The first time I ever heard about Bible prophecy and what is
known as ‘end times’ teaching, was through a conversation I had with an older
neighborhood kid named Chris when I was nine or ten years old in 1979. He was
probably only thirteen at the time. His family was not religious, but he had
read “The Late Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsay. He described the book in
detail to me, emphasizing that we now live in the age that was prophesied through
the Bible thousands of years ago.
What was a nine year old boy in 1979 supposed to do with
that kind of knowledge? Not much beyond being terrified of the apocalypse. The
only thing that came out of that conversation was a nine year old's determination
to resist taking the number of the beast on my hand or forehead. That is some
scary stuff for a nine year old kid. I was surely not going to do that if the
opportunity ever arose. It never did.
To this day, I have never read Hal Lindsay’s book, but Chris’
summary of the book in 1979 was a convincing argument that stuck with me. Throughout
the rest of the twentieth century I was reminded of that indelible conversation
with Chris through many other channels, some Christian and some
not-so-Christian, but all pointed to the times we live in. I might be slightly satirical
in the following bullet points, but these things really did speak to me as a
non-believer about the end-times. Here are a few:
• My stepbrother had these end-time dreams he would tell me
about in the early eighties.
• The end-time preaching of Iron Maiden and Ronnie James Dio.
Run to the Hills, Two Minutes to Midnight, The Number of the Beast were amongst
many apocalyptic soundtracks recorded by Maiden. The Last in Line, Holy Diver, it
seems Dio had a strong theme going through his albums too.
• Countering that was the end-time heavy metal preaching of Stryper.
• The Omen and those Damien movies. Do you remember those?
• Bad VHS copies of ‘A Thief in the Night’
• Sam Kinison’s rise to popularity and his comedy being so blasphemous
like nothing before.
Somehow this really stood out to me, even as an atheist.
• Ronald Reagan and Mikhael Gorbachev's one upping each
other with their country’s nuclear arsenal and much talk of the end of
civilization as we knew it.
• The Age of Quarrel – that prophetic album by the Cro-mags.
They were about as far from Christ as one could get, yet that one album in 1986
had a message that couldn’t be any more pertinent for 2018.
I could go on and on with the cultural staples of that day.
The 1970’s and 1980’s were oozing with end-time prophecy themes both in the
secular and the Christian culture. It seemed to die down a little after so many
of the church and preacher scandals in the late eighties and early nineties. The
buzz was in the air at the time, but the convergence of multiple prophecies
being fulfilled were not occurring for the return of the Lord like they are
today.
Now it is 2018 and the stage is set like never before in
history. The buzz is back but it’s so much stronger these days. Even the
secular world is acknowledging that we have turned a corner to a different
season. Do you listen to Joe Rogan’s mega-popular podcast? He constantly
reminds us that these are strange times. He has even titled his current standup
comedy tour as ‘Strange Times’.
I believe we are at the doorstep right now. If there were just
a few prophecies coming to pass as in the 1970’s and 1980’s you could say it
was time to be on-guard and to begin watching for the Lord’s return. But in
2018, it is so much more than that. It is the convergence of so many prophecies
that has the sirens sounding and the alarms telling us what time it is. Here is
a checklist of the convergence of things coming to pass in the last century and
currently before our eyes, some of them happening just this year:
- The
rebirth of Israel in 1948. After being dispersed for 1900 years, the Jewish
people came back to form a nation in their previously owned land. This has
never happened with a nation in human history. Lookup the scriptures that
prophesied this:
o
Ezekiel 37 the entire chapter
o
Hosea 6:1-2 says Israel would be torn down (happened
in 70 AD) and after two days, which is 2,000 years on God’s calendar they would
be revived.
o
Lookup these scriptures which also foretell the
same thing: Psalms 107:2-3; Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 43:5-6; Isaiah 66:8
- The
recapture of Jerusalem in 1967 and the miraculous 6 day war. Jesus said
Jerusalem would be trodden down, which happened in 70 AD, until the time of the
Gentiles is fulfilled which is the 2,000 years that Hosea prophesied about. See
Luke 21:24.
- The
technology to exist for the entire world to observe the two witnesses in
Jerusalem that were spoken of in Revelation 11:1-14. It says of the two
witnesses that the entire world would see them and hear their message. In the
1980’s it was said that the technology existed for this to happen because of simulcast
transmission and satellite television. How much more true is that now in 2018 with
the potential for everyone to witness this event directly on their mobile
devices, tablets, and wifi throughout the world.
- The
alliance of specific nations against Israel. In Ezekiel 38 (read the entire
chapter) there is an alliance of nations that come against Israel. Now there
has not been a threat to Israel as of yet, but the alliance has formed and the
tension is in the air for sure. Never before in history have these three
nations come together for anything – Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Look at what happened
just in this past week - https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-erdogan-rohani-ankara-meeting-syria-analysis/29144774.html
.
In the Ezekiel 38 passage, these are the nations mentioned – Magog is modern
day Russia, Meshech, Gomer, and Tubal are modern day Turkey, Persia is modern
day Iran, and Cush is modern day Libya.
It also says in that same chapter, that other middle-eastern nations would take
Israel’s side in the war. Not that they would fight alongside Israel, but that
they would question this multi-national opposing alliance and be in favor of
Israel. One of those nations mentioned is Dedan, which is modern day Saudi
Arabia. Just this week, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia endorsed Israel (which
has never happened before) in the Palestinian/Israeli land controversy. And
they are in agreement with Israel concerning the recent threats of Iran.
- Wars and
rumors of wars. Jesus prophesied that this would be the state of the world
shortly before his return. This is certainly true of 2018. See Luke 21:9;
Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:7
- Famines,
pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places. These disasters have been
with us since the beginning of human history. However, it is the frequency and
the scope of these things occurring all over the earth that we should take
notice of.
It seems like every other day we hear of a huge earth quake or a new disease or
a natural disaster of some sort. Did anyone notice the continent of Africa starting
to rip apart last week?
Go to this website and you can enter any
year to see how many significant earthquakes were recorded. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/browse/significant.php
It is amazing to see the increase in just the past decade.
Famine is prevalent also in countries such as Yemen, Venezuela, Myanmar, and
many African nations. This should not be the case in 2018 given the advancement
of technology and knowledge that we have achieved. Corruption is the cause for
most of it, but we will save that for another sermon.
We could write an entire blog about the epidemics in the world today. To see
the increasing trend of diseases, take a look at the CDC’s website: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/
- The
rebuild of the Jewish Temple. Not only was it prophesied that Israel would
be reborn after 2,000 years but also there is mention of the temple being
rebuilt. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently in the spot where the temple used to
be in Jerusalem. The Jews have not had a temple there, nor have they practiced
the traditional Jewish animal sacrifices since the destruction of Jerusalem in
70 AD. For the first time in almost 2,000 years there was an animal sacrifice
and a ceremony on the steps of the Temple Mount. This happened last week during
Passover. Jews have also not been allowed to congregate or pray there. But,
this week there was a gathering of 1,500 Jews to pray at the temple mount. Add
to that the announcement by our U.S. President that we as a country now
acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and we are moving our embassy
there. Things are definitely pointing in that direction.
- The
absolute destruction of Damascus. Isaiah 17 prophesied that Damascus will
be a heap of ruins, and no longer inhabitable. This has not happened yet, but
take a look at what is going on in Syria right now with Russia, Iran, and
Turkey getting involved. Couple that with the capability of modern nuclear
weapons and we are closer now to that prophesy being fulfilled than ever
before.
- Israel
becoming a desert and then blooming again. Mark Twain visited the land of
Israel in 1867. At that time the land was called Palestine. This was his
summary of the holy land tour, “Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery,
I think Palestine must be prince. The hills are barren, they are dull of color,
they are unpicturesque in shape. The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed with
a feeble vegetation that has an expression about it being sorrowful and
despondent.” Now compare his description with what the landscape of Israel
looks like today. Wikipedia says this about it, “Israel is a major exporter of
fresh produce and a world leader in agricultural technologies.” These are the scriptures
that foretell of the desert becoming a flourishing land: Isaiah 35:1-2; Isaiah
41:18-20; Ezekiel 36:33-36
- The
Gospel would be preached to the entire world. Jesus said in Matthew 24:14
that the end would come after his message of salvation was preached to the
entire world. If we are not at that point already, we are getting there very
quickly.
o
The YouVersion Bible app alone has 318 million
downloads as of yesterday April 5th.
o
In 2016 there was an estimated amount of 416,000
active missionaries in the world.
o
According to quora.com there are 37 million Christian
churches in the world.
Now, add to those things the
millions of online sermons, blogs, YouTube messages, Christian television
programs, and printed literature. Can
you see we are getting close to this message being spread across the entire
world?
- Society
in the end times would be similar to society in the days of Noah. Jesus
said that in Matthew 24:36-38 and Peter also referenced it in his letter to the
churches, 2 Peter 3:1-8. What did the days of Noah look like? See Genesis
6:1-6. Wickedness was filling the earth and the people had no clue that a judgment
was coming. They were going on about their business, buying and selling,
marrying, and partying right up until the rain started to come down. They
scoffed at Noah for being righteous and did not heed his warning.
- Men’s
hearts failing for fear. Jesus said in Luke 21:26 that this would be a
common thing because of the stress and condition of the world, that people’s
fears would cause their hearts to fail. You can look at the stats on numerous
websites. It appears that heart failure is the number one cause of death in the
world.
- Perilous
times would come. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 that the last days would be
perilous. If we have to take our shoes off to enter the airport, if we need
armed security guards at our elementary and junior high schools, if we can’t go
to a concert or a major event that is supposed to be fun without being on
guard, could you conclude that these are perilous times? Paul then goes on to
mention and describe the mindset of the world in the last days. Lookup the
scripture for yourself. There is a long list that pretty much describes our
culture in detail - 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
- The
exponential increase of knowledge. In Daniel’s prophesy of the last days he
said that knowledge would increase at a rapid pace- See Daniel 12. We can definitely
say that is the case for the last one-hundred years, but even more so it is
true of this last decade.
- The
roaring of the waves and the sea. In Luke 21:25 Jesus prophesied about the
increase of the roaring oceans in the last days. You can look at many websites
that show the vanishing coastlines in the last 50 years or so. Also, it seems
like every week now we hear reports of hundreds of dead sea-animals washing to
shore. We can also include the crazy hurricane seasons we’ve been having of
late. And don’t let me forget to mention that we’ve had four nor’easter storms
in the month of March 2018 alone.
- The distress
of nations with perplexity. Jesus
prophesied about this also in Luke 21:25. Have you been following the crisis
and collapse of Venezuela this past year? Here are some other nations that seem
to be in a state of distress, and they are perplexed about how to recover to a plateau
of social stability: Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Haiti, Uganda, Liberia,
Somalia, Philippines, Myanmar.
- Signs in
the heavens above. There are several scriptures that mention a change in
the heavens during the last days: Joel 2:30-31, Acts 2:19, Luke 21:25. There
have been some pretty strange happenings in the skies lately: multiple blood
moons, the great eclipse across the US, increase in solar flares, that long
object from another solar system that passed our planet recently (apparently
that has never happened before?), and many other signs in the sky, people
hearing loud trumpet sounds, etc. Go to
YouTube.com and type in the search window “signs in the sky” and you can see
all sorts of crazy videos that people have captured. Some are not legit, I
realize that, but there are a good chunk of YouTube videos that are real. Judge
for yourself.
There are many other things I could list here, but I think
we covered enough of the major signs of the times to show you that we are getting
really close to the Lord’s return. There are so many crazy theories and
speculations out there about the day of the Lord’s return. It is clear from
scripture that no man knows the exact day or hour it will happen.
The Bible compares
the event of His return to a thief in the night, most people are not expecting
that. However, as believers, that day is not supposed to catch us unaware. We
don’t know the specific day, and I would not pay attention to anyone who claims
to, but we are supposed to know the season. The closer it gets, the more on
watch we should be.
If you read this entire post, I give you props. Here is one
last passage from our Lord that I will leave you with:
“When these things begin to take place,
stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” He
told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they
sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even
so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is
near. “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all
these things have happened.”
Luke 21:28-32
Which generation is Jesus talking about? I believe it is us,
right here, right now, the generation that sees all of these things coming to
pass. We are that generation!
