“And what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of this age?” (Matthew 24:3)

The Lord’s return will not be at the end of the world, but at “the end of this age.” After the end of “this age,” there will be a “new age” in which the glorified Lord Jesus will reign over the world in the Messianic Kingdom.

In God’s plan, there are different or successive ages, and we can discern a pattern of events that brings each age to a close and ushers in the next.

In the Bible, we can identify seven such biblical periods. All of them end with varying degrees of failure, with a world that does not obey God. At the end of these periods, God intervenes to save the believers from the preceding age and usher in a “new age.”

1. Innocence—Creation through the Fall (Genesis 1–3). God walked and spoke with Adam and Eve in the garden. This period ends with their disobedience and the Fall. Sin and death entered the human race, leading to separation from God and the corruption of God’s perfect creation. The earth is cursed, and thorns and thistles appear. Childbirth becomes painful. Human beings are driven out of the Garden of Eden and can never again eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A Savior is promised who will be the seed of the woman and will “crush the head of the serpent” (Satan).
2. Conscience—from the Fall to the Flood (Genesis 4–6). Men call upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). They possess the conscience to distinguish between good and evil. The human race is divided between the faithful descendants of Seth and the cursed descendants of Cain, who turn their backs on God. Great wickedness prevails on the earth (Genesis 6:1–12), and the age ends with the judgment of the Flood. God saves those who call upon His name—Noah and his family. They enter the ark and move into the new age to repopulate the earth.
3. Human Governance—From the Flood to Babel (Genesis 9–11). The Covenant with Noah—God promises never again to bring a flood to destroy the earth. He says that meat may be eaten and calls for justice to be done (Genesis 9:1–17). Among the changes that occur on earth are cold and heat, summer and winter. This age ends with the Tower of Babel and a government that defies God under Nimrod (Genesis 11:1–9). A corrupt form of worship is established, from which all false religions derive. God intervenes by confusing their languages so that people can no longer understand one another, and thus they are scattered across the face of the earth.
4. The Chosen People/the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel)—the 12 sons of Israel (Genesis 12–Exodus 14). God chooses a family through whom to reveal His ways. God promises Abraham that he will have many descendants and will inherit the land of Canaan. (Genesis 15:17) Through “his seed” (his descendants), all the families of the earth will be blessed (through the Messiah). He is told to practice circumcision, to teach his children to keep “the way of the Lord,” and to remain in the land of Canaan. This “age” ends with the moral failure of the sons of Jacob and Israel, who go down to Egypt. Later, they become slaves in Egypt.
5. The Chosen People / The Torah / Israel. The period from the Exodus until the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit. God delivers Israel from Egyptian bondage through Moses and the supernatural events of the Exodus. He gives them the Torah and brings them back to the Promised Land of Israel. If they kept the laws of the Torah, they would be blessed in the land; if they disobeyed, they would be judged. Through Moses and the prophets, God promises the coming of the Messiah, who will bring the “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31–34). This “age” ends with a complete failure to uphold the essence of the Torah (Matthew 23), with the rejection of the Messiah by the majority of people, the fall of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Israelite people. Jews who believe in Jesus enter a new era as the saved remnant of Israel and the foundation of the true Church.
6. The Chosen People / Grace / Ecclesia (the Church). The period from Pentecost until the Rapture of the Church. Salvation is available to both Jews and Gentiles through repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah and in His sacrifice for the sins of the world (the New Covenant). The Gospel reaches every nation of the world, and people of every race are saved. At the end of these times, the vast majority of people will reject the Gospel, and it will be “as in the days of Noah” (great wickedness and violence). The prophecies also describe a great spiritual deception and apostasy within the church as a sign of the end of the age. The saved remnant is taken to the Lord at the Rapture of the Church. This is followed by the period of the Great Tribulation, during which the Antichrist will reign. God is at work in Israel and will lead it to salvation during this final period. Those martyred during the “Tribulation” will be resurrected, and those who will be alive on earth at the end of the Tribulation will be divided into sheep (the righteous), who will enter the Millennium in mortal bodies, and goats (the wicked), who will be sent to the place destined for the wicked.
7. The Millennium/Messianic Kingdom—from the second coming of the Messiah until the end of the world. Messiah Jesus reigns on earth. Satan is bound in the abyss, and the Lord will rule over everything perfectly, without wars, and everyone will have everything they need. Children will be born naturally during this period to the faithful survivors of the Great Tribulation. At the end of the Millennium, Satan is released and gathers the unbelievers—those born during the Millennium—for the final battle against the Lord (Gog and Magog / Revelation 20:7). He is defeated and cast into the Lake of Fire. This will be the end of the world, followed by the judgment at the Great White Throne, followed by a new heaven and a new earth for the believers and the Lake of Fire for the unbelievers.

Throughout all ages, God preserves His people (the faithful remnant), who will enter a new era as His people. Each stage ends with a crisis that will lead to the beginning of a new stage. Believers from the previous stages move forward and enter a new stage, a new “age.” In general, the transition between stages is marked by God’s miraculous work.

Every era, including this “age,” comes to an end, but Heaven does not. Misunderstanding creates confusion.  Many of the problems that arise in understanding the Bible generally stem from confusion created by a previous stage (the Torah Stage) or the next one (the Millennial Kingdom).

For example, institutionalized churches imitate the priests of Israel by having a clergy dressed in special robes, whereas the New Testament speaks of “the priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:4–10, Revelation 5:10) with a single Priest, the Lord Jesus. Other churches practice the continual sacrifice during the Mass, even though the definitive sacrifice was made once and for all through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. (Hebrews 9:11–28). Today’s churches claim for themselves the Old Testament promises given to Israel and refer to the Church as the “New Israel,” even though nowhere in the New Testament does such a term appear.

Some churches, especially those drawn to the teaching that the Kingdom is now, take passages that will be fulfilled in the Millennium and apply them to our own times. They want to bring about the Kingdom through signs and wonders and establish “divine rule,” with the restored churches bringing about salvation.

This misinterpretation leads to disappointment when these predictions do not come to pass. At the end of this dispensation (biblical period), the Gospel will reach the ends of the earth, and the majority of Christendom will turn away from the truth and experience apostasy.  The Lord Jesus said that in the days before His return, it will be “as in the days of Noah”—days of great wickedness. The Book of Revelation shows that the nations of the world will choose the Antichrist and not Jesus Christ.

The dispensationalist perspective views the church as the new entity described by Paul in Ephesians as a mystery. By this, he means a truth that had not been revealed before but has now been made known —that Jews and Gentiles can be brought into fellowship with God through repentance and faith in the salvation given by the Lord Jesus Christ, not through our works, but through the grace of God (His unmerited gift). “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. It is not by works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)

God’s free gift will be offered until the door of grace and the door of salvation are closed. Now “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Anyone who repents and believes in the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. Those who receive salvation will be saved from the wrath of God that is to come (1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11). There is only one way to be saved from the judgment that will come upon the earth—to repent and believe in the Gospel.

For those who receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, the future will be so wonderful that it cannot be described in words or fully understood: “Things that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived—such are the things God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9). May the Lord help us in this!