What is the last thing that will take place before Jesus returns?

Answer 1

A:

There are so many different versions of Jesus' return that it is impossible to pick just one version over another, when deciding what will happen when he returns. Whenever a prophecy is made and inevitably fails, people simply say that no one knows when the return of Jesus will be. If indeed he is going to return, we also seem not to know what will happen first.

The author of Mark's Gospel expected the return of Jesus, on clouds of glory, within his own lifetime. He has Jesus prophesy the war with Rome and the civil war that occurred within the city of Jerusalem (brother shall betray brother to death, and the father the son ...) and that the sun and moon shall be darkened and the stars fall out of the sky. Mark did not understand the total impossibility of the stars falling to earth, but in any case, this did not occur. The later gospels had to change this account, to say that no one knows when Jesus will return.

Dispensationalists have created a whole series of events they say must occur, usually in vague enough terms that it can seem that the so-called Rapture is imminent. Many dispensationalists say that the return of Jesus will follow the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the resumption of animal sacrifices, followed by the desecration of the Temple by the 'anti-Christ' and then the return of Christ.