,000-year period is equivalent to the seventh day of a week, what does that imply about the “days” preceding it?

When a Day is More Than a Day

There are other hints in Scripture that make the same implication. For example, we read in Hosea:

“After two days He will revive us. On the third day He will raise us up,
and we will live in His presence. So let us know, let us strive to know Adonai.”
Hosea 6:2-3 (TLV)

This prophecy indicates that God’s people will be raised up following the same pattern as the resurrection of Jesus himself, “On the third day.” But this obviously does not refer to literal 24-hour days. One interpretation is that the third day is the sabbath age, the millennial reign of Messiah, which we know will be the time when “we will live in His presence.” And if the third day is 1,000 years, it makes sense to see the two preceding days as two millennia.

By this time, you may be thinking of 2 Peter 3:8:

“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” 2 Peter 3:8 (NASB)

This verse is the biggest hint the Bible gives when it comes to understanding human history as a week of millennia. Based on this premise, and what we know of history so far, here is how the seven “days” add up:

• Messiah’s first coming was about 4,000 years after creation.
• It has been nearly 2,000 years since Messiah’s death and resurrection.
• Messiah’s millennial reign will be 1,000 years.

According to this timeline, we are very close to Messiah’s second coming — although on a scale of millennia, “very close” may still be many decades.

By the Numbers

In addition to the passages mentioned above, there are a couple more biblical patterns that correlate with this idea.

The number seven is prominent throughout Scripture as the number of perfection, completeness, and sufficiency. Seven days was just the right amount of time for God’s work of creation, including a day to enjoy its completion. Perhaps seven millennia is just the right amount of time for God’s work of redemption, including a millennia to enjoy its completion.

While seven is the number of perfection, six is just short of it—the number of imperfection. Man was created on the sixth day, and it is plausible that man may be given 6,000 years to rule imperfectly over God’s creation before Jesus returns to establish His perfect rule in the seventh millennium.

Conclusion

The idea we have presented in this article is not a matter of primary or even secondary doctrine. It cannot be proven from Scripture beyond a shadow of a doubt. It is only an interesting pattern, which time will confirm or disprove. But we thought this mental exercise was worth pondering together.

Whether or not this theory turns out to be accurate, the important thing is to keep our attention focused on our Lord and our hearts longing for His return. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and God’s story starts and ends with Him.

“The plan of the fullness of times is to bring all things together in the Messiah—both things in heaven and things on earth, all in Him.” Ephesians 1:10 (TLV)

We are living in the End Times, but how close to the end of the end are we? If history is truly a week of millennia, then we don’t have to wait long to find out.

Maybe you’ve heard of Passover or Yom Kippur, but did you know that there are seven total feasts prescribed in the Bible? These holy days contain precise prophetic details about the first and second coming of Jesus Christ.

Spend some time digging deeper into the Jewish roots of our Christian faith with this quick overview of the Biblical feasts and their past and future fulfillment.

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The Mystery of the Shemitah¹ is an important read in today’s age. The author, Jonathan Cahn, is a Messianic Rabbi in New Jersey who also wrote the book The Harbinger. We have spent many hours listening to his sermons and researching the “mysteries” he reveals in The Harbinger, and we feel Pastor Cahn is a very down-to-earth, biblically grounded, cautious preacher who really does have a message from the Lord for America. (It was important to us to make sure he is not one for speculation or date setting.) His message for Believers is simple: stay right with God and stay pure in all your ways, in order to be a bright light in this world that is getting darker and darker. And for America, his message is to turn back to God, or else God will bring judgment on the nation as a loving act to bring us back.

We share this book with you because we believe the Shemitah pattern is biblical and applicable to us today. We believe God is a loving God who sends judgment when it is needed in order to turn people back to Him. Out of His love, He also warns before bringing judgment. If God chooses to bring a national shaking to our country in the years to come, we feel a need to send the warning to be ready.

While reading the book, Pastor Cahn would want you to keep in mind two cautions. First, while the author believes God is calling this nation back to Him, and it would seem that the pattern of every seven years (the Sabbath year, aka Shemitah) could bring a national “shaking”, God does not have to follow the pattern. On the flip side, God certainly could continue the pattern you’ll read about and we should be prepared if this happens in an upcoming Shemitah.

It seems that we have crossed a tipping point in America, and when a tipping point comes, momentum increases. Now is the time to stand strong for the Lord. Now is the time to stay grounded in the Word. Now is the time to rid our lives of anything that keeps us from total dependence on God. And, if our nation increases in boldness against God, we must increase in boldness for the things of God!

We have learned so much about the ancient Hebrew and present-day Jewish cultures from Rabbi Cahn since he was raised Jewish and is also a Believer. We hope this book will open your eyes to new insights that you may not have known before, and that you will prepare for the days ahead however God leads you. 

¹The Mystery of the Shemitah written by Jonathan Cahn and published by Frontline in 2014, updated in 2017.

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