The plain teaching of the Bible on this subject is that at any moment the Lord Jesus may descend from heaven into the air with a shout, raise the dead and change the living who are His, and catch up all to be for ever with Him (1 Thess. 4:14-17). Since this event will take place in "the twinkling of an eye," literally, an "atom" of time (1 Cor. 15:52), the world will go on as if nothing had happened.
The consummation of the mystery of iniquity, the elements of which are already working, is prevented by the presence of the Holy Ghost. He will be caught up with the Church, and thus the way will be opened for the revelation of Antichrist, the master-genius of the ages (2 Thess. 2:7-12). "The Man of Sin" will be manifested with all lying wonders and miracles (Rev. 13:14). God will give men up to strong delusion, and they who have rejected God's truth will believe the devil's lie without question.
After the catching up of the Church, God will resume His dealings with Israel, and a selected sealed company will be entrusted with "the gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 24:14), to proclaim it to the millions who have not heard the gospel of the grace of God. Then will come the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), when the abomination of desolation will be set up in the holy place (Matt. 24:15; Dan. 12:11), when Antichrist will sit as God in the temple and will demand universal worship (2 Thess. 2:4; Dan. 11:30-39), the head of a world-wide religious-political-commercial syndicate (Rev. 13:18). The persecution to which the godly remnant of the Jews will be subjected will be so severe that God will intervene about seven years after the rapture of the Church (Dan. 9:27), and will shorten the tribulation for the elect's sake. Then the Lord will come as a thief in the night with myriads of His saints to the Mount of Olives, and Antichrist will be destroyed with the brightness of His coming, and the Devil will be chained. Then the Lord will set up His kingdom in display on earth by a judgment of the living nations, when He will separate the sheep from the goats according to the way they will have treated His Jewish messengers ((Matt. 25:31-46). That judgment has no reference whatever to Christendom or the gospel of the present dispensation. After the earth has been purified the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, and will establish His millennial kingdom, and will reign in equity for a thousand years.
At the end of the millennium, Satan will be loosed from prison and will go out once more to deceive the nations. Men will again unite and compass the camp of the saints, but they will be destroyed by celestial fire (Rev. 20:8,9). The devil will be cast into the lake of fire where the Beast (the political head) and Antichrist (the false prophet) will have been for a thousand years. Then will come the judgment of those who have died out of Christ. A Great White Throne will be set up. The earth and heaven will fly away from the face of the One who will sit thereon. Death and Hades will deliver up the dead, small and great, that they may be consigned to the lake of fire. Then will be ushered in the new heaven and new earth:the era of no night, no tears, no pain, no death, for the former things shall have passed away and everything will be lighted up with the glory of God (Rev. 21).
One of the primary functions of the Spirit of truth is to show us these "things to come." His operation will preserve the matter from becoming a mere intellectual exercise for the curious, and will keep us on the tip-toe of expectancy for our blessed Lord's return! T. Oliver (Galashiels)