The End-Times Sequence

About this view. This is the pretribulational, dispensational framework — the system associated with Darby, Scofield, and Dallas Theological Seminary. It is set out here as its own teachers present it, with their supporting texts. Two features define it: the Rapture is held to be a distinct event before the Tribulation, separate from the visible Second Coming; and Israel and the church are treated as distinct programs, so the seventieth week of Daniel and the earthly Millennium centre on national Israel. Other evangelicals — amillennial, postmillennial, and historic (post-trib) premillennial — order these same events differently; a closing note outlines how.

The pastor and Bible teacher John MacArthur (1939–2025) defended this same premillennial, pretribulational sequence, resting it on a consistently literal reading of prophecy and the conviction that a high view of Scripture leads to it. He called himself a "leaky dispensationalist", however — holding firmly to the Israel/church distinction and a future earthly kingdom for national Israel, but not leaning on the rigid seven-dispensation scheme of the older Scofield system. The sequence below reflects his position; only the elaborate dispensational scaffolding is set aside.

How other views differ. Historic (post-tribulational) premillennialists hold the same earthly Millennium but place the church through the Tribulation, with the Rapture and Second Coming as one event. Amillennialists read the "thousand years" as the present church age and expect a single return followed directly by the eternal state, with no earthly millennial reign. Postmillennialists expect the gospel to bring in a golden age before Christ returns. All affirm the bodily return of Christ, the resurrection, and final judgment; they differ on the timing and nature of the Millennium and the Rapture.