Christian eschatology, or the study of the fate of humankind as revealed in the Bible, is a wide-ranging topic full of controversial opinions. Will the Rapture-the rising of Christians to join Jesus in the air at His return-occur before, during, or after the seven-year Great Tribulation? Who are the so-called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, what do they symbolize, and have they already ridden?

The first in a multipart series, These Final Days: Part 1 undertakes a sober, scholarly, and exhaustive analysis of the Bible's teachings on the End Times and, in particular, the...