It has been a long time since 1983, when I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ; and shortly thereafter became extremely interested in what the Bible says about ‘the end times’. Unless one has his head completely in the sand, we are all aware of the upheaval in the world. The 21st century unlike any other time in history, is seeing all the Biblical signs converging together. Before we begin, I would like to point out two passages from Gods Word that separate the Bible from all others in declaring itself ‘The Word of God’: ‘Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them’ (Isaiah 42:9), ‘Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done’ (Isaiah 46:9,10). Way back in Genesis chapter 12, God promised to give the land of Canaan (all of Israel) to Abram (which He later changed to Abraham). In Genesis chapter 17, we see God reaffirming this promise: ‘Also I give to you and your descendants (the Jews) after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an EVERLASTING POSSESSION; and I will be their God’ (Genesis 17:8). The Lord then warned them that He would scatter them all over the earth because of their disobedience and idolatry: ‘Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other’ (Deuteronomy 28:64). This He has done; the Jew was on every corner of the globe! And God had promised to bring them back to their own land that He had sworn to give them: ‘But, as the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the North Country and from all the countries where I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land’ (Jeremiah 23:8), also ‘And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land’ (Ezekiel 34:13). The Bible is full of promises to Israel, that God WILL bring her back to the land that He promised to Abraham! Thus God has kept His promise–Israel became a nation in one day; on May 14th 1948, the whole world witnessed this miracle! This He said He would do in the last days (please read Isaiah 66:7, 8, Jeremiah 23:8). We must look at the nation of Israel, and know that the hour is late!
In Matthew 24:3-5; His disciples asked Him, what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? Jesus answered: “take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’ and will deceive many”. This was the first major warning that Jesus gave as His answer, He also stated in vs. 11, ‘that many false prophets will rise up and deceive many’. Today like no other time in history we have an explosion of false teachers, cults and people claiming to be ‘prophets’ speaking for God. One such movement claims they are the ‘new Apostles and prophets’, and that the bible needs to be replaced with fresh revelations; replacing those ‘2000 year old documents’. Folks this is the spirit of Antichrist! Before we go any further, the Bible says: ‘Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven’, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Psalm 119:89, Hebrews 13:8). There are many today teaching that there are many roads to God, flatly contradicting the Lord Jesus who said: ‘no one comes to the Father except through Me’ (John 14:6). I just want to remind you again, that there will be scoffers that say these things have been around for a long time, yet ALL of these signs are CONVERGING for the first time in history! Jesus said: “when you see all these things look-up” (Matthew 24:33). The seminaries in this country that used to be very solid Biblically, teaching solid doctrine have gone astray; a high percentage have gone apostate, denying the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus, saying the Bible is a human document and NOT Divine, denying the fact that Jesus Christ is God, saying the resurrection is ‘questionable’, and there are a proliferation of Pastors and teachers that proclaim that ‘all will be saved’. These days in which we live are marked with an incredible number of people claiming to be ‘Christian’ but being lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, here is a big one that has exploded in the last fifty years; disobedient to parents, unthankful, unloving and irreconcilable; the Bible says these have a form of godliness but denying its power, from such we are to turn away (please see 2nd Timothy 3:1-5). This is a frightening sign of our times, the fact that people will willfully reject sound Biblical doctrine for what they want to hear; ‘For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their OWN DESIRES, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth’ (2nd Timothy 4:3, 4). All this is happening like a mushroom cloud just as Jesus and the Apostles warned about! As Dr. David Reagan says: “The teaching of a false Jesus is a very serious matter”. Truly our salvation depends on the Biblical Jesus that was born of a virgin, and is God (Isaiah 7:14), lived a sinless life (John 8:46, Hebrews 4:15), died on the cross, and rose from the dead in the body He was crucified in (Luke 24:39, John 20:27, 28), He is the fulfillment of the Prophets and Psalms concerning Him (Luke 24:44, Romans 1:1-4). Yes truly today false teaching by false teachers and ‘false prophets’ abound!
The Lord Jesus also stated that there will be wars and rumors of wars. It is a documented fact that the 20th century was the bloodiest and deadliest of all centuries combined! Today we have nuclear weapons that can be delivered thousands of miles away. The threats of such attacks are becoming a daily concern, with one push of a button; the world could plunge into war! Jesus also stated that nation will rise against nation, as one commentator put it; “the nations are unsettled and ready to fight”. The world is angrily out of control, the nations of the world are at anything BUT rest! Famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are also disasters that will intensify in frequency and magnitude in these last days, as the Lord said (Matthew 24:7). ‘But ALL these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs’ (Lit. 24:8, NASB), and as women know, in childbirth the contractions come more frequently and intensely as the time of birth grows near. As I have stated before, ALL these things are converging together like no other time in history; the birth pangs are VERY frequent and VERY severe! There is another last day prophesy that is rapidly increasing: ‘knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “where is the promise of His coming”? (2nd Peter 3:3, 4). This is not only happening outside of the Church; but it is happening inside the professing Christian Church. One such ministry devoted a large publication to the ridicule of the ‘Rapture’ (the catching away of the saints to meet the Lord in the air, please see 1st Thessalonians 4:16-18), saying that this ‘blessed hope’ (Titus 2:13) is not to be found in scripture. Multiple teachers are mocking Jesus Christ reigning on this earth for 1000 years; they consider that nonsense. Influential people like Rick Warren and his P.E.A.C.E. plan are proclaiming that ‘Christians’ are going to establish the Kingdom of God here on earth. This is clearly not Biblical; the Kingdom will be set up by the King Himself—The Lord Jesus Christ!
The Lord said that the days before His return would be ‘as the days of Noah’ (Matthew 24:37). We are precisely living in these days: ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his was only evil continually’ (Genesis 6:5 KJV). Violence is out of control in every level of society! Wickedness is reigning at the box office; killing and bloodshed are so common that we are becoming desensitized in our society! We are killing innocent babies in the womb at the rate of 4000 per year ‘almost 60 million’! Unprecedented rapes, stabbings beatings and random shootings are all part of our news in America — ‘for the earth is filled with violence through them’ (Genesis 6:13). We as a nation spend 2.5 billion dollars a year on pornography, our alcohol and drug abuse are number one in the world! We are living in the most immoral time in history; sexual immorality is rampant in our society; it is in our schools, media, advertizing campaigns, high government offices, in our marriages. We have seen in the White House alone; affairs taking place, the celebration of homosexuality, our nation has approved of all kinds of immoral perversions! And through all of this the world mocks at righteousness and purity; just as they did in the ‘days of Noah!
There are those who will read this article and ridicule it, there will be some that highly disagree on the grounds this has all happened in the past, and sadly there are those who just plain view these things as normal human life; a kind of ‘survival of the fittest’. My purpose in writing this overview is twofold: 1.) to sound an urgent call to the signs of the times, urging lethargic and sleeping Christians to ‘WAKE-UP’. 2.) To plead with those who are heading for judgment; to turn to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. The Christian church at large is lulling itself to sleep, but to those who will take heed to their calling; I remind you of this: ‘And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming’ (1st John 2:28). I want to make an URGENT appeal to those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ to consider the great love God has for you. God has said: ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the Iniquity (sins) of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6). Will you listen to Him: ‘Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool’ (Isaiah 1:18). God sent His only begotten Son to take the punishment for your sins, He died on a cruel Roman cross; crying out “It is finished” (John 19:30), providing complete forgiveness of sins to all who receive Him as their Savior, and God raised Him from the dead three days later as proof that He accepted His Son’s perfect sacrifice for YOU—listen: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 6:23). On the cross Jesus cried: ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’ (Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:46); Jesus suffered separation from His Father for a time, so that we would not suffer separation from God for eternity! I urge you to make this decision now, the Bible says today is the day of salvation and that if you hear His voice do not harden your heart! I am leaving you with this all important decision; because eternity is a long time to be wrong or mistaken.
Scripture taken from, The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
