Watch the nations through the lens of Bible prophecy
This site follows the view that the end times will be shaped by three power blocs. Explore them on the map and follow the events that point toward the prophecies.
Kings of the East
Russia, China, Japan, North Korea, India and possibly other Asian nations.
Revelation 16:12
King of the South
A coalition of Middle Eastern and African nations led by Iran, with Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia.
Daniel 11:40
King of the North, the Beast power
The seventh Holy Roman Empire: ten nations or groups of nations in a European union led by Germany and influenced by the Vatican.
Daniel 11:40; Revelation 13 and 17
The Israelite nations
The state of Israel (Judah) and the birthright nations: Ephraim, which this teaching identifies as Britain and its Commonwealth, and Manasseh, the United States. These are the nations the Beast and the horsemen strike first.
Current stories that advance the prophecies this site follows. The facts come from the linked sources, so open them to check. The “Why it matters” notes are this site’s interpretation. Events you add are saved in this browser.
The Kings of the East unite
The eastern nations move from separate powers toward one alliance, with joint military drills, treaties and shared opposition to the West.
Revelation 16:12
The Mart of Nations
Europe builds a giant trading bloc with Asia and South America. In this view it eventually shuts the Israelite nations out of world trade: not only the state of Israel but the descendants of Joseph, with Britain from Ephraim and the United States from Manasseh.
Isaiah 23:3; Genesis 48:19–20; Revelation 13:17 and 18:11–19
Zechariah’s prophecy: the gathering against Jerusalem
God gathers all nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city is taken, the houses plundered and the women violated. Half the city goes into exile, but the rest of the people are not cut off from the city.
Zechariah 14:2
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History
In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a great statue made of four metals. This teaching reads the metals as four world-ruling empires, with the fourth, Rome, continuing down to the feet.
Head of gold: Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar’s own kingdom, the first world-ruling empire.
Daniel 2:32, 37–38
Chest and arms of silver: Medo-Persia
Two arms for the two peoples, the Medes and the Persians.
Daniel 2:32, 39; 8:20
Belly and thighs of bronze: Greece
The empire of Alexander the Great.
Daniel 2:32, 39; 8:21
Legs of iron: Rome
Strong enough to break and crush the others. Two legs for its eastern and western halves.
Daniel 2:33, 40
Feet and ten toes of iron mixed with clay: the final revival
The same Roman iron, now part strong and part brittle. In this teaching the ten toes are the ten kings of the end-time Beast power.
Daniel 2:33, 41–43; Revelation 17:12–13
A stone cut without hands: the Kingdom of God
It strikes the statue on its feet, breaks it to dust, and becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth.
Daniel 2:34–35, 44–45
The Beast
Artwork. Click to enlarge. Revelation 13:1–2 gives the beast seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on the horns. This picture puts a crown on each head, so compare it with the text.
John sees a beast rise out of the sea, and the sea pictures peoples and nations (Revelation 13:1; 17:15). In this teaching its seven heads are the seven revivals of the Roman Empire below, and its ten horns are the ten kings of the final revival (Revelation 17:9–12). It looks like a leopard, with feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion, which gathers up features of the earlier beasts in Daniel 7: Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece.
Six revivals of Rome, and a seventh to come
This teaching counts seven resurrections of the Roman Empire, each blessed by the Roman church. Historians use the name Holy Roman Empire only for the German-led state of 800 or 962 to 1806, so the count of six past revivals is a prophetic reading, not a standard historical list. Counts differ a little between groups.
AD 554
1. Justinian I
The emperor in Constantinople set out to win back the lost western half of the empire. His generals destroyed the Vandal kingdom in North Africa (533–534) and the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy (535–554), and in 554 he issued the Pragmatic Sanction to govern Italy as part of his empire. In this teaching the Vandals, Heruli and Ostrogoths are the three horns uprooted to make room for him. His western gains weakened soon after, when the Lombards invaded Italy in 568.
The Vatican’s part: Justinian recognized the bishop of Rome as head of all the churches. This teaching sees that as the start of the woman riding the Beast.
Daniel 7:7–8, 24; Revelation 17:3
AD 800
2. Charlemagne
King of the Franks, he conquered much of western Europe. On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor of the Romans in St. Peter’s in Rome. After his death the empire was divided among his grandsons, formally at the Treaty of Verdun in 843.
The Vatican’s part: The pope, not an army or a senate, made the emperor. That set the pattern for the Holy Roman Emperors who followed.
Revelation 17:9–10
AD 962
3. Otto the Great
King of the Germans, he defeated the Magyars at Lechfeld in 955, and Pope John XII crowned him emperor in Rome in 962. This began the German-led Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806.
The Vatican’s part: Popes and emperors fought bitterly over which held the higher power, yet the imperial crown still came from Rome.
Revelation 17:9–10
AD 1520
4. Charles V of the Hapsburgs
He inherited Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and lands in Italy and the Americas, and was elected emperor in 1519. He was crowned at Aachen in 1520, opposed Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, and ruled until 1556.
The Vatican’s part: Pope Clement VII crowned him at Bologna in 1530, the last time a pope crowned an emperor. He used his power to defend the Catholic Church.
Revelation 17:9–10
AD 1804–1805
5. Napoleon Bonaparte
He was crowned Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame on December 2, 1804, and King of Italy in 1805. In 1806 Francis II ended the old Holy Roman Empire under Napoleon’s pressure. Napoleon fell in 1814–1815.
The Vatican’s part: He made a Concordat with the Church in 1801, and Pope Pius VII came to Paris for the coronation, although Napoleon crowned himself.
Revelation 17:9–10
AD 1870–1945
6. Italy’s revival, Mussolini and Hitler
Italy was united under one kingdom and took Rome in 1870. Mussolini came to power in 1922 promising to revive the Roman Empire and proclaimed an Italian empire in 1936. Hitler’s Third Reich joined him through the Rome–Berlin Axis. Both regimes fell in 1945.
The Vatican’s part: Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the pope in 1929, which created Vatican City, and Hitler signed a concordat with the Vatican in 1933. This teaching sees both as papal backing.
Check before relying on it: Garibaldi, who helped unify Italy, opposed the papacy, so starting this revival at 1870 is a point critics will challenge.
Revelation 17:9–10
Yet to come
7. The final revival
Ten kings, or ten groups of nations, give their power to the Beast for one hour. On this site that is a European union led by Germany and influenced by the Vatican, the iron and clay feet of Daniel’s statue. Christ’s return ends it, and the stone becomes the Kingdom that fills the earth.
The Vatican’s part: The Church that rode the first six revivals rides the seventh.
In Revelation 6 the first four of seven seals are opened, and four horsemen ride out. This teaching holds that the Bible explains its own symbols, and that the key is Christ’s Olivet prophecy (Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21). It points out that John, who left that prophecy out of his gospel, records it in Revelation 6.
Horse
What the rider holds
Meaning
Christ’s words
White
A bow and a crown (Rev 6:1–2)
Religious deception
“Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matt 24:4–5)
Red
A great sword (Rev 6:3–4)
War
Wars, and nation against nation (Matt 24:6–7)
Black
A pair of balances (Rev 6:5–6)
Famine
“There shall be famines” (Matt 24:7)
Pale
Death, followed by the grave (Rev 6:7–8)
Pestilence
“Pestilences” (Matt 24:7)
How to read them
This teaching stresses that Matthew 24 works on three levels. It was first fulfilled around AD 70, when Jerusalem fell and Josephus recorded war, famine and plague. It then describes conditions that continue through history. And it has a final fulfillment still ahead, when the weapons exist to threaten all human life. The four horsemen are said to ride in quick succession, each leading into the next.
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1. The white horse: religious deception
Revelation 6:1–2; Matthew 24:4–5, 9–12; Luke 21:8
The rider carries a bow and wears a crown, and he goes out conquering. Many assume he is Christ. This teaching says no: when Christ rides a white horse in Revelation 19 He carries a sword, not a bow, and the very first thing He warned His disciples about on the Mount of Olives was deception.
Why it comes first. It is taught to cause the most suffering, because the other three horsemen grow out of it. People who are deceived about God make the choices that lead to war, hunger and disease.
A counterfeit Christ. The rider is read as Satan disguised as an angel of light, offering a Christianity that talks about the person of Christ while turning away from His message (2 Corinthians 11:14; Revelation 12:9).
It reaches God’s own people. Christ said “you” would be led astray, and that the love of many would grow cold. This teaching reads that as a warning to believers, not only to the world.
On this site: The deception is the foundation for the Beast power on the History page, where political power and a church work together.
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2. The red horse: war
Revelation 6:3–4; Matthew 24:6–7, 21–22; Revelation 9:15–18; 16:13–16
The rider is given a great sword and the power to take peace from the earth, so that people kill one another. Christ named the same thing: “wars and rumours of wars,” and nation rising against nation.
A long condition, then a final war. Wars have run through all of history. But “nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom” is read as a war between large blocs of allied nations, and “no flesh saved alive” (Matthew 24:22) as a danger that only became possible with nuclear weapons.
The size of it. Revelation 9 speaks of an army of 200 million and of a third of mankind being killed. This teaching argues that no earlier war comes close to matching this.
The players. The resurrected Roman power, the King of the North, sweeps through many countries (Daniel 11:40–44). Its first targets are the Israelite nations: the United States, the British Commonwealth and the countries of northwestern Europe.
The end of it. Satan gathers the armies to Armageddon, where they fight Christ and lose. Zechariah 14 describes the same gathering of all nations against Jerusalem. After that, Isaiah 2 describes a world that no longer learns war.
On this site: This is the horse behind the three power blocs on the Map, and the gathering against Jerusalem on the Events page.
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3. The black horse: famine
Revelation 6:5–6; Matthew 24:7; Deuteronomy 28; Leviticus 26; Ezekiel 5:10–12
The rider holds a pair of balances, and a voice says that grain will be sold by tiny measures at a high price. Christ spoke of famines, set against a background of war.
War is a major cause but not the only one. Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 list other curses that bring hunger: drought, crop disease, insects, poor soil and ruined harvests.
History repeats it. Examples include the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 described by Josephus, the famines of the Middle Ages and the Thirty Years’ War, and modern famines in poorer countries.
The final famine is for the rich nations too. It is taught to strike the Israelite nations hardest in the end time, at the same time as pestilence. Ezekiel 5 says a third will die of plague and famine.
Nuclear winter. A nuclear war could block sunlight and wreck harvests. The “year without a summer” of 1816, after the eruption of Mount Tambora, is cited as a small foretaste.
A spiritual famine as well. Amos 8:11–12 speaks of a hunger to hear the word of the Lord.
On this site: This teaching says the final famine strikes the Israelite nations, the same nations that the Mart of Nations prophecy on the Events page says are shut out of world trade.
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4. The pale horse: pestilence
Revelation 6:7–8; Matthew 24:7; Leviticus 26:22; Deuteronomy 28:21–28
The rider is named Death, and the grave follows him. He is given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death and with the wild animals of the earth.
The color. The Greek word for “pale” means the sickly green of illness, not the healthy green of plants. Christ’s own word for this horseman is “pestilences.”
Four ways to die. War, famine, plague and wild beasts. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 warn of the same list as the penalty for disobedience, including diseases that cannot be healed.
Disease follows war and hunger. Examples include the Black Death (estimates of the dead run from a third to a half of Europe), smallpox in the Americas and the influenza of 1917–18. It argues that after nuclear war, weakened people, broken health systems and infected animals could set off epidemics.
The total. All four horsemen together kill a fourth of mankind (Revelation 6:8).
Protection. Psalm 91:3, 6 promises protection from pestilence to those who trust in God, and Revelation 3:10 and 12:14 speak of a place of safety.
On this site: The pale horse completes the sequence that Christ cuts short for the elect’s sake (Matthew 24:22), just before He returns on the white horse of Revelation 19. See the History page for the final revival of Rome that these horsemen ride beside.
The end of the ride
Christ said the days would be shortened for the elect’s sake, or no one would survive (Matthew 24:22). The seventh trumpet announces that the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of Christ (Revelation 11:15), and Isaiah 2:2–4 describes the world that follows, with swords turned into plowshares. The answer to the four horsemen is repentance, and trust in God for protection.
Written in our own words. The readings of the symbols, such as the rider on the white horse being Satan in disguise, are this teaching’s interpretations. Check them against the Bible. Some figures cited here come from the 1990s and 2000s.
The End-Time Sequence
Revelation lays out the end in sevens. The seventh seal opens into seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet into seven last plagues, called the vials. Here it is in order. To watch the woes move across the map, see the Woes page.
Great Tribulation 2½ years
Heavenly signs
Day of the Lord 1 year
All three fall within the 3½ years the Bible calls “a time, and times, and half a time” (Revelation 12:14). Segment sizes are illustrative.
1. The seals
Revelation 6 and 8:1
Seals 1–4
The four horsemen
Revelation 6:1–8; Matthew 24:4–7
Religious deception, war, famine and pestilence ride out one after another. Together they kill a fourth of mankind. See the Four Horsemen page for each rider.
Seal 5
The Great Tribulation
Revelation 6:9–11; Matthew 24:21; Revelation 12:12
This is the time of Satan’s wrath, because he knows his time is short. This teaching says it lasts 2½ years and that the key events of Daniel 11:40–45 happen in it:
The king of the south, led by radical Islam and Iran in this teaching, pushes at the king of the north.
The king of the north, the German-led European Union, answers like a whirlwind, enters the glorious land (Israel) and overthrows many countries. Edom, Moab and Ammon escape.
The Beast power then strikes the Israelite nations, mainly America and Britain, with Germany as the “rod” of God’s anger (Isaiah 10:5–6; Ezekiel 23; Hosea 5:5).
About three years pass between this strike and the Asian counterstrike that destroys Germany.
Seal 6
Heavenly signs
Revelation 6:12–17; Matthew 24:29
A great earthquake, the sun going dark, the moon like blood and stars falling. This teaching puts these signs after the Tribulation and before the Day of the Lord.
Seal 7
Silence in heaven
Revelation 8:1–2
When the last seal is opened there is silence for about half an hour. Seven angels are given trumpets. All seven trumpets sound after this seal, during the Day of the Lord.
2. The Day of the Lord: the trumpets and the three woes
This teaching describes the Day of the Lord as God’s wrath, lasting one year, with all seven trumpets sounding inside it.
Trumpets 1–4
The environment is struck
Revelation 8:7–12
Hail and fire burn a third of the trees and grass, a third of the sea turns to blood, a third of the rivers are poisoned, and a third of the sun, moon and stars are darkened. This teaching reads these as God destroying the environment to get mankind’s attention.
Trumpet 5
The Beast power strikes1st woe
Revelation 9:1–12; Daniel 11:40–44
A European Beast power gains world domination and torments mankind for five months. This teaching reads the locusts as modern military equipment, and says the king over them, Abaddon or Apollyon, is Satan. After it occupies Jerusalem and overruns the Israelite nations, “tidings out of the east and out of the north” trouble it (Daniel 11:44), so it turns north and east and strikes first at Russia and China.
Trumpet 6
The Asian counterstrike2nd woe
Revelation 9:13–21; Jeremiah 50:3, 9; Joel 2
Four angels are loosed to raise an army of 200 million, which kills a third of mankind. This teaching identifies this as Russia and China with the nations that join them, and reads Jeremiah 50’s “assembly of great nations from the north country” against Babylon as the same attack. It says the Beast power is destroyed (Revelation 18). Even so, the survivors do not repent (Revelation 9:20–21).
These are the Kings of the East, shown in red on the Map.
Trumpet 7
Christ’s kingdom is announced3rd woe
Revelation 10:7; 11:15–19
Loud voices announce that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of Christ. The nations are angry. This teaching calls this the third woe, and it opens into the seven last plagues.
3. The seven last plagues
Revelation 15 and 16, poured out as the seventh trumpet sounds
Vials 1–5
The first five last plagues
Revelation 16:2–11
Sores on those with the mark of the Beast (verse 2).
The sea turns to blood and all sea life dies (verse 3).
Rivers and springs turn to blood (verses 4–7).
The sun scorches people with great heat (verses 8–9).
Darkness and pain fall on the seat of the Beast’s government (verses 10–11).
Vial 6
The Euphrates dries up
Revelation 16:12–16; Joel 3:9–17
The river dries up so “the way of the kings of the east” may be prepared. Three unclean spirits go out to the kings of the whole world and gather them to the place called Armageddon.
Vial 7
Earthquake and hail
Revelation 16:17–21
A great earthquake and huge hail. Babylon is divided and remembered before God, and the cities of the nations fall.
4. Armageddon and the return of Christ
Armageddon
The nations gather against Christ
Revelation 16:16; 19:19; Zechariah 14:2–4, 12; Joel 3
This teaching says what is left of the Beast power and Asia gather at the valley of Megiddo, then converge on Jerusalem. This is the gathering of all nations against Jerusalem in Zechariah 14:2, which the Events page follows. They turn to fight their one common enemy, the King of kings.
Christ returns
The King of kings on a white horse
Revelation 19:11–21; 17:14; Zechariah 14:3–4; Matthew 24:30–31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16
This time the rider on the white horse is Christ, with a sword, and the armies of heaven follow Him. The nations lose. The Mount of Olives splits, and the faithful dead are raised.
Afterward
The World Tomorrow
Revelation 20:1–6; Isaiah 2:2–4; Micah 4:1–4
Satan is bound and Christ rules for a thousand years. Nations stop learning war and swords become plowshares.
Written in our own words. The readings of the symbols, such as locusts as modern weapons and the identity of the armies, are this teaching’s interpretations. Check them against the Bible.
The Woes on the Map
Step through the moves in order, from the king of the south’s push to Armageddon. Arrows show who strikes whom. Countries take the colors you painted on the Map, and the arrows are schematic.
Kings of the EastKing of the SouthKing of the NorthArmies gather
The moves and timing are this teaching’s reading of the prophecies. Which nations join each side beyond those named is not specified, so the arrows show direction, not exact routes. See the Sequence page for the full order of events.
The Tribes
This teaching holds that the modern Israelite nations are the descendants of the tribes of Israel. This page sets out what it says: how the tribes divided, who holds the birthright, and where each tribe is thought to have gone. Historians and archaeologists do not accept this identification, so treat it as a teaching, not as settled history.
Two houses
The house of Israel
The ten northern tribes: Ephraim, Manasseh, Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar and Zebulun. Assyria conquered them and carried them off in 721–718 BC. This teaching says the ten tribes lost their national identity and became the “lost” ten tribes.
2 Kings 17; Hosea 1:6
The house of Judah
Judah, Benjamin and Levi, the Jews. Babylon took them captive in 604–585 BC. Because their identity was never lost, the world assumes the Jews are all of Israel.
Ezra 1:5; Jeremiah 29:10
The birthright and the scepter
This teaching separates two promises. The scepter went to Judah, the line of kings that leads to Christ (Genesis 49:10). The birthright went to Joseph, and through him to his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (1 Chronicles 5:2; Genesis 48). Jacob’s blessing described what the birthright would become:
A nation and a company of nations
Manasseh becomes the single great nation and Ephraim the company of nations, a commonwealth.
Genesis 35:11; 48:19–20
The gates of their enemies
They would possess the gates of those who hate them, which this teaching links to the sea gates on the Map.
Genesis 22:17; 24:60
Wealth and spread
Material blessing, with descendants spreading to the west, east, north and south.
Genesis 27:28–29; 28:14
2,520 years
This teaching counts seven times, 2,520 years, from the captivity of 721 BC to AD 1800, when the birthright blessings began to pour out on Britain and America.
Leviticus 26:18, 24
Where the tribes went
This teaching says the Israelites left their captivity near the Caspian Sea and traveled northwest by way of the Black Sea region, then on to Western Europe, Scandinavia and the British Isles. The Assyrians took the same road but stopped in what is now Germany. Manasseh crossed the Atlantic later.
Britain and its Commonwealth: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
The “company of nations.” This teaching says Britain’s empire and commonwealth fit it, and that the blessings began about 1800.
Manasseh
The United States
The single great nation. It began as thirteen colonies, and this teaching calls Manasseh a thirteenth tribe since Joseph divided in two. Many of Manasseh’s people are said to have passed through other nations first.
Reuben
France
This teaching says the French share the character of Reuben, the firstborn who lost the birthright (1 Chronicles 5:1).
Dan
Ireland and Denmark
Dan left place names behind on the road (Genesis 49:17; Judges 18). Evidence offered includes Irish Danaan tribes, Don, Dun and Dan names, and Denmark as “Dan’s mark.”
Simeon, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Issachar, Zebulun
Northwestern Europe: Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and northern France
There is said to be ample evidence, but these six tribes are not identified one by one, and modern borders do not match tribal lines.
Judah, with Benjamin and Levi
The Jews and the state of Israel
These kept their identity, and Judah holds the scepter.
The throne of David
This teaching also traces the scepter. It says Jeremiah took a daughter of King Zedekiah to Ireland after Jerusalem fell, that the throne was planted there, then moved to Scotland and finally to England, and that it continues in the British monarchy. It points to the stone beneath the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey as Jacob’s pillar (Genesis 28:18), and says Christ will sit on a living throne when He returns (Luke 1:32).
Check before relying on it: historians treat the story of Jeremiah and the princess Tea-Tephi as legend. The stone, known as the Stone of Scone or the Stone of Destiny, is documented in Scotland from the Middle Ages.
The stone’s history
1296: Edward I of England took the stone from Scone Abbey in Scotland and brought it to Westminster Abbey.
1308 onward: English and then British monarchs were crowned over it in the Coronation Chair.
Christmas Day 1950: Scottish students removed it from the Abbey. It was found at Arbroath Abbey in April 1951 and returned.
June 2, 1953: Queen Elizabeth II was crowned over the stone. She had become queen on February 6, 1952.
1996: the stone went back to Scotland and was kept in Edinburgh Castle.
May 2023: it came to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of Charles III.
Now: it is on display in Perth Museum, which opened in March 2024, near Scone. Plans provide for it to return to Westminster for future coronations.
What is ahead
The same chapters that promise the blessings warn of the curses if the nations turn from God (Deuteronomy 28; Leviticus 26). This teaching reads the four horsemen, the Beast’s strike and “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7) as falling first on these nations. After that it says God brings Israel back and restores them (Jeremiah 23:7–8; 50:4–6, 19–20). See the Four Horsemen, the Woes and the Map.
Written in our own words. Identifying the modern nations with the tribes is this teaching’s own reading, and historians do not accept it.
The Ten Commandments and the Coming Kingdom
This teaching holds that the world’s suffering has a cause: people have rejected God’s law. It also holds that the same law is the foundation of the Kingdom Christ will set up when He returns. That is the good news Jesus preached (Mark 1:15). This page sets out both.
God’s law of love
Asked which commandment was greatest, Christ said to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself, and that the whole law hangs on these two (Matthew 22:36–40). The Ten Commandments divide the same way: the first four are love toward God, and the last six are love toward people. Paul said love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10).
Not abolished
Christ said He did not come to destroy the law, and that heaven and earth would pass before the smallest part of it did (Matthew 5:17–19). When asked how to enter life He said to keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17).
A law of liberty
James calls it the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). This teaching argues that ignoring it leads to slavery to addiction, crime and fear, and that God never forces anyone to keep it.
Love toward God: commandments 1–4
1
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”
Exodus 20:3
Nothing may take God’s place as the one to obey and worship, whether another god, a person, a possession, or one’s own will. This teaching ties this command to God’s government: He rules the universe and wants to rule people’s thoughts, actions and desires.
The spirit of it: Cut off from God, people lose the source of their life, protection and peace. This teaching says the tenth commandment points straight back to this one, because coveting is a form of idolatry (Colossians 3:5).
2
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”
Exodus 20:4–6; Deuteronomy 12:30–32
No images are to be made and used in worship. This teaching applies this to pictures and statues of Christ, arguing that no image can represent Him truly and that false pictures create false ideas of Him.
The spirit of it: It also forbids worshiping God in pagan ways. This teaching says Christmas and Easter come from pre-Christian customs, citing Moses’ warning not to adopt the practices of other nations in worship.
3
“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain”
Exodus 20:7
God’s name is to be used truthfully and with respect. This teaching treats this as wider than profanity: it covers false oaths and carelessness about God’s name.
The spirit of it: Those who bear the name of Christ are to live as He taught. Calling Him Lord while rejecting what He said misuses His name.
4
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”
Exodus 20:8–11
This teaching holds that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, kept from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and that Christ and the first disciples kept it. It sets aside holy time for prayer, Bible study and fellowship.
The spirit of it: It says most churches do not keep this commandment and that the same chapters support keeping God’s annual holy days (see the Holy Days page). This is one of the most distinctive teachings here, so check it against the Bible yourself.
Love toward neighbor: commandments 5–10
5
“Honour thy father and thy mother”
Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1–3
The first commandment with a promise: that it may go well with you and you may live long. This teaching argues that stable families make strong nations, and that this includes caring for elderly parents.
The spirit of it: Respect for parents is practice for respecting God as Father. Authority learned at home carries over to all rightful authority.
6
“Thou shalt not kill”
Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21–22
It is rendered “murder,” the unlawful taking of human life. It does not treat all killing as murder.
The spirit of it: Christ went to the root: hatred, contempt and bitter anger are the seed of murder. He taught love of enemies (Matthew 5:43–45). This teaching adds that entertainment that glamorizes killing trains people in murderous thinking.
7
“Thou shalt not commit adultery”
Exodus 20:14; Matthew 5:27–28
Marriage is God’s design for faithful union between a man and a woman. This teaching says keeping this command would remove a great deal of suffering from broken homes, disease and unwanted pregnancy.
The spirit of it: Christ taught that looking with lust is already a breach. This teaching also reads marriage as a picture of Christ and His Church.
8
“Thou shalt not steal”
Exodus 20:15; Luke 10:7; Malachi 3:8–10
Taking what is not yours includes fraud, defrauding a worker of wages, and giving less than an honest day’s work for pay. This teaching also counts abuse of credit and debt.
The spirit of it: The opposite of getting is giving. It says the way of God is to give, share and help, and it reads Malachi 3 as calling for tithes and offerings to God.
9
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”
Exodus 20:16; Revelation 21:8
Lying in court, in business and in daily speech is forbidden. This teaching says there are no good lies in God’s sight, including half-truths and distortions.
The spirit of it: God and Christ are truth, so believers are to live and speak the truth in everything. It warns that a religious lie is the most dangerous kind.
10
“Thou shalt not covet”
Exodus 20:17; Matthew 6:31–33; 1 Timothy 6:6
Wanting a house, a spouse or possessions is not wrong in itself. The sin is an excessive longing for what belongs to your neighbor, or for goods just because he has them.
The spirit of it: Christ said life does not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15). The remedy is to seek first God’s Kingdom and trust Him to provide, and to find contentment.
The letter and the spirit
This teaching says Christ did not weaken the commandments. He deepened them. He applied each to the mind and the heart, not only to outward acts, and this teaching adds that obeying them takes God’s help: repentance and God’s Holy Spirit (Mark 1:15; Acts 3:19). It ends by calling the commandments the means God uses to build righteous character, and obedience the door to the Kingdom.
The good news: Christ returns and the Kingdom follows
The gospel Christ and the apostles preached was the good news of the coming Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15; Acts 28:31). What happens next. The Gospel page tells the full plan:
1
Christ returns
Revelation 19:11–16; Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 24:30–31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16
At the seventh trumpet, Christ comes back as King of kings. The faithful dead are raised. The nations that gather against Him at Armageddon lose. See the Sequence for what leads up to it.
2
The Kingdom is established
Revelation 11:15; Daniel 2:44
The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ. The stone of Daniel 2 becomes a mountain that fills the earth, as pictured on the History page.
3
Satan is bound
Revelation 20:1–3
The one who deceives the whole world is shut away for a thousand years. This teaching says the first horseman, religious deception, ends with him.
4
The saints reign with Christ
Revelation 20:4–6; 5:10
Those raised at His return rule with Him for the thousand years. This teaching says the way to prepare is to live under God’s government now.
5
The law goes out from Jerusalem
Isaiah 2:2–4; Micah 4:1–4
Nations stream to the mountain of the Lord to learn His ways. In this teaching the Ten Commandments become the foundation of all law in the Kingdom.
6
Peace
Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3–4
Swords become plowshares and nations stop learning war. The fear of invasion, hunger and sickness in the four horsemen are gone.
7
Everyone gets a chance
Revelation 20:5, 11–12
This teaching holds that the great majority who have ever lived, who never understood the truth, will be raised and taught God’s way, so that they too can choose it.
8
Eternal life in the family of God
John 10:10; Matthew 19:17; Revelation 21
This teaching says obeying the commandments opens the door to eternal life of giving and serving in the Kingdom of God, and that God’s purpose is to share everything He has with mankind, not just the earth.
Written in our own words. The teachings on the Sabbath, holy days and tithing are this teaching’s own positions, and many churches read these commandments differently.
The Gospel: the Good News of the Kingdom
“Gospel” means good news. This teaching holds that the good news Jesus brought was the coming Kingdom of God, a real government on earth with Christ as King, and that it includes something larger: an astonishing human potential. This page follows its argument from creation to the new earth.
What the gospel is
Jesus began by announcing that the time was fulfilled and the Kingdom of God was at hand, and called people to repent and believe the good news (Mark 1:14–15). The prophets said He would be a King whose government would never end (Isaiah 9:6–7; Luke 1:32–33). He told Pilate His kingdom was not of this world, meaning not of this present age (John 18:36).
This teaching adds that the gospel answers questions that science and most religion leave open: what man is, why he was made, where he is going, what causes the world’s evils, and how peace will come. It calls this “the missing dimension in knowledge.”
The plan in order
The story builds across eleven steps. Where it goes beyond what most churches teach, the step says so.
Before
God and the Word
John 1:1–3; Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16
From eternity God and the Word, who became Jesus Christ, existed together. This teaching holds that God and the Word are members of one divine family, the God Family, and that God created the universe and the angels.
This teaching holds that angels first lived on the earth under God’s government, with Lucifer on the throne. He rejected that government, a third of the angels followed him, and the earth became empty, dark and in ruins. He became Satan and stays on the earth’s throne until a successor qualifies.
Some Bible readers hold that the earth was ruined before Adam, and many reject it.
Man
Made to become God’s children
Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8:3–6; Hebrews 2:5–8
God renewed the earth and made man from the dust in His own image, with the purpose of reproducing Himself. This teaching says human life is only the starting point: God is bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10), and the world to come will be put under them, not under angels.
The choice
Two trees
Genesis 2:16–17; 3; 2 Corinthians 4:4
Adam and Eve were offered a choice between God’s way, pictured by the tree of life, and deciding good and evil for themselves, pictured by the other tree. They believed Satan’s lie, took the fruit, and cut mankind off from God. Satan became “the god of this world,” and this teaching says he sways minds to produce what we call human nature. That is the root of the world’s evils.
Christ
The Messenger and the Savior
Mark 1:14–15; Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:10
Jesus came with a message from God, the good news of the coming Kingdom, and gave His life for sin. He was raised and is the first of many brethren to be born into God’s Family. This teaching argues that the message about the Kingdom was suppressed early and replaced with a message about the person of Christ.
Now
The called prepare
Acts 2:38; Romans 8:9, 14; 1 Peter 2:9
This teaching holds that God is not trying to save the whole world in this age. He calls some, the firstfruits, to prepare to rule with Christ. They repent of a life apart from God, have faith in Christ, are baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. That is the start of a lifelong process of growing in character, helped by God and shown by obedience (the Ten Commandments).
At the last trumpet the faithful dead are raised, and the living are changed from mortal to immortal “in a moment.” This teaching reads “born again” as this change, not as an experience now. Christ takes the throne, and Satan is bound. See the Sequence for the events before it.
1,000 yrs
The Kingdom of God
Revelation 20:1–6; Isaiah 2:2–4; 11:6–9
Christ and the resurrected saints rule the earth for a thousand years. People who survive learn God’s law, nations stop learning war, and peace and prosperity spread. This is the world to come.
Judgment
Everyone gets a chance
Revelation 20:5, 11–12; Ezekiel 37
After the thousand years the rest of the dead rise in a second resurrection and are judged with the book of life open. This teaching reads Ezekiel 37’s dry bones as the whole house of Israel living again, and says most of the people who ever lived have never yet had a real chance at salvation, so many, perhaps most, will find it then.
The end
Satan’s last deception and the second death
Revelation 20:7–15
Satan is loosed for a short time and gathers nations against the saints, and fire from heaven ends it. Satan is cast into the lake of fire. Those who finally refuse God face the second death.
Forever
New heavens, new earth
Romans 8:19–23; Revelation 21:1–4
This teaching reads Romans 8 as saying the physical creation, now in decay, waits for the sons of God to be revealed, and will then be set free. God’s purpose is to share everything He has with His children, not just the earth.
The potential
The central claim is Romans 8:16–17, that believers are children of God, and “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Christ is the first of the family to be born by a resurrection, and the rest follow at His return. In this reading, salvation is not only forgiveness or going to heaven. It is becoming a member of God’s family and ruling with Christ, and the universe waits for it.
The World Tomorrow
This teaching calls the thousand years the world tomorrow. Here is what it says it will be like, with the passages it relies on.
Satan removed, minds re-educated
With Satan bound, people can no longer be swayed by him. Habits of vanity and greed do not vanish at once, so Christ and the saints undeceive minds and call people to repent. Each person is still free to choose.
Revelation 20:1–3; Isaiah 11:9
The law goes out from Zion
God’s law and word go out from Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh. The Ten Commandments are the foundation.
Isaiah 2:2–4; Zechariah 14:8; Joel 2:28
Peace, even in nature
Swords become plowshares, and the wolf dwells with the lamb. There is no fear of man or beast.
Isaiah 11:6–9; Micah 4:3–4
Health restored
The blind see, the lame leap, and the people are forgiven and healed. This teaching says obeying God’s laws of health brings sickness to an end within a few generations.
Isaiah 33:24; 35:3–6; Jeremiah 30:17
The land renewed
Deserts bloom, ruined cities are rebuilt and the waste places are tilled. This teaching pictures a reshaped earth with room for everyone.
Isaiah 35:1, 6–7; Ezekiel 36:9–11; Amos 9:13–14
The nations return to their lands
Peoples go back to their own countries, and Israel blossoms and fills the face of the world with fruit. The whole house of Israel lives again.
Isaiah 27:6; Ezekiel 37
Egypt, Assyria and Israel
A highway joins Egypt and Assyria, and the three nations are a blessing together. This teaching reads Assyria as modern Germany and Egypt as the modern nation, the same names shown on the Map.
Isaiah 19:23–25
All nations keep the festivals
Survivors of all nations go up each year to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, or they lose their rain. See the Holy Days.
Zechariah 14:16–19
Christ and the saints rule
Christ is King, and the immortal saints rule under Him over nations of mortals. Many positions of authority are filled by those who learned God’s government now.
The goal. The teaching that believers become born children in the God Family, “spirit beings, no longer human,” goes further than most churches, which teach going to heaven or the immortal soul.
The dead. This teaching says there is no immortal soul. The dead are unconscious until the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10).
Who is called now. It teaches that God calls only a few in this age and that most people get their first real chance in the second resurrection.
The world before Adam. The account of angels on the earth before man is a minority reading.
The law. It says obedience to the commandments is part of the gospel, which is why the Commandments page sits next to this one.
Written in our own words. This is one reading of the Scripture passages, so read them for yourself.
The Plan of God
This teaching presents history and prophecy as one plan with one purpose: God is bringing many children into His family. This page puts the Gospel, the Commandments and the Sequence together as a single story, from eternity to the new earth. Each stage links to the page with the detail.
Before man
Man’s rule
Tribulation and Day of the Lord
1,000 years
Judgment
New earth
Segment sizes are illustrative.
Three pages, one plan
The Gospel
The goal. Man is made to become a child of God, and the Kingdom is how it happens.
God and the Word, who became Jesus Christ, exist together and create the universe and the angels. This teaching holds that they are one family, the God Family.
God’s purpose is to reproduce Himself through mankind. Adam and Eve choose to decide good and evil for themselves, Satan becomes god of this world, and a long period of human rule under his influence begins.
God gives His law of love to Israel with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The tribes divide into the houses of Israel and Judah. The birthright goes to Joseph’s sons and the scepter to Judah.
A few are called, repent, believe, are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile this teaching says the Roman Empire is revived six times with the backing of the Roman church.
In this reading, Britain and the United States rise as Ephraim and Manasseh. The same chapters warn of curses if they turn away, and the world drifts toward trade blocs and alliances.
The king of the south pushes at the king of the north, who sweeps in, takes Jerusalem and overthrows many nations. The Beast power then strikes the Israelite nations.
Signs appear in the sky, then trumpets sound. In the first woe the Beast strikes Russia and China. In the second woe an army of 200 million strikes back and destroys the Beast power.
Seven last plagues, Armageddon and Christ’s return
Revelation 16; 19; Zechariah 14
The Euphrates dries up, the armies gather at Megiddo and turn on Jerusalem, and Christ returns as King of kings. The faithful dead rise and the living are changed.
The rest of the dead rise, are taught the truth, and face judgment with the book of life open. This teaching says many, perhaps most, will find salvation.
This teaching holds that the called now have a task: repent of a life lived apart from God, have faith in Christ, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. They then grow in character by obeying God’s law out of love, and they watch the events described on the other pages. The seven annual festivals picture the same plan, as the Holy Days page explains. They say this is the only preparation that matters when the horsemen ride.
Written in our own words from the other pages of this site. The readings of the symbols and the order of events are this teaching’s interpretations.
God’s Holy Days
Leviticus 23 lists seven annual festivals that God gave Israel. This teaching holds that the festivals were ordained forever, that they picture seven steps in the plan of God, and that their meaning stayed hidden until now. This page sets the festivals beside the plan.
Passover
Unleavened Bread
Pentecost
Trumpets
Atonement
Tabernacles
Last Great Day
Spring festivals on the left, fall festivals on the right. Exodus 23:16 calls the first the feast of harvest, and the other the feast of ingathering.
Spring: the called are prepared
The first three festivals picture what God does with the Church in this age.
Passover
The 14th day of the first month
Leviticus 23:5; 1 Corinthians 5:7
What it pictures
The death of Christ, the Lamb of God, paying the penalty for human sin that is repented of. This teaching says Christians keep it with unleavened bread and wine, as Christ did with His disciples.
The 15th to the 21st of the first month, seven days. The first and last days are holy days.
Leviticus 23:6–8; 1 Corinthians 5:7–8
What it pictures
The Church coming out of sin, as Israel came out of Egypt. Leaven stands for sin, so the days are kept without it.
In the plan: The called repent and put sin out. Commandments
Pentecost
Counted 50 days from the wave sheaf offering during Unleavened Bread; also called the Feast of Weeks or Firstfruits
Leviticus 23:15–21; Acts 2
What it pictures
The Church as the firstfruits, the first harvest of humans to be begotten and born as children of God. The Holy Spirit was given on Pentecost in AD 31.
In the plan: The called are prepared now, before the world is called. Plan · Gospel
Fall: the return and the Kingdom
The last four picture Christ’s return, the thousand years, and the judgment that follows.
The 15th to the 21st of the seventh month, seven days
Leviticus 23:34–43; Zechariah 14:16–19
What it pictures
The thousand-year reign of Christ and the born children of God. In the Kingdom, survivors of all nations will go up to keep it, or they will lack rain.
In the plan: The Kingdom of God, a thousand years of peace. Plan · Commandments
The Last Great Day
The 22nd of the seventh month, the eighth day
Leviticus 23:36; John 7:37; Revelation 20:11–12
What it pictures
The final judgment: the second resurrection, when the rest of the dead are raised and taught, and the book of life is opened.
God called them His own. Leviticus 23 names them the feasts of the Lord and says to keep them as a statute for ever.
Christ and the apostles kept them. See Luke 2:41, John 7:2–14, Acts 18:21, Acts 20:6, 16 and 1 Corinthians 5:8; 16:8.
They continue in the Kingdom. Zechariah 14:16–19 shows the nations keeping the Feast of Tabernacles after Christ returns.
This teaching contrasts them with Christmas and Easter. They say those holidays come from pre-Christian customs. This is the claim made here, and the Commandments page sets out the argument.
The Calendar page works out this year’s dates. Many Christians read passages such as Colossians 2:16–17 and Romans 14 as freeing believers from these days, and Jews keep the festivals under different names and practices. Read Leviticus 23 and those passages for yourself. The dates move each year with the Hebrew calendar, so check a calendar for this year’s dates.
The meanings of the festivals are this teaching’s own. The dates come from Leviticus 23.
The Holy Day Calendar
This page works out the dates of God’s seven annual festivals, and of the Jewish holidays, for any year. It uses the fixed Hebrew calendar and starts on the current year, so it updates itself every year.
Each Hebrew day begins at sunset, so every festival begins at sunset on the evening before the date shown. Passover is observed in the evening at the start of the 14th.
Month view
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Spring festivalsPentecostTrumpetsAtonement, Last Great DayTabernaclesJewish holidaySabbath (Saturday)
This month
Fasts that would fall on a Sabbath move as Jewish custom requires. Modern Israeli observances such as Yom HaShoah and Yom HaAtzmaut are left out because their dates are adjusted by separate rules.
The months of the Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar has 12 lunar months in a common year and 13 in a leap year. A lunar month lasts about 29½ days, so the months run 29 or 30 days. They mostly alternate, and Cheshvan and Kislev can be either length so that the year’s length fits the calendar’s rules.
The calendar has two new years. The religious or biblical year begins in the spring with Nisan (Exodus 12:2), and God’s Passover falls in its first month. The civil year begins in the autumn with Tishrei. The year number goes up on 1 Tishrei, which is why spring and fall festivals in the same Gregorian year have different Hebrew year numbers.
The months in religious order, beginning with Nisan
#
Month
Days
Falls in
Notable days
1
Nisan
30
March–April
God’s Passover (14) and Unleavened Bread (15–21). Jewish Pesach. The first month of the religious year (Exodus 12:2).
2
Iyar
29
April–May
Lag BaOmer (18).
3
Sivan
30
May–June
Pentecost (5–11 by the Sunday count) and Jewish Shavuot (6).
4
Tammuz
29
June–July
Fast of 17 Tammuz.
5
Av
30
July–August
Tisha B’Av (9) and Tu B’Av (15).
6
Elul
29
August–September
The month before the fall festivals. Jewish tradition treats it as a time of preparation and repentance.
7
Tishrei
30
September–October
Trumpets (1), Atonement (10), Tabernacles (15–21) and the Last Great Day (22). Jewish Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. The first month of the civil year.
8
Cheshvan (Marcheshvan)
29 or 30
October–November
No major festivals.
9
Kislev
29 or 30
November–December
Hanukkah begins on 25 Kislev.
10
Tevet
29
December–January
Fast of 10 Tevet.
11
Shevat
30
January–February
Tu BiShvat (15).
12
Adar
29
February–March
Purim (14). In a leap year this month is called Adar II.
+
Adar I (leap years only)
30
January–March
The extra month, placed before Adar. Adar then becomes Adar II, with 29 days.
Leap years and the thirteenth month
The calendar follows a 19-year cycle, called the Metonic cycle, and adds a leap month seven times in each cycle, in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19. In a leap year an extra 30-day month, Adar I, is inserted before the regular Adar, which then becomes Adar II. This keeps the lunar months in step with the seasons, so that Passover always falls in the spring and Tabernacles in the fall. A common year has 353, 354 or 355 days, and a leap year has 383, 384 or 385.
How the dates are worked out
The Hebrew calendar follows the moon and the sun. A year has 12 or 13 months, with a leap month seven times in every 19 years, and the year begins in the fall with Tishrei.
The dates come from fixed arithmetic rules, not from watching for the new moon. Some groups that keep the festivals use other methods, so check with yours.
God’s holy days use the Bible’s dates from Leviticus 23: Passover on 14 Nisan, Unleavened Bread on 15–21 Nisan, Trumpets on 1 Tishrei, Atonement on 10 Tishrei, Tabernacles on 15–21 Tishrei and the Last Great Day on 22 Tishrei.
Pentecost has two counts. The Sunday count takes 50 days from the Sunday during Unleavened Bread, so it always falls on a Sunday. The Jewish festival of Shavuot is on 6 Sivan.
Calculated in your browser from the fixed Hebrew calendar, so the dates always match the current year. The meaning of each festival is on the Holy Days page.
Gold outlines mark the European Union, the four Mercosur countries and India. Gold lines are the trade agreements linking them. Click a line for details.
Solid gold diamonds mark sea gates that Britain and the US are said to have lost. Hollow diamonds mark the sea route described for the Eastern armies. Click one for details. Some of these facts are from about 2001.
