Order of the End - 1 Cor 15

Like many Christians, I am fascinated by end time prophesies. Many people have attempted to collate and integrate the various prophesies scattered from Genesis to Revelation and produce the definitive end times chronology. In general, I have tended to avoid end time chronologies—both creating my own and seriously studying those created by others. Why? Because I have seen so many different ones and many are in contradiction of each other. I also do not see the events described in prophesy as crisp an tidy as others see them. Many prophecies contain symbols that need to be interpreted properly in order to understand them. Individual prophecies may be fulfilled in various degrees at multiple times in history. Then there is also Jesus statement in Matt 24, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." Why should I be so arrogant as to try to figure out what has been deliberately kept hidden by God?

I do believe that it is important that we understand what the end time events are, so we will be prepared when they come, so thus far the focus of my personal study has been identifying end time events, and not worrying too much about the order they occurred in.

Yesterday in my Bible reading I encountered an end times’ passage that I had never noticed before--1 Cor 15:22-26. One of the reasons that I noticed it yesterday, was that I was reading a version that I had not read before, and that version—which I will not name—made the chronological ordering of events very explicit. This got my interest up—maybe it really is possible to come up with an end chronology! So, I started comparing that version with other versions, and trying to determine if I really could come up with a clear cut chronology. I will share with you my analysis.

Here is the text in the NIV, which is fairly literal:

22 ... so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. NIV

In these five verses I have identified nine specific events

Event	I Cor 15	Rev 19,20
A	Christ the firstfruits [will be made alive] 15.23
B	[Christ] comes, 15.23
C	those who belong to Him [will be made alive] 15.23
D	the end 15.24
E	[Christ] hands over the kingdom to God the Father 15.24
F	[Christ] destroys all dominion, authority and power 15.24
G	[Christ] reigns 15.25
H	[Christ] puts all his enemies under his feet. 15.25
I	The last enemy, death, is destroyed. 15.26

Based on comparing various versions, and taking a peek at the Greek, I am fairly confident of this order:

A < B=C < D=E=F (Notice: I have left out G, H, and I)

In prose this means,

• First A, Jesus is made alive. Based on the immediate context (15.12ff) this refers to his resurrection.
• Then B and C occur about the same time--Christ’s coming, and those belonging to him being made alive. Presumably this is the same event that Paul describes in 1 Thes 4.16-17.
• Finally, D, E, and F occur at roughly the same time--that is the end, Christ handing over the kingdom, and Christ destroying dominion, authority, and power. In Greek the structure is D hotan E hotan F. The word hotan indicates relatively simultaneous events, but the time can be vague.

Now, let us look at what this text (1 Cor 15) doesn’t say.

• It doesn’t say how much time elapses between the events. Between A and B—Christ’s resurrection and his coming—history tells us there have been about two thousand years, so far. The text gives no indication of the amount of time between C and D, Christ’s coming and the end.
• It doesn’t say how long the events take. Christ’s resurrection took a very short amount of time—probably on the order of magnitude of seconds, but we can’t conclude from that, that the other events will take place in short periods of time. They may take hours, days, weeks, years, or centuries.
• The term “the end” (telos in Greek) is vague, both here and in the rest of the NT. The end of what? The word? The age? Judea? Human kingdoms?
  
• There is nothing in the text that states that D, E, and F start at the same time, end at the same time, or last the same amount of time. All we can be sure of is that there is significant overlap of D, E, and F.

Now, what about those other events: G, H, and I? The word “until” separates events G and H, telling us that Christ’s reign will end when “he puts all his enemies under his feet.” Thus when Christ’s reign ends, all of his enemies will be under his feet. There are some things the text is not clear about:

• It doesn’t say when Christ’s reign starts. One may guess that Christ’s reign begins at his coming (event B), but the text doesn’t really say that.
• It isn't clear whether Christ reigns for awhile, and then put his enemies under his feet, or whether putting his enemies under his feet is a long process that consumes his entire reign.
  
• It doesn’t say how long either of these events takes.

I thought it would be interesting if I would compare the chronology in 1Cor 15 to the chronology at the end of Revelation, to see if that would clarify the chronology some. There is also the risk that it will add more confusion. Here is the same table shown above, with an extra column for Rev 19 & 20.

Event	I Cor 15	Rev 19, 20
A	Christ the firstfruits [will be made alive] [15.23]	[no correspondence]
B	[Christ] comes, [15.23]	Possibly: I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True ... The armies of heaven were following him,... [19.11,14]
C	those who belong to Him [will be made alive] [15.23]	...I saw the souls ... They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [20.4]
D	the end [15.24]	[no obvious correspondence]
E	[Christ] hands over the kingdom to God the Father [15.24]	[no obvious correspondence]
F	[Christ] destroys all dominion, authority and power [15.24]	I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war...19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet ... The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, ... [19.11, 19-21] When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. ... But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. [20.7, 8, 10]
G	[Christ] reigns 15.25	15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” ... 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS [19.15,16] ... reigned with Christ a thousand years. [20.4]
H	[Christ] puts all his enemies under his feet. 15.25	(see F)
I	The last enemy, death, is destroyed. 15.26	Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. [20.14]

Here are my comments on each compared event:

• A, There is no equivalent to Christ's resurrection in Rev 19 or 20. In rest of Rev see 12.5.
  
• B, It is possible that Rev 19.11ff, the activity of the rider on the white horse, refers to Christ's second coming. It is also possible that the armies of heaven in 19.14 refer to the resurrected saints coming with Christ. However, the vocabulary is very different here than in other places that talk about Christ's coming. The Greek term parousia meaning "coming", which is present in 1Cor 15.23 and other NT references to Christ's second coming, is missing. There is no reference to "clouds of heaven" which is also terminology typically associated with Christ's second coming.
  
• C, There appears to be some parallel between "those belonging to Christ [becoming alive]" in 1Cor 15, and the ones in Rev 20.4 who "came to life and reigned with Christ for 1000 years", but there are some significant differences. The terminology in 1Cor, "those belonging to Christ," appears to refer to all Christians, but the terminology in Rev describes a more select group: "those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands."
  
• D, Since "the end" is vague, it is hard to pinpoint a clear cut cut correspondence to this event in Rev 19-20. However a number of "ends" are described without actually using the word end or telos. Rev 19.1-4 describe the end of the harlot. Verses 19.7-8 introduce the Bride, indicating that the time of her betrothal is coming to an end. Verse 19.20 marks the end of the beast and the false prophet and their followers. Verses 20.3,5,7 explicitly mention the ending [teleō] of the "thousand years" when Satan is imprisoned and Christ and the saints reign.Verse 20.10 marks the end of Satan.
  
• E, Rev 19-20 has no clear cut correspondence to Christ handing over the kingdom to his father.
• F, In 1Cor Christ destroys all dominion, authority, and power. There are two candidates for correspondence in Rev 19 and 20. The first is in Rev 19, where the rider on the white horse, who I believe is Christ, overcomes the beast, the false prophet, and the kings of the earth and their armies. The second is in Rev 20 where fire destroys God and Magog and the nations following them, and then the devil is thrown into the lake of fire. Christ is not specifically mentioned in the Rev 20 passage, but neither is he excluded.
• G, There is clear correspondence here.
• H, I have identified the same two passages of F ([19.11, 19-21 and 20.7,8,10) for corresponding to Christ putting his enemies under his feet, even though the phrase "under his feet" does not occur in these two chapters. The phrase implies subjugation. Chapter 20 suggest two events of subjugating Christ's enemies. Once before or during the thousand years, and a second time after the thousand years when the devil is released for a little while.
• I, No comment.

Now, after comparing the 1Cor passage with the Rev passage, am I able to improve on the chronology that is based only on 1Cor? Well a little. In fact what looks simple in 1Cor looks a lot more complicated in Rev. Then there is the basic challenge of the chronology in Revelation. Revelation consists of a vision with a series of scenes, and John relates the scenes in the order that he saw them. In Rev 19-20 there could be as many as nine occurrences of sentences beginning with the phrase, "And I saw," or "And I heard." (Rev. 19.1, 6, 11, 17, 19; 20.1, 4, 11, 12). Each of these sentences could be the beginning a new distinct scene. Each scene has its own time line. Revelation gives us very little indication of the relationship between the time lines in each of the scenes. For example, in 20.4 a scenestarts with the phrase, "And I saw thrones." In 20.11 another scene starts with "And I saw a great white throne." Do the events in the first scene start and end before the events in the second scene? At first look that seems logical, but the text does not actually say that. The events in the first scene may actually occur after the events of the second vision, or they may overlap or occur simultaneously.

So how is the chronology of 1Cor 15 made complicated by looking at Revelation? 1Cor 15.25 says that There are two scenes (19.11-16 and 19.19-21) about the rider of the white horse with a heavenly army who judges and fights and who will reign. Does the scene of the white horse correspond to the parousia or second coming of Christ? If so where do these scenes fit chronologically in relationship to the scene in 20.4-6 where ... come to life and reign with Christ for a 1000 years. Does the rider of the white horse come before the 1000 years or during the 1000 years? There are no lexical items or symbols that are common between the rider scenes and the 1000 year reign scene to help us establish a relative chronology. Who are the armies of heaven? Are they angels? Are they the saints that came to life and reigned with Christ? The scene of the rider of the white horse starts with "I saw heaven opened." Does the rider on the white horse ride in heaven or on earth? If he conducts judgment and war from heaven, then the war and judgment can occur before the second coming.

These are just some of my questions. This blog entry has grown far longer than I originally planned, and I am tired. I am going to retire from this little foray into establishing end time chronologies. I am just a little closer to understanding the end time chronology than when I started, but I am also more confused. I am excited about all the events that God has planned and looking forward to their fulfillment, but I am going to relax, and let God unfold his mysteries in his time. He won't get it wrong.